Parker/Drake/Gjerstad, Vortex Jazz Club, London

William Parker and Hamid Drake are one of the great jazz bass-and-drum partnerships. Their rapport is uncanny and they sound gorgeous. Somewhat partial to globetrotting – only recently they were at the London Jazz Festival for a one-off with saxophonist Zhenya Strigalev – the two Americans offer even the most errant free jazz soloist a rich menu of inspiring rhythms and sensual beats.

At this first get-together before a Scandinavian tour they were teamed with Norwegian saxophonist and clarinettist Frode Gjerstad. The trio first met in 1997, after Gjerstad had been voted best Norwegian jazz musician and won the chance to tour with his rhythm section of choice: Gjerstad wisely opted for Parker and Drake. Since then, they have met infrequently, and for much of the first set Gjerstad seemed locked in a room of his own making, though a fiery second set opened the door somewhat.

Gjerstad opened with an abstract canvas of reedy flutters, warbles and squawks on clarinet. He has a penchant for high-pitched chirrups, puff-cheeked harmonics and rapid smears that sit on the pulse briefly before fracturing into fragments. Later in the set he switched first to alto sax, and then to bass clarinet, though the well-established expressionist licks didn’t vary much.

It was a bit tried and tested and failed to connect with the glorious music coming from Drake and Parker. Parker’s bass lines shift emphasis, ponder on half-riffs and coalesce into swing with incredible subtlety. Drake reacts to every nuance with wandering backbeats and skewed polyrhythms, creating an exhilarating pulse.

The second set had more oomph. Gjerstad struck a melodic seam, sat more assuredly on Parker and Drake’s mighty grooves, and picked up on the occasional melodic figure and pulse – though rhythm remained the focus. The evening’s highlight, an interlude of timeless spirituality, came in the first set. Parker switched to Japanese bamboo flute, Drake to frame drum – played by hand, like a giant tambourine – and an opening pentatonic contemplation accelerated gradually into a celebratory village dance.

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