The Just Like Jazz team demonstrate their website to Kyle Eastwood
All images © Mike Jackson 2009
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Sep 18
Sep 18
Backstage with Kyle Eastwood
I managed to get backstage after the Kyle Eastwood Band had finished. Tim managed to grab a couple of minutes with Kyle while I snapped a few photographs of the band and Kyle coming off stage and talking to a few people. Luckily for me, William Ellis was around to take some proper photographs and record Kyle's appearance at the Scarborough Festival.
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Andrew Dubber
Backstage
Interview
Jez Collins
Kyle Eastwood Band
Mike Gordon
Photos
Tim Wall
William Ellis
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Sep 18
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Vox Pops with members of the audience
As we came to the end of the first day's afternoon session there was a really nice vibe about the Scarborough Spa Complex as the audience began leaving the main hall, leaving an army of staff to rapidly clean up and prepare for the evening session that was to see Kyle Eastwood, Clint's son, play.
I quickly grabbed a Zoom recorder and rather hurriedly asked some of the passing audience members a few questions about their experience at Scarborough Jazz Festival.
I first chatted with David and Andrew who have travelled up from Lincoln and Michael and Daniel from Scarborough via London and Leeds respectively.
The last chat is with Yots from Jazz UK who provided three of today's bands and is a long time supporter of the Scarborough Jazz Festival.
Yotes
Michael & Daniel
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Sep 18
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Kyle Eastwood - Big Noise from Winnetka
Final tune from Kyle Eastwood's set. A 1940s classic, given a complete reworking. Check the bass solo halfway through when Kyle switches to electric.
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Full Song
Kyle Eastwood Band
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Sep 18
Kyle Eastwood Band
Eastwood’s band brought some real punch to the Friday evening of the Scarborough Festival. This is a tight band, led – rather than simply underpinned – by Eastwood’s bass with strong echoes of some of the best jazz funk and fusion, as well as the spiritual jazz of the late 1970s, maybe even some Wayne Shorter eccentricity. There’s lots of electric piano from Andrew McCormack, dramatic and diverse drumming from Martyn Kaine, and some great horn parts played by the two Graemes: Flowers on trumpet and Blevins on saxophones.
Eastwood mainly plays electric bass, where he take the leader’s position centre stage, and he’s up high in the mix. In fact the whole sound was different with this band: louder, fuller, more ‘electric’ even when most of the instruments are acoustic. Some of the reverb on the horns rather overpowered the player’s ideas, there were times when I felt I’d gone back to 1976. The unison horn work, though, always worked well.
There’s a real variety to the set, although McCormack’s propulsive drumming is the real driver in most numbers, giving Eastwood the opportunity to take a funkier and more exploratory role than most bass players are allowed. It’s always good to be your own boss, especially when you want to play a bass solo. However, this is a real band, with good interplay and support for all players.
Eastwood is enough of a showman to make the concert visually interesting without ever detracting from thoughtful music-making. I was impressed by his willingness to take some of his film soundtrack compositions and turn them into concert pieces. They were certainly strong on texture, even when they lacked emotional depth that they index in their instrumentation or performance style.
There’s always a problem, though, with trying to mine a musical vein that’s been explored in depth, especially when it’s Herbie Hancock’s Headhunter’s that’s your reference point, rather than more contemporary influences. Eastwood clearly loves many of the great players and composers of the past, but sometimes he honours them more than he creates something distinctive for the band.
This was a really enjoyable set, and a very good contrast to the rest of the programme. The audience clearly agreed and the band were warmly received, and the playing appreciated all round.
Tim Wall
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Sep 18
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Mixing Kyle Eastwood
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Kyle Eastwood Band
Performance
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