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Dominic Alldis

With the Pizza Express Jazz Club currently closed for a refurbishment to the restaurant upstairs (it’s opening up again next week), there’s no better time to check out the club’s sister venue the Pheasantry. This week at the restaurant venue on the King’s Road, a jazz and cabaret place that’s built up a loyal following in the last few years, pianist Dominic Alldis is appearing on Friday and Saturday, following the release of A Childhood Suite earlier in the year. That release, a trio album "for jazz piano trio and orchestra", picks up from earlier album Songs We Heard with bassist Mark Hodgson and drummer Stephen Keogh that first drew on the idea of a trio improvising on nursery rhymes from around the world. A Childhood Suite reworks more than a dozen of these arrangements, adding a string section and containing an Alldis original. The album has a simplicity and sincerity rare these days in the hustle and bustle of the record industry demanding a certain crash, bang, wallop approach. ‘London Bridge is Falling Down’ is typical of some of the momentum generated by the trio, and with a dark opening, the mood changes to allow for a developing momentum and joyousness that many of the other improvisations also possess. Very much in the Jacques Loussier or David Rees-Williams stream of light jazz and classical synthesis it’s an album that never lacks for charm and empathy, with some lovely moments along the way including the captivating Vaughan Williams-like violin solo and fine arrangement on ‘Girls and Boys Come Out To Play.’ Alldis is appearing at the Pheasantry in duo with the fine saxophone player Alex Garnett. 

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