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Saturday at Cheltenham Jazz Festival, 02/05/2015.

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by Ian Mann

May 07, 2015

Ian Mann enjoys a rich variety of music with performances by Archie Shepp, Lee Konitz/Dave Douglas Quintet, Wilko Johnson, Joe Lovano, Impermanence Trio and Alexander Hawkins/Elaine Mitchener Duo.

Photograph of Joe Lovano by Tim Dickeson


Saturday at Cheltenham Jazz Festival, 02/05/2015


TRONDHEIM JAZZ EXCHANGE

This popular event has become a fixture on the Festival calendar and features the playing and writing of students from two of Europe’s leading music education establishments. The Jazz Courses at the Trondheim and Birmingham Conservatories have both acquired substantial reputations and many graduates from both institutions have gone on to become respected professional jazz musicians.

With the support of the Norwegian Embassy annual exchange visits are arranged between the two institutions with the students subsequently showcasing their work at the Cheltenham and Molde Jazz Festivals. Each year six students from each establishment pool their resources to form three quartets with each band containing two members from their respective countries. Prior to this performance at the Parabola Arts Centre the students had spent two days in intensive woodshedding and rehearsals as they worked out their ideas. The three quartets also performed in public in Birmingham at the free early evening session held on the evening of Friday May 1st at the Caf? Bar in the foyer of Symphony Hall.

The first group to appear featured Trondheim students Rohey Taalah (vocals) and Henrik Loeden (drums) plus their Birmingham counterparts Josh Schofield (alto saxophone) and Iona Crosby (double bass). They began with a cover of Thelonious Monk’s composition “Brilliant Corners”  which featured Taalah and Schofield’s unison melody lines before the singer embarked on a wordless scat vocal solo. The piece closed with a drum feature from Loeden who was also the composer of the next piece “Walter White”, an engagingly individual composition inspired by a character in the “Breaking Bad” television series. Taalah’s singing included both English lyrics plus extended vocal techniques from the Sidsel Endresen/Julie Tippetts/Maggie Nichols school of improvising.

Taalah handled the announcements confidently in English and introduced her own tune, a piece with a Norwegian title approximating to “Calm” or “Peaceful”. Something of this was expressed in her floating wordless vocals, these shadowed by Schofield’s alto sax and Crosby’s bowed bass.

They finished their set with “Like Butter”, a piece by the Brooklyn based drummer and composer Owen Howard. This put the emphasis more firmly on the instrumentalists with features for both Schofield and Crosby. The young quartet were well received by a large and supportive crowd. Attendances at this event have increased incrementally over the years and it is now a well established part of the Festival programme.

The second group also featured a female vocalist, Jacobien Vlasman, born in the Netherlands but studying in Trondheim. Joining her were Norwegian guitarist Karl Bjoraa, British drummer Charlie Johnson and bassist Sam Ingvorsen, from the south of England but with “the most Scandinavian name of all of us” as Vlasman joked. There were obvious similarities with the previous band as Vlasman deployed similar wordless vocal techniques on the tune “Dirt Farmer” written by Jeff Davis. However her main foil was the imaginative guitarist Karl Bjoraa, one of the most inspired soloists on view today.

The lovely tune “Waltz”, written by bassist Ingvorsen, was particularly well received. Its Metheny like sense of openness led to fine melodic solos from Vlasman, Bjoraa and Ingvorsen himself. Definitely a set highlight and a piece that suggested a bright future for Ingvorsen as a composer.

This second group finished their set with Vlasman’s innovative arrangement of John Irving’s standard “Blue Skies”.  Introduced by Ingvorsen at the bass the arrangement was hard driving with a touch of funk and featured Vlasman’s English lyrics and scat singing plus a closing drum feature from the impressive Johnson.

For me a little scat singing can go a long way and initially I felt both a little bemused and a little disappointed that too such similar groups were scheduled back to back. However the reasoning became clear when the third band began to play. This all instrumental ensemble consisted of slightly older students, possibly in their final year. Birmingham based musicians Dan Spirrett (tenor sax) and Nick Winters (drums) were joined by Trondheim’s Ivan Blomqvist (piano) and Aaron Mandelmann (double bass) for a spirited set of three original tunes.

First up was Blomqvist’s “Anniko” which saw Spirrett sketching the melody before Blomqvist embarked on an expansive and highly imaginative piano solo, easily the best we had heard thus far. Spirrett’s own warm, relaxed contribution was nearly as fine and the saxophonist also displayed his fluency as a soloist on his own “Winter Solstice” which also included an expressive and melodic solo from Mandelmann at the bass.

