Perth Theatre has a series of ‘in the bar’ entertainment on Monday nights, called simply ‘The Monday Night Thing’.
Well, last Monday, the ‘thing’ was a rather special performance from UK Saxphonist Julian Arguelles playing with the legendary John Abercrombie trio. Arguelles was a member of the 1980s iconic jazz collective Loose Tubes and now writes and performs with his own band, as well as teaching. John Abercrombie is a veteran jazz guitarist, and does not play in the UK very often. In the 1970s he played with the likes of the Brecker Brothers and drummer Billy Cobham, but he has played with a long list of the famous as well as his own band.
Julian Arguelles
They were backed by Michael Formanek on what looked like a 3/4 size double bass, and Tom Rainey on drums. I have to say, Tom Rainey was just extraordinary to watch. He only had a fairly small four piece drumkit, but he was very very creative as he took a fixed stare into space and hit anything and everything with sticks, brushes, mallets and his bare hands. He rarely did the same thing twice, yet it all worked in with the music. He hit cymbals from the top, sideways and from underneath. At one stage he played a glass bottle of water, transforming it into sounding in different pitches by tilting the angle. Pure and utter genius.
The band played some new Arguelles numbers, an Abercrombie tune and a few standards were thrown in. The pieces were well extended, often lasting 20 minutes or so. The standards were standards with a difference. Arguelles blew city sounds, and performed immense breath defying runs up and down the instrument. The sold out audience of around 100 or so gave them warm appreciation, and brought them back for more.
