Sunday at Cheltenham Jazz Festival, 05/05/2013.

Photograph of Jason Adasiewicz by Tim Dickeson http://www.timdickeson.com

The performances that I enjoyed on the Friday and Saturday had set the bar high but Sunday was to prove the most satisfying day of the lot with a succession of superb performances by a diverse range of acts varying from small groups to large ensembles. While Saturday’s programme had invited comparisons between those two incredible tuba players Oren Marshall and Daniel Herskedal today’s performances gave us two American masters of the vibes, Gary Burton and Jason Adasiewicz but more on them later.

TROYKESTRA

My day began at the Parabola Arts Centre with Troykestra, a large ensemble based around the nucleus of the acclaimed trio Troyka featuring Chris Montague on guitar, Kit Downes on Hammond organ and Joshua Blackmore at the drums. Troykestra was first convened as a one off to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of Jazzwise magazine at a special celebratory event at Ronnie Scott’s. The performance was such a success that Troykestra has continued to make occasional festival appearances with the core trio here augmented by a big band featuring five reeds, four trumpets, four trombones, electric bass and, in keeping with the theme of the day, Ralph Wyld on vibes. The ensemble was expertly conducted by Nick Smart, Head of the Jazz Programme at the Royal Academy Of Music. 

In the main the material consisted of arrangements from Troyka’s two albums for the Edition record label, their eponymous 2009 d?but and 2012’s even better “Moxxy”. Skilful arrangements and the sheer power of the big band ensured that these pieces came over even more strongly than they do either on record or at the trio’s increasingly accomplished live shows (I enjoyed a Troyka performance at the Hare & Hounds in Birmingham earlier in the year). It also helped that Downes was playing a proper Hammond organ complete with a Leslie speaker cabinet which allied to the to the massed musical voices of the ensemble made for a big, bad beautiful noise. I suspect that the Hammond had probably been hired for the festival, Downes used it again later in the day with the quartet Barbacana, but whenever I’ve seen him play electric keyboards before it’s been the modern generation of Hammonds such as the XK3. 

Troykestra opened with Montague’s tune “Rarebit” which quickly established the big band’s credentials on a tricky chart full of polyrhythmic complexity. Although the interplay between Montague and Downes was at the core of the music, spurred on by Blackmore’s precise but powerful drumming, the big band were still an integral and organic part of the proceedings, fully assimilated into the Troyka sound and far more than just an “add on”. Many of the big band members are still students at the Academy, from where Montague, Downes and Blackmore graduated some time ago and the shared sense of belonging was palpable.

Josh Blackmore’s “Calling” (or was it “Cawley” in homage to his Curios bandleader Tom) featured Sam Rapley’s bass clarinet intro, the first of several inspired solos by Montague and cogent statements from Nadim Temoori on alto and Downes on Hammond plus the funky trombone of Kieran Mcleod and finally Sam Miles on tenor sax.

Downes’ “The General” graduated from an impressionistic opening for the core trio plus trumpet through a soaring slide guitar solo from Montague to embrace a real rock power fuelled by Blackmore’s dynamic drumming. The piece culminated in a playful series of wigged out false endings. Exhilarating stuff. 

The next piece (unannounced) began with almost subliminal Hammond before adding the other members of the trio with Blackmore’s delicate brushwork in marked contrast to his more boisterous contributions elsewhere. In true Troykestra fashion the piece gradually gathered momentum throwing in a playful dissonance and incorporating solos from Mike Chillingworth on alto, Noel Langley on trumpet and Montague on guitar. 

“Born In The 80’s”, written by Montague and arranged by Downes, concentrated on the core trio and saw Troyka creating an impressive wall of sound of their own with Downes doubling up on Hammond and Nord.

Blackmore’s “Zebra” proved to be one of the strongest items of the set, its catchy hook inspiring strong solos from Montague and Downes with the former displaying his fondness for a chunky riff. Rhythms inspired by rock and electronic music are a vital part of Troyka’s sound and the quality of the arrangements ensured that the big band fitted right in with this aesthetic thereby giving the music an added power and urgency.

