"LUCKY TEETH"
GEOFF SIMKINS
alto sax
LIAM NOBLE
piano
7:30 p.m. Friday 1 March 2024
LUCKY TEETH.
(From the album sleeve):
One fine Sunday my partner and I were meandering through the peaceful, overgrown paths of Brighton's Victorian extra-mural cemetery when we happened upon a memorial stone to one Albert "Zanetto" Bale, a music hall artiste and member of a family known as "The Royal Zanettos". Some on-line enquiries uncovered this detail about another family member, George……"Because he was the tallest of the Bale brothers George is easy to recognise in many photos. In some later close-ups it looks as if he may have had "lucky teeth" with a slight gap between the front two. If so, it may have helped to hold the fork on which he caught turnips". I had assumed that this was part of some sort of eccentric stage act but further research yielded the information that in 1896 George, with a crowd of 5000 watching, actually stood underneath the Clifton Suspension Bridge and caught a turnip (dropped 270 feet from the bridge) on the prongs of a fork clenched between his teeth.
Geoff Simkins
Playing this music is not quite as dangerous as catching an accelerating vegetable on a fork, but there are parallels. It's enjoyable, but challenging. You have to make something happen over and above the act itself. A good set of strong teeth can be beneficial.
But luck is only part of either story. A gap in between teeth does not a turnip catcher make. There's work to be done, practice and thought, and this recording is a celebration of that work.
Liam Noble
Released May 31, 2023. Recorded live at The Vortex, Dalston on 26th October 2022 by Alex Killpartrick. "Angler Fish" drawing by Eygeniy Zotov
CLICK HERE to hear (and buy!) the album.
(From the album sleeve):
One fine Sunday my partner and I were meandering through the peaceful, overgrown paths of Brighton's Victorian extra-mural cemetery when we happened upon a memorial stone to one Albert "Zanetto" Bale, a music hall artiste and member of a family known as "The Royal Zanettos". Some on-line enquiries uncovered this detail about another family member, George……"Because he was the tallest of the Bale brothers George is easy to recognise in many photos. In some later close-ups it looks as if he may have had "lucky teeth" with a slight gap between the front two. If so, it may have helped to hold the fork on which he caught turnips". I had assumed that this was part of some sort of eccentric stage act but further research yielded the information that in 1896 George, with a crowd of 5000 watching, actually stood underneath the Clifton Suspension Bridge and caught a turnip (dropped 270 feet from the bridge) on the prongs of a fork clenched between his teeth.
Geoff Simkins
Playing this music is not quite as dangerous as catching an accelerating vegetable on a fork, but there are parallels. It's enjoyable, but challenging. You have to make something happen over and above the act itself. A good set of strong teeth can be beneficial.
But luck is only part of either story. A gap in between teeth does not a turnip catcher make. There's work to be done, practice and thought, and this recording is a celebration of that work.
Liam Noble
Released May 31, 2023. Recorded live at The Vortex, Dalston on 26th October 2022 by Alex Killpartrick. "Angler Fish" drawing by Eygeniy Zotov
CLICK HERE to hear (and buy!) the album.
The LUCKY TEETH launch party
UK pianist Liam Noble has performed in many guises -- as an unaccompanied improviser, as an inspired covers-specialist reinventing standard songs or Dave Brubeck hits (to the late legend's own grateful fascination in 2009), as an original composer, or a perceptive sideman.
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The highly regarded alto saxophonist Geoff Simkins has been playing professionally since 1977. He has often worked with American musicians who are visiting this country such as Art Farmer, Tal Farlow, Warren Vache, and Howard Alden. He plays in a style influenced by Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh, combining a witty turn of phrase with a rare lyricism.
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