With the Tim Kliphuis and Gerard McChrystal / Simon Mulligan concerts in mind, I’m aware that Nadsaconcerts has dipped its toe in the waters of jazz before; however, Trish Clowes and Ross Stanley’s concert on February 15 was more full immersion, writes Jeff Collman

Trish and Ross come with a very respectable musical academic background and, subsequently, CVs as long as your arm in the world of jazz. So, whatever the programmed music’s origins, I was expecting to hear it in some novel presentations.

Composers referenced, for example Lili Boulanger and Herbert Howells, date from the turn of the 19th century right up to Trish and Ross, very much alive in the 21st century.

The opening number was bold and melodic with the saxophone’s warmth enhancing the plaintive quality of Abdullah Ibrahim’s ‘The Wedding’. By the end of the second number, we had experienced the full range of a dynamic keyboard and the acerbic top to the palpably pulsating bass of the saxophone.

Trish spoke about the second piece, her own composition, ‘For Pete’, and also gave us her personal take on the other programme items. The improvisation style between piano and sax was hugely impressive, and after a piano solo section there was spontaneous applause from the audience.

Has this ever happened before at Nadsa? It was repeated after another piano-solo interlude. Yes, the keyboard skills of Ross were indeed stunning. At Nadsa we often hear the piano as a solo instrument. It would have been a real treat to hear more of the potentially bluesy timbre of the saxophone as a significant soloist.

With Lili Boulanger, the sax was just right for the supplicatory nature of a Pie Jesu, and also for bluesy notes in the early section of Jobim’s Modinha, but then I lost sound of a bossa nova in the complexities of subsequent improvisations.

I must confess that jazz is not my comfort zone, nor am I familiar with its many specialist subdivisions of form. However, I am not immune to the euphoria created by Trish and Ross’ performance.

An audience member said to me ‘Another wonderful concert’, and I know that someone else chose to attend this concert in preference to a holiday in Thailand – and he left the Courtenay Centre elated.

That’s what a good concert does!

The next NADSA concert in the series takes place on March 20 at The Courtenay Centre in Newton Abbot. The Kosmos Ensemble will be bringing violin, viola, and accordion together in a genre-defying performance, blending gypsy, Jewish, Greek, Scottish, tango, and baroque influences into a seamless, virtuosic concert.