Nigel Kennedy at the Cheltenham Festival
From Times Online May 6, 2009
Alyn Shipton
Three stars out of five.
The sound of his violin emanated from the speakers before Nigel Kennedy wandered into view through the audience, playing
as he made his way to the stage. It augured a dramatic climax to the Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Even on the bodyless Violectra
instrument he has a gorgeous middle register tone that compels the attention, which remained the case as his two-note pizzicato
riff led into Where All Paths Meet from his latest jazz recording, A Very Nice Album. Not long into the piece, however, his Polish
backing band settled into a vein of empty bombast that set the pattern.
In particular, the drummer Pawel Dobrowolski lacks any kind of subtlety, and jacks up the volume whenever possible,
particularly behind the tenor saxophone solos of Tomasz Grzegorski. Kennedy dictated the dynamics to some extent, but
on his own piece 15 Stones he pushed the levels even higher in his effects-laden Hendrix style, his sound screaming and distorted.
This might not have mattered if Kennedy were a convincing improviser, but too often his lines abandon jazz timing and resort to
dazzling ornaments culled from the classical violin repertoire without the melodic or harmonic reinvention that had been so richly
on offer elsewhere throughout the weekend.
His strength is his remarkable sensitivity in caressing a melody to life, as he proved on the centrepiece of his first set,
Father and Son. This is based on the 15th-century French setting of O Come, O Come Emmanuel and after a sensuous unaccompanied
run through he was joined by the pared-down piano of Piotr Wylezol before a pizzicato interlude and soaring solo that retained
the contour of the melody. The touch of genius that makes his classical playing so compelling shone through here, and deserves a
better setting than his present band can supply.
Have your say:
Only conceptually can Debussy hope to influence the sensitive jazzer, something sadly that N Kennedy is not!
J A Sims, Bath, UK
Francesca, London, UK
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