Full review is here: http://www.jazzwisemagazine.com/pages/live-jazz-music-reviews/14300-rubin-atzmon-team-up-brimful-of-vim-at-the-verdict

Saul is over in Europe for a rare string of dates, and tonight’s show at Brighton’s The Verdict is the second of a pair of UK gigs sharing the frontline with Gilad Atzmon, who’s brought his longtime associate Yaron Stavi on bass, with Enzo Zirilli on drums rounding off this truly international quartet. ‘Say It (Over And Over Again)’ opened proceedings; Atzmon on tenor showing off his hard, biting tone in the tradition of the song’s most famous interpreter, but with his own characteristic romantic slurs and wide vibrato applied at will, Rubin giving a lesson in creative pianistic comping and ripples of Lenny Breau-style tapped harmonics. ‘Invitation’ followed, a sultry tango – Rubin’s solo mixed radical reharmonisation with Benson-esque soul-to-bop licks in a compendium of technique which Zirilli matched in his irrepressibly imaginative drum exchanges. This was in the best tradition of improv; songs from the repertoire, selected more or less on the fly, allowed the band to demonstrate their individual strengths. ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’ provided an excuse for a proper tear-up, with the zurna-like wail of Atzmon’s high register, Rubin’s NYC funk licks and Zirilli’s quirky percussion held down by the the unobtrusive rock-solid foundation of Stavi’s unamplified bass. The whole was truly more than a sum of its parts.