Weekly Stuff - Pat Thomas at Cafe Oto, Garth Greenwell - Aug 9 2024
Weekly Stuff is a series from me to you in which I keep you updated on the best stuff I've read (and sometimes seen/heard/watched) this week. It won't always be from this week, I'm sure you can deal with that.
It's been an eventful week.
I left my bag on a bus, had to cancel my cards, and spent days having to bank transfer funds to friends for the most basic products. I set up my vinyl record player and took delivery of the collection built up by my dad, my auntie, and me, so have been having a wonderful time boogieing to everything from Freddie Hubbard to Jefferson Airplane. I made a delicious loaf of walnut bread. Life's good.
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I witnessed a glorious performance at London's Cafe Oto on Wednesday. It's times like this I feel so fortunate to have such fantastic artistic and cultural institutions on my doorstep as Oto. A cafe, record shop, bar, and music venue all in one, I reckon you'll be seeing a lot more of me talking about stuff I've seen there. It's just that kind of place.
Pat Thomas was on his third day of a four-day residency at the venue. Having performed the music of Duke Ellington the night before, the night I was there he brought out the best bits of Thelonious Monk. It was an astounding interpretation. Having heard very little of Thomas' work before, I had no idea what to expect. At first, I was jarred by his intense use of dissonance, but as the performance went on things started to fall into place.
There was a level of control to the performance despite initially seeming imprecise - the essence of Monk flowed, but the personality of Pat shone. From where I was standing, I could see the hammers in the piano's reflection. Such gorgeous order, such stunning wildness.
Pat stood up and began using the piano like I'd never seen - reaching inside, dampening, plucking, dragging his nails lengthways along the grooves of the strings. There's so little going on inside the piano on a normal day. Hammers strike, dampers rise. Pat unleashes the full chaotic potential of his instrument, contorting its sound waves and almost manhandling it - pushing it to its limits.
Pat forces you to follow him around the keys with no idea where you'll end up. Or, given his friendliness and jolly demeanour, maybe he invites you.
Before the performance, the host at Cafe Oto brought attention to the disgraceful far-right violence the UK has seen in recent days, and the planned attacks for that very evening. Thankfully, from what I saw, the fascists were outnumbered and shouted down by good people. Still, we can't afford to just sit here and celebrate. Communities are living in fear and the fight can't stop until racists are too afraid to spout their disgusting bullshit.
The Cafe Oto host spoke about fighting fire with fire, and how jazz has always played a part in the antifascist cause going all the way back to the Swing Kids in Nazi Germany. Jazz has always frightened fascists. The combination of love, individuality, and community, reflected in Ellington and Monk's interpretations of each others' work, is something they'll never have. Mutual inspiration. Kindness. And then Pat Thomas saw the beauty and symmetry in both of these men's work and added himself.
I'd been to Cafe Oto a few times before, but I think I'm hooked now. I just need to avoid spending too much on fancy rare vinyl.
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That performance clearly got me good. If jazz isn't your thing, maybe this is.
I finished reading What Belongs To You by Garth Greenwell this week. It wasn't an easy read or action-packed page-turner. It was a devastatingly personal story that almost felt too human. Too vulnerable. The point of view character treats himself and others in awful ways, thinks cruel things of supposed loved ones, and reckons with desire and loss in a way that I can't ever hope to do justice. Honestly, it made me hope I never have to.
If you're in the mood for queer love, desperate yearning, and a cry, I'd be delighted to recommend What Belongs To You. If you want a jolly feeling and warmed cockles, I dunno. Pick up a Poirot mystery or something.
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Hope your weekend is chill - I'm off to my friend's pizza restaurant pop-up. We love to see it.
