Safe Young Hands
The Marcus Praestgaard Trio at CLMC
Marcus Miller is a badass. He once said that if you wanted to come to the city (as New Yorkers like to refer to their town) to play jazz, ‘you better better bring it…’
It’s Saturday night and we’re not at some legendary jazz venue in NYC. We are at the Coolham Live Music Club, situated deep in the West Sussex boonies. You will not of heard of the place, but loads of excellent musicians from both sides of the musical pond have. Many of them have played here.
The opening act are the Marcus Praestgaard Trio. The pre show PR leads us to expect something special. I’ve been around guitar playing for over fifty years. I’ve been privileged to see some of its most significant exponents playing live, often from just a few feet away. As a producer I’ve recorded some really excellent guitar players. I think I’m probably pretty hard to impress, a bit jaded even. Like Mr Miller says, you better bring it…
Well these guys did - in spades, and then some…
Bassist John Jones set the tone before a note was played, calmly asking band leader Marcus Praestgaard for a G and then tuning his Fender bass to the note by ear and completing the job using harmonics. The way we used to roll before they invented digital tuners. Real old school stuff…
And from the first number novel chord voicings from Marcus, unusual arrangements of familiar tunes, extended solos from all three players. Confident count offs to the tunes and a real sense of interplay and of enjoying the performance. A solo by Marcus on a Jeff Beck tribute that had my significant other (a keyboard player herself and someone generally highly unimpressed with guitar histrionics) lean over and say, ‘that was really good…’
Ben Thomas is a really versatile drummer with great dynamics who plays with his head up constantly monitoring and reacting. He plays at a sensible volume. He has an excellent command of the contemporary styles needed in modern fusion playing, and he swings…
John Jones is an awesome physical presence that inspires confidence. He has a great sound on bass and plays with serious feel. He is already a significant player. He has a very bright future…
Marcus Praestgaard doesn’t make it easy for himself. He uses natural old school guitar tones from his Gibson ES-335 and eschews the effects many other fusion guitar players rely on. Playing in a trio leaves him with few harmonic limitations, but the downside is there is a massive space to fill with set piece and improvised content. He is already doing this well. I look forward to witnessing his development as an artist as he gains in experience and stage craft.
I left CLMC with very positive feelings about the future of the music I care deeply about. As organiser Rich Donnelly put it in a subsequent email,
‘...Great to see live music in safe young hands…’