Jazz at the Golden Lion – Alan Skidmore Quartet

Tues 29 November, 8.30pm, the GoldenLion, 116 Sydenham Road SE26 5JX; free
Celebrated tenor saxophonist who worked with John Mayall, Ronnie Scott and Keith
Tippett fronts up a JohnColtrane-influenced quartet with pianist Steve Melling, Mark
Hodgson on bass and drummer John Webb.

Of all the tenor players who have chosen to work within the Coltrane legacy, he
is perhaps the most convincing.

Brian Case, Melody Maker

After three decades of liaisons with legends such as Herbie Hancock and Georgie Fame, Skidmore only
really needs his smouldering saxophone to get us drooling. As usual he massages and then assaults
our ears with the kind of heady, devotional jazz that gets even the non-smokers in the audience
gagging for a cigarette. His set comprises music written by John Coltrane and the band is obviously
at home evoking his slow-burning dreamscapes and his fiery crescendos. As they strike up with Resolution
you would swear that Elvin Jones, Jimmy Garrison and McCoy Tyner are in the room, so authentic are those
swelling sheets of sound.

James Griffiths, The Guardian