The Saturday late night concert of the Corsham Festival delivered three virtuoso jazz musicians. The style of Dennis Rollins' Velocity Trio is extemporaneous, but the pieces are clearly meticulously rehearsed.
The personable Rollins, on trombone, is a busy performer, not only gently dancing his way through his music, every part of him infused with rhythm, but he manages the electronic refinements on stage, never missing a beat as he operates a foot switch or a hand control to tweak a pitch or create subtle variation in sound.
Yet, I wondered if it wasn't overkill. The musicianship of Rollins, Pedro Segundo on percussion and Ross Stanley on electric organ would be superb ungarnished. Segundo is a whirling dervish when in full spate on his drums and percussion. Stanley’s fingers were a blur on the keyboards.
For all that the pieces in the first half were almost indistinguishable from one another. Velocity was the key – it was all speed and virtuoso exhibitionism. The second half, which several members of the smallish audience chose to skip, contained more variety and some recognisable atmospheric film music, notably from The Big Chill.
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