PD3 @ Alexander’s Jazz Theatre, Chester, 2nd May 2004

Tonight was not only the final night of PD3’s short UK tour but it was also something of a triumphant home coming for Chester guitarist Pete Downes.

Alexander’s Jazz Theatre was packed for the band’s first gig in Chester as they eased into the night with a multi-speed version of the standard ‘Autumn Leaves’ before the first piece off their current CD, ‘Street Scene’. ‘9 + 7’ implied a straight eight feel but was rhythmically spliced up between double bass player Andy Coe and drummer Tim Bruce while Pete explored some spacey overdriven eastern scales. A rich chordal ‘Misty’ preceded an overall mood change for the Tim Bruce piece ‘Timba’ before ‘Rolling Hills’ took us a on an optimist 7/4 ride through the nearby Derbyshire countryside.

‘Walking On Air’ continued the up-tempo lush landscape feel with Pete moving into a demanding work load and demonstrating what a very watchable player he is. The bands style is full of images and during ‘My Favourite Things’, for some reason, I visualised a vast open New York loft space with the ‘Big concrete Apple’ spreading out far below.

The second set and Pat Metheny’s ‘James’ followed by ‘Eclipse’ which mixed creamy octaves with a straight tick-tock rhythm and neatly pre-empted an actual Lunar eclipse two nights later!

Many of the audience knew Pete from his early days and one school friend, John Speed, had brought a local press cutting showing himself and Pete in their first band together complete with long hair and Paul Kossoff aspirations. Akkerman, McLaughlin and Metheny are all early influences but none of these musicians were apparent as the band filtered each piece through their own contemporary fusion filter.

‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ before a tough version of Billy Cobham’s ‘Red Baron’ and Sting’s ‘Fragile’. Pete seemed to change his tone from piece to piece creating a shifting ambience.

Next an introspective Andy Coe number, ‘Alison’, causing the rest of the band to speculate on its inspiration, without any conclusion. ‘Little Wing’ seems to be played every where these days, I was watching a ‘G3’ DVD recently and saw Messrs Malmstein, Vai and Santriani giving it a good shredding. In comparison PD3 treated Hendrix’s changes with a little more consideration.

The start of Miles Davis’s ‘So What’ was neatly inverted with that iconic bass line entering several bars after the guitar had already stated the quartal harmony. Initially staying close to Davis’s metric form the temptation for the band to improvise was too much as they individually took turns to move between the half tone positions, even the drummer!

After a somewhat sinister intro ‘Street Scene’, the title track from the CD, settled into a more narrative form, expanding on the soft focus night time cover photograph, with Pete switching to a harder, compressed, sound for his mid section solo. Andy Coe’s tough bassline reminded me of the scary young Stanley Clarke when he was with Return To Forever.

With eight of the ten tracks written by Pete Downes and one each contributed by the other band members ‘Street Scene’ is a sumptuous piece of contemporary fusion. First encore Van Morrison’s ‘Moondance’. Second encore and I missed the stated title but the bossa nova melody haunted me until I think I found it next day on Gabor Szabo’s ‘Sorcerer’, recorded live at The Jazz Workshop, Boston in 1967 - ‘O Barquinho (Little Boat)’?

We get all sorts of bands at Alexander’s Jazz Theatre but for me perhaps PD3 touched the essence of the venue.

Pete Downes is a prodigious fusion player and there will always be a big welcome back in his home city.

Nigel Rose