Brecon Jazz Club presents Music Network Tân Cerdd, The Muse Arts Centre, Brecon, 09/06/2026

AC FACTOR - Andy Brown – electric bass, Charlie Pierce – keys, Dan West – drums

with

Eric Kamosi Djogi – guitar

Francesca Dimech - trumpet, harmonica, backing vocals

Arran Jones, CEEME, Ruth Zewege, Shakira Davies, Emsy – lead and backing vocals

Brecon Jazz Club’s ongoing collaboration with the Cardiff based organisation Music Network Tân Cerdd delivered another excellent evening of music at this now annual event.

Tân Cerdd Community Interest Company (CIC),  was founded by vocalist and educator Dionne Bennett, perhaps best known as the former frontwoman of the band Slowly Rolling Camera, the group led by keyboard player, composer and Edition record label owner Dave Stapleton.

Bennett is a great friend of Brecon Jazz and has performed at the Festival as a solo artist on four occasions in 2022, 2023,  2024 and 2025. She was also part of the all female collective 6.0, led by bassist and composer Paula Gardiner, that appeared at the 2021 Festival.

Music education is something that is particularly important to Bennett and the Tân Cerdd organisation is described by its founder thus;
“Tân Cerdd is a Black-led, Black music Community Interest Company (CIC) committed to championing and advocating for the inclusion and elevation of Black artists in Wales. Their mission is to empower and amplify the voices of Black, Asian, Multi-Ethnicity, and working-class Welsh artists, ensuring they have the opportunities and infrastructure needed to flourish within the music industry”.

The singers and musicians of Tân Cerdd have performed regularly at the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff and also for members of the Welsh Parliament (Senedd Cymru) as part of Welsh Language Music Day.

The 2025 BJC /  Tân Cerdd event saw the members of Tân Cerdd, under the direction of artistic director Bennett, bringing their Neo Soul Jam on the road and giving it a jazz twist. My review of that presentation, from which much of the above biographical detail has been sourced, can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/brecon-jazz-club-presents-jazz-more-with-music-networktan-cerdd-the-muse-arts-centre-brecon-10-06-2025

This year’s event variously promised a mix of “funky jazz and vocals” and “soul, blues and jazz”. It’s fair to say that the overall performance delivered on all counts with the show featuring elements of all the genres mentioned above.

Although the formation of Tân Cerdd was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement it is an inclusive, multi-ethnic organisation where all aspiring musicians are welcome and tonight’s line-up very much reflected this.

Tonight’s personnel featured a mix of old and new faces. At the heart of the proceedings was last year’s ‘house trio’ of bassist Andy Brown, keyboard player Charlie Pierce and drummer Dan West, now working under the band name AC Factor.

These three remained on stage throughout, usually in the company of guest instrumentalists Eric Kamosi Djogi (guitar) and multi-instrumentalist Francesca Dimech (trumpet, harmonica, backing vocals). Dimech later told me that she also plays guitar and sometimes performs as a singer / songwriter, although we didn’t hear that side of her talent this evening.

The evening also featured three main vocalists Arran Jones, CEEME and Ruth Zewege, all of whom are Tân Cerdd regulars who had travelled up from Cardiff. Also joining in with the jam at the end were locally based singers Shakira Davies and Emsy.

AC Factor kicked the evening off with a funky rendition of the Bob James tune “Nautilus” with Kamosi Djogi on guitar and Dimech on trumpet both impressing as guest soloists alongside bassist Brown. AC Factor is a tight, well drilled unit and I think I’m correct in believing that the members of the core trio are all professional musicians – we had been promised a “mix of community & professional performers and their guests”.

The charismatic Arran Jones took to the stage to sing the Al Green classic “Let’s Stay Together”, his soulful lead vocals well supported by the instrumentalists, with Dimech featuring on both trumpet and backing vocals. Ruth Zewege, who was later to feature as a solo artist, also provided backing vocals.

Next we heard three songs from CEEME, who delved into the worlds of both soul and blues. A convincing reading of Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” was followed by another soul classic in the form of Stevie Wonder’s “Ain’t No Sunshine”. Finally we enjoyed a soul inflected arrangement of the classic blues song “The Sky Is Crying” with Pierce adopting an organ sound on his Nord keyboard and Dimech relishing the opportunity to blow some impressive blues harp. Pierce and Kamosi Djogi were also featured as instrumental soloists. Young and enthusiastic, and understandably a little nervous on her first visit to BJC,  CEEME proved to be a powerful and soulful vocalist whose performance combined a youthful mix of exuberance and vulnerability.

