Monneau Kilner Stephen Cosker, Edinburgh Jazz Festival review: 'well-matched talents'
Belgian double-bassist Jim Monneau joined three homegrown jazz maestros for an empathetic and exuberant hour of music-making, writes Jim Gilchrist
Monneau Kilner Stephen Cosker, The Jazz Bar, Edinburgh ★★★★
In yet another fortuitous Edinburgh Jazz Festival liaison between a visiting artist and homegrown talent, the respected Belgian double-bassist Jim Monneau made his Scottish debut in the sterling company of tenor saxophonist Matthew Kilner, guitarist Graeme Stephen and drummer Alyn Cosker, the quartet conjuring a solid hour of empathetic, free-flowing and often exuberant music-making.
They opened with a Monneau composition, lengthily titled after an ancient Chinese proverb but with a relaxed vibe, Cosker setting an affably strolling pace for Kilner to strike up a mellow theme, followed by Stephen’s eloquent guitar and Monneau declaring his colours with a substantial, round-toned bass solo which picked up on the melody. From there the set became increasingly full bodied, often with notably muscular interplay between tenor sax and guitar. Stephen’s composition, Universe, for instance, developed from his guitar prologue, buzzing at times with looping effects, before developing expansively alongside saxophone, while Kilner’s Granite shifted from eloquent melancholy, taking on howls and cascades of guitar and roiling drums, double bass running headlong behind, to a gently drawn out conclusion.
Monneau’s Trance opened with his solo bass ruminations before he worked up a minimalist and suitably repetitive groove, over which Kilner delivered sporadic sax interjections before he and Stephen resumed their demonstrative partnership, breaking out over Cosker’s industrious drumming.
This very satisfying set drew to a close with the drummer’s own intriguingly titled composition, The Great Thief, Cosker initially rattling out a militaristic march that became an edgy strut, sax shrilling and with a further guitar breakout before things eased down to a low-key resolution, completing an auspicious – and, one might hope, more than just a one-off – alignment of well matched talents.
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