Black Mountain Jazz “Jazz Pick and Mix Concert”, Melville Centre, Abergavenny, 15/06/2025 (Part of ReVibe Festival)

House trio;
Newman Tai – piano, Benedict Stephens – double bass, Patrick Barrett-Donlon – drums

With guests;
Joe Northwood, Reuben Carter – tenor saxophones, Debs Hancock – vocals, Paola Scarpetta – guitar, vocals, Robert Parker – alto saxophone

This free admission event was the last item on the programme of the weekend long ReVibe Festival, held at the Melville Centre in Abergavenny.

Promising to “relaunch, refresh and revive our Arts Centre” the ReVibe Festival presented a weekend of community events including arts and crafts and music workshops, poetry, storytelling, cinema, theatre and children’s activities. There was also a Saturday night performance by the popular local ‘party band’ Albino Frogs.

As the Melville Centre is the regular home of Black Mountain Jazz the Club was invited to be involved and had presented a Samba Drumming Workshop and a Jazz Improvisation Workshop, the latter hosted by the Cardiff based saxophonist and educator Joe Northwood, a leading figure on the South Wales jazz scene and a tutor at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (RWCMD).

Northwood’s workshop took place on the afternoon of Sunday 15th June and was a successful event with participants ranging in age from nine years to seventy plus. It was only fitting that he should then remain in town for the evening’s activities, with BMJ presenting a free “Jazz Pick & Mix” concert in the Melville Centre Theatre. 

It was the intention that audiences could ‘drop in and out’ of this free admission event and it was hoped that the evening would attract the attention of townspeople that might not normally listen to jazz, with the hope that seeing the music performed live might encourage them to try it again and come to one of the regular Club nights or Wall2Wall Festival events.

Hosted by vocalist and BMJ stalwart Debs Hancock the evening had something of the relaxed feel of a jam session but ultimately was a little more organised and formal than that. The house trio, led by pianist Newman Tai, featured students and graduates of the RWCMD and included bassist Benedict Stephens, who had appeared with Tai at BMJ earlier in the year as part of a group led by tonight’s drummer, Patrick Barrett-Donlon.

The first part of tonight’s concert featured the trio playing with Northwood, their former tutor. Northwood handled the announcements and introduced a selection of well known jazz standards performed in the ‘head-solos-head’ format, with the soloing order generally the same on any given piece.

They commenced with the John Coltrane composition “Bessie’s Blues” with Northwood stating the theme and taking the first solo, followed by Tai at the piano and Stephens on bass, prior to Barrett-Donlon ‘trading fours’ with the other three instrumentalists.

Alto saxophonist Charlie Parker’s “Scrapple From The Apple” was played by Northwood on tenor, again stating the theme and taking the first solo. Tai and Stephens followed, this time succeeded by a series of tenor sax / piano exchanges.

“Sunny Side Of The Street” was delivered at a relaxed medium tempo with Tai taking the first real solo in the wake of Northwood’s opening theme statement. The saxophonist then stretched out more expansively, followed by a bass and drum dialogue between Stephens and Barrett-Donlon.

This opening sequence concluded with a breezy, fast paced, Latin tinged rendition of “I Remember April” with solos from Northwood and Tai and a drum feature from Barrett-Donlon.

Hostess Debs Hancock promised us a “veritable smorgasbord of jazz” and the next guest to come to the table was Hancock herself, who replaced Northwood to sing three songs with the trio.

Hancock is a classy vocalist who has appeared at BMJ on a number occasions and is a popular presence on the South Wales jazz scene. Her first song choice was “Devil May Care”, ushered in by a combination of voice and double bass, with piano and brushed drums subsequently added. In addition to Hancock’s vocals Stephens continued to feature strongly with a melodic double bass solo. This was an item that was very well received by an impressively large audience that included several BMJ regulars in addition to some inquisitive first timers.