“Noonian” (the title a Star Trek reference) began with the ethereal trumpet sounds of Alex Bonney and also contained solos from Downes’ close musical associate James Allsopp on tenor sax, Montague on guitar and Mike Chillingworth on alto sax. We also heard from Ralph Wyld who soloed in four mallet mode above an insistent trombone vamp.

The closing “Chaplin” saw Montague’s soaring Pink Floyd style guitar cushioned by rich, sonorous horn voicings as this inspired set drew to an end.

I was surprised but delighted at just how good the music of Troykestra was. The power and precision of the playing of the Academy guys (and one girl) was hugely impressive and it’s obvious that the UK has a whole new wave of talented young jazz musicians waiting to make their mark. The core trio, relative veterans (Downes is twenty six) just get better and better and all three were in inspired form here. Much of the set rode a wave of turbo charged adrenalin but there were moments of subtlety too. A word of praise for the experienced trumpeter Noel Langley who was drafted into the ensemble at very short notice and acquitted himself brilliantly.

All in all this set was a triumph and those who were not lucky enough to be at the PAC can catch it again when Jez Nelson broadcasts today’s performance on Jazz on 3 on June 3rd 2013. There’s also talk of Troykestra releasing a live album. Should be well worth waiting for.

The full line up was;

Chris Montague Guitar
Kit Downes Keys
Joshua Blackmore Drums
Nick Smart Director
Reuben Fowler Trumpet
Alex Bonney Trumpet
Noel Langley Trumpet
Imogen Hancock Trumpet
Kieran Stickle Mcleod Trombone
Patrick Hayes Trombone
Tom Green Trombone
Courtney Brown Bass trombone
Mike Chillingworth Alto
Nadim Teimoori Alto
Sam Miles Tenor
James Allsop Tenor
Sam Rapley Bass clarinet, baritone sax
Louis Van Der Westhuizen Bass
Ralph Hero Wyld Vibes

Ian’s star rating; 4 Stars

MIKE GIBBS ENSEMBLE

MIKE GIBBS ENSEMBLE

At the Jazz Arena I witnessed a second superb performance from another large(ish) featuring musicians of a later vintage. Composer and arranger Mike Gibbs (born 1937) conducted his ensemble in a performance that celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Gil Evans (1912-88), the set consisting of various Evans compositions and arrangements plus a smattering of Gibbs arrangements and originals. Evans is best known for his long association with Miles Davis but there was nothing from their joint repertoire here with Gibbs placing the emphasis firmly on Evans rather than Davis.

I’ve always enjoyed Gibbs’ music and have seen his ensembles perform a number of times over the years, most recently in 2007 at St. George’s in Bristol when a Gibbs band featuring high profile American guests Bill Frisell (guitar), Steve Swallow (electric bass) and Adam Nussbaum (drums) toured the UK to celebrate Gibbs’ seventieth birthday. Many of the UK based players who appeared with that band were here again today as part of a twelve piece band conducted with avuncular charm by Gibbs. They began with a rousing Evans arrangement of Horace Silver’s “Sister Sadie” with solos from trumpeter Robbie Robson, pianist Hans Koller and trombonist Mark Nightingale with Jeff Williams climaxing the piece with a series of sizzling drum breaks. A great start.

Evans’ setting of Kurt Weill’s “Bilbao Song” was a superb example of the great man’s unique arranging skills. The low end intro featured Sarah Williams’ tuba and Michael Janisch’s rich arco bass, the piece becoming something of a feature for the bassist who subsequently soloed pizzicato, ldexterously dancing around the sonorous melody lines of the horns. Koller, very much Gibbs’ right hand man in this project was also featured again and rightly so.

