Documents from Gilberto Gil's Private Archive

The Arts JAZZ Herbie Hancock and Bobby Hutcherson Barbican Jack Massarik Each number sounded like a riff waiting for a melody to appear: Herbie Hancock relaxes into the groove for a new TV-influenced audience Hancock's heavy hour THE reunion of pianist Hancock and vibraphonist Hut XH the classic two modern.jazz stars of Blue Note era, should have been a joyful occasion. Yet for all the skill and energy they and their colleagues displayed, the evening became so disappointing that one began to wonder why Poor programming was one factor. Hancock, though relaxed at the mike, made samey selections, offering little variety of tempo or mood. Certainly nobody was whistling any of his music on the way home. Each number sounded like a riff waiting for a melody to appear, with H and H noodling around interminable one chord vamps and riding increasingly heavy rhythmic patterns. Terri Lyne Carrington is a terrific drummer but was anchored by the jazz-rock beats she and bassist Scott Colley had to pound out. Those beats are metronomie by nature, and that's a fact of musical life. Without a touch of that airy, open-ended four-four-time, a soloist can't really leave the ground, The opening number, a two-key version of Cole Porter's standard, I Love You, was wrecked by a CLASSICAL The English Concert/Pinnock Queen Elizabeth Hall Stephen Pettitt Period pieces never fail to impress in D major, and both thus provided opportunity for much trumpet and drum resplendence. Pinnock directed richly coloured, vigorous, well-honed performances. In between the focustrument. It was an harpsichord as solo equal partner in the weighty B minor Flute Sonata, BWV1000, where Lisa Beznosiuk, an English Concert stalwart, was the elegant flute soloist. And naturally it ruled the roo in exuberant readings of the Concerto for two harpsichords in C, BWV 1061, where Pinnock was honoured by the collaboration of his distinguished Dutch colleague Ton Koopman, and in the Concerto for four harpsichords in A minor (BWV 1065 - an arrangement of a Vivaldi string concerto), completed a convivial quartet. Thank you, Trevor, for the English Concert. May you flourish. THIRTY years ago a young harpsichordist called Trevor Pinnock k gathered around him a small group of pioneer-musicians who had studied the right treatises and had found, modified, or had made for them the right sort of instruments, thus creating one of the two first period-style baroque orchestras in the land. His rivals, Christopher Hogwood's The Academy of Ancient Music, pursued a style that was slightly remote, one o sound man who turned TLC's drums to low-flying aircraft volume, but he wasn't to blame for the subsequent chatter of busy beats that drowned glimpses of Footprints and Dolphin Dance. Hancock's solos sounded increasingly mechanical. Only once, during Hutcherson's spacey original, November, did the stars relax and stretch out as we knew they could. If less determined to impress, they might have grooved that much more. Poor pacing didn't help. As is becoming the fashion, the performance started late (a (at 8.40pm) and ran uninterrupted for two hours. During that time the quartet played only four numbers, an average of 30 minutes each, and our admiration began to pale background. But from the start Pinnock's performances with the English Concert Evening Standard Wednesday, 2 July 2003 45 offered unguarded brilliance and a sometimes manic energy At the time, a few purists' eyebrows were raised. Period-style performance wasn't meant to be enjoyed, was it? Well, yes, Pinnock emphatically told us, it was. And the English Concert's reputation spread. But last year he decided that 30 years in charge is enough. This was his last concert with the band before he cedes musical responsibility to the hugely gifted violinist Andrew Manze, who turned up hotfoot from Australia to lead some pieces. specially congratulatory, with a rather silly, s concocted baroque medley by way of an encore, but there was also sadness and nostalgia in the air It was, apart from the encore, an entirely serious programme, consisting of music by JS Bach. The third and fourth Orchestral Suites acted as supporting pillars. Both are into a cooler, more detached sort of interest, as though watching a TV show. Speaking of which, this concert was sold out, and to judge by the queue for returns, it could have sold out twice over. That's the power of TV On Sunday night, Herbie Hancock was profiled on Channel 3's South Bank Show. Melvyn Brage, whose arts empire had managed to ignore the world of jazz almost completely for about 40 years, could thus take a solitary bow. But with mainstream television starved of jazz for decades, and most t jazz pioneers no longer available for interview, his gesture comes a bit late. Sonny Rollins and Artie Shaw are still around, Melvyn, but you'll have to be quick. Brazil brings us two more world beaters WORLD Gilberto Gil and Maria Bethania Royal Festival Hall Mark Espiner GILBERTO Gil is no stranger to London, He spent his political exile here in the Sixties, and hung out in Portobello with Pink Floyd, having upset the Brazilian government with his edgy samba rock which was the centre of the Tropicalia movement. He's returned almost every year - last year celebrating his national team becoming champions of the world for the fifth time with a cracking set of Bob Marley songs. Last night, the Brazilian ex-pat crazies were at the RFH in force, but not just for Gil. There was a special musical marriage going down. At his side, sharing the bill duetting with his and sometimes stirring the crowd into a frenzy on her own was the boundlessly charismatic Maria Bethania. The sister of of another Brazil Bethania also played a crucial part in the Tropicalia movement. But its musical subversion was less in evidence than the spirit of jubilation. : After the crowd booed the MC who told them no dancing in the aisles - the 10-strong band took the stage. A heavy battery of percussion players mixed with the strong and subtle textures of guitars, sax, flute, mandolin and cello. They struck up and Maria and Gil skipped on stage, decked head to toe in stylish suits of dazzling white -- a funky short dreads and Maria swept back her black, flowing hair as they launched into a crowd-pleasing Fe Cega, Faca Amolada, followed swiftly by Gil's gentle anthem Filhos De Gandhia song dedicated to Salvador's carnival troupe of the same name. Maria left him to follow on with more big hits including Marley's Is This Love -- all of which he'd arranged with a rather glittering edge. Then she strode back on to take over. With the power of Piaf and wearing the influence and yearning passion of another great Brazilian chanteuse Elis Regina, Bethana belted it out. Her voice warm as melting che next. Together and chocolate one minute, a separately they played a crowd-pleasing set of 27 songs with the energy and verve that only their football team could match. Champions. For great ticket deals, visit: www.thisislondon.co.uk/tickets W WATERSTONE'S PICCADILLY WELCOMES HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON WHO WILL BE SIGNING COPIES OF HER BEST SELLING MEMOIRS LIVING HISTORY FRIDAY 3RD JULY FROM 6-7PM WATERSTONE'S. 203-206 PICCADILLY LONDON W1 TEL: 020 7851 2400