In a change from the original billing of a north-east-based quintet of musicians booked to recreate the music of the EmCee Five, Mike Carr stepped in to play the date with his young quintet instead (from what I can gather, when Mike heard about the gig he contacted the Sage and reminded them that he was still around!). Four EmCee five originals, a new Mike Carr composition (Bossa Peri-Peri, I presume he’s talking about the sauce!) and a Horace Silver tune (Room 608, which was no surprise to hear, this group really sharing some of the feel of Silver’s great hard-bop quintets of the late 50’s/early 60’s). Mike Carr was on piano instead of his more usual Hammond Organ and he pointed out that his left foot was trying to play a bass pedal that wasn’t there! The slightly nervous look on the bassist’s face suggested that there hadn’t been a great deal of rehearsal before this performance, but in the end the tentative count-ins and slightly haphazard endings gave the whole performance a charming edge and also gave the soloing of Mike and his young cohorts a really spur-of-the-moment feel, with the audience duly responding warmly to a great set of exciting jazz.

Part 2 - Three Short Films Alyn Shipton then reappeared to introduce a short film section with Mike Dibb, who has worked with Ian several times over the years on various film projects. For those in attendance like myself who weren’t old enough to see these pieces of footage the first time around this was a real treat. The first film was a complete 9 minute performance (no-one was sure whether it was from 1967 or 1968) by the Rendell-Carr Quintet playing the Michael Garrick composition ‘Voices’, with Ian giving a running commentary over the top, talking the viewer through the performance. The second piece of film was a short (3 minute) section of a concert performance given in 1984 in Mexico City and features Ian taking his solo during a performance of ‘Things Past’ from the ‘Awakening’ album. Finally and also from 1984, another short 3 or 4 minute piece of film has Ian featured on the North-East regional programme ‘Heroes’, where he talks briefly about Miles Davis and then plays his tribute piece ‘For Miles and Miles’ to end the programme as the credits roll.

Part 3 - Nucleus Revisited: 1. Midnight Oil 2. Mutatis Mutandis 3. Out Of The Long Dark 4. Lady Bountiful 5. Awakening It’s been a long journey since I bought my first Nucleus album (a second-hand copy of ‘Elastic Rock’ in 1990), to my first experience of hearing the music of Ian Carr and Nucleus in concert, and whilst I wouldn’t have chosen to wait this long, it certainly made me savour the experience. A trio of Nucleus old boys - Geoff Castle, Mark Wood and Tim Whitehead featured in a group that played a somewhat narrow- range of Nucleus material (why feature only material from two albums, ‘Out Of The Long Dark’ and ‘Awakening’ when between 1970 and 1985 there were 13 Nucleus albums, nine studio and two live but all featuring original material?) - perhaps Geoff Castle and co. were playing the repertoire that was a feature of the live performances during their original tenures with the band, but it would have been nice to hear a broader range of material. That said, hearing this material played by a live band was a revelation and truly highlights the genius of Ian Carr’s writing - this is difficult music to play but no less accessible for it. A lot of Ian’s music is truly through-composed and twists and turns its way through different moods and musical sections before resolving, fulfilling Ian’s intention of creating tension and then releasing it. Whereas perhaps a lot of the ‘fusion-type’ music from the 70s/80s started to lose the quality of writing that made for compositions that stood the test of time, there’s no such problem here - theme/solo/theme it ain’t. Thus, there is the gradual built-up in intensity into and through the mid-section of ‘Lady Bountiful’, and on to a truly barnstorming performance of ‘Awakening’ complete with thundering drum solo that brought the set to a triumphant close. The same audience that had enjoyed the 60’s-based EmCee Five material gave this very different group a warm send-off.

I’m left to reflect on two and a half hours dedicated to a man who has given me a great deal of pleasure through his music over a number of years now. It is testament to his ability that I still enjoy his music as much now as when I first encountered it and I’ve no doubt that this will always be the case. I’m also pleased that a gig which would normally have probably taken place in London has taken place on my doorstep - my sincere thanks to the Sage for honourrring Ian’s connections to this region and putting this event together - I’ll remember it for years to come. My thanks to Alyn Shipton for signing my copy of Ian’s biography on the day. Alyn also mentioned that the event was filmed so that Ian could see how it went - I’m sure that there’s a lot of other people who wouldn’t mind seeing it either!

Vincent Carr 20 March 2007 Back to home page