Gwilym Simcock - photo by Bob Meyrick
Playing their final gig before locking themselves in a studio to record their third album, Anglo-American jazz supergroup The Impossible Gentlemen came on stage for the latest Jazz Steps concert with the deceptive air of four guys without a care in the world. With Gwilym Simcock on piano and keyboard, Mike Walker on guitar, Adam Nussbaum on drums and Steve Rodby on bass a sell-out crowd at the Bonington Theatre was no surprise.
Hold Out For The Sun kicked off the evening with bright, optimistic piano notes bringing to mind an early morning walk through a bustling city. Simcock at one point played the keyboard and piano simultaneously while solos from the other instruments slotted easily and unobtrusively into place, seamlessly integrating into the whole. Speak To Me Of Home saw a trilling guitar opening joined by fluent, rolling piano notes that turned into a glorious kaleidoscope of music created by all four instruments.
Mike Walker - Photo by Bob Meyrick
Dog Time opened again with Mike Walker’s guitar, but this time with him scratching on the strings to produce a sound like a whining, electronic hound. Organ notes ripped straight from a sleazy 70’s movie soundtrack took over and the red saturation lighting from the overhead rig seemed appropriately like that of a dive bar’s neon signage. The big bold sound of Let’s Get Deluxe gave way to the delicate gorgeousness of Miniature, a short, nostalgic piece that made you hold your breath.
After the break and the traditional Jazz Steps raffle (tickets plucked from what must be by now an antique Selectadisc bag by Adam Nussbaum) the group sauntered back on stage to play Terrace Legend, dedicated to the Stoke City kit man Neil Baldwin (subject of the BBC film Marvellous). Raucous drums and cymbals combined with rolling thunder from the piano to fine effect. It Could Have Been A Simple Gooodbye moved the gig into a more bluesy mood, the other instruments feeling like a slow lapping ambient waves against Mike Walker’s guitar.
Steve Rodby - photo by Bob Meyrick
Earworm had Gwilym Simcock jerking back and forth over the piano like an electric current was running through all 88 keys, and gave Adam Nussbaum the opportunity for a bravura drum solo. The mood moved again from jazz to blues to a surprisingly sweet feeling of cowboy nostalgia when some plaintive notes were teased from a melodica in Insight And Light. Propane Jane saw some more bar blues and a foot tapping, upbeat ending to the gig, bar the encore, which gave Adam Nussbaum great joy as he announced a sultry mood piece of his own called Sure Would, Baby was tonight renamed Sherwood, Baby.
The Impossible Gentlemen - photo by Bob Meyrick
Able to move through jazz fusion to bluesy funk and delicate, heartbreaking musical vignettes, The Impossible Gentlemen is a group with breathtaking range and a wealth of talent. A superb, relaxed gig by four virtuosos working in perfect harmony.
The Impossible Gentlemen played at the Bonington Theatre Arnold for Nottingham's Jazz Steps on Thursday 5 February 2015. .
The next Jazz Steps gig at The Bonington Theatre, Arnold sees Christine Tobin work through The Great American Songbook on 19 February 2015. Before then you can catch Swingologie at the West Bridgford Library on 12 February 2015.
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