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Friday at Swansea International Jazz Festival, 12/06/2015.

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by Ian Mann

June 15, 2015

Ian Mann on an excellent first day of the Festival with performances by the John Critchinson Quintet, Brian Breeze Band, Groucho Club, Laurence Cottle Quintet and The Jive Aces.

Photograph of Laurence Cottle sourced from the Swansea International Jazz Festival website http://www.sijf.co.uk


Friday at Swansea International Jazz Festival, 12/06/2015.

2015 marked the staging of the second Swansea International Festival, an event that looks set to become a welcome permanent addition to the UK jazz calendar. The Festival is the brainchild of the Swansea based multi-instrumentalist Dave Cottle, the man who is also the driving force behind the well regarded Swansea Jazzland club which hosts regular jazz events at St. James Social Club in the Uplands district of the city. Please visit http://www.swanseajazzland.co.uk for further information.

I’m indebted to Dave for supplying my wife and I with press tickets for SIJF, a three day jazz extravaganza which is centred at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea’s Maritime Quarter.  The Centre is located in the city’s former Guildhall and is now part of the University of Wales. It houses two performance spaces, a caf? and a bar and is thus an ideal space to host an festival of this nature. Most of the ticketed performances took place here with the exception of two shows held at the nearby National Waterfront Museum. There was also an extensive array of fringe events held at a variety of closely located hotels, pubs and caf?s which helped to bring a genuine festival atmosphere to this part of Swansea.

JOHN CRITCHINSON QUINTET

I concentrated on the concert performances at the Dylan Thomas Centre which began early on Friday afternoon with a group led by the veteran pianist John Critchinson (born 1934), a musician who was part of the late Ronnie Scott’s quintet, a member of the the legendary Morrisey-Mullen Band and who now works regularly with the acclaimed saxophonist Simon Spillett.

Critchinson was joined by some of Britain’s best loved jazz musicians in the shapes of Art Themen (tenor & soprano saxophones), Dave Green (double bass) and Dave Barry (drums). These three were regulars at Titley Jazz Festival in my home county of Herefordshire which sadly will not be taking place in 2015 due to the illness of its organiser, David Masters. For me Swansea represented a more than adequate substitute with a similarly friendly and informal atmosphere, a rolling performance programme and with musicians like the versatile Green popping up in a number of different bands. In fact Swansea presented a far more diverse array of music than the mainstream focussed Titley and in many ways was all the more enjoyable for it.

The Critchinson band were introduced by the popular figure of Dave Cottle and the air of goodwill surrounding the festival was apparent from the start with Edwina Hart, AM for Gower in attendance and with Cottle thanking the Arts Council of Wales plus a variety of local businesses for their support. In his role of Festival Organiser Cottle got a great reception from a gratifyingly large and supportive Friday afternoon crowd.

And so to the music with Critchinson using the first set to pay homage to the composing skills of the late American jazz pianist Cedar Walton (1934 -2013). I was lucky enough to see Walton perform live on a couple of occasions, most recently at Ronnie Scott’s in 2010 as part of that year’s London Jazz Festival. Many of Walton’s tunes have become modern day standards including “Firm Roots” which opened today’s performance in rousing fashion with solos coming from Themen on tenor sax and Critchinson on the Festival’s resident Yamaha electric keyboard. There was a grand piano at the venue but it remained off stage and unused throughout the festival which was something of a pity.

Themen switched to soprano for Walton’s “Midnight Waltz” sharing the solos with Critchinson and Green and with Barry featuring with a series of powerful drum breaks.

Critchinson then called vocalist Jacqui Hicks to the stage to complete the Quintet of the billing. The former NYJO singer has worked regularly with Critchinson and has also appeared with the pop/jazz outfits Shakatak and Matt Bianco. She is also an accomplished saxophonist. Hicks was in ebullient form here as the quintet raced through a fast swinging version of Rodgers & Hart’s “This Can’t Be Love” with the instrumental solos coming from Themen on tenor and Critchinson at the piano.

