Concert date: Thursday 5th June
The first concert in a new venture for Brewery Arts following up on a successful Spring series of excellent jazz, and it was reassuring to see an excellent turnout out for Jazz Club playing host to Manchester band, Nonunonu.
Performing in the venue’s Malt Room, the space had been carefully prepared to create a unique atmosphere in which to enjoy the music as well as a pizza, selection of wines and some excellent local real ales, the trio of Bim Williams on guitar, bass guitarist Andy Patterson and drummer Josh Savage set about an absorbing couple of sets of mostly original material.
I must confess to knowing very little about the band prior to attending this concert, and their website is suitably modest with scant information about the individual members that make up the collective known rather curiously as Nonunonu. What I had read did not prepare me for the sheer variety of the music, or the quality of the musicianship. In an area of the music broadly described as nu-fusion the trio set about finding their own sound and identity, and that they have done so successfully is testament to their quiet and unflashy virtuosity and the depth of their original material. Even more remarkable was the fact that in a music that is so intricate with many twists and turns that drummer Josh Savage was depping for the groups regular drummer having had little more than a week to learn the repertoire (the trio played without any written parts) and did so with a genuine drive and connection to Nonunonu founders Bim Willias and Andy Patterson.
Having quickly formed a musical understanding, the three musicians played with a passion and commitment that brought depth to the music while retaining a wonderful air of spontaneity. The grooves created by Andy Patterson playing a five-string bass guitar at times would appear out of nowhere only to disappear just as quickly to be replaced by another.
The music could be quirky and mercurial as on ‘Pope Mobile Blues’ that was bassist Patterson’s lament for a Fiat Multipla with the loss of a treasured vehicle producing a suitably melancholy bass line and theme for the composition, while the following number ‘Bozos’, offered up a strong opening drum pattern before moving into a more dialogue. Almost as quickly as the dialogue begun the music morphed into something new with the emergence of a fresh groove.
In the second set the quieter and reflective side of Nonunonu came to the fore with ‘Summer Rain’ which evolved as a beautifully relaxed and melodic piece, with the mood to be once again rudely interrupted by the rock-tinged guitar of ‘Sneezing in Spanish’. This half of the concert also featured two covers in ‘Affirmation’ that was initially made into a standard by George Benson’s version of tune by José Feliciano, and recorded on the guitarist’s hit album Breezin’ in 1976. From the same era, the trio also played a stunning version of Herbie Hancock’s ‘Butterfly’ that appeared on the keyboard players Thrust album from 1974.
After the gig, like many of audience that ensured a full house for the first Jazz Club presentation, I was left elated by what I had just heard by a band that are difficult to categorise. Guitarist Bim Williams is an inventive soloist and if not following in the path laid down by the like of George Benson, he has the ear for a deft melodic line like Pat Metheny that can also throw in a curve ball with a harder edged sound not unlike John Scofield. Andy Patterson acknowledges contemporary jazz bass guitarists such as Jaco Pastorius and Steve Swallow, but as himself said has also been likened to Hugh Hopper and the Canterbury scene. On this outing drummer Josh Savage sounded completely at ease and acquitted himself with great finesse and subtlety when not required to up the ante and propel the music along.
Nonunonu are a band that don’t set out to fall into one category of another but instead are content to be whatever they feel, and on the evidence of this performance that is just fine by me.
