It comes to something when a band like the Leeds-based quintet Wandering Monster is opening the bill for anyone. After all, this collective has sold out Ronnie Scott’s.
An assembly of virtuoso performers on piano, tenor sax, double bass, guitar and drums led by chief writer Sam Quintana, the double bassist, they ooze style and class in every department and each of them gets a chance to shine individually in their well constructed set.
More importantly they convince jazz virgins like me that I should pay far more attention to the genre than I do and I’m sure a lot more convincing was going down in Manchester’s once posh, now slightly down at heel Whalley Range district on Thursday night.
Regarding Aadal, well of themplaying live I was already aware, having seen them play at Matt & Phred’s in the city centre in November 2022, through a foggy haze when folk were still wearing masks.
A quartet led by Michael Aadal, who first began writing songs twenty years ago, they are purveyors of unadulterated clinical yet often poignant dynamism, contrasting sharply with gentle, melancholic ballads, which is a longwinded way of saying they know when to caress their audience and when to pump up the volume.
And sometimes they sound like they’re tuning up for ‘Jazz Club’ the spoof TV show featured on The Fast Show in the 1990s but more often than not there’s a melody lurking there in the background.
They really are a tour de force, underpinned by the almost out of control Gunnar Sæter, who plays in a way Keith Moon would have appreciated. Possessing deft control over them, there’s barely a moment when his sticks aren’t making contact with a surface.
Fighting for attention are the piercing notes of saxophonist André Kassen, who must have titanium lungs, and the flying fingers of stand-in Huddersfield-based Northern Irishman Dave Kane on the double bass, whose digits work faster around the fingerboard than the average 12-year old’s on a smartphone’s keyboard, and who managed to conjure up the sort of sounds I last heard on a building site.
Then there’s the baseball capped guitarist Michael Aadal himself; cool, calm, collected, confident and someone who must take great pleasure from the stunning interpretations put on his work by his colleagues
Aadal the band can be Acker Bilk gentleness one minute and Polyphonic Spree explosiveness the next and you’re never truly sure which order it will come in.
Song of the night for me was ‘The Great Divide’; a road trip creation if ever I heard one. It should be a film score, perhaps for Thelma and Louise 2.0 if they ever make it.
Here’s the Spotify version but I counsel you now that the recording doesn’t do it justice compared to the live performance.
https://open.spotify.com/track/1K8egDJxohjHr5E8uxoUHT?si=fdf2fb8a769340f2 (tame cf. live version).
This is a band that redefines jazz-rock fusion every time they take to the stage. And also the word gusto for that matter. They love playing, especially here in the UK, and it shines like a beacon.
I’ve seen Gogo Penguin a couple of times and with hand on heart I can honestly say, and with no offence to the Manchester lads, that Aadal is at the very least in the same ballpark, audibly, visually, technically and intellectually.
Aadal is playing Aberdeen and Glasgow in the next few days – go and see them.
September 5th – Aberdeen, Arts Centre
September 6th – Glasgow, Basement Jazz Club
You can find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.aadal.7
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelaadal/
Bandcamp: https://aadal.bandcamp.com/
The bands:
Aadal
Michael Aadal – guitar
André Kassen – sax
Dave Kane – bass (replacement for regular bassist Audun Ramo, who could not make the trip)
Gunnar Sæter -drums.
Wandering Monster
Sam Quintana- Double Bass/Compositions
Ben Powling- Tenor Saxophone
Calvin Travers- Guitar
Richard Harrold- Piano/keys
Tom Higham- Drums
