Piano and drums

Press, 30 May 1987, Page 8

Piano and drums

Mike Nock (piano) and Frank Gibson jun. (drums) at the Great Hall, Arts Centre, Friday, May 29, at 1.19 p.m. Reviewed by Roger Flury. New Zealand’s “international” jazz pianist, Mike Nock, drew a sizeable audience to the Great Hall yesterday at lunch-time. The concert, with Frank Gibson jun., on drums, was given as part of the Jazz Festival sponsored by the Amur! Corporation. With a good mixture of standards such as “Somefi Day My Prince Will” Come” and “Autumn

Leaves” interspersed with less familiar material, Mike Nock impressed with his fine keyboard playing. There was plenty of agile fingerwork, some arresting use of crossrhythms, and a wide range of moods on display. Of particular interest was a freely improvised piece which used damper effects, and moved from an opening exploration of great simplicity to an impassioned climax worthy of Rachmaninov, before k ending in the merest P whisper of sound. The final item, with

some mischievous atonality, suggested that the performers and audience were just warming up for greater things. The main drawback of the programme was the venue. In spite of the fine drumming of Gibson, the piano was often lost in a blurr of sound. It was disappointing that so many nuances in Nock’s piano playing simply disappeared beneath the barrage of percussion sound. This was a problem that was outside the controjjfcf the performers. They Wally deserved better.