Review: Will Barnes Quartet, at The Hub at St Mary’s, Lichfield
What a joy it is to hear an outstanding up-and-coming band for the first time.
I expect that was the case for most of the fans at the concert by jazz guitarist Will Barnes and his Quartet at The Hub at St Mary’s arts centre in Lichfield.
While most emerging bands seem to be based in London, this group is from the Welsh Marches and is currently on a national tour.
Will composes much of the music by the group, which features pianist Jack Gonsalez, bassist Aidan Thorne and drummer James Batten.
Their music is often spacious and gentle, but can be splendidly fiery at times.
The quartet began with Barnes’s flowing composition Annwn from their new album Outside The Light (Cambrian Records) .
It was a bold move to open the performance with such a mellow piece, but it set the mood for the group to build the excitement with more dramatic pieces including the uptempo pieces Bloom and Devil’s Bridge, and a beautiful ballad The Longest Day (all from Outside The Light).
Fast swing followed with drummer Batten’s composition Where’s Montgomery?, a play on the name of the legendary American guitarist West Montgomery.
It included an intense guitar solo from Barnes, and the band closed with lively pieces The Mad March Hare and, for an encore, Source of the Severn.