Spirrett and Blomqvist shared the announcements with the pianist announcing his second composition “Concussion Dance”, a thinly disguised rewrite of McCoy Tyner’s enduring “Passion Dance” that took the familiar head into thrilling new directions. Spirrett revealed his versatility with a tenor solo that was far more hard edged and garrulous than anything he had played before and he was followed by Blomqvist who delivered a blinding solo that even topped his earlier effort on “Anniko”. The piece was climaxed with a drum feature from Winters who had slotted in with Mandelmann to form an impressive and highly supportive rhythm team.

The general consensus among the audience members that I spoke to after the performance was that we would be hearing a lot more from the hugely impressive Blomqvist both as a pianist and a composer, his potential was blindingly obvious. Spirrett was also tipped for a bright future as was guitarist Karl Bjoraa from the second group. Everybody had acquitted themselves but these three were tipped as the names to watch. Bassist Sam Ingvorsen’s writing also suggested that more good things will flow from his pen.

Regular readers of this blog will be aware that in general I’m not too keen on vocal jazz so this particular Trondheim Exchange was personally less satisfying than some others in recent years. Nevertheless there was much to enjoy, particularly from the final band, and I look forward to seeing the stars of tomorrow that 2016’s showcase will undoubtedly unveil.


ARCHIE SHEPP QUARTET

To the Big Top at the main Festival site in Montpellier Gardens for a performance by the veteran saxophonist Archie Shepp (born 1937) and his quartet. The American is now resident in France and his quartet was a late replacement for the scheduled Sun Ra Arkestra after the cosmic big band had to withdraw due to “unforeseen circumstances”. I’m assuming that this was because the Arkestra’s even more veteran leader, ninety two year old Marshall Allen, was unwell, but this is merely speculation.

I’d seen Shepp perform live once before at the Barbican as part of the 2013 EFG London Jazz Festival when he led a large ensemble including a number of guest vocalists in a performance of the music from his 1972 album “Attica Blues”. I’ll admit to being a little disappointed by that show due to the sheer scale of the production, the too rich melange of musical styles and the indistinct sound mix. It all seemed a bit too over the top with Shepp’s own musical personality sometimes becoming subsumed by it all.

I was therefore looking forward to seeing the man playing in the more pared down environment of a jazz quartet and this time round Shepp didn’t disappoint. His band featured a stellar cast of pianist Tom McClung (who had appeared with him at the Barbican), Hungarian born bassist Matyas Szandai and drummer Steve McCraven. This time round you got a lot more Shepp for your money and the performance was all the better for it.

The quartet opened with Shepp’s “Hope To”, his dedication to the innovative pianist Elmo Hope (1923-67). Shepp, sharply dressed in suit and hat immediately introduced us to his huge and highly distinctive tone on tenor with an extended saxophone workout. His playing still packs an extraordinary punch and power and he threw down the gauntlet to his younger companions and they responded well to the challenge with McClung, Szandai and Mccraven all delivering convincing solos of their own.

Shepp introduced the next piece as being written by “The Maestro” - Duke Ellington, of course. Shepp’s loquacious solo, accompanied at times only by McCraven’s drums, squeezed in a couple of quotes from other tunes and he was followed by a rollicking piano solo from right hand man McClung. Shepp has always liked a degree of theatricality in his music and his singing of the song’s lyrics in his raw, untutored blues voice was greeted by a roar of audience approval.

Shepp’s “Fire Music” of the 1960s was forged in the crucible of the Civil Rights movement and he remains an engaged political presence. The show stopping “Revolution” was dedicated to his grandmother and the difficulties she faced as an African-American woman in a white man’s world.  The piece began with the sound of Shepp’s “snake charmer” style soprano sax over the rolling thunder of McCraven’s mallet rumbles. Shepp then put down his horn and began to sing, first with eerie, oddly compelling wordless vocals and then in the style of a Southern preacher with phrases such as “there will be a change somehow”, “winds of change” and “hear the trumpets blow” evoking the spirit of Martin Luther King. McClung’s piano solo then presaged a further monologue full of blood curdling apocalyptic imagery. Simply stunning.

