REVIEW:

Kate Williams

Judging from the initially thin crowd at the Spin the usual punters were either drunk on football and sun or had made a serious error of judgement. Pianist Kate Williams is one of the finest musicians and composers in Britain and the degree of cooperation and empathy between her and the house band produced the perfect music for the end of a hot summer’s day. Williams has a formidable technique harnessed by great sensitivity and softness of touch. She does not assail you with loud glittering statements but seduces the listener very gradually with her exquisite lines and rhythmic precision. This seductive approach was clearly at work on Thursday at the Spin where the audience began by being quiet and unsure and ended the evening forceful in their appreciation.

Particularly enjoyable were Williams’s own compositions, Round Trip and Still. The former had an enigmatic mixture of pastoral and eastern textures which she explored in her solo with characteristically unpretentious intensity with large open chords and spare fleeting phrases in the left hand. Still, a delicate ballad with a melody like winter tracery brought fine solos not just from Williams but also from Pete Oxley on guitar and Raf Mizraki on bass. Both players gave the guest soloist the kind of support her approach deserves and produced some excellent solos themselves while Russ Morgan, the drummer for the evening, kept up a shifting energy that further enhanced the precision of the keyboard playing.

Kate Williams started the second half by playing Bud Powell’s Cecelia entirely on the left hand showing how perfectly she can perform a clean fast bebop line with all its melodic and rhythmic intricacies with one hand. This did not come over as a clever trick but a deliberate aesthetic decision to play a straight line of notes uncomplicated by chords in the bass. She did the same in her solo on Metheny’s Travels where again the effect was to give a distinct energy to the music. Altogether this was an evening that entranced the audience and far exceeded the expectations of those who where not there. Kate Williams is a musician worth taking the time to appreciate.

© Paul Medley