by Paul Brad from Ancient to Future

Saturday night at the Purcell Room was a touch special. First of all, I need to give Gary Crosby a heads up for the work that he’s doing, as an artist in residence at the RFH, with the Tomorrow’s Warriors Jazz Orchestra. The impressive pieces played in the first set, orchestrated and conducted by young players like pianist Peter Edwards, James McKay and saxophonist Binker Golding, took in Wayne Shorter’s ‘Dance Cadaverous’ alongside their own bold compositions and illuminated a deep rooted affinity to the tradition and a startling confidence. However, this was a game of two halves and as they launched into Jason Yarde’s arrangement of Steve Williamson’s ‘Soon Come’ you immediately became aware of a different, more radical and modern rhythmic sensibility at work. ‘Mandy’s Mood’, ‘How High The Bird ‘ and ‘Sweet Love of My Likeness’ followed and that left this listener with a lingering taste of Steve Williamson’s compositional depth. The set culminated with ‘Waltz For Grace’ – a moving song that reflects on the premature passing of Steve’s sister – and it brought onto the stage the elegant Studio 1 vocalist and JA’s “First Lady of Jazz”, Myrna Hague, along with the saxophonist himself. As Steve teased his soprano into the tune and Myrna sought out a point of entry, an inevitable element of improvisation crept into the proceedings and, much to their credit, it was deftly integrated into the Warriors’ complex arrangements. Following a riot of applause the night drew to close with just Gary and Steve refreshing a long-time musical friendship by dueting on Coltrane’s ‘Equinox’. Enough said!

Review by Matt Phillips

Three generations of great British jazz were celebrated this week at the Southbank Centre in a series of concerts marking the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain. One of the recent homegrown heroes is Steve Williamson, the mercurial saxophone talent who burst onto the scene in the late 1980s in bassist Gary Crosby OBE’s enormously influential Jazz Warriors band which also nurtured the likes of Courtney Pine, Orphy Robinson, Cleveland Watkiss and Tony Remy. Williamson went on to release three influential albums in the ‘90s investigating everything from M-Base-style funk/jazz to Debussy-like harmonies, before promptly disappearing from the scene.

But both Williamson and Crosby were on hand at the Purcell Room on Saturday night to showcase the latest lineup of Tomorrow’s Warriors Jazz Orchestra, the hugely important big band which focuses on the work of young musicians, composers and arrangers and has included the likes of Byron Wallen, Alex Wilson, Nathaniel Facey, Robert Mitchell and Shabaka Hutchings in its ranks.

The first half of the show concentrated mainly on new work by the group’s in-house composer/arrangers Peter Edwards, Binker Golding and James McKay. Edwards’ opener ‘Mr Timmons’, a tribute to the Blue Note soul-jazz piano legend, slow-burned its way through some tasty chord voicings and inventive soloing, while a version of Wayne Shorter’s ‘Dance Cadaverous’ was ambitious but rather blunted some of the original’s spiky harmonies and sounded rather staid in a big-band format. Golding’s deadpan announcements (and Crosby’s muttered responses) provided some of the biggest laughs of the evening, and his ‘Half Close Your Eyes’ suite twinkled intermittently, the muted trumpets adding a nice noir touch. His lazily swinging ‘One Last Moment of Weakness’ brought out the best in trumpeter Kevin Robinson who delivered a gloriously fruity solo, Satchmo style.

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Steve Williamson. Photo credit: Roger Thomas

Purcell Room,Southbank Cenre, July 23rd 2011. Review by Roger Thomas

Among all the Jazz Warriors, Tomorrows Warriors, and the many bands that have come out of that movement, Steve Williamson is the Forgotten Warrior. A key figure in the original Jazz Warriors, he has scarcely played in public for more than a decade. He decided to shift his energy and his sincerity to focus on imperatives which were more important to him. The good news for the future is that the time away has also allowed him to become productive and given him fresh inspiration towards writing/composition. 

There was a packed house, and the programme had a logic, a sense of building towards a climax. The first set was given up to showcasing arrangements by Tomorrows Warriors alumni, namely Peter Edwards, Binker Golding, James Mckay and Jason Yarde. A highlight of the second set was Steve Williamson's composition Soon Come. Gary Crosby had explained to the audience that Soon Come is a West Indian term similar to the Spanish "mañana." And Jason Yarde's arrangement had got right into the spirit: apparently Jason had delivered the parts half an hour before the end of the band's last rehearsal. Literally, with the ink still wet! Denys Baptiste's authoratitive tenor solo gave that tune a kick, a shift in gear, as he delivered a flurry of urgent notes, as if he needed to get them all before the closing of a door. 

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Classic press shot for the Rebirth Of Cool album. IDJ & Steve Williamson (l to r) Marshall Smith, Jerry Barry, Steve Williamson & Gary Nurse. Photography: Nick White

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