The first set concluded with an instrumental that represented something of a feature for Kamosi Djogi, who had impressed at last year’s event and played even more of a leading role tonight. The tune wasn’t announced, but I suspect that it may have been Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man” in its Headhunters incarnation.

The second set also kicked off with AC Factor and Kamosi Djogi delivering another funky instrumental with the sounds of Brown’s electric bass and Pierce’s electric piano prominent in the arrangement. I suspect that this may have been Mongo Santamaria’s “Afro Blue” as arranged by Robert Glasper.

Arran Jones, dubbed ‘Bugsy Champagne’ by off stage MC Dionne Bennet, t returned to lead the band., backing singers and a willing audience through a joyous, gospel infused version of Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me”. Featuring a keyboard solo from Pierce this was the song that really ignited the evening.

Ruth Zewege, hitherto deployed as a backing vocalist, now stepped into the spotlight as a lead singer. She began with a contemporary style arrangement, by Jason Rebello, of the Gershwins’ “Summertime”, with instrumental solos coming from Pierce at the keyboard and Dimech on trumpet.

“I’m gonna bring some soul to the stage” Zewege had told us by way of introduction. She delivered on her promise with a version of the Ray Charles song “I’ve Got a Woman” that mixed soul with funk and blues. The soul came from Zewege’s powerful vocals, the funk from the rhythms laid down by the members of AC Factor and the blues from Dimech’s harmonica. Particularly striking was the series of thrilling voice and harmonica exchanges between Zewege and Dimech.

While Zewege commented on the dated, sexist lyrics of the Ray Charles song she seemed far more comfortable with the words of India Arie’s “I Am Not My Hair”, a defiant declaration of young, black womanhood. In addition to Zewege’s emotive vocals this piece also featured Dimech on trumpet.

This section of the show concluded with Zewege singing one of her original songs, a quality piece of writing within the soul tradition and representing her own positive declaration of self. Kamosi Djogi was the featured instrumental soloist, as he was on the closing instrumental, performed by himself and AC Factor.

We now entered the ‘jam session’  section of the performance. First we heard from Brecon based vocalist Shakira Davies, who I recall seeing perform at the 2023 Brecon Jazz Festival as a guest of pianist Mike Chappell and his trio. Davies is a versatile singer capable of singing in a variety of musical styles. Tonight she performed a powerful acapella version of the Etta James song  “At Last My Love Has Come Along”, a song that she had also performed in 2023. Bennett was so impressed by this stunning set piece that she subsequently invited Davies to work with Tân Cerdd again.

Finally all the vocalists, including Davies and the young Emsy, joined forces with all the instrumentalists for the closing jam, with spontaneous lyrics riffing on the theme of Brecon Jazz. The singers loved it, sharing and alternating vocal lines, led by CEEME and Zewege but with Davies and Emsy also well integrated into the performance. The vocalising from all the singers was joyous, powerful and infused with soul and gospel influences.

Taking place a year to the day since the 2025 event this was another hugely enjoyable evening of music making that featured some excellent singing and playing. There was a smaller cast of performers than last year and the event was shorter – only two sets instead of three – but the quality was still very much there., as was the sense of fun that informed the whole evening. The members of Tân Cerdd are all very supportive of one another and there’s a true community spirit about the organisation, as personified by Dionne Bennett herself.

The core trio impressed once more as did the instrumental guests Kamosi Djogi and the gifted multi-instrumentalist (and occasional vocalist) Dimech.

The three featured vocalists all sang superbly, combining technical facility with soul, passion and an innate sense of fun. They looked really happy to be able to perform in front of the supportive and knowledgeable Brecon Jazz Club crowd. Davies and Emsy also stepped up to the plate and both acquitted themselves well, and particularly Davies with that terrific solo performance.

When covering the 2025 event I noted;
“There had been some rehearsal time for the singers beforehand and one sensed that with even more of this that tonight’s show could be developed into a very slick and professional production.”

That’s an observation that still holds true, and which was also made this year by Lynne Gornall of Brecon Jazz Club who felt that the Tân Cerdd show could easily become a successful presentation at other jazz clubs and festivals.

Meanwhile Tân Cerdd will have its own stage in Bethel Square as part of the free programme at the 2026 Brecon Jazz Festival.

Congratulations to Dionne Bennett and all the performers for another successful Brecon Jazz Club /  Tân Cerdd collaboration, something that looks set to become a much loved annual event.

My thanks to Francesca Dimech and Charlie Pierce for speaking with me after the show and for verifying some personnel and set list details.

 

 

 

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