Alexander Bone Trio, Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond

IT WAS good to have an opportunity to see local alto saxophonist Alexander Bone (winner of the first BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition) return to the area, courtesy of Richmond Jazz Festival.

Accompanied by Toby Comeau on electric and acoustic pianos and Joe Lee on five-string electric bass, Bone also showed he’s equally adept at electronics with his discreet use of drum and saxophone loops.

With an audience evenly balanced between Theatre Royal regulars and Bone’s younger local fan base, he picked a sensible mix of jazz standards, contemporary covers and original compositions.

These included a particularly good version of Someday My Prince Will Come, nicely improvised all round and with helpful reminders of the melody from time to time, A Lovely Day and Bone’s own Without where he set a pensive, evocative mood leading to one of Comeau’s best solos of the evening.

Despite their youth, the three musicians have performed regularly together for some years and this showed in their easy rapport with each other which enabled them sometimes to start off with no previously agreed tempo or style and just respond in the moment.

Whilst not entirely successful on their encore, Summertime, there were no problems with Coltrane’s Giant Steps (despite a surprisingly slow tempo set by Lee) or Autumn Leaves, where Comeau suddenly switched from piano to finger clicking which, despite taking Bone by surprise, worked rather well and this spontaneity and camaraderie was a welcome feature throughout the concert.

Peter Bevan