Album Review

by Phil Johnson, Independent, 10^th April 2011

Impossible to dislike, bare bones piano and double bass duo by the unrelated Greens. Five of the eleven songs are by Alec Wilder, whose classic I'll Be Around opens the album. Dave Green, a north London neighbour and fellow jazz enthusiast to the young Charlie Watts, is the UK's most revered bassist. The younger Barry is a cerebral swinger with a liking for unexpected harmonic turns. Recommended to anyone, especially those who like Hank Jones with Charlie Haden.

by John Fordham, Guardian, 3^rd February 2011

If a jazz is a niche taste, then the piano/bass duo playing in the ballpark of the keyboard genius Bill Evans, is a niche within a niche. But pairing pianist Barry Green and bassist Dave Green (they are not related) gives this subtle format the full attentions of two of the best mainstream-to-bop musicians on the UK scene.

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by John Fordham

****

Barry Green only graduated in 2002, but his versatility and imagination have seen him turning up all over the UK jazz scene. The pianist tours in January with a quartet that includes the excellent saxophonist from Outhouse, Mark Hans lip. This, however is a trio session featuring American musicians Ben Street on bass and Jeff Williams on drums.

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by John Fordham

***

The young pianist Barry Green has been a well-kept secret on the British jazz scene for the past five years. Classy musicians such as the saxophonists Martin Speake and Ingrid Laubrock, or the singers Ian Shaw and Anita Wardell, could vouch for the erudite Green's knack for generating the deftly apposite phrase that make their works sound even better. But Green has contented himself with an eclectic accompanist's role until now. His current trio is augmented by the character young saxophonist mark Hanslip – and the emphasis is on original materials, rather that the  rugged, prodding reassessments of standard songs featured on the pianist's new CD, The Music Of Chance.

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by Phil Johnson

You can't ask for much more perfect a marriage between tradition and post-modernity than this collection of eight standards played by the swingingest cool-school band I've heard in years. Speakes's alto saxophone sounds triangulates Charlie Park, Ornette Coleman and Paul Desmond while the dream rhythm-team of Jeff Williams and Dave Green joins Billy Higgins-style indeterminacy to an unerring sense of time, and young pianist Barry Green gets tricksy and fancy, as all tyros should. There's such love and respect for dear old tunes – My Melancholy Baby has been around since 1912 – that it's very moving too.