John Horler Trio: A Portrait of Bill Evans – May 2025
Progress Theatre, Reading Friday 16 May
John Horler piano, Alec Dankworth bass Ronnie Jones drums
Bill Evans’ approach to the piano, with its ‘moonlight’ quality and purity of sound, could touch otherwise impenetrable depths of human emotion. Indeed, as John Horler recalled with ebullient good humour, he was so overcome with a mix of excitement and emotion when he heard Evans ‘live’ for the first time at Ronnie Scott’s ‘Old Place’ sixty years ago, that he fainted. ‘I was a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old student at the Royal Academy,’ he told the near full-house at the Progress Theatre on Friday 16 May, ‘and my brother Dave had to carry me out of the club and up the steps to Gerrard Street. “I think you’ve had enough,” he said.’
Fortunately for us, John Horler hadn’t ‘had enough’. From that moment he embraced the unique musical language and inspirational force of Bill Evans to become one of the most expressive musicians on the jazz scene. It was an absolute delight to welcome him back to Jazz at Progress, where he made such an impression three years ago, to play the music he loves in the company of kindred spirits Alec Dankworth and Ronnie Jones.
This three-year interlude has seen the trio play two ‘sold out’ shows at Ronnie Scott’s; and also perform live on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune. It is fair to say their return to the Progress Theatre was eagerly anticipated – and did it deliver!
‘Re: The Person I Knew’, a warmly affectionate tribute to Evans’ Riverside Record label producer, Orrin Keepnews, opened the evening to captivating effect, followed by the mischievious charm of ‘Alice in Wonderland’.
The glorious interplay already in evidence between the musicians found full expression in a beautifully evocative, almost heart-stopping, interpretation of ‘When I Fall in Love’; a masterpiece of timing, concluded by a perfectly placed TING by Ronnie Jones, using his wedding ring to delicately strike his cymbal.
‘Funkallero’ brought a compete change of mood and atmosphere with the hard-driving staccato rhythms one associates with Bud Powell’s ‘Un Poco Loco’, an early influence on Bill Evans’ jazz career. An intense bass solo from Alec Dankworth paved the way for a nail-biting exchange of ‘4s’ featuring the subtly energetic brushwork of Ronnie Jones.
‘How My Heart Sings’, a composition by Earl Zindars, a composer and jazz educator with whom Evans became friends when they were serving in a military band during the Korean War, held the double attraction of a distinctive melody combined with alternating time signatures.
The poignant beauty of ‘Blue in Green’, Bill Evans’ uncredited contribution to Miles Davis’s classic ‘Kind of Blue’ album, brought a gasp of recognition from the audience as soon as John Horler coaxed the first note from his piano keyboard. Time simply stood still as he made the tune entirely his own, more than ably supported by Alec Dankworth and Ronnie Jones. This was a performance of the highest order!
With the approach of the interval Horler ‘summoned the troops to action’ with an unaccompanied tour de force improvisation. Alec Dankworth duly fell into line with his singing bass, while Ronnie Jones swapped his wire brushes for sticks to launch a full-scale attack on ‘My Romance’, a swinging close to an exhilarating first set which set feet tapping and seats rocking.
After a well-earned interval and welcome refreshment, the second set opened with ‘Elsa’, another composition from the pen of Earl Zindars which appeared on Bill Evans’ ‘Explorations’ album of 1961.
Taken at walking pace, it once again demonstrated the extraordinary interplay between the musicians, and their ability to listen to each other.
In a further break with piano trio orthodoxy, Alec Dankworth took the lead with stunning effect on Irving Berlin’s evergreen ‘How Deep is the Ocean’, a number which revived the veteran songwriter’s career when it was first introduced on radio in 1932. I’ve enjoyed the pleasure of listening to Alec’s bass innumerable times over the years in a variety of settings, but I don’t think that I have ever heard him play with such poise, assurance, sensitivity and creativity as on this occasion. John Horler fulfilled his accompanying role to perfection and as one had come to expect, Ronnie Jones added exactly the right percussive effects at exactly the right moments from his customised bijou ‘bop’ drum kit; with its bongo-like maple-hooped tom toms (and snare), plus 16” bass drum and sizzling cymbals – instruments he played with a suite of sticks, mallets and brushes… and often his hands.
No portrait of Bill Evans would be complete without ‘Waltz for Debby’, an enduring favourite with audiences and the nearest Bill Evans came to writing a ‘hit’ song. As Evans afficionados blessed with good hearing would have noted (this writer not included), John Horler augmented his interpretation with an excerpt from ‘Turn Out the Stars’.
As for ‘Peace Piece’, which flowed seamlessly into ‘Some Other Time’, Horler conjured keyboard magic to spine-tingling effect. He is a truly world-class exponent of his instrument.
Before John Horler and his fellow musicians took their final bow, (a moment captured brilliantly by house photographer Steve Foster on display in the Gallery elsewhere on the Jazz in Reading website) they set the pots boiling with ‘Nardis’ – another Evans’ composition credited to Miles Davis – and rounded off a 5-STAR performance with Tadd Dameron’s bebop anthem ‘If You Could See Me Now’.
The audience left the theatre with smiles on their faces and warmth in their hearts, having enjoyed an evening that not only paid tribute to the genius of Bill Evans, but reminded us of the world class talent we have in our midst in the person of John Horler. My advice to jazz club promoters is to book this group – NOW!
Our thanks also to the team at Progress Theatre headed by Stuart McCubbin and to the excellent service of Hickie’s Music Store of Reading and Tiverton for the hire of the piano.
Review posted here by kind permission of Trevor Bannister
Photo by Steve Foster @jazzshots (Instagram & FB)
