THE SPIN
Saxophonist Mark
Ramsden approaches his music with a very individual mix of reverence,
intensity and lyricism which allows him to breath new life into old
standards without breaking away from the integrity of the original.
This
was clear from the first number of the evening, Ellington’s Things
ain’t what they used to be, in which Ramsden eschewed the traditional
saxophonist’s approach of blasting the tune out as if to emulate a full
sax section in favour of a delicate flowing interpretation that forced
the rest of the band to come down to his level and was really much
closer to the spirit of the original. Ramsden has a remarkably fluid
and yet forceful style of playing in which exquisite flowing phrases
are interspersed with sharp punched notes or sudden flights up to the
very top range of the instrument. His playing of Jobim’s classic Estate
was particularly fine and perfectly matched the information he gave
that the tune is subtitled ‘mourning the end of summertime’. There was
a sad heartfelt quality about his phrasing of the melody and in the
subsequent soloing. The same was true of his playing of Loverman a tune
equally fitted to his style. On the other hand he can also turn up the
temperature and pull out the bluesy bebop licks when required as in
Mingus’s Nostaglia in Times Square.
The house band
of Pete Oxley on guitar, Mark Doffman on drums and Luke Street depping
on bass were as sharp and professional as ever. Oxley soloed with his
usual style and vigour particularly in his own bluesy tune Deeper in
Debt while Doffman gave us a firm demonstration of how to set up a web
of cross rhythms in an extended drum introduction – at Mark Ramsden’s
insistence – to Caravan another Ellington classic steeped in the
flavour of the east. Altogether an auspicious start to a new season of
gigs at the Spin. Paul Medley
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MARK RAMSDEN