Evans’ own “Las Vegas Tango” offered a further example of his rich horn voicings with the range varying from Finn Peters’ flute to Sarah Williams’ bass trombone. Mark Nightingale delivered the first solo, the ensemble playing counterpoint to his trombone lines. Nightingale was superb today, I’m used to seeing him in more conventional small group settings (he’s a regular visitor to Titley Jazz Festival) but he seemed to flourish in this more challenging environment with a string of excellent contributions. The always excellent Julian Siegel weighed in with an absorbingly serpentine solo on soprano sax and we also heard again from Janisch who slipped a quote from John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” into his plucked solo.

“Round Midnight” was a Gibbs arrangement of the Thelonious Monk classic made, as Gibbs admitted, very much under the influence of Evans. The rich ensemble timbres were complemented by solos from Robson on muted trumpet and Siegel on tenor sax.

Carla Bley’s “Ida Lupino” saw the entire trumpet section switching to flugel horns to produce a warm, rounded sound that supported solos from former Birmingham Conservatoire student Lluis Mather on tenor (this was a big gig for him) and Koller at the piano.

Announcing tunes in the manner of a slightly earnest and bumbling professor the genial Gibbs talked about “symmetric and augmented diminisheds” as he introduced his own “Antique”. This long standing item in the Gibbs repertoire was presented as a tenor feature for Siegel who tackled the piece with his customary ease and eloquence.

After the theory came something a little more earthy and basic with an Evans arrangement of WC Handy’s classic St. Louis Blues given a touch of humour and a bebop twist with features for Peters on alto sax and Janisch on bass.

“Ramblin’” replicated genuine big band swing and a string of solos was kicked off by Peters, again blistering on alto, followed by Joe Auckland on trumpet, Koller on piano and Jim Rattigan on French horn, one of only a very few players capable of producing effective jazz solos on the instrument. Janisch’s solo bass coda was accompanied by the barking of a dog somewhere outside the tent, something his fellow musicians found hilarious.

At this point Koller rose from the piano stool to thank Gibbs for his work on today’s project and to announce that the band had recorded a studio album of today’s material for release on Janisch’s increasingly influential Whirlwind Recordings label. Advance copies of this were available on the day but as I’ve reviewed the majority of Whirlwind’s output I’m hopeful that a copy will be winging itself my way in the post (hint, hint Michael). 

Although pushed for time in relationship to my next scheduled event at the PAC I decided to stay on and hear Gibbs’ last tune, the original “Tennis, Anyone?”  with features for Percy Pursglove on flugel horn and the consistently excellent Koller on piano. I was glad I did.

This had been a very different ensemble performance to that of Troykestra with (in the main) softer textures and gentler arrangements. However in the hands of Gibbs, one of the music’s most sophisticated composers and arrangers, both his own pieces and those of others glowed with a rich colour and vivacity with extra lustre being added by a very classy band packed with high quality soloists. I can’t wait to hear the album.

The full line up was;

Mike Gibbs Arranger & Directorr
Hans Koller Piano
Julian Siegel Tenor/soprano saxophones, bass clarinet
Finn Peters Alto saxophone, flutes
Lluis Mather Tenor saxophone, clarinets
Percy Pursglove Trumpet
Robbie Robson Trumpet
Joe Aukland Trumpet
Jim Rattigan French horn
Mark Nightingale Trombone
Sarah Williams Bass trombone, tuba
Michael Janisch Double bass
Jeff Williams Drums

Ian’s star rating; 4 Stars
 

REUBEN JAMES TRIO WITH ZARA McFARLANE

A quick dash saw me reach a re-assuringly full PAC just in time to catch an inspired performance by pianist Reuben James and his trio with additional contributions coming from vocalist Zara McFarlane.

The young pianist, still only 20, is a product of the Birmingham Conservatoire jazz course and is already a supremely gifted technician with a full command of the history of jazz piano. An inspired soloist James appeared at the 2012 Cheltenham Jazz festival as part of the excellent octet led by the late trumpeter, composer and educator Abram Wilson. James, plus his trio partners today bassist Alex Davis and drummer Dave Hamblett formed the rhythmic core of that octet and also played with the trumpeter as part of his last quartet. Introducing today’s concert Tony Dudley Evens dedicated the performance to the memory of Wilson who tragically succumbed to cancer on June 9th 2012, barely a month after his brilliant Cheltenham Jazz Festival performance.

