Iain Ballamy, St. James Wine Vaults, 28th January

I’d like to make one thing absolutely clear. Its just co-incidence. I just happen only to be going to gigs where Iain Ballamy is playing at the moment. This is was 2010’s first ‘Wine Vaults session’ and it was the Vaults re-born. It was busy, the atmosphere was warm, the Bath jazzarati were out in force and the band were cooking. This was a standards set, with a couple of less played jazz classics. Somehow Iain inspired the band to play beyond themselves. His style is never brash, often understated, not obviously boppish, the largely swing and jobim flavoured latin material notwithstanding and his phrases are unfailingly melodic and well…. jazzy. The band were on fire. Vyv Hope Scott on piano sounded wistful and Brad Mehldau/ Keith Jarrety on some of the early song choices (Black Orpheus, It could happen to you) and  later on Wayne Shorter’s  Miyako. In between there was a demented Errol Garner like bravura, stridey workout on Honeysuckle Rose. Trevor was at his choppy percussive best – from a whisper to shout as the moment demanded and some exciting duetting with Iain. Wade Edwards on bass wasn’t left behind. We were all hoping that some of the unfamiliar faces would return. John from Broad Street Jazz (perhaps the only specialist jazz CD shop outside the capital) was hoping they’d be popping into the shop soon.  As we left, my other pair of ears said… you know that tune I don’t like that they played – well he made me like it. Nuff said. More Wade, more!

Whacky word clouds

This is fun. Free word cloud generator on the web. It generates the picture… size of words depends on how often it’s used. Looks like I mentioned Gareth Williams a lot. The full size pic is  here.

Four Windows, Wiltshire Music Centre, Saturday 9th January

Its icy out, the snow is on the ground but its ok – the annual jazz community concert at Wiltshire Music Centre will keep us warm! For the 11th time, Nick Sorensen (local musician and animateur of happenings) and Mike Daniels cooked up a something in early January at the much loved echoey barn that is the Wiltshire Music Centre. Over the years these concerts have developed a bit pattern: plenty of local talent, some contributions from workshop or youth ensembles and a not very well kept secret of a surprise appearance by a (local) world class musician… or two. This year certainly broke the mould. It was billed as a personal ‘curation’ by (local world class musician) Iain Ballamy and it certainly showcased the breadth of his musical imagination and collaborations, the four windows being different ways into the world of jazz. It chimed with a piece John Fordham wrote about Jazz in the ‘noughties’. He quotes Liam Noble saying that these days an album will contain standards followed by the unexpected… you don’t know what is coming next. This was reflected in the evening’s fare which ranged from Mark Wingfield and Rene von Grunig (guitar, keyboards and loads of loops, effects and elctronic clatter) to the workshop band of enthusiastic amateurs rounding of the evening with a rousing version of Hermeto Pascoal’s Zurich. In between Jason Rebello did a solo slot and then duo with Iain and Huw Warren the same. A high point for me was Jason and Iain playing John Taylor’s Ambleside days,  a glorious tune and one I’ve seen JT himself and John Surman play on the same stage. Close second was the opening sections of Huw Warren playing his versions and variations of music by John Dowland (17th century muso in caes you are wondering) – very serious and wove a dark emotional intensity into the evening. Iain Ballamy joined each of the four ‘windows’ so we heard plenty of his playing. We left just wondering if the whole was slightly less than the sum of the parts. Maybe the short sets perhaps didn’t give anyone a chance to really get going.

Gareth Williams Trio, Future Inn, Bristol, Sunday 19th December

Photo by Bob Woodburn

I’ve no idea why Gareth Williams decided to call his trio the Power Trio but it’s certainly apt. They boil with energy that bursts out it  in tumultuous solos from Gareth, the sideman (Laurence Cottle on bass and Ian Thomas on drums) or simply through an infectious pulse that has everyone swaying. This wasn’t raucous music (…well maybe sometimes). The repertoire, whilst predominantly Williams originals, felt like standards albeit reworked with a gloriously rich harmonic vocabulary. The leader seems umbilically connected to the American blues and bop beginnings of the music whilst infusing it with a zany humour and quirkiness.  This band skip through complex music at blistering tempos in odd time signatures  seemingly without breaking sweat. When they did play standards (and there were a few), Williams sang. It was a delight to hear Every thing I Love, It could happen to you, love in Vain done this way. Given the uncomprisingly dense harmonic and melodic language of the band it could have been jarring but here seemed absolutely appropriate. Every now and then the little red Nord keyboard was pressed into action and we were treated to a bit of electro – funk. This also cued a couple of thunderous drum solos from Ian Thomas. Being a piano-phile I could have lived with out the Nord incursions but they did make a certain sense in the context of the leaders lateral lines of repartee and musing. By the time we left, I felt like I’d been treated to a visit to the world of Gareth Williams and its was dazzling, exciting and just a bit exhausting.  Another cracking evening at the Future Inn with some of the finest musicians in the land.