Hancock’s main source of inspiration is Ella Fitzgerald and in 2017 she toured with a production celebrating the centenary of Fitzgerald’s birth. Tonight she chose to sing a Fitzgerald inspired version of “On Green Dolphin Street”, a song that Fitzgerald recorded in a duo format with the guitarist Joe Pass. Tonight the featured instrumental soloist was pianist Newman Tai.

Hancock told us something about the friendship between Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe and concluded her short set with “After You Get What You Want, You Don’t Want It”, a song actually performed by Monroe. Hancock sang it more in the style of Fitzgerald, with Tai the featured instrumental soloist. The performance also included a dialogue between double bass and brushed drums.

Back in her role as MC Hancock told the audience something about BMJ’s youth jazz section the BMJazzKatz. Supporting and encouraging young jazz musicians has always been an important part of the BMJ remit and the JazzKatz project was founded in 2023 with young, aspiring jazz musicians gathering together on a regular basis to learn about the music from tutors Jack MacDougall, Nick Kacal and Ryan Thrupp. The JazzKatz have already made a number of public appearances at different events in Abergavenny while the three tutors, under the name BMJ Collective,  perform regularly at the Club following the Sunday afternoon JazzKatz workshops, each event featuring a guest musician specifically invited by the trio. The majority of these events, which are never less than interesting and often simply excellent, are reviewed elsewhere on The Jazzmann.

Tonight represented an opportunity for BMJ to demonstrate to a live audience just how far some of the JazzKatz have progressed, with two of the older, more experienced Katz being featured as part of tonight’s event. Hancock described this process as “passing the baton” and the first young musician to take a hold of it was sixteen year old tenor saxophonist Reuben Carter. Hancock described Carter as a “young man with an old soul” and praised his devotion to jazz, a music that “he has taken completely to his heart”.

Carter has just finished his GCSEs and exhibited an impressive maturity as he announced his own tune selections, beginning with the standard “Softly As In A Morning Sunrise”. He also exhibited a similar fluency during a concise tenor sax solo, this complemented by a melodic double bass solo from Stephens and piano solo from Tai. Carter was also part of a series of trades with drummer Barrett-Donlon before tapping his head to signal a return to the main theme, a clear indication of his leadership skills.

Carter’s second selection was the Charlie Parker tune “My Little Suede Shoes”, a lively bebop flavoured piece that featured solos from all four musicians, with Carter going first followed by Tai, Stephens and Barrett-Donlon. This was an item that was particularly well received by the crowd, with everybody in the audience commenting on just how well Carter had acquitted himself.

While the house trio took a well deserved rest the audience was entertained by the seventeen year old guitarist and vocalist Paola Scarpetta, also a member of JazzKatz. There seemed to be a degree of confusion as to whether Scarpetta was expected to wait to be announced by Hancock, but with an expectant audience in front of her she took on the task herself, also displaying an impressive maturity.

A delightful rendition of “From The Start”, a song by the Icelandic singer-songwriter Laufey, represented the most beautiful soundcheck I’ve ever heard.

He official performance featured “Something Stupid”, first made famous by Frank and Nancy Sinatra, and “Let You Break My Heart Again”, another beautiful Laufey song. Scarpetta described Laufey as “Ella for our generation” and it’s true that Laufey is extremely popular with British audiences, all the UK dates on her forthcoming tour are sold out, the venues including Union Chapel, Islington and Birmingham Town Hall. 

However I digress, this review is about Scarpetta, who has also begun to write songs of her own, including the factually titled “My Romantic Ballad”. Following this she concluded her set with “I Wish You Love”, a jazz song variously covered by Natalie Cole and, of course, Laufey.

As with Carter I was very impressed with both the maturity and the quality of Scarpetta’s performance. She has a beautiful voice and is also a skilled guitarist and has began to perform in public on a regular basis around her home town of Abergavenny.

