"You could stand on your drumstool and fart through a plastic cup and some of them would still play the same solo." So said drummer Tom Bancroft, summing up his frustration at a lack of communication between players - and why he sees this latest project as being so fruitful. The Double Helix tour features NorthernLights and Trio AAB, bands who have brought traditional English, Irish and Scottish music together with jazz, billing the show as: "Twisted roots and jazz grooves."
Played well, the tiny English concertina is a riddle: the urging, comic arm movements that control the air, combined with the furious typing of tiny buttons, appeared bizarrely unrelated to the beautiful lyrical sound that Northern Lights' Alistair Anderson produced. Annie Whithead stuck close to the simple heart of the trombone, never seeking to disguise its special, lazy talents with technical comouflage.
Hearing jazz and folk players going in the same direction on these lilting tunes, but taking a slightly different route, was the simple highlight, with excellent support from Jennifer Maidman on guitar and bass, Liam Genockey on drums and Chris Stout on fiddle.
Before AAB's set came Stout's Sea of Tethys, for saxophone and tape, played by AAB's Phil Bancroft. In an attempt to prepare people - aware that he was about to serve up a "no tunes" moment to a folk and jazz crowd - Stout ended up sounding too apologetic. This is a feeling the work gives off itself, as if too self-consciously abstract.
Trio AAB, featuring Bancroft and twin brother Tom (plus Kevin Mackenzie on guitars), teamed up with Irish flute and whistle player Brian Finnegan. Tom's playing was as attentive and reactive as pure conversation, even on a simple drum'n'bass pattern.
The problem was that the roots often weren't twisted enough, nor the jazz groovy enough. The high points came when one style was allowed to be quite confident and uncompromised. The players have obviously found it a revealing process, but the sound of mutual respect does not always make the most thrilling new music.
· At the Tolbooth, Stirling (01786 274000), tonight, then touring.
