I was quite taken by Nigel Kennedy once upon a time. I think it was the punk hairstyle and ripped jeans. Refreshing after the dickie-bows and off-the-shoulder dresses that got mucky down around the hem. And I'm rebel enough (tell you why sometime, maybe) to have liked the idea of a violinist who got down and dirty. And had an accent.
Then a little later I reckoned perhaps I'd been taken in, more than taken, after hearing that awful screeching thoughtless helter-skelter Vivaldi recording. Apart from idly glancing over the drugs stories and the rehab tales, I've not paid him much attention since. So I didn't go to, or listen to the early evening Prom.
I did start listening to the R3 relay of the late night one though. I'm quite keen on jazz; I like improv, and I had an idea that this band with its Polish players might be interesting. The notion didn't last much beyond the first piece.
A combination of slush jazz and prog rock, somewhere between Yes and Rick Wakeman is the best I can do to describe it. Deadly dull. Fast, maybe, technically sharp no doubt, but self-indulgent, terribly dated, and in the end thoroughly boring. I won't be paying Nigel Kennedy any attention at all in future, I don't think. Certainly not as a 'jazz' musician.
(R3 relay)
Prom 3; Nigel Kennedy Quintet
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