In a well paced show Shepp now chose to calm things down by showcasing his ballad skills on “The Stars Are In Your Eyes”, his dedication to the late, great Sarah Vaughan. Introduced by McClung at the piano the tune included suitably lyrical solos from Shepp, McClung and Szandai.

The blues “Fuckin’ Mama”, more politely known as “Trippin’” was Shepp at his most provocative and theatrical and featured McClung’s boogie woogie style piano alongside Shepp’s earthy, r’n'b tenor and declamatory vocals. “Fuckin’ Mama Do That Fuckin’ Thing” indeed.

The set ended as it began with Shepp the saxophonist demonstrating his extraordinary blowing technique on McClung’s all instrumental “Burning Bright” with tenor man Shepp sharing the instrumental honours with the composer.

This event had started twenty minutes late due to a delayed sound check but any inconvenience was quickly forgotten as Shepp and his excellent band delivered the goods with an excellent performance that bristled with life and vitality despite Shepp’s occasionally obvious physical frailties. He’s still an inspired performer and receives great support from an exceptional band. I enjoyed this tightly focussed, well programmed performance far more than the sprawling Barbican show.

Shepp was the first “big name” that I’d seen at this festival and he had laid down a marker for the others to follow. How did they fare? Find out below.


LEE KONITZ / DAVE DOUGLAS QUINTET

At the Town Hall we were to encounter another legend of the music, the eighty seven year old alto saxophonist Lee Konitz who was performing in the company of a quintet co-led by trumpeter Dave Douglas. As a contributor to Miles Davis’ “Birth Of The Cool” sessions and as a collaborator with the late, great Lennie Tristano Konitz’s place in jazz history is already assured but he is a musician who remains committed to the art of improvisation and is even now still pushing the musical “envelope”.

Konitz’s open minded approach finds him still discovering fresh things to say about even the most hackneyed of jazz standards. “We’re going to play some tunes like they’ve never been played before” he said by way of introduction as the band embarked upon a radically slowed down version of the perennial Konitz favourite “All The Things You Are”. Konitz’s alto combined beguilingly with Douglas’ trumpet as guitarist Jakob Bro, bassist Linda Oh and drummer Jorge Rossy provided sympathetic and understated support.

A version of Tristano’s “317 E32nd Street” represented a nostalgic glance at Konitz’s illustrious past but still sounded fresh and in the moment with softly seductive solos from Konitz on alto, Douglas on trumpet and the studiously undemonstrative Bro on guitar. In his white baseball cap and brightly coloured shirt Konitz looked like a pensioner on a Saga cruise. By way of contrast the black clad, shades wearing Douglas exuded a studied air of beatnik cool. Other than his attire Konitz’s other concession to his advancing age was to scat sing some of his improvisations rather then playing his horn. These strangely vulnerable and plaintive episodes were actually highly effective although Konitz’s tendency to sing, and sometimes play, off mic sometimes made him difficult to hear for people at the back of a packed Town Hall. I was seated fairly near the front and experienced no difficulty but garnered this information after speaking to others.

Throughout the performance Konitz exuded an impish wit and the relaxed atmosphere caused one commentator to remark that the performance seemed like a very high class jam session on a Sunday afternoon down at the Dog & Duck as the musicians bantered with each other and debated which tune to play next. In reality Douglas and his colleagues were incredibly supportive of the obviously frail Konitz and both their playing and their general demeanour served the elder statesman well.

The next two tunes were unannounced and I’m not going to try and second guess them, especially in view of the way that Konitz reshapes standard material. Both featured the same attractive blend of alto and trumpet, pithy solos from both Konitz and Douglas and further examples of Lee’s scat singing.

Linda Oh, Douglas’ regular bass player, contributed a series of highly melodic and inventive solos throughout the set, the highlight coming after Konitz had turned to her and asked “What do you want to play Linda?”. The resultant “Play Fiddle” featured her best playing of the set, both solo and in a delightful dialogue with Konitz’s alto. The piece also offered us another opportunity to appreciate Bro’s tasteful, low key guitar soloing too.

The next piece raised the tempo and allowed Douglas the opportunity to demonstrate his prowess on trumpet. Douglas has been a frequent and highly popular visitor to Cheltenham and led two different bands at the 2009 and 2013 festivals, the highlight for me being the performance of his Keystone Quintet at the Everyman Theatre in 2009.