Now studying in London James returned to Birmingham in November 2012 leading the Jazzlines Trio, also featuring bassist James Banner and drummer Ric Yarborough, in a support slot to the Wayne Shorter Quartet at Birmingham Town Hall. This was a prestigious gig for the young trio and they responded in style with an excellent performance. Today was another major event for James and a further opportunity to demonstrate his prodigious talents in front of a large audience, this time with his regular trio. Once again it was an opportunity that he seized with both hands, almost literally as James’ left hand is almost as important as his right with regard to his highly rhythmic, technically dazzling piano style that frequently includes dense clusters of notes. 

The trio opened with a James original, “Gumbo’s Lullaby”, a piece inspired by his former mentor Wilson and by Wilson’s native city of New Orleans. This lively composition was also performed by the Jazzlines trio in Birmingham and served as a good introduction to the voices of the trio with Davis and Hamblett both enjoying features alongside the precociously talented James.

The old Miles Davis vehicle “If I Were A Bell” developed out of early cheeky quotes of the Pompey Chimes and “Singing In The Rain” with James subsequently delivering a barnstorming solo with the rhythm team swinging mightily. Davis also featured on a playful performance that delighted the PAC audience.

James comes from Jamaican roots and grew up listening to a variety of music from classical to hip hop by way of jazz, soul,gospel and reggae. Calling singer Zara McFarlane to the stage James honoured the genre of lover’s rock with the song ” Police and Thieves”, the tune introduced by Davis at the bass with McFarlane subsequently providing soulful vocals above Hamblett’s brushed grooves, and yes James found room for another impressive piano solo too.

McFarlane is a singer with a good command of both the jazz and soul idioms who cites Nina Simone, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Jill Scott and Erykah Badou as primary influences. Her own album “Until Tomorrow”, a collection of largely self penned material was released to considerable critical acclaim on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label in 2011 (review elsewhere on this site). Today she performed a new song simply entitled “Love” from her forthcoming EP. Intimately arranged for voice and piano only the song demonstrated McFarlane’s talent for jazz phrasing plus James’ skills as an accompanist.

The singer temporarily left the stage to allow the trio to romp through Horace Silver’s “St. Vitus Dance” with solos coming from James and Hamblett. She returned for a playful and flirtatious take on “I Only Have Eyes For You”, a further example of her considerable jazz credentials.

A stripped back version of the Michael Jackson hit “Baby Be Mine” offered another glimpse into James’ diverse musical background and returned McFarlane’s vocals to more obvious soul territory.

A concert that seemed all too short ended with two instrumentals beginning with Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady” which was given an innovative “stop/start” arrangement that culminated in a sparkling dialogue between James and Hamblett.

Appropriately the trio brought the curtain down with an arrangement of Abram Wilson’s tune “Steak And Potatoes”, a personal favourite of the composer and a rousing tune that combines New Orleans rhythms with bebop harmonies. The piece, which included final features for Davis and Hamblett, had also concluded James’ Birmingham set. It had been well received there but today the audience went further, gleefully clapping along and at the end giving the youthful trio a standing ovation.

Once again this set had been a triumph for James. His trio had performed with a youthful panache and a prodigious degree of technical ability. The leader is also a naturally ebullient figure who handled his announcing duties confidently throughout. McFarlane was used relatively sparingly but her contributions were well judged and offered a good idea of the range of her vocal abilities.

James revealed that his family were in the audience for another prestigious gig that saw the young pianist rise to the occasion. As I’ve intimated before I’d say that James is a star in the making, his technique is already formidable and he’s an assured and confident performer who exudes considerable personal charm. The next stage will be for him to concentrate on his writing and hopefully get an album out there, at this stage in his career he’s still very much reliant on outside material. Hopefully that will come, for today it was enough for both band and audience to revel in the experience of a truly memorable festival experience.

