Guinness Cork Jazz Festival reviews: Andy Sheppard and Portico Quartet
Andy Sheppard (left) and his East Coast band performing at the Triskel for Guinness Cork Jazz Festival. Picture: Naoise Culhane
The quartet is a staple and well-established unit in jazz, an improvisational equivalent of the string quartet in classical music. As with the classic and epoch-defining John Coltrane Quartet of the early to mid-sixties, and Keith Jarrett’s majestic and influential American and Scandinavian quartets of the seventies, it involves a lead instrument player, usually a saxophonist or pianist, often both, plus a rhythm section of bass and drums. Its strength and vitality lies in a solid, stable yet open structure: a good jazz quartet is like a four-square room without walls, in which each player can move freely inside and outside its parameters.
English saxophonist and composer Andy Sheppard’s new four-piece band, East Coast, which played a sold-out show at Triskel Christchurch on Sunday evening, perfectly embodied these sometimes elusive qualities. Featuring Sheppard on tenor and soprano, John Parricelli on guitar, Dudley Phillips on bass and Mário Costa on drums, the quartet presented two sets of music full of keen listening, clever interplay and good old-fashioned fun.
Prior to the concert Sheppard had described East Coast as “a kind of kicking band”, and there were plenty of new and original compositions that were ideal vehicles for energetic solos and fiery group interaction. These were instantly appealing tunes with breezy melodies and easy rhythms; it was like being placed back in warm evening sunlight. Yet there were also romantic ballads that revealed the leader’s more tender side – and his signature liquid and yearning tone. Andy Sheppard on saxophone is one of the great sounds in modern jazz.
Over the course of nearly two hours, there was something almost playful about the band and the music, a result perhaps of the terrible weight of the pandemic gradually lifting and musicians being able to again, as Sheppard said, “make music with people and for people”. East Coast’s encore ended with Sheppard leading the audience in a series of rhythmic group finger-snaps; he brought it, and the concert, to a close with his right hand held joyously aloft.
Little of that lightness and air was evident later on that night at the Everyman for another headlining festival foursome, Portico Quartet. The London-based group may feature saxophonist Jack Wyllie, electric and double bassist Milo Fitzpatrick and keyboard player Keir Vine, but its engine lies very much in Duncan Bellamy, upfront on drums and electronics.
The band describe themselves as “widescreen minimalists”, and as well as overtones of American composers such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich, there are elements of electronica, film soundtracks, post-rock, ambient and dance music – and faint traces of jazz. The music often has a powerful drive, precision and forward momentum; it can be atmospheric and affecting, and was well received by a capacity audience.
Yet, for me, this often felt like bombastic and two-dimensional instrumental music in search of a third or fourth scale or perspective. Maybe the band would have worked better within the greater freedom of a club or standing venue. But, in my mind, Portico Quartet were missing a vital ingredient or two – stronger melodies, open improvisation, deep spaces, even accompanying images or film – something that could take a dexterous and accomplished quartet outside of itself.