The set closed with performances of two of the most popular and familiar standards in the jazz canon. A heavily disguised “Lover Man” featured both Bro and Oh alongside Konitz and Douglas.
Solo trumpet then introduced the evergreen “Stella By Starlight” followed by Konitz’s answering alto and subsequently the rest of the band. Solos came from Douglas on pure toned trumpet, Bro on similarly crystalline guitar and finally Konitz’s wordless vocals.

The deserved encore was a version of “The Way You Look Tonight” which featured more delightful interplay between the horns of Konitz and Douglas and also included features for Bro, Oh and Rossy. The drummer’s quiet, unobtrusive but highly skilful style of playing was ideally suited to this group. Rossy is perhaps best known for his lengthy stint with pianist Brad Mehldau’s trio prior to his replacement by the more muscular and forceful Jeff Ballard. I have to say that I retain a lot of affection for Rossy’s playing on Mehldau’s early albums and it was good to see him perform live for the first time.

This was a very different set to the usual all star jam. This was effortlessly cool and sophisticated music delivered with a smile on the collective faces of the musicians and the sense of goodwill in the air was almost palpable. It may all have been a little too low key for some and it was very different to some of the events that came before and afterwards but in the context of my festival day it was a quiet delight that the majority of a large and appreciative audience seemed to enjoy.


WILKO JOHNSON

The decision to watch Wilko Johnson’s performance in the Big Top represented something of an indulgence on my behalf. I never got to see Dr. Feelgood back in the day and I’d also been told by friends that Wilko was a “must see” live act.

Johnson was scheduled opposite Swiss trombonist Samuel Blaser and his trio at the Parabola Arts Centre. Blaser’s trio featured the extraordinary French born guitarist Marc Ducret but I’d seen this line up at Caf? Oto at the 2013 EFG London Jazz Festival and in the end decided to go for something different with Wilko. My wife opted for the Blaser gig and returned with good reports concerning the standard of the musicianship and the adventurousness of the playing.

Johnson’s show was all about energy and represented a total contrast to the Konitz / Douglas set. The guitarist first came to the attention of the British public through his four album stint with Dr. Feelgood back in the 1970s. The Canvey Island foursome combined a love of vintage r’n'b and rock ‘n’ roll with an almost punk like intensity. Johnson was the band’s chief songwriter and also an exciting stage performer with his trademark guitar style that combined both rhythm and lead functions, a technique that had been strongly influenced by Mick Green of Johnny Kidd & The Pirates. Indeed Dr. Feelgood had been named after a Pirates song of the same name. On stage Johnson exuded a manic energy with his bulging eyes, jerky movements and distinctive duckwalk - he came across like an adrenaline fuelled Essex hybrid of David Byrne and Chuck Berry.

After leaving Feelgood Johnson formed his own band the Solid Senders, played with the late Ian Dury as a member of the Blockheads and released a number of solo albums. I’ll readily admit that he dropped off my radar for a long time until he came to the attention of the great British public in early 2013 when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given ten months to live. Johnson promptly embarked on a farewell tour playing to huge audiences and once again cementing his reputation as a formidable live performer. The dignity and fortitude with which he addressed his situation endeared him to music lovers everywhere, not just die hard Wilko and Feelgood fans. He recorded an album with Who singer Roger Daltrey that attracted considerable critical and popular acclaim and looked set to go out in a blaze of glory.  Johnson’s life was eventually saved by a major eleven hour operation that involved the removal of a three pound tumour from his pancreas, he is now officially cancer free and touring again in the company of Blockheads bassist Norman Watt -Roy and drummer Dylan Howe, the latter adding a bit of jazz credibility to Johnson’s Cheltenham performance.

The large audience in the Big Top included many hard core Johnson fans for whom this was probably their only event of the festival. Nevertheless I’m sure there were a few other curious onlookers like myself who were less committed. In any event Johnson’s energy and enthusiasm carried the day despite the occasional technical difficulties with Watt-Roy’s bass amp and Howe’s bass drum mic. The goodwill directed towards this great rock ‘n’ roll survivor was again palpable and the atmosphere was electric from the off.

Johnson isn’t a great singer but his vocalising is effective enough for his material in a live context ? you can see why he’s elected to work with greats like Daltrey and Feelgood’s Lee Brilleaux in the past. But it’s his guitar style that is the most distinctive, finger style, no pick, but delivering an extraordinary power and attack, with crisp punchy rhythmic patterns combining with searing lead guitar runs. The debt to Mick Green notwithstanding it’s instantly recognisable and undeniably unique and undoubtedly requires a great deal of physical resourcefulness to pull off. Watt-Roy’s busy, thick, trebley bass fills in the gaps in a style that hints at his jazz roots and the whole is powered by Howe’s kinetic, hyperactive and undeniably brilliant drumming which is unashamedly rock based and very different to his jazz playing.

