Percy Pursglove, “Far Reaching Dreams of Mortal Souls”, CBSO Centre, Birmingham, 17/10/2014.

Multi-instrumentalist, composer and educator Percy Pursglove was one of three Birmingham based musicians to be awarded with a Fellowship by the Jazzlines organisation in 2013. With the financial support of the Arts Council of Great Britain and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation Jazzlines was able to offer a year of financial assistance and creative opportunity to Pursglove, saxophonist Lluis Mather, pianist Dan Nicholls and drummer Jonathan Silk.

Each award winner has been given the opportunity to present their work at a Jazzlines Fellows Showcase with Pursglove’s the final one of the four. His was arguably the most ambitious of the four projects, a suite of nine movements that had taken an entire year to come to full fruition performed by an ensemble consisting of nine instrumentalists, a conductor and an eight piece choir.

Equally skilled on both the trumpet and the double bass Pursglove is a graduate of the Jazz Course at Birmingham Conservatoire and also studied at the New School University in New York City and worked with many of that city’s leading large jazz ensembles (including the Duke Ellington Orchestra) and small groups, often with bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Tommy Crane. Pursglove continues to perform in a variety of jazz contexts and since returning to the UK has also established a considerable reputation as a jazz educator with posts at Birmingham Conservatoire and with various youth jazz organisations in England, Wales and Scotland.

A sell out crowd crammed into the CBSO Centre with Pursglove receiving excellent support from his fellow musicians and students, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the venue as full, even for some of the music’s biggest names. Both the audience and the ensemble were seated in the round which made for some interesting sight lines. Playing trumpet exclusively Pursglove was at the heart of an instrumental ensemble that also featured Julian Arguelles (tenor & soprano saxophones), James Allsopp (bass clarinet), Jim Rattigan (french horn & accordion), Melinda Maxwell (oboe & cor anglais) , Helen Tunstall (harp), Hans Koller (piano), Michael Janisch (double bass) and Paul Clarvis (percussion).  The eight voices were Eloise Irving and Danae Elini (sopranos), Naomi Berry and Angela Simkin (altos), Ed Harrison and Ashley Turnell (tenors) and Themba Mvula and Adrian Horsewood (basses). The whole was conducted by Dan Rosina with Pursglove also directing in the jazz manner through subtle signals via hands, head and eyes.

Pursglove writes of the project thus;
“Far reaching dreams of Mortal Souls” is a project that has been in the back of my mind for a few years now. I had some wonderful experiences singing in choirs at an early age and the sound of and purity of massed voices has always drawn my ear. I wanted to find a way to access that broad spectrum of possible textures that Gabriel Faure had introduced me to all those years ago, but within a chamber ensemble setting that has the scope to offer another layer of unforeseen spontaneity”.

The text, which saw the choir singing in four different languages, was drawn from writings, speeches, interviews and documentation by and about nine individuals whom Pursglove considered to be of historical significance. These were Anne Frank, Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, Malala Yousafzai, Charles Darwin, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Benjamin Franklin and Joan of Arc.

A programme was produced which provided some background as to the circumstances of these keynote speeches and writings but did not go so far as reproducing the libretto (copyright issues, perhaps?)  and I suspect that the pieces were not performed in the exact order in which they were printed in the programme - something emphasised by the fact that the Galileo piece was definitely played last. Given the frequent use of other languages and the usual difficulties of picking up lyrical content at a live performance I’m not going to try and second guess which movement was about which historical figure. 

The music was played entirely acoustically and I was immediately impressed by the way in which Pursglove blended the voices and instruments together. Although drawing extensively on classical sources this was still music that was recognisably jazz despite the presence of essentially non jazz instruments such as harp and oboe. Indeed Maxwell was at the heart of many of the arrangements.

The eclectic nature of the instrumentation allowed for a number of interesting and unusual combinations such as the harp/accordion duet that graced the first movement. I’ve seen Jim Rattigan playing french horn on a number of occasions in bands led by Mike Gibbs and Mark Lockheart among others but had no idea that he was also a skilled accordionist! The suite as a whole found room for delightful cameos such as this and a number of improvised introductions were also written into the repertoire but conventional jazz solos were comparatively rare, the bulk of these coming from either Pursglove or Arguelles. These two featured here in the first movement, on trumpet and soprano saxophone respectively.

The second movement featured the soaring voices of the choir plus more of those unusual, interesting and colourful instrumental configurations such as the trio of oboe, french horn and bass clarinet, none of them frequently heard jazz instruments.

Movement Three featured one of those improvised introductions, this a delightful dialogue between Clarvis and Janisch, the former emphatically justifying his billing as a “percussionist” rather a mere “drummer”. The orchestrally trained Clarvis deployed an impressive array of percussive instruments, his ensemble playing undemonstrative but always apposite and appropriate. Arguelles was featured on tenor, the performance representing a homecoming gig for a man who has spent so much time away from the city that it’s sometimes easy to forget that he’s actually a native of Birmingham.

An impressive display of choral singing introduced Movement Four, the massed voices declaring a message of “peace and non violence” as Arguelles, again on tenor, took the instrumental plaudits.