The strides made by both Carter and Scarpetta over the past two years were plain to see tonight and both delivered superb performances. They were a great advertisement for the JazzKatz and a credit both to themselves and their tutors, Messrs. MacDougall, Kacal and Thrupp. And Reuben wasn’t quite finished yet, but more on that later.

Next up was alto saxophonist Robert Parker, who like Scarpetta can often be seen busking around Abergavenny. He was part of the 2024 Wall2Wall Jazz street music programme, playing outside the Kings Head pub as part of a duo with trumpeter Ken Lewis.

Parker played saxophone as a teenager but gave it up for the whole of his working life. Following retirement he took up the instrument again under the tutelage of Lionel Elton and has now been playing again for three years.

With Lewis unavailable he elected to play his alto sax to backing tracks sourced from YouTube. His choices all had a Brazilian flavour, Luis Bonfa’s “Black Orpheus” and the Antonio Carlos Jobim tunes “One Note Samba” and “Desafinado”.

As he observed his playing has improved immensely over the course of the last three years and his contribution to the evening was well received by a supportive local audience, although I have to confess that I’m not really a fan of pre-recorded backing tracks.

As the evening began to draw towards a close Northwood returned with the house trio. Their second set commenced with the Hank Mobley composition “This I Dig of You”, a perennial favourite with saxophonists and with jazz audiences. Barrett-Donlon’s crisp drumming helped to fuel solos from Northwood and Tai plus an increasingly confident Stephens, who delivered his best solo of the night. Barrett-Donlon also got to enjoy his own drum feature.

This sequence featured tunes associated with some of Northwood’s favourite tenor players. “On The Trail” was recorded by Jimmy Heath, among others. Introduced by tenor sax, double bass and brushed drums tonight’s performance of the tune included solos from Tai, Northwood and Stephens.

Northwood invited Reuben Carter back to the stage for a run through of Sonny Rollins’ “Tenor Madness”, a celebrated two tenor workout. This saw Carter and Northwood trading solos, with the younger musician more than holding his own against his more experienced colleague. Trio leader Tai delivered one of his best solos of he night, squeezing in some Thelonious Monk quotes along the way. Stephens’ double bass solo featured him with the bow before Northwood and Carter returned for a further series of exchanges, first with each other and then with Barrett-Donlon.

Debs Hancock returned to the stage to sing with Northwood and the trio on the last two numbers of the evening. “There Will Never Be Another You” featured Hancock’s singing of the verses plus a tenor sax solo from Northwood and a series of exchanges between Tai and Barrett-Donlon. Stephens’ double bass solo was followed by a vocal reprise from Hancock.

Finally we enjoyed the bossa nova “So Many Stars” with the sounds of warm toned tenor, lyrical piano and delicately brushed drums complementing Hancock’s cool and intimate vocals.

This “Jazz Pick and Mix Concert” represented a highly successful conclusion to the ReVibe Festival and was an excellent advertisement for Black Mountain Jazz. The free admission, come and go as you like approach worked well and at certain points of the performance the Melville Theatre was close to capacity, although the audience had thinned out significantly by the end, but with many BMJ stalwarts remaining.

It is to be hoped that the evening succeeded in its objective as acting as an effective showcase for BMJ and its activities and that some of those who were visiting the Club for the first time will return.

It was particularly effective as a showcase for the young musical talent that is being nurtured through the BMJazzKatz scheme with both Reuben Carter and Paola Scarpetta giving excellent accounts of themselves. I assume that both have ambitions to become professional musicians and their performances tonight suggested that both have the potential to succeed. Membership of the JazzKatz has served them well and it will be interesting to see how their musical careers develop in the future.

As a jazz concert the evening as a whole was remarkably successful and there was some excellent music played throughout, even though some of the material was rather predictable. However this wasn’t an event aimed at jazz purists and it was a prerequisite that the music should be readily accessible, and there were certainly some jazz classics among the selections by the various artists featured tonight.

BMJ is an important part of the cultural life of Abergavenny and it was good to see it being showcased so effectively.

 

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