As most readers are probably aware Howe is the son of former Yes guitarist Steve Howe and it was fascinating to watch him subtly and benignly manage the antics of the two wild men of pensionable age playing just in front of him, musicians of his father’s generation. It sometimes reminded me of a rock ‘n’ roll version of Absolutely Fabulous. And make no mistake it was Howe’s drumming that was at the heart of this trio, the blue touch paper that ignited the musical fireworks of Johnson and Watt-Roy, “fabulous yellow roman candles” indeed.

This wasn’t a gig to make notes, it was one to enjoy for its sheer energy and vigour and in any event I’m not familiar with much of Johnson’s post Feelgood work.  Set highlights included performances of the old Feelgood hits “Down By The Jetty”, “Roxette” and “Back In The Night”, all of them penned by Johnson. I recognised “Everybody’s Carrying A Gun” from “Going Back Home”, the 2014 joint release with Daltrey, this song having been performed by Johnson on TV recently. Here it was extended to include barnstorming solo features from Watt-Roy and Howe. From the same album came the urgent “Ice On The Motorway” and the show’s only ballad, “Keep On Loving You”, jointly written by Johnson and Watt-Roy.

Visually Johnson made all the right moves, the gurning face, the staccato movements, the “machine gun” style guitar, even the duckwalk. Howe ensured that drinks were ferried on stage to the leader on the occasions that he appeared to be flagging but Johnson still had enough energy to play his guitar behind his head on a hard rocking encore of “Johnny B Goode” that publicly acknowledged his debt to Chuck Berry. The audience absolutely loved it and although I was probably more detached from the proceedings than most of the crowd I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not quite jazz, but in the words of the great Danny Thompson “Who Gives a Monkey’s?”.
But there was still a part of me that felt guilty for missing Samuel Blaser. 


JOE LOVANO’S VILLAGE RHYTHMS BAND

My first visit to the Jazz Arena venue tented venue in Montpellier Gardens yielded a performance that was, for many, the highlight of the festival. The great American saxophonist Joe Lovano brought his Village Rhythms Band to Cheltenham to deliver a unique blend of jazz and afrobeat as Lovano explored the legacy of his jamming sessions with the late Fela Kuti in Nigeria back in the 1980s.

I’d seen Lovano playing live a couple of times before, once at the 2007 Brecon Jazz Festival accompanied by a British trio led by pianist Gareth Williams and again in Birmingham in 2014 with the all star Spring Quartet featuring Jack DeJohnette, Esperanza Spalding and Leo Genovese. Both of these were relatively straight ahead affairs and I found the Village Rhythms Band a far more interesting context for the undisputed excellence of Lovano’s playing.

The Village Rhythms Band grew out of Lovano’s 2013 album “Cross Culture” and at Cheltenham consisted of Liberty Ellman on guitar, Michael Olatuja on electric bass, and Otis Brown III on kit drums augmented by the sensational Senegalese percussionist Abdou Mboup. This stellar line up is sometimes expanded to a septet with the addition of trumpeter Tim Hagens and vocalist Judy Silvano. A live recording by the seven piece line up captured at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York is due to be released in 2016, appropriately on the Blue Note record label.

Prior to this performance at Cheltenham the Village Rhythms quintet had played two nights in London at Ronnie Scott’s and the impression was of a band that had “played in” the music and was firing on all cylinders. One of the Ronnie’s shows was recorded by the BBC and will be transmitted on Jez Nelson’s Jazz On 3 radio programme.

Opener “Shrine After Midnight” introduced us to the band’s sound as Lovano delivered a majestically fluent tenor solo above the infectious but constantly evolving rhythms laid down by the excellent Brown behind the kit and Mboup amongst his forest of percussion. Although inspired by afrobeat the music of the VRB avoided any of the clich?s associated with the genre and the playing of both Brown and Mboup was consistently interesting. So too was the soloing of Ellman, a musician I’d not witnessed performing live before. The studious looking guitarist has been featured on the Jazzmann web pages before now earning the praise of my one time co-writer Tim Owen (now the proprietor of his own Dalston Sound music blog) for his contributions to albums by saxophonists Henry Threadgill and Jason Robinson. Born in London but raised in the US Ellman moves in elevated American jazz circles and is a guitar soloist with a clear precise tone and boundless melodic and harmonic invention, he’s one of the most interesting players of the instrument I’ve seen and rates as a significant new discovery.