Ian’ Star Rating; 4 Stars

THE NEW GARY BURTON QUARTET

As I’ve stated on this site before the now veteran vibraphonist Gary Burton is one of my primary jazz influences. I first got into his music in the late 1970’s through his illustrious catalogue with ECM records and also backtracked into his 1960’s experiments with rock and country elements with the likes of Hank Garland and Larry Coryell.

In more recent years I’ve been lucky enough to witness a couple of superb Burton live performances, firstly his celebrated duo with pianist Chick Corea at The Barbican in 2007 when the two men held a capacity audience spellbound, no mean feat for a purely acoustic performance. The following year I was at the Lighthouse in Poole for a stirring re-tread through Burton’s ECM catalogue in the company of Pat Metheny (guitar), Steve Swallow (electric bass) and Antonio Sanchez (drums) aka The Gary Burton Quartet Revisited. 

Burton has always enjoyed working with guitarists and his current quartet includes his prot?g? Julian Lage, still only twenty six, alongside the more experienced rhythm pairing of Scott Colley (double bass) and drummer Sanchez, also Pat Metheny’s sticksman of choice. The same quartet, then freshly convened, appeared at the 2010 London Jazz Festival where I have to confess I found them a little disappointing. The group was still very new and some of their performances amounted to little more than a string of solos, the often intense interaction of the Revisited Quartet was rarely replicated.

Fast forward three years and I was expecting something rather better. The quartet now have two well received albums under their belt “Common Ground” (2011) and “Guided Tour” (2013) but in many ways things have failed to move on. Much of today’s set was also played in London in 2010.

However I’ll never tire of Burton’s own playing, the pioneer of the four mallet technique is still wonderful to see and hear, he’s an effortlessly fluent improviser who adopts a pianistic approach to the vibes. The piano was Burton’s first instrument and in the past he’s expressed a wish to be a vibes equivalent of the late, great Bill Evans. Burton was in typically imperious form here, his melodicism and inventiveness undimmed by age, he’s an astonishingly youthful looking seventy.

As the former Dean of the famous Berklee college of Music in Boston Burton has always been a supreme educator and nurturer of young talent with the likes of Metheny, pianist Makoto Ozone and Scottish saxophonist Tommy Smith passing through his bands. Lage was only sixteen when he first worked with Burton and he too is a supremely fluent soloist. He now sounds less like a Metheny clone than he did three years ago but his playing is rather too smooth and tasteful for my tastes, I would have liked to have seen a few rough edges here and there. Colley is Mister Dependable on the bass, a reliable timekeeper and an accomplished soloist and a pretty useful composer to boot. Sanchez, meanwhile, is a superb all round drummer with chops to burn, he’s hugely in demand and has worked with Metheny for over a decade, a role that has given him a suitably high profile.

For all this I still felt that the whole was rather less than the sum of the parts. Perhaps it was the atmosphere of the Jazz Arena, by necessity less intimate than that generated in the PAC, but more importantly it was probably the sense that the group hadn’t moved on. As in London they opened their set with an account of Mongo Santa Maria’s much covered “Afro Blue” with Burton leading off the solos followed by Lage on the guitar. Today was the first date of an extensive European tour and Burton revealed that the airline had already managed to mislay Lage’s luggage!

Colley’s “Never The Same Way”, which had concluded the quartet’s London set, demonstrated the bassist’s capabilities as a composer. The tune, since recorded on the “Common Ground” album began in guitar trio mode with Burton sitting out. The vibraphonist later asserted himself with a typically flowing solo before handing over to Lage and then Colley, the bassist subsequently engaging in engrossing dialogue with Sanchez who brought the piece to an end with a drum feature underpinned by Lage’s guitar chording.

Lage has now also commenced writing for the group and his tune “Sunday’s Uncle” was sourced from the new album “Guided Tour” with the composer leading off the solos followed by Burton and Sanchez.

