John Fordham 

Andy Sheppard

PizzaExpress Jazz Club, London
  
  


If the stature of saxophonist Andy Sheppard were ever in doubt, this club's devotion of an entire week to his activities, with a variety of guests, is a strong argument.

Monday's first show (with Danish pianist Maj-Britt Kramer's trio) was subtly and wittily devious. Kramer - a Jarrett-influenced pianist - improvised with a measured blend of briefly impulsive runs and nudging, supportive chords. Benita Haastrup, like her older compatriot Marilyn Mazur, is a world-class percussionist - in the flow and surprises of her ideas, she sometimes seems like the Paul Motian of Danish drumming. Bassist Jens Skou Olsen, a giant barely able to fit under the club's low roof, played with a Charlie Haden-like gravitas.

Playing soprano, Andy Sheppard squirmed his way through Haastrup's gleefully disruptive patterns. Switching to tenor, he was plaintive over the drummer's brushes on two Danish folk tunes given a jazz spin. A Haastrup original opened with a patiently accumulating unaccompanied passage by Sheppard, turned into quick funk, then a free soprano-sax adventure in which Kramer shadowed Sheppard so closely it sounded like an echo. The only non-original, a journey into whimsically smoky Wayne Shorter territory, became so quiet it sounded like music boxes tinkling in an empty room. If the rest of the week is going to be this good, they should be selling season tickets.

·Until Sunday. Box office: 020-7439 8722.

 

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