“Twenty Nine On The Twenty Ninth” featured more articulate tenor soloing from Lovano above the percolating African grooves generated by Brown and Mboup in conjunction with Olatuja. Ellman’s feverishly inventive guitar solo was another delight and the piece closed with a percussion feature from the excellent Mboup whose spawling set up included both Latin and African percussion instruments including congas, small cymbals, bells, scrapers, shakers and more.

The striking leather clad figure of Mboup remained in the spotlight as he introduced the piece “Congregation” with a spectacular set piece featuring him on talking drum and vocals. This developed into a dialogue between the percussionist and Lovano on what I’d scribbled down as clarinet but which Jon Turney writing for London Jazz News suggested was actually the Hungarian instrument the tarogato, as played by Peter Brotzmann, Lyndon Owen and others. In any event it was all highly effective before eventually giving way to a thoughtful guitar solo from Ellman, a liquid electric bass solo from Olatuja (who had also featured on the opener) and a further excursion from Lovano who had now switched to tenor sax. The piece ended as it began with a further duet between Lovano on clarinet/tarogato and Mboup on talking drum. This was music that was consistently unfolding and undeniably brilliant.

“Eurabian Prophet”, Lovano’s dedication to Fela Kuti, was a percussion fuelled slice of afrobeat that included expansive, imaginative and exciting solos from both Ellman and Lovano who both enjoyed two bites of the cherry either side of an absorbing drum/percussion/electric bass stand off involving Brown, Mboup and Olatuja.

Besides his battery of percussion Mboup had also brought a kora on to the stage and he performed a delightful song of his own composing upon it, a delightful lilting melody that featured his voice as well as the chiming twenty two strings. Lovano’s accompaniment on a pair of hand bells was equally charming before he eventually switched to clarinet/tarogato as the rest of the band came in. Again the piece concluded as it had begun with just the sound of Mboup on kora and voice. I believe the piece was entitled “Waxta”.

The set ended all too soon with a performance of John Coltrane’s “Spiritual”, a beguiling mix of modal jazz and African rhythms with Lovano beginning on tenor sax before switching to clarinet/tarogato. However the real highlight here was Ellman’s guitar solo, a wildly imaginative spiralling affair full of ideas and invention.

Virtually everybody I spoke to afterwards agreed that this was a real festival highlight with Lovano and the spectacular Mboup gaining the most plaudits. I’d be keen to check out some of Ellman’s solo recordings too, I was hugely impressed with his contribution to the success of the performance.
The Radio 3 broadcast from Ronnie Scott’s is also going to be a “must listen”. Bring it on!

THE EDGE PROJECT;
IMPERMANENCE TRIO / ALEXANDER HAWKINS & ELAINE MITCHENER DUO

At the Parabola Arts Centre the Festival’s Artistic Director Tony Dudley Evans introduced the last performance of the day, a double bill featuring the music of the Impermanence Trio and the duo of pianist Alexander Hawkins and the vocalist Elaine Mitchener supported by the Arts & Humanities Research Council.

As the name suggests the “Edge Project” represents the Festival’s more experimental strand and is a generic title for these late night performances at the avant garde end of the jazz spectrum. The event also tries to involve some kind of audience participation in the improvisatory process. In this instance this took the form of an ongoing on line poll in which audience members were encouraged to interact with the spontaneous music of the Impermanence Trio and influence the way in which their improvisations unfolded.

The concept behind the performance of the Impermanence Trio and the accompanying interactive touch polls was devised by Jonathan (Jonty) Stockdale who introduced the performance and explained something of the ideas behind it. A pre performance poll had suggested that the trio should start sparsely and envisage some kind of vast monolith as an initial visual stimulus. As this was a piano trio featuring Matthew Bourne, bassist Rhiaan Vosloo and drummer Tim Giles there was also a pre-performance poll that asked what other musicians they should attempt to sound like. The two most common names that came up were Evan and Evans, presumably as in Parker and Bill respectively. Beer drinkers like me will also know that Evan Evans is also a Welsh brewery based in Llandeilo, but I digress.