Voice and piano introduced then “When Sunny Gets Blue” with subsequent solos coming from Green at the bass, Themen on tenor and Critchinson.

Rodgers & Hart seemed to be particular favourites of Hicks who clearly enjoyed leading the band through a bossa arrangement of “My Romance” with solos coming from Themen on tenor plus Critchinson at the piano.

Hicks took a break as the quartet performed the last of their Cedar Walton tribute pieces, an arrangement of the great man’s “Cedar’s Blues” with Critchinson opening the soloing before an excellent duet between Themen and Green prior to Barry’s closing drum feature.

The singer then returned to perform what Hicks described as as one of Nat King Cole’s “daft songs”, the invigorating but undeniably silly “Fram Fram Sauce” done in a New Orleans style reminiscent of Dr. John or Allen Toussaint with Themen on honking tenor sax and Critchinson grinning with obvious delight throughout his piano solo. A great, high energy way to go into the break.

Set two opened in similarly brisk fashion with the quartet romping through Dexter Gordon’s “Fried Bananas” with Themen diving “straight in” with his opening tenor solo before Critchinson took the opportunity to stretch out with a lengthy but exuberant piano solo. Green’s unaccompanied bass feature demonstrated his great strength and agility before Barry wrapped things up with a series of entertaining drum breaks.

Hicks rejoined the instrumentalists for what the singer described as a “Basie-esque” arrangement of “A Child Is Born” with the singer’s strident and rousing vocals complemented by solos from tenor sax, piano and bass.

The quintet stepped outside the jazz canon for a version of Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight” with Hicks altering the lyrics and singing the words as a kind of third person narrative and with Themen taking the instrumental honours on soprano. A brave diversion but one that I ultimately found less than convincing, partly because of an over familiarity with Clapton’s original and partly because of the highly personalised nature of Clapton’s lyrics.

Hicks and the band were back on more familiar ground with their samba treatment of Rodgers & Hart’s “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” with Barry’s distinctive drumming at the heart of the arrangement. Solos here came from Themen on tenor, Critchinson at the piano and Barry himself with a closing drum feature. 

“A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square” represented an instrumental interlude, a ballad feature for Themen on tenor that also included lyrical and melodic solos from Critchinson and Green with Barry supplying sympathetic support throughout on brushes and mallets.

Hicks then returned for the final number, a playful and exuberant take on Cole Porter’s ” Love For Sale”, a song that always seems tailor made for jazz improvisation. Hicks had great fun with Porter’s salacious lyrics with Critchinson soloing on piano before a set of vigorous exchanges involving tenor sax, bass and drums.

All in all an excellent start to the festival with Critchinson displaying an energy and joie de vivre quite remarkable for an eighty year old! He has well supported by an excellent band with Themen in particularly fine form on saxes and with Green limbering up for more challenging performances to come later on in the weekend.

BRIAN BREEZE BAND / GROUCHO CLUB

During the course of the afternoon I took the opportunity of checking out a couple of the fringe events being held simultaneously at three different venues very close to the festival hub. I opted to visit the Queens Hotel, in reality a Good Beer Guide listed pub which was playing host to blues/rock guitarist and vocalist Brian Breeze and his power trio featuring Toby Collins (bass) and Paul Smith (drums), the latter to be heard in far jazzier contexts later on during the Festival weekend. 

Breeze is from the same vintage as legendary Swansea rock bands Man and The Neutrons and has performed with musicians from both those groups. He was once a member of Deke Leonard’s Iceberg and during the festival weekend was also scheduled to play alongside former Neutrons guitarist Ray “Taff” Williams as part of a tantalising twin guitar fronted line up.

