The Argus: Brighton Festival 2012

Trombonist Dennis Rollins, best known for his funky quintet Badbone & Co, has taken a new tack with his latest project, the Velocity Trio. In what is probably a unique combination, he’s teamed up with Hammond organ virtuoso Ross Stanley and the inventive Portuguese drummer Pedro Segundo and slipped into a more contemporary, jazz-inspired groove.

The unassuming Rollins lit up the stage with his smile and the trio obviously enjoy playing together, at times sparking off each other in stirring, spectacular fashion, with the Latin-inspired beats of Segundo giving a real fire to pieces such as Emergence.

The funk is still bubbling along in the background and occasionally boils to the surface, such as in the opener Samba Galactica, but the Velocity Trio, despite the unusual combination, gives Rollins a broader musical canvas to show why he’s considered one of the world’s best trombonists. He used various electronic effects to give his instrument a distinctly modern, digital feel, and brought out a variety of moods and shifts in tempo from straight-ahead jazz to some superb swing.

Much of the material was from the band’s album The 11th Gate – eleven tracks partly inspired by the date 11/11/11 – and reflected the route Rollins is now treading. Highlights were the title track, the Bob Marley inspired Ujamma, and the slower, haunting The Other Side.

But Rollins mixed it up with an amazing version of Money by Pink Floyd and then cut loose with an updated version of the Eddie Harris classic Freedom Jazz Dance, which really did “take us in many directions”. And he finished with a surprising but beautiful encore of The Rose, made famous by Bette Midler. Great stuff.