Live review of CD launch Gig 10 October 2007

Andrea Vicari has probably played more frequently at the Vortex in recent years as part of the Foundation Big Band than as a leader, so it was gratifying to hear her (Wednesday, 10) leading a sparky, responsive band through two sets of the compositions that make up her new 33 Records album, Mango Tango.

She's been providing judiciously chosen aggregations of various sizes (previous bands have included the likes of Phil Robson, Mornington Lockett and her ever-present partner, Dorian Lockett) with cheerfully accessible yet skilfully written material since the early 1990s, but this set of originals is perhaps her most accomplished yet; on this occasion, with bassist Dorian Lockett and drummer James Maddren were a perfectly balanced and tellingly contrasting front-line pairing: trumpeter Quentin Collins and tenor player Ingrid Laubrock.

As a quintet, they were pleasingly informal but punchy and cohesive where required, whether they were playing latin-inflected pieces or relatively straightahead jazz, but it was the soloing of Laubrock – characteristically texturally adventurous, slow-building, imaginative – and Collins – all fire, pep and sassy confidence – that brought out the music's vigour. With Vicari's piano holding the whole together and occasionally decorating her pieces with absorbing solos full of subtle cross-rhythms and enlivened by the odd sparkling run, this was a thoroughly enjoyable evening's music from a considerable compositional and bandleading talent.

 Mike Butler METRO May 11 2007

Pianist Andrea Vicari sheds some light on the surreal inspirations behind her work

Of all contemporary British pianists, Andrea Vicari remains most committed to the notion that jazz should be fun, even at the highest level of technical expertise. The result is an impressive, startling body of work. Time signatures, for example, go beyond the conventional 4/4 without sounding the least bit contrived.'It's just that I often hear melodies in odd, different time signatures,' explains Vicari. 'I don't do it on purpose. There's one called Gaudi that's in seven and six and at first it's like:"Oh! What's going on?" But it's actually quite natural when you get used to it.'

Festival Dance (in the version on the superb Tryptych album) manages to be delicate and raucous at once, and contains some of Sebastian Rochford's best work on record. 'The solo sections are in 4/4, so I do give the soloists a bit of a reprieve. I don't find it particularly hard to play. It was just as I heard it.'

Perhaps the delight, the wistfulness and the madcap invention of Vicari's tunes come from their unlikely sources of inspiration.' Cafe Calypso was inspired by a very odd service station in France. It had four white grand pianos and all this rattan furniture. Very surreal. Very bizarre. The pianos were actually out of tune, because I tried a couple of them.' Who else in jazz raises frivolity to this level of the sublime?

'There's one called Mango Tango, inspired by my daughter who drew a hotel with beautiful, very sunny colours. It was her homework at school. In the middle it almost goes into heavy rock. I love that kind of craziness, but I love the lyrical as well. It's about creating atmosphere within a piece of music.'

This delight in the surreal clearly extends to putting a band together. The frontline of the Andrea Vicari Quintet features Pete Wareham, the manic saxophonist from Acoustic Ladyland, and Steve Waterman, a warm, melodic trumpeter who excels at hard-bop.'He's really out there if he has to be,' informs Vicari. 'I think it will be a nice contrast. And they're very nice chaps, which is very important.'

The drummer is a second-year student at the Royal Academy Of Music called James Maddren. Vicari calls him 'absolutely phenomenal' and says that his name will be well-known shortly. The faithful Dorian Lockett, who played on Lunar Spell, Suburban Gorillas and Tryptych (that is,every album under Vicari's nameto date) completes the line-up on double-bass. Mike Butler METRO 11/05/07

'JAZZ UK March/April 2005

ANDREA VICARI Tryptych (33JAZZ099)
Pianist Vicari doesn't make it into Chilton's British Who's-Who but deserved to on the evidence of this well-crafted and uplifting set.
Combining with bassist Dorian Lockett and Seb Rochford (drums} she sets out on a programme of originals and standards, coming up trumps initially on 'Gaudi', Rochford's splashy shading adding to the colour of the piece. Vicari gives 'Bewitched' a fresh lick of paint, the theme harmonised, before she digs in and then does much the same with Cole Porter's 'l Love You'. This and her own 'Coming of Age' are highlights, the latter moving from Evans-like calm into a fevered sequence whose drive and momentum bring to mind the late Hampton Hawes at his best. Still, there's little need to overplay such comparisons since all these tracks offer ample testimony to Vicari's refreshing fusion of creativity and command. (PV) JAZZ UK

'The Observer' Sunday November 7, 2004

Andrea Vicari Tryptych (33 Records 33JAZZ 099)
Once you have heard Andrea Vicari, you could probably pick her out from a dozen of her contemporary pianists, mainly by the precision and clarity of her touch. She improvises such lucid lines and brightly voiced chords that you can't help following her train of thought. The programme here is roughly half-and-half standards and originals, and it says a lot for her composing that both come out sounding equally melodic. There is one particularly beautiful piece, called 'When Did the World Become Colour?' Some of the rhythm patterns set up with bassist Dorian Lockett and drummer Sebastian Rochford are irresistibly catchy, and the interplay among the three is hugely inventive. Dave Gelly