ANT LAW & ALEX HITCHCOCK QUARTET

ANT LAW AND ALEX HITCHCOCK QUARTET AT THE GRASSHOPPER, POOLE – 19/01/23

So I finally get round to going to a gig in my hometown, and my old dad's come along with me, and there are my neighbours in the front row! It’s a small town and you can’t go anywhere without bumping into people you know, even if, like me, you don’t really know many people. 

It’s taking place in a medium sized room, above THE GRASSHOPPER pub, that is primarily used for meetings of the Wessex Magical Association. There are pictures of Houdini on the wall and playing cards stuck to the ceiling, which is a nice touch. Magic and jazz seem like appropriate bedfellows, I think. Recently I’ve come to see jazz as a form of magic. 

Where the magic happens

I’m surprised to learn when I speak to ANT LAW in the interval that there have been no rehearsals for tonight’s gig. The band just met up here at four thirty and away they went. It’s really impressive because it feels to me like they’ve been playing together for years, and are able to anticipate each other’s next move with uncanny precision. As an amateur musician who can barely move from G major to C major without making several mistakes it’s deeply impressive and definitely feels like a form of magic. Law seems to be the dominant force here. His fingers dance around the fretboard like an energetic spider, occasionally settling on some cloudlike chords like a sated moth. He gently mocks his musical partner, saxophonist ALEX HITCHCOCK, referring to him initially as “a bit of a yes man” and then asking the audience if they “want to hear Alex say something?” before declaring that we’ll “have to wait until the second set.” Hitchcock doesn’t seem to mind, though sometimes it’s hard to tell if people really mind these kinds of things. Sometimes they just pretend not to mind when deep inside they do a little bit. That’s just an observation I’ve made over the years. But Hitchcock seems all right. He holds his own, and introduces the band a couple of times without any trouble at all. Ernesto Simpson is a bit special on the drums, a one-man melting pot of musical styles. “African people,” he explains, when Law suggests that his style has borrowed from Columbia, Cuba, and New York, “went all over the world.”

Normal photographic service is resumed!