Venue: Matt & Phreds
Date: 6th March 2018
Ticket Price: free
I was working in Manchester and in the evening we went out for something to eat. After the meal my colleagues were going to head back to the hotel, one was going to the bar and the other said he was going to call it a night so I headed off on my own to the jazz club Matt and Phreds. I had thought about going to the club tonight and had looked on their website to see who was on and the write up sounded interesting.
By the time I got there the band were already on stage. I headed to the bar to buy a drink and by the time I had been served the band finished their first set. As they did I noticed that some people were leaving from the table at the front where I dst last time I was here so I grabbed it as soon as they had gone and waited for the band to come back on.
From the little bit I’d heard of the band’s first set it reminded me of a guy who I’d seen in Budapest back in 2012 called Fenyvesi Márton in that the guitar style was very similar. As the band began to play again it became obvious that the band was dominated by the guitarist.
The bass player seemed quite good on the rare occasion that he was allowed the freedom to play. The drummer however was very basic and to my mind would have been more at home in a rock band. To me jazz music is about the interplay between the instruments and no matter how good the main musician is he should know when to step back and let the others shine. So of the best jazz musicians I have seen have stopped playing or taken on subordinate roles while others took a solo.
In the end I headed off as they played the last song of the second set. One good thing about the electric instruments was at least the music could be heard above the chatter of the audience.