Pursglove put the spotlight on himself with a stunning solo trumpet introduction to Movement Five,  the combination of circular breathing, overblowing and breathy, bubbling vocalisations sounding like the work of more than one musician. In an impressive feat of physical resourcefulness he continued to underscore the voices of the choir as the piece progressed, eventually subsiding as the choir entered into enchanting dialogues with first Tunstall’s harp then Allsopp’s bass clarinet.

Movement Six began with the sound of Clarvis’ percussion and the massed finger clicking of the entire ensemble, choir included, to create the sound of water droplets in the rainforest (I’d hazard that this might have been the Darwin inspired piece). This was wonderfully atmospheric and effective, brilliantly conceived and executed by Pursglove and the ensemble. A more conventional percussion solo followed, leading into a kind of free jazz episode featuring the wilful dissonance of Pursglove’s trumpet and a surprisingly robust contribution from Maxwell’s oboe.

Movement Seven featured the rich contrapuntal singing of the choir plus the combination of trumpet and accordion followed by more conventional jazz solos from Koller on piano, Arguelles on tenor and Allsopp on bass clarinet.

Janisch, that rock at the heart of the ensemble, ushered in the eighth movement with an impressive display of improvised solo bass before briefly reprising his earlier dialogue with Clarvis. Even after the entry of the full band and choir space was left for a further bass feature prior to a major tenor solo from Arguelles, the saxophonist carefully building the tension on his lengthiest, and best, solo of the night.

Following this penultimate piece Pursglove stood to offer his thanks to both Jazzlines and Jerwood plus a number of individuals, among them long term musical associate Hans Koller. Both the audience and the ensemble applauded him warmly as Pursglove announced that the final item would be “Heliocentricism”, the piece inspired by the tribulations of Galileo Galilei. Here again was that rich combination of voice and instruments on a beautifully atmospheric finale that drew a standing ovation from a highly appreciative audience.

The evening had been a triumph for Pursglove and it must have delighted him to see this richly colourful, complex and ambitious music being so ecstatically received. Yes, the audience were on his side but this ovation went beyond that, people were clearly excited by what they’d heard. Impressive as the details were it was the overall sound and concept that was most impressive , particularly the way in which the text interacted with the music and, similarly, the way the choir were fully integrated into the performance with the benign presence of conductor Rosina helping to bring it altogether. The instrumentalists were excellent throughout with Pursglove and Arguelles featuring most prominently but of the others it was Maxwell, not a jazz player as far as I’m aware, who proved to be the surprise package.

Peter Bacon’s positive review for The Jazz Breakfast seemed to suggest that the concert was being recorded Let’s hope so, for this was music that deserved to be heard more than once, although economic considerations will probably ensure that this is unlikely. A live album would be good though. 

Pursglove’s performance had been part of a Jazzlines Vocal Jazz Weekend which had begun earlier at the Café Bar in the foyer of Symphony Hall with a free early evening performance by the Anthony Marsden Quartet. The young Belfast born vocalist is now based in Birmingham and played a successful set at the 2014 Cheltenham Jazz Festival.

His quartet of fellow Birmingham Conservatoire students/graduates featured Andrew Woodhead on piano, Steve Barker on double bass and rising star Ric Yarborough at the drums. Their two sets included jazz standards, an Irish folk tune, and best of all a number of original songs by Marsden and other songwriters. The standards included “Secret Love”, “Candyman”, “Weaver Of Dreams” Clifford Brown’s “Joy Spring” and Cole Porter’s “Do I Love You”, all of them treated to unusual and inventive vocal phrasing and instrumental arrangements. Most distinctive was a modal take on “Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” which closed the second set and completely subverted the Elvis Presley original.

Interesting singer/songwriter material included a little heard Amy Winehouse song ( I think Marsden said it was a B side or a demo) and “Call Me Green”, a song from the point of view of an ingénue written by Northern Irish songwriter Juliette Turner. 

The Irish folk tune was sung unaccompanied and was very impressive but for me the most interesting material was Marsden’s own including the originals “Not Off Me”, “Speak” and “A Restless Mind” plus two “Nocturnes” based on life after dark in the city of Birmingham. As well as being a talented vocalist Marsden is also an intelligent and perceptive lyricist. The three instrumentalists all performed well with Woodhead inevitably taking the majority of the solos.

I’ll admit that I’m not always overly keen on vocal jazz but Marsden won me over with the quality of his performance, his eclectic choice of outside material and his convincing original songs. He and his quartet proved to be popular figures with the early evening crowd.

The Jazzlines Vocal Weekend also included performances on Saturday 18th October 2014 by Nia Lynn and by the London Vocal Project with Sara Colman.

Prior to the Percy Pursglove performance I was privileged to be invited to a drinks reception at Symphony Hall at which this year’s Jazzlines Fellowship award winners were announced. Congratulations go to trumpeter Yazz Ahmed, vocalist Lauren Kinsella and bassist Chris Mapp. A full press release will no doubt be issued shortly and will appear on our news pages.