Photograph by Kasia Ociepa

BMJAZZ KATZ “CHRISTMAS IN SIGHT”, BLACK MOUNTAIN JAZZ, MELVILLE CENTRE. ABERGAVENNY, 07/12/2025

Jack Mac – soprano sax, Nick Kacal – double bass, Patrick Barrett-Donlon – drums

Reuben Carter – tenor sax, Paola Scarpetta – guitar, vocals, Leon Engrand – clarinet, Osian Francis, Lila Engrand – piano, Gia Skilton-Breakey – drums

Debs Hancock – vocals

Founded in 2023 BMJazz Katz is the youth jazz ensemble of Black Mountain Jazz.

Mentored by tutors Jack Mac (reeds), Nick Kacal (double bass) and Ryan Thrupp (drums), aka the BMJ Collective,  the young musicians have made great strides over the past few years and have now made several public performances, the most recent at the 2025 Wall2Wall Jazz Festival at the end of September. Their performances are always happy and enjoyable affairs.

BMJazz Katz workshop sessions take place at the Melville Centre on a regular basis on Sunday afternoons and the idea was soon mooted for the tutors to perform for the public in the evening. The plan was not only for ticket sales to contribute towards the teaching costs, but also for the students to see their tutors performing at their best and embodying the Jazz Katz motto of “work, play, inspire”.

The first ‘BMJ Collective With…’ session took place in July 2023, just one month after the youth workshops started. A different guest is invited each month to perform with the trio of Mac, Kacal and Thrupp. At first most of the guest musicians came from South Wales but in recent months guests from both Bristol and London have been joining the trio on a regular basis. Kacal spent many years living and working in London and maintains close links with his musician friends in the English capital.

Every performance in the series has included an interesting selection of material sourced from the jazz canon and beyond, the majority of it chosen, or written, by the guest performer. All of the gigs have exceeded my expectations, representing far more than the usual obligatory or perfunctory ‘house trio with guest soloist’ session.   As I have previously observed,  “this is a series of events that continues to punch well above its weight”.

The role call of guests to date comprises;
vocalist Sarah Meek, pianists Alex Hutton, Ross Hicks Michael Blanchfield, Tom Berge. Dom Pipkin and Anders Olinder, trumpeter Gethin Liddington, pianist / vocalist Hilary Cameron and guitarists Chris Cobbson, Denny Ilett, John Close , Nigel Price and Mike Outram. Founding BMJ Collective member Alex Goodyear also returned for a guest appearance at the drum kit, temporarily replacing Ryan Thrupp. All of these performances have been hugely enjoyable events and the majority have been reviewed elsewhere on The Jazzmann.

Today’s event represented an end of year celebration of the work that the BMJ Collective and BMJazz Katz have done in 2025. It featured a selection of jazz arrangements of Christmas songs that the students and their had been working on.

Patrick Barrett-Donlon replaced the unavailable Ryan Thrupp at the drums, as he had done at Wall2Wall in September. He is also something of a favourite with BMJ audiences having appeared at the Club on several occasions with pianist and composer Eddie Gripper and also as the leader of his own “Leading From The Back” project, a celebration of jazz music composed by drummers and bass players.

The Katz line-up featured two of its ‘senior’ members, tenor saxophonist Reuben Carter and vocalist / guitarist Paola Scarpetta. These teenage musicians have been playing with the Katz from the beginning and have benefited hugely from the experience.

Reuben has become an accomplished tenor sax soloist and an increasingly mature and confident performer.

 Paola has blossomed in the Jazz Katz environment and now performs solo shows at various venues around Abergavenny on a regular basis. She has also begun writing her own songs.

These two were joined today by a number of younger Katz, including eleven year old Leon Engrand on clarinet and his eight year old sister Lila on piano.

Lila shared the piano stool with the slightly older Osian Francis while Gia Skilton-Breakey, another founding member, shared drumming duties with Barrett-Donlon.

With Carter playing tenor Mac chose to concentrate on soprano saxophone and briefly featured at the close of “Jingle Bells”, a piece that also included solos for Carter on tenor, Leon Engrand on clarinet and the combination of Francis and Lila Engrand at the piano. The pair were both seated at the keyboard of the Melville’s acoustic upright but from my vantage point I couldn’t see who was playing what.

“Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” featured the tutors in trio mode, commencing with the sounds of soprano sax, double bass and brushed drums. Mac’s soprano sax solo saw Barrett-Donlon graduating to sticks, but switching back to brushes again for Kacal’s double bass solo. The drummer then continued with brushes for his own feature.

“Good King Wenceslas” featured the full band of tutors and students and included solos for Leon Engrand on clarinet, Carter on tenor and Mac on soprano sax, with the tutor then entering into a series of exchanges with his young fellow reed players.

The only non-Christmas item was an arrangement of “After You’ve Gone”, a feature for Carter, who was accompanied by the trio of Mac, Kacal and Barrett-Donlon. Carter impressed with an expansive and assured tenor sax solo, with Mac eventually taking over from him. The two saxes then came together, working in tandem on the outro.

Vocalist Debs Hancock, one of the main BMJ organisers, joined the core trio to sing “White Christmas”, injecting an appropriate sense of seasonal warmth.

“Silent Night” featured the full band and was something of a feature for the two young pianists.

Paola Scarpetta, who had hitherto been playing rhythm guitar, put down her instrument and came to the front of the stage to deliver a playful and humorous performance of “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas”. She really does have a lovely voice.

I’ve just noticed that I didn’t make a note of the title of the next piece, an instrumental played by the tutors and featuring solos from Mac and Kacal. Apologies for that. Pretty sure it must have been Christmas themed though.

The full ensemble signed off with “Winter Wonderland”, a lively performances featuring solos for tenor sax, clarinet and piano and a feature for Skilton-Breakey with a series of brushed drum exchanges with Kacal’s bass. Mac couldn’t resist adding a few bars of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” at the close.

I very much enjoyed this 40-45 minute performance, which really did bring the Christmas spirit to Abergavenny. Usually when I hear the word “Christmas” in a musical context I run a mile but these jazz arrangements of some very old seasonal chestnuts sounded just great.

The core trio always sound good, whatever they play and whatever context they play it in. Perhaps even more impressive was the quality of the playing from some very young jazz musicians. They all acquitted themselves superbly.

This Christmas show rounded off an excellent 2025 for BMJazz Katz. Let’s hope we hear a lot more from them in 2026 and that the programme can continue to go from strength to strength.

The return of the BMJ Collective With… series will also be eagerly anticipated.  Hopefully there are already some interesting guests lined up for next year.

There was a social event in the bar area afterwards so thank you to the young musicians, their parents and their tutors for speaking with me after the show.

 

 

 

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