Winston Clifford Quartet

The evening began with some powerful drumming from Winston, however, during the two sessions we heard the full range of his sensitivity on this instrument, particularly when just using his hands on Joe Henderson’s ‘The Kicker’. The theme of the evening was the compositions by many of our favourites starting with McCoy Tyner’s ‘Contemplation’, Joe Henderson’s ‘Serenity’ and a fascinating interpretation of Monk’s ‘Evidence’. Featuring Simon Thorpe on bass there followed Billie Holiday’s ‘God Bless the Child’. The quartet continued by marking the recent birthdays of Sonny Rollins with ‘Without a Song’ from The Bridge Album and John Coltrane, with ‘Equinox’ and ‘Naima’. It was good to have Denys Baptise, for the first time at CJC on tenor sax and not only were we treated to some fine piano from Jonathan Gee but also a surprise vocalese reminding us of King Pleasure with ‘Moody’s Mood for love’.

A great start to the new season at Chichester Jazz Club after a long-enforced break. We wait with anticipation for more live jazz in the months to come.

Winston Clifford - drums,  Denys Baptiste - tenor sax,  Jonathan Gee - piano,  Simon Thorpe - bass.

Photos from the event