REVIEW:

Jim Hart

One of the great advantages of a gig where a guest soloist joins the house band is it gives the player in the solo spot, who might otherwise be part of a larger band, the chance to show what they can really do. Sometimes of course this proves to be less of an advantage if the guest fails to shine or the house band fails to jell. Neither of these happened with vibes player Jim Hart who was last seen at the Spin as part of Mornington Lockett’s New Jazz Couriers. Looking like someone who might be about to go off to music college, Hart plays with the maturity and attack of someone far older than even his real years.

The vibes being an instrument with limited timbre there is a real temptation to pull out all the stops and let fast runs of notes decorate every phrase. Yet from the very first number, Ornette Colman’s Turnaround, Hart played with restraint and elegance, slowly disassembling the notes of the melody, leaving space for each phrase to have its effect before moving on. Throughout the evening he approached each solo with a fresh palette taking his line from the melody and building his own interpretation over the harmonies in a way that was both rhythmically precise and full of colour. This was particularly evident in Parker’s Donna Lee. In the ballad Peace Hart played a superbly moving and articulate solo which took the vibes well outside its normal percussive territory.

The house band this week with Pete Oxley on guitar included the formidably accomplished Raf Misraki on bass and Russ Morgan on drums who magically combines perfect groove with quirky humour. Oxley put in some excellent solos particularly in Metheny’s It’s Just Talk and Misraki once again showed his mastery of fretless electric bass in Scofield’s Chariots where Jim Hart also let rip on the vibes to show that he can put restraint aside when required. Here’s another young player who can only rise in the jazz scene.

© Paul Medley