Keith Tippett Presents The Rare Music Club
Cafe Oto, London

BEFORE this gig, listening to You Are Here, I Am There, the powerfully evocative album of Bristolian piano maestro Keith Tippett, now happily reissued, it suddenly struck me that it was released half a century ago.

And he's still at it. At the Cafe Oto he was most certainly here with his long-time vocalist partner Julie Tippett, formerly Julie Driscoll of the Brian Auger Trinity way back in the day, and prodigious young violinist Theo May.

May begins the gig with a group of his sprightly peers from the Royal College of Music on piano, cello, drums, soprano saxophone, violins, bass and flute. What starts as a youthful, stomping barnyard dance is gradually transformed into a piece of frenzied, racing music.