19 February 2010 (gig)
20 February 2010
Kind of a double review here as I had never been to the Map Cafe before last night but I came away impressed by both Leon Greening’s piano playing and the venue and the concept Chris Townshend has created.
The Map Cafe is three things in one:
• A Recording Studio
• A funky cafe with good food at reasonable prices and jazz playing in the background
• A performance space with a really fine acoustic and just enough space for twenty or so punters
Set in the backstreets between Kentish & Camden Towns, it doesn’t exactly shout its presence but when you find it, buy a postcard (you get a free drink for buying each postcard) and climb the rickety staircase to the floor above, you find yourself in a room slightly larger than the front room in a typical 3 bed semi, When the band starts setting up you realise that you are not only going to be in closer attendance to a band than their parents but interacting with them in a way that is never possible in a ‘typical’ venue – luckily Mr Greening and Co. were a nice bunch; I’m not sure I would like to be this close to some of the bands I have seen lately.
And so to the performance; if that was no good then it doesn’t matter how good the room is.
As it happens they were excellent.
Starting as a trio with the ubiquitous Steve Brown on drums and Adam King on double bass they warmed up with Winston Kelly’s ‘Action’ and they were straight in to some expressive mainstream jazz with Leon Greening’s piano sounding ok but when Damon Brown started in with his ‘Crumpet’ (they weren’t sure if it is a large Cornet or small Trumpet) on the standard ‘You’re My Everything’ the whole band came alive and the music took on a more expressive tone; they weren’t just playing the dots but finding each others strengths and weaknesses. They were all soloing and duetting through ‘Villa Deloroso’ and the gorgeous ‘Panomico’ (Thelonious Monk) and brought the first set to a close with ‘If I Were A Bell’.
By now the crowd was up to the maximum 25 or so and the second set belted out even better than the first.
Damon Brown’s Trumpet has a lot of Chet Baker about it and he was blowing cool from the off but he was superb on ‘Dance Of The Infidels’ as was the prodigiously talented Adam King who, at 21, is one of the best bass players I have heard in a fair while.
Leon Greening is a very talented pianist but it was the ensemble that really made my evening and I will be keeping an ear out for all of them,
In the meantime the Map Cafe is definitely going on my list of must-do venues when I am looking for what’s on and I can only hope that it goes from strength to strength because it is not only a worthy venture but a damn good place to see live jazz too.
