Binker Golding with Olie Brice and Steve Noble
(Livestream from Kings Place for EFG London Jazz Festival. 21 November 2020. Review by Patrick Hadfield)

Whilst billed as Binker Golding‘s show, this was truly a collaboration. This trio with Olie Brice and Steve Noble gave us nearly an hour of intense, passionate and sometimes beautiful music.

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Playing without a break and wholly improvised, time and time again I was left wondering how they managed it: their creativity and their energy both seemed endless. From the very start they were off at full pelt, Golding’s wailing tenor spraying notes over Brice’s emphatic walking basslines and Noble’s fast swinging rhythm.

Their music was full of texture. Whilst Golding alternated between tenor and soprano saxes, Brice switched to bowing his bass and Noble used a variety of sticks, brushes and mallets on his drums and cymbals – at one point, he was using a pair of maracas in lieu of more common beaters; at another, he covered his gear in what looked like dish clothes, altering their sound for different percussive effects.

The interaction between them was remarkable; the focus flowed seamlessly from one musician to another. The inventiveness was in equilibrium with their musicianship. There were periods where their improvisation veered towards the noisier end of the free music spectrum, but for the most part towards the end of the set, the music slowed and Golding picked out a bluesy, spiritual theme that contained real beauty.

The trio brought creativity and imagination to the stage, producing stimulating, fleeting music with full of dynamics and drive. It was a remarkable experience.