Paul Bley Mark O'Leary Duo Performance Kilworth Arts Centre

 Paul Bley Mark O'Leary Live at Kilworth Arts Centre.

First concert with Paul Bley. Declan Jones obliged by driving us to West Cork, back to Rochestown for a cup of tea and then to Kilworth for the concert. No rehearsal, just a thirty second soundcheck, payment up front for the gig, Paul's stipulation to much chagrin and show time. No set list, no discussion, just straight into the musical discourse, when people engage in dialectic with regard ECM, this concert in Kilworth was the epitome of this aesthetic, both tonal and more open ended material. Primarily rubato, albeit, with interjections of rhythmic based material, the Kilworth concert was more; cerebral, subtle, oblique melodies, countermelodies, working the interstices, lots of space, short motifs and leitmotifs, the merging of the two musical minds, but also what Paul sensed was a degree of compatible musicality, our mores where congruent, no grandiose grandstanding, more minimal lyricism, the audience, were appreciative. Then to the Bosun for supper and some fantastic table talk, ostensibly, Kilworth was a very nice, congenial concert, but the piece de resistance was to manifest less than twenty hours later at the Half Moon. That was a Helen of Troy event, a concert, that changed everything. Thanks to Declan Jones for driving duties, motivation and general decency. Thanks to Liam Howard for the concert.