Burton is also a pioneer of recording the vibes unaccompanied and a passage of lyrical solo vibraphone introduced “Late Night Sunrise” , the piece also incorporating similarly elegant statements from Colley and Lage, the guitarist deploying an increasingly individual tone.

Colley and Sanchez left the stage as Lage’s solo guitar opened “My Funny Valentine”, a labyrinthine and hugely inventive exploration of the popular standard that had been the highlight of the quartet’s London show and featured fascinating dialogue between Lage and Burton before the rhythm section returned with Colley also featuring with a suitably lyrical bass solo.

The final two tunes were unannounced but the first sounded highly familiar, a classic from Burton’s past with a familiar melody but whose title I couldn’t quite nail. In any event the mallet man delivered his most dazzling solo of the set with Lage following suit before Colley and Sanchez engaged in similarly stimulating bass and drum dialogue. Sanchez then led off the final number but I had to leave Burton in mid solo to make the dash to the PAC to catch the start of the set by Barbacana, a new Anglo/French quartet featuring keyboardist Kit Downes.

Don’t get me wrong , there was much to enjoy in Burton’s set and other commentators such as John Fordham, Peter Bacon and Chris Parker were more fulsome in their praise than perhaps I have been.
Perhaps I carry too much “Burton baggage”, past gigs and albums that lead me to expect perfection and excitement every time. At seventy it’s perhaps inevitable that Burton can no longer be considered “cutting edge” and I need to adjust my expectations accordingly. He’s still a brilliant musician and there was plenty of evidence of that on show today .

Ian’s Star Rating; 3.5 Stars

BARBACANA

Over at the PAC Kit Downes was playing his second gig of the day with the new Anglo/French collaboration Barbacana. Once again armed with Hammond, Nord and Leslie cabinet Downes was joined by his Troykestra and Golden Age Of Steam colleague James Allsopp on tenor sax and bass clarinet plus the French pairing of guitarist Adrien Dennefeld and drummer/percussionist Sylvain Darrifourcq. Dennefeld is also an accomplished cellist who performed on that instrument on Downes’ 2011 album “Quiet Tiger” as well as guesting in that role with Downes’ quintet in a splendid performance at the 2011 Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Dennefeld also plays cello on Barbacana’s recent eponymous d?but album (Babel Records) but today he decided to concentrate solely on guitar.

My recent review of the group’s album spoke of a mix of “English whimsy” and “Gallic eccentricity” and speaking to Downes afterwards he told me that this was just the kind of effect that they were aiming for. The spirit of Django Bates looms over the recording, he’s influenced European musicians as well as British ones having worked and taught extensively on the continent including stints involving professorships in Denmark and Switzerland.

Darrifourcq is very much the groups “wild card”, his album credit references “drums, objects and toys” but that’s only the half of it. He also has an FX unit which he manipulates in the manner of Food’s Thomas Stronen plus a dizzying array of small percussion implements. All this makes Darrifourcq a highly visual performer, he’s never still and the array of exotic sounds he conjures up is consistently fascinating. Another album he’s recently been involved with “Chien Guepe” by the Emile Parisien Quartet makes reference to Dadaism which neatly sums up where Darrifourcq is coming from. Saxophonist Parisien may be best known to UK audiences for his work with pianist Yaron Herman whose quartet appeared at the 2012 London Jazz Festival.

Introducing Barbarcana at what this time proved to be a rather sparsely populated PAC Tony Dudley Evans explained that the group had initially been assembled under the auspices of the Jazz Shuttle scheme designed to bring English and French musicians together, before going on to remark that he viewed today’s performance as a successor to the 2012 Festival collaboration at the same venue between members of London’s Loop Collective (including Downes) and the Paris based Coax Collective under the group name Tweedle Dee.

Barbacana proceeded to play most of the pieces from their d?but album beginning with Downes’ “Animation”, the album opener, an initially busy, Bates inspired composition featuring Allsopp on bass clarinet and Dennefeld on distinctive slide guitar that sometimes reminded me of Human Chain’s Stuart Hall. As with many of Barbacana’s pieces the mood changed abruptly half way through, this time changing to something more impressionistic and contemplative.