Jam for Christmas?

Bristol has always done well for Jam Sessions – there always seems to be one or two on the go somewhere. There’s a positive rash on this week. East Bristol Jazz Club tonight at the Greenbank in Easton (second monthly session for the reborn Cross Hands, used to be Seymours session) – clashing here with Ben Blackmore’s long standing Half Moon Session in Stoke’s Croft. A new session starts off at the Albert in Bedminster on Wednesday with pianist Martin Jenkins hosting and if you’ve still got some puff… in Bath on Thursday the ‘termly’ St. James Wine Vaults session. Lovely rhythm sections too. I wonder too if the grandaddy of them all, the Tantric Jazz CAfe session is still going. Its Christmas for jammers!

Iain Ballamy and Anorak, Future Inn,Bristol, 6th December

What a thoroughly absorbing gig. I came away thinking about the music (of which more in a moment) having heard every flutter, rustle and shifting shape. This is a good place to really listen. The sound is good and the acoustic of the room sympathetic and what a treat – a proper piano; there is a bit of clatter from the bar upstairs but I didn’t find it intrusive. The whole endeavor has been assembled with love – use it or lose it jazz lovers.  I know coffee isn’t very jazz, but I seemed to cause chaos at the bar when I asked for one in the break – bit of training needed there. Back to that music.

To start the gig the band eased straight into a melodic rubato passage with cymbal shimmers and breathy sighs from the sax before launching  the driving modal workout that is the main section of Ballamy’s Tribute to Alan Skidmore’s Tribute to John Coltrane . Blistering solos from Iain and Gareth Williams at the piano set the tone for the evening. It struck me as I listened that nothing is straightforward about these original pieces by Ballamy. The band is constantly changing pace either by literally speeding up or finding different meters within the basic pulse and shifting gears. Bright catchy themes suddenly veer off into passages which almost sound like the harmony is in a different key to the melody before  dissipating the tension with a melodic flourish. Ballamy’s sound on sax is utterly distinctive both in the sound he gets and the phrasing and language. Whether you pay attention to the detail or let it wash over you, the themes have a really double sense of highly melodic appealing tunes whilst being kept off balancing by the shape shifting. It can sound deceptively straight forward. There was no doubt the band were equal to the challenge of making this music live and breath on the stand. Ballamy, Gareth Williams, martin France and Chris Laurence (who appeared to be depping for the evening) are all world class musicians. Being picky (we expect a lot of our world class bands in these parts)  I’m not totally convinced they were firing on all cylinders as a unit on this occasion…. I’ll just have to make sure I see them again to check that one out – it won’t be a hardship.

Round up: Azhar Saffar, Jazz Factory, Emma Hutchinson

Much as I love my CDs (and mp3s, 4s etc), its  good to remember jazz is a live music. The visceral excitement of sensing a band go up a gear in a heartbeat as somethings clicks is unbeatable. Friday last week at the Bebop (27th) we arrive a bit late – sorry Azhar – but walked into the rythmn section really fizzing. Anders Olinder on piano and keyboards and Will Harris on bass were really driving the band. They both play a bit ‘up’ on the beat and impart a real sense of energy and excitement to the simplest of swing tunes. A mark of class. I liked Azhar’s repertoire as well, ranging from Chic Corea, John Mclaughlin tunes, through originals and even a beautiful ballad credited to Kurt Elling which summoned a show stopping melodic bass solo from Will Harris – I swear everyone stopped breathing. On Monday, I popped into the Jazz Factory concert,  an end of term concert for the Bradford on Avon based workshops. This is one up for the inclusive end of music making. My random pleasurable moment was wondering what the approx 14 year old alto player and the flute player who could surely have been his gran, chat about whilst waiting their turn to have a blow on C-Jam blues. There are a good 50 ish people involved in this on a regular basis. I do sometimes wonder, if there are that many people doing the music (there are a number of other such workshops in the area) why the relatively few jazz gigs struggle for audience. Emma Hutchinson down at the vaults tonight had pulled a few folk in, but numbers have been a bit low this autumn. I hear that its likely that the pub will only support a monthly gig from January. Wade Edwards has sustained a minor miracle keeping the gig going. My source tells me that Iain Ballamy will be down at the end of January to put the trio through its paces so that will start the new year with a bang. If you can’t wait that long, get down to Future Inn in Bristol on Sunday to see Iain with his stellar ‘Anorak’ band.