Bourne, Vosloo and Giles sounded pretty much like I’d expect a freely improvising acoustic piano trio to sound like, perhaps a little more melodic than I’d been anticipating but with a high level of group interaction and judicious use of extended techniques on their respective instruments, among them Bourne’s interior piano scrapings, Vosloo’s eerie / percussive bowing techniques, Giles’ cymbal ticks and scrapes, mallet rumbles etc. 

As a bit of a Luddite I don’t have a smart phone and thus didn’t participate in the poll. The questions were often somewhat nebulous and involved placing the musicians on a map, asking them to sound like a certain colour and so on. The results were projected onto a screen behind the musicians that was visible to both Bourne and Giles but not to Vosloo. 

A poll asking whether the musicians should play in the style of bop, hard bop, post bop or cool seemed to do little to affect the trio’s ongoing trajectory, most of the time one got the impression that their improvisations were going to evolve organically regardless of what the audience voted for.
A similar poll offering the choices of tonal, atonal, static or noise saw a landslide note for tonal but resulted in little change in the actual music.

Suggestions that the trio members play in the style of other musicians was a little more fruitful. The dream team of Dave Holland and Art Blakey won the poll for bass and drums but it was the projection of a photograph of Keith Jarrett that prompted Bourne to stand up from the piano stool, contort his body and emulate Jarrett’s infamous vocal ululations, a genuinely interactive moment and one that was laugh out loud funny.

I rather enjoyed the music from three excellent musicians but found the visuals distracting and not particularly effective. On the whole I’d have been happy just to see Bourne, Vosloo and Giles play and got the impression that aside from the Jarrett joke the experiment had actually had very little effect on their performance.

Other commentators suggested that this experiment was very similar to what the Dutch band Tin Men & The Telephone do but that with them the questions are far more direct and have a far greater effect on the actual playing, The suggestion was that even though the members of that band are probably less technically gifted than the members of the Impermanence Trio their performances are a more successful example of the band/audience interactive dynamic.

All in all the verdict was of a noble but not entirely successful experiment.

The second collaboration involved pianist Alexander Hawkins and vocalist Elaine Mitchener in a new project that sought to take an innovative new look at the world of the jazz standard. Hawkins is a pianist and organist with impeccable avant garde credentials thanks to his work with his own group plus his collaborations with a wide variety of jazz and improvised music artists, among them drummer Louis Moholo Moholo, trumpeter Nick Malcolm and the bands Convergence Quartet and Decoy. I’m less familiar with the work of Mitchener, a classically trained singer who now seems to be operating in increasingly experimental musical areas involving the use of the voice in the world of free improvisation.

The duo performed two lengthy segues that could almost be described as song cycles, both segments featuring well known jazz standards alongside other interesting material. Mitchener’s sensual vocals combined well with Hawkins’ sparse piano accompaniment on an opening section that included the standard “I Fall In Love Too Easily” with Mitchener taking her voice into more experimental areas as the music unfolded, her advanced vocal techniques exploring areas that were beyond mere scat. Hawkins, an experienced and intuitive improviser was the perfect foil, his playing sparse and dense by turns but always intense and dramatic. The segment concluded with Mitchener’s emotive and highly effective reading of Patty Waters’ “Why Is Love Such A Funny Thing?”.

The second cycle began with an extraordinary rendition of Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” with Mitchener wringing every drop of pathos out of the lyrics. This was music that was both technically dazzling and emotionally involving with Mitchener subsequently sounding even more vulnerable on the duo’s version of Duke Ellington’s “In My Solitude”. Hawkins’ almost subliminal interior piano scrapings led into “Why Can’t We Be Friends” during which Mitchener renewed her experiments with extreme vocal techniques, something used to even greater advantage in the following “Weird Nightmare”, written by Charles Mingus. Mitchener has a background in gospel music and this second song cycle resolved itself with an intense and moving performance of the traditional spiritual “There Is A Balm In Gilead”.

I was hugely impressed with Mitchener’s talents as a vocalist, her performance was technically brilliant but also profoundly moving. Hawkins was a superb accompanist and he confirmed his position as one of the most adventurous and innovative pianists on the UK jazz scene. However this was by some distance the most challenging performance of the day and pretty heavy going for the late Saturday night slot. In many respects it was a performance to be admired rather than enjoyed but it did have moments that were profoundly emotionally involving. An interesting experiment and a duo collaboration that looks to have plenty more mileage in it. Expect to hear more from this highly talented cutting edge duo.
 
 

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