Allsopp’s “For No Raisin”, a piece also performed by his group The Golden Age Of Steam, began with the sound of Downe’s Nord and mutated into a world of woozy soundscapes featuring the composer’s tenor and Darrifourcq’s emporium of small and exotic percussive devices including something that sounded very much like an alarm clock. The introduction of Dennefeld’s guitar increased the intensity and today’s version was perceptibly more forceful than that on the album with the combination of guitar and Hammond generating a certain power.

The Downes/Allsopp composed “Migration ? Big BIG Shop” is the album’s centre piece and here featured Allsopp’s guttural tenor sax riffing noisily in conjunction with keyboards and guitar prior to an extended but always fascinating Darrifourcq drum feature in which the instrumentation rather improbably included a coat-hanger! A passage of eerie guitar from Dennefeld ended a piece that seemed to differ substantially from its recorded counterpart. Barbacana like to leave things relatively open ended with plenty of room for improvisation.

Darrifourcq was at it again on the opening to Downes’ composition “Steam”, opening the piece with a solo drum feature that incorporated both objects and electronics. Elsewhere Allsopp’s bass clarinet ruminated reflectively on one of the group’s most impressionistic numbers.

Dennefeld’s “Adobes” featured bass clarinet plus doomy church organ sounds from Downes and the quartet rounded off their set with the title track from their album. As it turns out the piece from which they take their name is the only piece on the record not to come from within the ranks of the group. “Barbacana” is by the French folk musician Valentin Clastrier, a hurdy gurdy specialist. The album version is little more than a tantalising snippet but here the group stretched it out with Clastrier’s jaunty melody and Darrifourcq’s odd meter grooves punctuated by more impressionistic interludes.

Having been thoroughly absorbed by their album I very much enjoyed Barbacana’s live performance with Downes handling the announcing duties confidently and sometimes amusingly and with Darrifourcq providing a consistently interesting visual focus. Musically Darrifourcq was interesting too, his use of domestic objects and electronica plus his unorthodox drum patterns reminding me of Polar Bear’s Seb Rochford and Leafcutter John combined.

Barbacana sounded like nothing else at the festival and some listeners may not have known quite what to make of them. Certainly there was virtually no conventional swing and although there were several individual features few of these constituted conventional “jazz solos”. Personally I found it rather refreshing, despite the occasional longueur, and most of the audience at the PAC also seemed to get into what the group were doing. Let’s hope they’re able to maintain and develop this fruitful cross channel alliance.

Ian’s Star Rating 3.5 Stars    
     
JASON ADASIEWICZ’S SUN ROOMS

Cheltenham Jazz Festival has thrown up many exciting discoveries from New York’s Downtown scene over the years, among them Ben Allison, Bobby Previte and Claudia Quintet. Economics seem to have entailed that fewer visitors from the Big Apple have come to Cheltenham in recent years, which is a pity as the scene in New York remains vibrant and vital.

However there’s also a burgeoning jazz and improvised music scene in Chicago and with his Jazzlines hat on Tony Dudley Evans has been busy forging links between the Windy City and Birmingham, travelling to Chicago himself and encouraging exchange visits between British and American musicians.

Thus it was that this year’s Discovery of the Festival was Jason Adasiewicz and his Sun Rooms trio. The leader is a vibraphone player but his style couldn’t be more different to that of Gary Burton. The thirty something Adasiewicz started off as a drummer and it shows in the way he attacks the vibes -“I hit the instrument very hard” says Adasiewicz “an aluminium bar feels like a brick wall but you can get spring from the cord that is suspending each bar of the instrument. I’ve felt most comfortable with trying to get those bars to resonate to the point of distortion, I have never put away the drums”.

