Jazz Guitar Celebration with Andy Williams in Hastings

Tuesday night's gig in Hastings was fun. Roger Carey (bass) and Dave Trigwell (drums) were very accommodating and I particularly enjoyed listening to, and duetting with, Andy Williams. Andy is a fine, accomplished guitarist and his set nodded to such great guitarists as Django (a lovely solo arrangement of Nuages), Jack Wilkins (his arrangement of Chick Corea's Windows) and John Scofield (his composition Still Warm). The highlight for me was playing with Andy on the last two numbers - Skylark and Blues in the Closet. I didn't manage to record them, but I did manage to get the first set - Soul Eyes with Roger and Dave, then joined by Andy for How Insensitive (with a nod to Emily Remler and Larry Coryell) and a duet version of My Funny Valentine (Jim Hall and Bill Evans).

Terry Seabrook Quartet, The Brunswick, Brighton

Terry is a Brighton based pianist, teacher, composer and tireless campaigner for live jazz. This was a rare opportunity to capture Terry's band playing original compositions as they only play together about once a year. The band is Andy Williams (guitar), Dave Trigwell (drums) and Paul Whitten (double bass). The kicked off with Oleo as a lively warm up and then followed up with some original compositions.

Andy Williams' playing was excellent. He has a warm, dark tone, similar to Pat Metheny and his playing is thoughtful, exciting and free from obvious cliches. Although his playing does not have the excesses of some fusion players, you can detect a fusion influence. He has a technique that covers all the bases - in more intense moments there was some wonderful sweep picking, he played some nice chordal variations on the standard What's New and the band closed the first set with a spiky, bebop-inspired blues that showed he can combine his contemporary approach with some hard swinging.

Terry's compositions can best be described as "evocative". Stylistically, they remind me of the Pat Metheny Group in the 80s (e.g. Letter From Home) and there is clearly a strong influence from PMG keyboard player Lyle Mays. One of the pieces evoked starlings over the West Pier. They all had an element of non-functional harmony as a base for some fine modal blowing.

Dave Trigwell has a very relaxed swing and sounds constantly inventive, never content to just repeat a pattern. He worked well with Paul who is a subtle bass player - never loud but always present.

Let's hope this band gets to play together more often.