Jazz breaking news: Catherine/Etheridge Duo and Igor Gehenot Trio make for cool Igloo Records Vortex show

Etheridge’s musical diversity and grasp of rock playing (with stints in Soft Machine, for example) is well known; Catherine, despite a more classical, acoustic sound, also has substantial jazz-rock experience. There was, all the same, a slight difference in attitudes to improvisation, Catherine’s in general more melodic, while Etheridge’s was slightly more chordal and rhythmic. The limited jamming time required a programme of standards, but their selection had a broad chronological and generic range.

Both players were, individually, in fluidly lyrical form, and it was fascinating to hear the relationship between two guitarists of this calibre evolve. They were, however, too polite for the first couple of pieces, avoiding the harmonic wrestling match that a duo like this requires. Then, after about half an hour, during ‘Willow Weep for Me’, the partnership clicked, and the rest of the evening was a model of duo skill, with sumptuous melodic echoes and scurrying rhythmical games.

Both players used plug-in acoustics, except for the Brazilian song ‘Manhã de Carnaval’, when Etheridge swapped to electric, which seemed to give a more defined tonal contrast. Etheridge’s use of modest distortion and reverb prompted Catherine to try to craft some lovely electric effects on his electro-acoustic, which then provoked Etheridge to improvise more assertively. By the end the players were enjoying one another’s company so much they played two encores. This partnership would, on make a great album – on Igloo Records perhaps?

With a sonic portfolio comprising Paul Bley, Brad Mehldau (in trio form), and perhaps a dash of EST, Igor Gehenot’s new trio specialised in delicacy, spaciousness, and the exquisite interplay of its players, though when they occasion demanded, they could raise both the volume and the tempo. They played Gehenot’s searching and ambitious compositions with a tangible sense of adventure and commitment. Stand-out track was perhaps ‘Au Lac’, a tone poem of mountain scenery, in which a looping melody, building over piano chords, crescendoed, then dissolved in an aqueous shimmer, before rising again in angry angular drumbeats.

The band had Sam Gerstmans on double bass and Teun Verbruggen on drums. Both more experienced than Gehenot, they improvised simultaneously with panache. Verbruggen was especially good during the quieter passages, creating spinning wheels of pattering sounds with fingertips and shakers. Gehenot’s trio does not yet have an entirely distinctive sound, but it can certainly make a beautiful one. Despite its proximity and the quality of her music, Belgian jazz has a much lower profile here than her smaller and more distant Nordic counterparts. This important and eye-opening event was a step towards changing that.

– Matthew Wright