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Well I know this post is long overdue – but I have been busy with losing my job and my mind and what else…

Fever sick from a throat infection, I made my way to Bimhuis to see what I had been looking forward to for months, in fact my expectations were ridiculously high, and with my condition in mind how could the quartet of Moppa Elliott (Bass), Peter Evans (Trumpet), Jon Irabagon (Sax) and Kevin Shea (Drums) not disappoint?

They could by setting the standard for how Free Bob should be played by a new generation of players, that takes there references from a lot of different places than jazz.
Consisting of two hour long sets, and the shortest encore I have ever seen, MOPDTK made there way through a number of band leader Elliott’s compositions and a few standards, one of which was said to be John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme “, but I am not sure. Nothing unusual i this, however the treatment the quartet gave these compositions was of an exploding kind, and most of the time letting them so loose that someone like me, who knows the songbook quite well, was unable to recognize anything.

As a band leader and composer Elliott takes a very humble position on the quartet, hardly ever bringing focus to himself, and playing next to no solos on the upright bass. On the contrary, drummer Shea was not shy of bringing attention to himself, not afraid of claiming his space and having the brass duo wait for him to blow off steam before they could kick in with a theme or a solo, only to take everyone by surprise, by when given space to go wild being almost silent and quite frankly a bit silly, culmination with leaving the stage behind a curtain only to return without trousers. This was to great amusement to the audience and the rest of the quartet, but hardly an unexpected turn for anyone who has seen Talibam! (Shea’s dou with Matt Mottel) live.

MOPDTK really got around and played loud uptempo and wild improvisation as well a beautiful thematic passages and more lowercase improv. It was not always the disciplined tightness that reigned and there were passages of less interest, but the high were incredible high, justifying the more dull moments.