Dave Weckl Acoustic Band dazzle at Ronnie Scott’s

His virtuosity at the drums had propelled him from playing club dates in New York City with pro-fusioners Nite Sprite, to sessions worldwide with the likes of Paul Simon, George Benson, Chick Corea and Madonna. These days, the notoriously-nimble drummer drives his own band, and tonight this killer quartet stressed both his strengths as a leader, and an unquestionable versatility that's landed him gigs with some of world's greatest musicians.

As if to go full circle, this recently assembled acoustic outfit – Gary Meek on tenor sax, Tom Kennedy on double bass andJapanese pianist Makoto Ozone – returned to the music of Weckl's formative fusion years for a set that bridged bop, blues, Latin and crisp funk to breathtaking effect. A warm welcome from a packed house kicked things off with the absurdly-stamped swinger ‘What Happened to My Good Shoes’, where bluesy horn riffs and occasional swerves into samba were swept along by swift sock-style hi hat and the clattering of timbale-like tom breaks.

A funkier ‘Stay Out’ brought some sludgy organ from Ozone to the mix. Doubling busy lines from Kennedy and Meek, a sweep up to a higher register initiated a whistling, gospel-style solo that Weckl only intensified, burying his stick into the bell of his ride cymbal, leaving his left hand to roll over the rumble of his double bass drum. Whether it be beats like this, his metronomic timing or astounding ability as a soloist, Weckl was a joy to watch throughout. Particularly inspiring though was the support he gave to his sidemen: rhythmically-matching motifs, deploying feel-altering dynamics or accentuating main themes smack in the middle of a solo or complex cut like ‘Koolz’.

Despite the drummer's confession that rehearsals for this tour had been few, the band was water-tight. Their skill in shaping tunes from scratch was also confirmed with a long improv section in which a lone, classical-style intro from the classically-trained Ozone was met with a whisper-soft brushes beat that brought to mind Spanish Heart-era Corea, more noticeably when the jam wandered into a cowbell-thumping Mozambique feel, fleshed out with muscular bass and honks of raw tenor.

The show would close with a groovy, horn-heavy rendition of Jaco Pastorious' ‘The Chicken’, but not before a lengthy break from Weckl rattled every bit of his kit, leaving the house slack-jawed, nearly forty years since he first made his mark.

– Mark Youll

– Photo by Carl Hyde