Jerry Bergonzi / Bruce Barth Quartet
(PizzaExpress Jazz Club. 3 March 2024. Live review by Charles Rees)

American tenor saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi is considered to be one of the great saxophonists of the post-Coltrane generation, as well as one of the most distinguished educators in modern jazz. Each year, he embarks on a short tour of the UK that sees him join forces with fellow American Bruce Barth (piano), Mark Hodgson (bass) and Stephen Keogh (drums). They have toured and recorded as a quartet for two decades, including annual performances (with few exceptions) at Pizza Express Dean Street. Despite Saturday being the first time in a year that they had played together, they are so in tune with each other’s playing at this point that things just seemed to pick up where they last left off.

The basic theme of the music is what one would expect from Bergonzi. His sets will typically feature a range of standards interspersed with a few of his own compositions, generally contrafacts (new melodies composed on chord changes from other songs). It’s a tried and true formula that he has put a unique twist on over the years. One such tune they played was called “Double Billed”: based on the harmony of Bill Evans’ “Blue in Green”, but structured over 20 bars instead of 10 and played as a medium swing instead of as a ballad. They also played one other Bergonzi original, this time a dedication (or more of a diss track) to former US President Donald Trump, fittingly titled… “Obama”!

In addition, Barth contributed two of his compositions to the set: one called “Sunday”, the title track of a recording this group made in 2018, and another entitled “Afternoon in Lleida”, a tribute to the city in Spain and also featured on that album. The other half of the set was comprised of standards including Thelonious Monk’s Pannonica and an extraordinary burnout on John Coltrane’s “Moment’s Notice”. They also played Dave Brubeck’s “In Your Own Sweet Way”, a tune that connects to Bergonzi’s time as a member of the pianist’s quartet during the ’70s (though he did clarify that, rather surprisingly, they never played it at the time).

There is maybe no active saxophonist today who can express ballads with such sensitivity as Jerry Bergonzi. He will almost always play one in a live set, on this occasion opting for “I Can’t Get Started”. Needless to say, it was a real highlight of the performance.

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Mark Hodgson and Stephen Keogh have tremendous experience playing with great American musicians like Bergonzi and Barth. Indeed, they are also the sidemen of choice whenever the likes of Dick Oatts, Charles McPherson and Bill Charlap visit the UK. That’s for a reason: Bergonzi’s playing in particular features a lot of rhythmic and harmonic complexity which he was able to execute to the greatest effect thanks to the rock-solid foundation provided by his rhythm section. It’s not necessarily what people talk about after the gig, but Hodgson and Keogh always give the featured artist (or artists) exactly what they need.

Most saxophonists are starting to slow down by the time they reach their mid-70s. Yet Bergonzi, now aged 76, remarkably sounds as strong as ever! It was (and always is) such a joy to watch him in the company of these musicians, and if the way they played together is any indication, the feeling from the bandstand was mutual. We must hope that they continue to make these annual appearances at Pizza Express for many years to come.