PIANIST and composer Tim Amman has been steadily building his career and reputation as a musician and composer of jazz music for a few decades now, so the quality of his playing was not in much doubt when he appeared with the Lichfield Jazz House Band.
Accompanied by his equally talented son Aiden on drums, Nick Dewhurst on trumpet, flugelhorn and guitar, and bass player Tom Marsh, the set took in Amman’s own spacious, melodic instrumentals, as well as some jazz standards.
The ensemble started with a premiere of Trying Times, with its swinging rhythm and some fine minimalist trumpet, proving to be a good start to the evening.
Solstice, an old favourite with its flowing piano motif and shifting moods, was a tonal poem that was as much about space and atmosphere as it was musical technique.
The K2 Blues was, as the name suggests, all about the blues, with plenty of inventive soloing that didn’t always stick to tried and tested pentatonic ideas.
Things were slowed down for the Bill Evans and Miles Davis composition Blue in Green, which showed the delicacy of the piece to be in good hands.
The second half of the evening featured the characterful singing of Andrew Horton performing Global Warming and All this Bad News.
The tempo was lifted during Roy Hargrove’s Strasbourg St Denis, with its well known brass theme and strong rhythmic pulse being a fine showcase for the talented players.
Another original, Timeless, had a well written central motif and was strongly arranged, while a closing Thing’s Ain’t What They Used To Be took the jazz standards on a gentle canter.