At four o’clock on a Friday afternoon the Queens was packed to the gunnels with drinkers and music fans and I was unable to see very much of the trio’s performance. The music was fairly standard blues rock fare but with decidedly superior guitar playing. The set list included a Rolling Stones inspired arrangement of “Route 66”, a tribute to the recently departed BB King with “The Thrill Is Gone” and a storming version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well”. Slightly less obvious was an excellent take on the Allman Brothers “Whipping Post” with Breeze adding a powerful vocal to his searing lead guitar work. Concessions were made to the fact that this was a jazz festival with a slightly incongruous “Sunny” and a jazz styled instrumental version of “The Sunshine Of Your Smile”.

Enjoyable as all this was it was all getting a bit claustrophobic in the crowded Queens and during the interval I decided to move on to the nearby Pumphouse where the band Groucho Club were offering what was billed as “funky latin jazz”. I was quite pleased to find that the venue was less crowded, although still anything but quiet, and this time I managed to find a good vantage point. I was glad I’d made the move and was very much impressed by the musicianship of a five piece band featuring Wynn Phillips (guitar), Chris Ryan (tenor & alto sax), Mark Collins (keyboards), Frank Hughes (five string electric bass) and Martin Webber (drums). Essentially this was a fusion band (for want of a better term) and I saw virtually the whole of their second set. The material included Pat Metheny’s “Song For Bilbao” and Chick Corea’s “Spain” plus radical re-workings of Thelonious Monk’s “Straight No Chaser” and Duke Ellington’s “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” plus a Yellowjackets tune that I couldn’t pin a title on. Phillips and Ryan handled the majority of the solos and both impressed with their imaginative and often fiery playing. Collins also delivered some bright moments and Hughes and Webber formed a powerful and propulsive rhythm section. This was a highly competent band who were very well received by the audience. I liked them a lot. 

LAURENCE COTTLE QUINTET

Back at the Dylan Thomas Centre the undoubted highlight of the days’s concert programme was a set by the Laurence Cottle Quintet. Dave’s brother Lawrence is one of the UK’s leading electric bass players, a Jaco Pastorius inspired musician who has played with bands right across the musical spectrum. To me he’s essentially a jazz performer but he has also appeared on rock albums by major stars such as Eric Clapton and Black Sabbath and has written extensively for film and TV soundtracks. A stint with drummer Bill Bruford’s Earthworks band seemed to bring his jazz and rock leanings together very nicely.

The band Cottle assembled for this hometown festival gig was a hugely impressive one and featured Nigel Hitchcock on alto sax, Steve Fishwick on trumpet and Gareth Williams on keyboards plus Josh Morrison on drums, a late replacement for the advertised Chris Higginbottom.

Cottle’s propulsive bass groove introduced and fuelled his arrangement of Jerome Kern’s “Yesterdays” with Williams producing a classic electric piano sound from his keyboards to help keep things funky.  Fishwick took the first solo followed by Williams on piano and the supremely gifted Hitchcock on alto. Morrison rounded things off with a hard hitting drum feature.

Another Kern composition, “In Love In Vain” was played at a fast ballad tempo with solos from Fishwick, Williams and Cottle himself.

The band paid tribute to the very recently departed Ornette Coleman by playing one of his tunes but the title was unannounced and I couldn’t quite place it. The unison statement of the incredibly tricky theme by Fishwick and Hitchcock produced a round of spontaneous applause, probably for both them and Coleman. Meanwhile Cottle’s powerful bass groove ignited some impassioned soling from Hitchcock and Fishwick with the trumpeter in duet with drummer Morrison as the rest of the band temporarily dropped out. Williams matched the horns for energy, closing his eyes and singing along to his solo Jarrett style. Cottle’s feature included a series of exchanges with drummer Morrison. This was high octane stuff that delighted the audience and was a terrific tribute to Coleman and to the appeal of his music to contemporary jazz audiences.

Things quietened down with Fishwick’s delightful arrangement of bassist Buster Williams’ ballad “Christine” with fluent solos from Fishwick, Williams and Hitchcock.

