Beaming out of a soggy Camden the newly reactivated Lighthouse trio, now re-invigorated as a co-operative trio that has shed a little of its ‘chamber’ trappings, performed songs from new album Lighthouse at the Forge in London last night. While Gwilym Simcock did most of the talking between songs referencing among other links to tunes the Italian wine Barolo, a favourite apparently of Malcom Creese’s, his erstwhile colleague in Acoustic Triangle, and inspiration of album tune ‘King Barolo’, it was the bass clarinet of Tim Garland that set the predominant feel of the first set. Forget the “gloom tube” image of this beast of a horn capable of producing some of the lowest notes in an orchestral or small band setting as Garland, last heard on a big London stage guesting with Chick Corea at the Barbican when he was produced by the great man like a prized rabbit out of a crystal hat to join him on ‘La Fiesta’, added light, shade and syncopated attitude to the trio sound completing run after run of warm but complex ideas emoting on tenor sax and reserving the detailed textural work for soprano sax.

Asaf Sirkis took a solo spot on hang, playing it the orthodox way with hands not mallets as Portico Quartet do but came off best on the ghatam clay plot and on the episodes with his swishing crisp attacking strokes. ‘The Wind on the Water’ was the pick of the first set in terms of narrative and compositional depth but the performance was stocked full of good material with Simcock coming into his own on the ‘groovy’ (his choice of word prompting titters) ‘Barber Blues’, which was pretty jaunty and showed how the pianist can improvise independent contrapuntal lines without choking the spirit of what he wants to do with the tune. Lighthouse might have been together for some eight years but this excellent showing made it all seem brand new. No one’s going to crash on any rocks with these three around.

– Stephen Graham

Lighthouse (above). Photo: ACT

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