Critical Listening Review

NAME: Oliver Pickup

Concert date and performers: Elliot Galvin Trio 28 Jan
Please consider the repertoire, interpretation and social factors listed in the
handbook when completing this evaluation. To direct you, you may consider the
following questions: if this programme included unfamiliar repertoire what was
your critical response to it? Did the performers communicate their ideas strongly?;
If some (or most) of the repertoire/genre in this programme was familiar to you,
please critically evaluate the performers' approach to the music; consider relevant
issues such as style (HIP), balance, tempo, nuance, etc.; discuss the performers'
communication with each other; discuss issues of stage presence and the
performers' interaction with the audience; if new repertoire was presented to you
at this event, are you going to investigate the composer or genre further? If 'yes'
please state what you have discovered; if 'no' please try and critically evaluate
why not; consider overall satisfaction.

Critical Listening Evaluation:

The concert opened with Galvin hammering out a simplistic melody on a toy piano
which eventually leads into a mixture of both the toy piano and prepared grand
piano. I feel like the aim of the opening section of this first piece is to explore
rhythm and the timbral differences between the two instruments, rather than
focusing on a melodic idea. This continues once the drums enter, playing a groove
that reminded me of African drumming. Once a steady groove kicks in, the drums
lock into a very slow swing feel which contrasts the straight 8 th runs in the piano
parts. The music carries on evolving and developing into various different, thick
textures and eventually starts to strip back down to a similar style to the
beginning. The music here sounds almost atonal, random and chaotic before
slowing down to nothing. I feel like this piece was a great choice to open the
concert with as it showcases what I believe to be some of the fundamentals of
contemporary jazz: rhythm, timbre and groove. Galvin then introduces the band
somewhat hesitantly with lots of umms and ahhss, perhaps showing signs of
nerves in the intimate setting.
The second piece, Blues, begins as an up tempo blues before quickly
disintegrating into slow and sparse sounds. Unlike the first piece, this one actually
has a melody, albeit tricky to follow at times. The bass interlude that follows is
interrupted by intrusive piano flourishes that disrupt the flow of the music. The
general feel of the piece is quite immersive and almost like background music at a
jazz club, not something that you would go to see as a feature act. I did however
enjoy some of the quotes from a couple of jazz standards, especially Bags Groove.
I found the bass solo that followed difficult to listen to as it incorporated a lot of
odd rhythms that did not sit well with me as a listener especially with the intrusive
piano tremolos and stabs. The ending of the piece felt very much out of place with
the groove and atmosphere of the rest of the piece and I feel like it somewhat
ruined the ambience.
The next song began with a creepy sounding music box that integrated with soft
tones from the piano. I feel as though the music box was there just for the sake of
being there and did not really fulfill any musical purpose; sort of look how new
and edgy I am. An almost dream like state follows supported by bowed harmonic
tremolos from the bass. Galvin creates some great textures by placing sheets of
paper between some of the piano strings and running his finger across the inside
of the piano. All in all, a really nice contemporary jazz ballad that was pleasant to
listen to with a few nice surprises and a shame about the use of the music box.
It is difficult to review a concert without just writing a step by step account of
each song so I have tried to avoid writing about all of the pieces, that is what
program notes and liner notes are for. A lot of concerts in the York concert series

leave me wanting to leave during the interval due to either music that I would
consider boring or uninteresting, or the physical nature of the performers making
me want to fall asleep. This concert however was an exception and left me looking
forward to the second half as well as filling my head with lots of new ideas for my
own compositions.
The second half opened with a loud piano glissando and alternating fast staccato
hammered notes and softer chordal phrases. The opening did definitely remind
me of something that you would expect to hear at a Chimers Ensemble concert.
After the opening section, the groove changes to almost that of ragtime with
stride chords and idiomatic swung phrases. Once the drums kick in, the piece
develops an almost Latin groove which is a nice contrast from the previous
sections. This change is reminiscent of a much extended version of the Latin
standard Mahjong which alternates between swing and Latin grooves.
I found the rest of this set to be similar to the first half with lots of indulgent and
immersive grooves. After the final piece the band were given a huge round of
applause by the audience which was received professionally and followed by an
encore.
The stage presence of the band was very much as you would expect from a
contemporary jazz group. They were all clearly immersed in the music and having
a good time playing it, which rubs off on the audience and people seemed to
really get into the immersive grooves.
Galvins melodic playing reminded me of John Taylor at times and it was
interesting to pick out these parts. It was also very difficult to differentiate
between improvised passages and crunchy sounding written parts at times.
As Dreamland is the debut album by the trio, it was impossible to have heard
any material by the group prior to this show. This particular concert gave me
mixed opinions of the trio. Some of the material was really out there and fun to
try and understand but as mentioned, some of the pieces seem to be
contemporary for contemporarys sake which I find to be quite pretentious. If
the group were to release a second album then I would definitely give it a try as I
do really the emphasis on immersive grooves.