I've been meaning to go and see the long running Near Jazz Experience residency at Indo for several years now and finally got round to it. Indo from the outside looks like an old school spit and sawdust pub in Whitechapel that when I went in turns out to be a very cool small pub that serves Pizza and has a great selection of Belgian Beer and other craft ales, always good to hear the bar staff warning drinkers that the beer they have asked for on tap is 9%!
On first was Trombone Poetry or Paul Taylor if you prefer who does exactly what the name suggests he plays his Trombone and then reads poems, the Trombone solos were cool with a slight downbeat feel to them and poems were about Destiny and Hi-balls. He played a mean mute on some of the tunes and had some pretty nifty rhyming schemes on poems like We Must Take The Good With the Bad and Out The indoor.
It was a cool set and a good way to open the evening and it was also surprising how quiet the audience were considering many of them were not there for the music so to speak.
After a short break it was time for the NJE or Near Jazz Experience who are one of Terry Edwards many bands this time alongside Mark Bedford and Simon Charterton who yes play near jazz and when asked if Terry preferred giving me a set list or my guessing at the titles for the tunes Terry said I should guess which with a set of Instrumentals gives me a wide frame to play with.
They opened with Byrdland a very funky jazz tune that sounded a lot like an old Donald Byrd tune that Terry only played one sax on but damn it set up the atmosphere and got everyone grooving to it. That was followed by the Albert Schindler Blues a sort of Whitesploitation crime tune that sounds like it should be the soundtrack to a film of Albert Schindler being murdered in his Watch shop less than a 100 yards from Indo back in the early 1980's as he refused to open the safe and give the thieves its contents.
From there they added Paul Taylor on Trombone for Who Took The Anarchists Books a sort of tribute to the old Anarchists Book shop that was up an alley way about 50 yards from Indo it sounded like they had a similar approach to Jazz at this point as Cannonball Adderley did to playing the blues it had a lot of funk in it and Terry by this point was often playing two sax's at once to expand the sound with Alto and Tenor Sax and a little bit of Maraca too while Mark Bedfords bass was all sinewy pulses.
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Addled with Adler was next a very Cannonball Adderley style tribute to Adler Street across the road and poor young Altab Ali who lost his life there it also featured Terry handing out shakers to the audience to assist Simon Charterton with the percussion not that he needed it as his drumming was rock solid all night as he seemed to channel the rockier end of Elvin Jones.
They then did the Double sax attack Leaving The Mosque Blues as the East London Mosque opposite had finished evening prayers and the faithful kept looking in the door at the noise they were making and most of them had quizzical looks on their faces as to what this funky jazz was all about.
They closed with Al Pacino Gunfight another very crime noir funky jazz with the shakers still going and it sounded like Terry's Sax was squaring up against Paul's Trombone for a bloody showdown at least no actual blood was spilled as far too much has in the streets surrounding Indo over the years.
This was a very cool gig and I really should have popped along to see the NJE a very long time ago and urge anyone in London to make the effort to see this bands monthly shows at Indo and occasional shows elsewhere.
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