LAST night's celebration to mark 15 years of Jazz On The Terrace was just that a celebration, featuring the Frank Tate Howard Alden Quintet, here billed as Frank Tate's Guinness Allstars. No matter that the NCH's acoustic, unfriendly to certain kinds of small group - jazz, lived down to expectations, or that the crowd was rather small because the quintet will be heard in Cork over the Bank Holiday weekend - this was as fine a mainstream band as anyone could wish for.
Given the personnel, that was hardly surprising. Apart from the co leaders, very competent on bass and guitar, respectively, it has three of the best mainstreamers around in Butch Miles (drums), Hairy Allen (tenor) and, above all, Dave McKenna (piano). It is also a very tightly organised group, carefully programmed to present a mainstream menu in a varied and interesting way. Thus we got the full quintet, duos, trios, quartets and even a solo spot from McKenna (replete with a bow to stride on I Can't Give You Anything But Love). And the fare wasn't quite as traditional as expected, since it included two Billy Strayborn tunes, Blood Count (a feature for Alden) and Passion Flower (a marvellous trip through Strayborn's diaphanous harmonic universe by tenor, bass and guitar), as well as a couple of seldom played Al Cohn pieces, a blues, Motoring Along, and an I Got Rhythm variant called The Claw.
In solo terms, the quintet's McKenna and Allen stand out, particularly the pianist, whose mixture of swing leavened with occasional bop touches still sounds fresh and interesting; he didn't take a solo that was less than engrossing the whole night. Allen, in recent ears, has become a more forthright player without losing any subtlety or lyricism - just as well, when Richie Buckley entered to guest on tenor, Allen bad to be at his best to hold his own. Likewise, when Louis Stewart joined to play some brilliant guitar, notably on Indian Summer and - in duet with Alden - on Old Folks, the solo ante was raised even higher. But in a night full of good things, it's invidious to single out any one piece in what amounted to an amiable gathering full of the warmth of good playing wrapped in the familiar. In the more intimate setting the group will get in Cork, they'll. sound even better.
