The end of August CJC gig featured Wellington based ‘Pleasure Point Sextet’.  The Sextet represents an interesting project, formed by Californian based pianist/composer/arranger Steve Abrams when he visited Wellington in 2005.  Under the guiding influence of well-respected Jazz educator, drummer Greg Crayford, the project has continued.  Abrams maintains contact, supplying the occasional chart and encouragement.  Abrams charts are original and have a certain airiness about them, a sense of place; perhaps reflecting his home base of Santa Cruz, hinting at the palm trees and seemingly endless surf beaches.

There are two Crayford’s in the Pleasure Point Sextet.  Greg Crayford the leader is on traps and his son Miles on piano.  The former Wellingtonian Miles Crayford is increasingly known around Auckland where he sometimes gigs (usually with bass player Mostyn Cole).  The sextet had the appearance of a classic hard bop line up with trumpet, tenor saxophone, piano, bass, traps drums and percussion.  While they tackled a few hard bop classics, they were more often about the sensuous latin infused rhythms of the southern Americas.  The beats were infectious and none more so than the cha-cha they played.   It is unusual to hear a cha-cha in Jazz but it worked just fine.   As the choppy infectious rhythms were laid down you could easily imagine the ubiquitous dancers who peopled early Fred Astaire movies.  That it worked so well is particularly due to the percussion skills of Raphael Ferrer Noel.  Watching him rolling his palms and stinging the skins with crisp decisive blows was an essential part of the theatre generated by this sextet.  This was nicely offset by Crayford on traps.  All the while Noel swayed and grinned (and occasionally sung).

There were a few Jazz standards selected for the sets, some lessor known, but all well-chosen. ‘Bb Blues’ by hard bop trumpeter Donald Bird and the stunning melancholic ‘Angel Eyes’ (Taylor/Jones).   I have always liked the ballad ‘Angel Eyes’ and the way musicians approach it is varied and generally interesting (My two favourite versions being the Anita O’Day/John Poole quartet version and the contrasting slow burning funked up rendition by tenor-man Gene Ammons).  Mike Booth who took the main solo did not disappoint in this regard.  The remaining band members were Tait-Jamierson and Cole.  James Tait-Jamierson is a melodic tenor player who conveys strength without being forceful.  I have heard Mostyn Cole play many times and have found his arco-bass and straight bass work convincing.  His punchy electric bass on this gig illustrated his versatility.

Who: ‘Pleasure Point Sextet’ – Greg Crayford (leader, traps), Miles Crayford (piano), James Tait-Jamierson (tenor saxophone), Mike Booth (trumpet), Mostyn Cole (electric bass), Rafael Ferrer Noel (percussion, vocals)

Where: CJC (Creative Jazz Club), 1885 Britomart, Auckland, New Zealand.  27th August 2014       www.creativejazzclub.co.nz