Scott Stroman should be applauded for organising this long-overdue tribute to his friend and colleague Ian Carr, who is undoubtedly one of the UKs outstanding jazz legends. Fittingly, the man who last introduced him as such, on his 'Jazz Legends radio show, Julian Joseph, also participated in this supper-rare event which played to a packed auditorium. The concert opened with an excellent rendition by the Guildhall Jazz Band of Carr's 'Midnight Oil'. The 17-strong big band was conducted by Stroman but this was the only piece they played. They were immediately followed by the band that played the rest of the concert's music. This band was comprised of Cleveland Watkiss on vocals. Nick Smart on trumpet, Tom Challenger on alto sax, Jeremy Price on trombone, Chris Allard on guitar, Julian Joseph on piano, Mark Hodgson on bass and Andy Chapman on drums.

The tight ensemble kicked off with 'Big City Strut' followed by 'Pavanne' and closed the first half with a crackling version of 'Persephone's Jive'. The second half of the programme was to initially feature Cleveland Watkiss on looped vocals but his Echoplex was not functioning properly so he just had to sing without it and he and Julian Joseph performed as a duo two songs 'I Remember April' and 'Yesterdays'. Following this intermission, the band returned to the stage and proceeded with a great version of 'Hot Rod' followed by a slow 'Wine Dark Lullaby'. The next number was Carr's beautiful and distinctive masterpiece 'Les Neiges D'Antan' and the evening concluded with a robust version of 'Bull Dance' from the album 'Labyrinth'.

It was interesting to note that the majority of tunes played were from the 'Rendell Carr Quintet' era, but this was explained by Stroman when he made a short speech towards the end of the concert and mentioned that Martin Hathaway wrote the arrangements and he was a very big fan of this groundbreaking group. Another reason why the selection was fitting was that Nucleus' music really needs an electric band to perform it to its full jazz rock potential and this would have been difficult given the fact that the superb Mark Hodgson was playing acoustic bass and Julian Joseph was playing a grand piano. Joseph in an short speech earlier in the evening explained that all the particiants of the main band, like so many other jazz musicians of his generation had been helped and taught by Ian Carr either at the Guildhall or at the weekend workshops Ian conducted. It was clear that the love these fine musicians showed to Ian was genuine, not surprisingly so, since Ian Carr is one of the most caring, kind and sincere people in jazz.

The audience, which also included jazz stars Jon Hiseman, Barbara Thompson and Tim Garland amongst others was enthusiastic in its appreciation of this fine concert. Also present was Ian Carr himself, who Stroman invited onto the stage to take a bow. Carr had clearly enjoyed the evening and expressed his surprise at the number of people in attendance. This was a superb testament to an extraordinary figure in jazz and proof that, as Stroman said at the outset of the gig, they were here not (just) because they liked Ian but because they wanted to play his compositions. If nothing else this evening proved how good Ian Carr's compositions really are - and this was just the tip of the iceberg.

Roger Farbey
November 2006