As his remarks suggest Adasiewicz is a highly physical performer, between notes his hands are often raised high above his head before he crashes them down onto the bars of the instrument setting off a range of ringing overtones that add considerable depth to the music. Heavily bearded he sweats profusely and between numbers was often to be seen wiping his glasses and rubbing himself down with a towel. As can be imagined he’s a very visually arresting performer, most vibes players are pretty spectacular but Adasiewicz takes it to the next level. If Gary Burton plays the vibes like Bill Evans then Adasiewicz is the equivalent of Thelonious Monk or McCoy Tyner or in his wildest moments maybe even Cecil Taylor.

Bassist Devin Hoff also seems to enjoy an almost physical relationship with his instrument, legs astride and hugging it to his body and grimacing in rock star fashion as he pumps out the pulses and grooves and sometimes takes over the melody line. He’s not quite in the John Edwards league for sheer physicality but he comes close.

The trio is anchored by drummer Mike Reed, a less flamboyant performer than his colleagues but a vital component of the group, a master of time, groove and rhythm. He’s played regularly with Adasiewicz and the pair know how to complement each other and stay out of one another’s way. With commendable restraint Reed waited until the last number for his big feature ultimately unleashing a veritable drum barrage.

Sun Rooms have released two albums on Chicago’s legendary Delmark record label. The first “Sun Rooms” (2009) gave the group its name and the even better “Spacer” (2011) gives an even clearer indication of where the group are now. Both records feature Adasiewicz and Reed with bass duties being handled by Nate McBride. Today’s performance featured material from both records and both releases are highly recommended.   

Despite Adasiewicz’s involvement with musicians the Chicago free improv scene including frequent UK visitor Ken Vandermark Sun Rooms play tunes, the bulk of them Adasiewicz originals. Many of those performed today boasted one word titles such as “Bees” and “Stake”  suggesting a punk or indie rock mentality and indeed there’s an edgy, urban sense of urgency and energy about much of Sun Rooms’ music. As can be imagined much of the material was intensely rhythmic and in this exposed trio setting both Adasiewicz and Hoff relished the opportunity to stretch out at length. Adasiewicz deploys the four mallet technique pioneered by Burton but as I’ve previously intimated he sounds very different, the power of his strikes and frequent use of the vibraphone’s sustain pedal creating those ringing, metallic overtones.

“Spacer” is bookended by two pieces for solo vibes and here Adasiewicz’s solo feature saw him detaching the bars from their cords, something I’ve never seen done before to create a kalimba like sound. Elsewhere his use of sustain and reverb mimicked the ringing of church bells. Even without the use of bows (as deployed by Claudia Quintet’s Matt Moran and British vibraphonist Jim Hart) Adasiewicz seemed to be leading the instrument into previously uncharted sonic territory.

However the music wasn’t all about sound and fury and a spirit of showmanship. The lovely ballad “Rose Garden” from the “Sun Rooms” album proved that Adasiewicz can also do subtle and the set was leavened with other lyrical and impressionistic moments when Adasiewicz adopted a more conventional vibraphone sound and Reed picked up the brushes. They even performed a piece by Duke Ellington as if to emphasise the fact that for all their adventurousness at heart they’re still rooted in the tradition. 

As for Barbacana the attendance at the PAC was comparatively modest but those present loved what they saw, many seemed to be quite mesmerised by Adasiewicz’s astonishing performance. Peter Bacon raved about the trio on his Jazz Breakfast website and CD sales were brisk.

I’ll give Adasiewicz the nod for gig of the day for the sheer thrill of a fresh discovery. Musically I couldn’t separate this from Troykrestra, the Mike Gibbs Ensemble and Reuben James, four terrific gigs on what overall was the strongest day of the festival.

For those who missed Adasiewicz and want to see what all the buzz is about Sun Rooms’ Cheltenham performance is being transmitted on Jazz on Three at 11.00 pm on Monday May 13th 2013. The trio also played at London’s Cafe Oto during their short visit to the UK. Let’s hope they’re able to make a swift return, they have certainly made a lot of new friends with performances of this calibre, a combination of passion, energy, showmanship and a high degree of musical skill.     

Ian’s Star Rating; 4.5 Stars  

Overall Rating 4.5 Stars

 

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