An excellent first set concluded with Cottle’s bass powering an updated version of Duke Ellington’s “Caravan” with barnstorming solos from Fishwick and Hitchcock plus the man himself on electric bass.

Cottle’s funky grooves and Morrison’s solid backbeat powered the Cottle original “Closure”, which was strangely scheduled at the beginning of the second set. Blistering solos came from Fishwick, Williams and Hitchcock.

“Live And Give Theory” was the anagrammatic title given by trumpeter Steve Waterman to Cottle’s adaptation of the standard “Everything I Love” with solos from Williams and Fishwick plus another series of arresting exchanges between Cottle and Morrison.

Cottle’s arrangement of Harry Warren’s “Summer Night” (“nothing to do with Grease”, Cottle assured us) featured Steve Swallow like bass motifs plus solos from Hitchcock, Fishwick and Williams.

If this review seems like little more than a list of solos it’s because the playing was so bright, inventive and absorbing, these were soloists with chops and ideas to burn. I didn’t even get the title of the last song but it featured Fishwick, Williams and Hitchcock as soloists plus the juggernaut rhythm section of Cottle and Morrison. As a bassist Cottle combines Pastorius’s twin virtues of being able to deliver slippery but propulsive grooves allied to the ability to deliver solos that combine a phenomenal dexterity with a liquid beauty. The Pastorius legacy is one that all jazz electric bassists have had to take on board, but few have done so as successfully as Cottle.

“That was just monster” I heard one audience member say as we filed out. It seemed to sum the quintet’s performance perfectly.

THE JIVE ACES

One of Dave Cottle’s aims at SIJF is to present music from right across the jazz spectrum including some that might be felt to have only a tenuous connection, Brian Breeze this afternoon for example.  But all African- American derived music stems from the same root and included in the numerous branches is the kind of jump jive purveyed by the Jive Aces. These guys have been on Britain’s Got Talent and brought a whole new crowd in for the late night “party slot” , many of them clearly heeding the exhortation to “Bring your dancing shoes” emblazoned in the Festival brochure.

Although whole day tickets were available covering all the concert performances it was Cottle’s intention to attract a fresh crowd to each event and in the case of the Jive Aces this worked admirably with many of the new arrivals at the Dylan Thomas Centre specifically dressed up for the occasion.

Now I’ll readily admit that the whole jump jive thing is not really my scene. It’s too much like “show business” for my tastes and in their lurid yellow jackets and even more lurid trousers the Jive Aces certainly deliver a show. Fronted by trumpeter/vocalist Ian Clarkson they perform high energy versions of songs from right across the popular music spectrum (they opened with “When You’re Smiling”) in a style popularised by Louis Prima, Cab Calloway and others. All the band are showmen including boogie piano specialist Vince Hurley, earthy tenor sax specialist John Fordham
(definitely not the Guardian jazz critic) and instrument twirling bassist Ken Smith. You get the picture.

The introduction of a guest female vocalist was the last straw for me as the show moved even further into the realms of showbiz with excruciating banter between Clarkson and the new arrival and camped up versions of songs like “I Want To Be Loved By You”, “It’s Too Darn Hot” and “Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar”.

It wasn’t for me and I slipped discretely away leaving behind a crowd that was happily lapping up the Jive Aces experience with many audience members already up on the dance floor.  I’m sure that the group’s many fans had a great time and the size of the audience more than justified Dave Cottle’s decision to book the band. Variety is the spice of life plus the Festival needs to tap into a wider demographic than hardcore jazz fans like me if it is to survive and prosper. Perhaps some of tonight’s crowd will return to enjoy other, more obviously jazz, events at the Festival or at the Swansea Jazzland club in the future.

All in all an excellent first day of the festival with a great atmosphere, pleasingly large and enthusiastic audiences and some excellent music, particularly from the Laurence Cottle and John Critchinson groups and with further enjoyable offerings on the Fringe programme.

Roll on Saturday.       
 
 

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