Talks with a punter – Jonthan Gee Trio, November 21st, Chapel Arts Centre: Bath

Jonathan Gee played to small but enthusiastic crowd at Chapel Arts Centre last night. Sadly I was not there to boost sorely needed numbers (how long can they continue to put on gigs of this quality to tiny audiences? It’ll not be just Bath’s loss if it goes). I was attempting to entertain a somewhat larger but considerably less attentive audience nearby. Happily, I was able to discuss the gig with a pair of ears that were present so here’s what I’ve gleaned.

Sometimes words fail. We just hear music. The experience isn’t filtered through language and description. So the very first notes of the trio last night evoked a simple sigh of recognition for my spy. “Ah… that’s what it should sound like”. There were a few more ‘Ah…’ moments as lyrical, unaccompanied, piano intros morphed into a melody with the bass joining at the perfect moment. Joseph Laporte on bass appeared like Gee’s ‘third ear’, hearing what he was hearing and responding as if they were one. Many tunes built from these beginnings into driving post bop swing, surfing on the urgency of Nasheet Waits drumming. This was the pattern repeated perhaps once too often for the taste of my informant, but there were plenty of other moments. The first set closed with a beautiful Hermeto Pascoal ballad Santa Caterina and the second set contained a somewhat unexpected vocal number from Gee and a couple of roaring drum solos from Waits. This was an evening of world class piano trio music with the ceaseless flow of lyrical ideas fron Jonathan Gee at the piano to the fore.

Thanks then to R for the report. This is a first for me – remote reviews! I’d be happy to relay, post or link to comment and reviews if anyone else would like to chip in who comes across this little blog.

Not Rollins Week; the ones that got away

Were I to have been loaded (financially you understand), capable of zipping around London at speed (and possibly in two places at once), I might have got in to see Thomas Stanko  on Saturday, or Bobby Hutcherson at Ronnie’s. The one I really regret not seeing is Kurt Elling at pizza express. This is just too much. I’d have been broke by Sunday and not able to afford Chick Corea and his mates. Being quite hip and in the know, I’d have checked out Robert Glasper as well. That’s without trying to catch all our home grown stars scattered all around London – and there’s still a week of it to go. Just as well we are skulking at the other end of the M4. I’m glad that others made these gigs though. So if you want to know how it was; Chick here or here, Robert Glasper here or here, Bobby here and a Stanko review here (but not from London).

Rollins Week Part 2b: Sonny Rollins, Barbican, Saturday 14th November

My abiding recollection of Saturday’s gig is the feeling of warmth that seemed to emanate from the the stiff legged, white haired, near octogenarian bundle of energy that  fronted the band . He was clad in a  baggy, silky shirt of more or less the same orange as all the signs around the Barbican, and it was tempting to assume that they had refurbished their look in his honour. That I’m recalling what it felt like to be there more than the musical content seems appropriate. I can’t better the description in the programme notes: muscular hard-bop, lilting ballads and cheeky calypsos. It was the first cheeky calypso about half way through that sent the energy levels through the roof. He stood at the footlights, honking, swaying, conducting himself and generally firing everyone up. My other pair of ears summed it up. “He’s getting down” she whispered. She also commented on the musical conversations that seemed to go on. After the theme of a lilting ballad say, Sonny honks and nudges, playing fragments of melody and long notes as one of the sidemen gets going on their moment in the spotlight – a bit of one to one on stage coaching. And all to soon it was the blues to jam out. We couldn’t believe how the time had flown. The encore? Don’t stop the Carnival of course.  This is what he does. Compare the review of yesterday with that from three years ago by John Fordham here and here. Not quite the same set but not far off. But it doesn’t seem to matter. Somehow he manages the trick of making it feel he’s communicating directly so the instrument and the material are a bit secondary.