Saturday 1 September 2012

Review - Cai Marle-Garcia / David Preston / Eric Ford

As this blog post suggests, this is a review of a gig I did midweek featuring myself, guitarist David Preston and drummer Eric Ford as part of our new fusion group. We were minus saxophonist Duncan Eagles but had a wicked night performing as a trio and really fed off the great vibe at Green Note. There are some video and audio clips from various tracks that I'll be uploading over the next couple of days, so keep checking my Twitter feed / Facebook for the links!

Thanks to everyone that came down, and here are some very kind words on the night...


Review by Rob Mallows - organiser of the London Jazz Meetup and contributor to the London Jazz blog.
Cai Marle-Garcia's Miscellany at The Green Note, Camden, 29 August 2012

The stage at The Green Note is tiny, but the three-man Miscellany still came up with a big sound that pushed all the right buttons for this listener. Cai Marle-Garcia on bass, David Preston on guitar and Eric Ford on drums played a host of tight, ballsy tunes that mixed in tracks from Cai's excellent 2009 album 'Mr Ears' - such as the vivid 'Black Beast of Bolivia' plus some new tracks. Based on what I heard of the new tracks, there's something special here which needs to find its way to a wider audience. 'Untitled 2' was an outstanding track calling out for a compelling name and an .mp3 release.

Cai's bass is the heart of the group, grounding it, varying the pace and throwing out a range of grooves from jazz-rock to contemporary jazz to full-on fusion, all of them played with relish up and down the full length of the fretboard and with effects adding a great 'wah' sound for some of the funkier tracks.

He and Eric Ford on drums clearly enjoy playing together and as a rhythm unit, they're tight tight tight. In choosing David Preston to provide the melodic colour, Cai's made a wise choice - astonishing variety of guitar playing, with effective use of pedals (but never over-used!), David is the perfect counterpoint to Cai's bass playing and brought to mind a range of sounds, from Pink Floyd to Metheny maybe and, at one point, I could have sworn he was channelling John Scofield!

This band - supplemented by Duncan Eagles on saxophone on a regular basis - is a great addition to London's jazz scene and, judging by the enthusiastic reaction from the crowd at the Green Note, there's clearly demand for musicians who are willing to take up the jazz fusion mantle and re-create it for the current scene. Very impressed, and for £6, an absolute bargain.

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