Photograph of Wild Card by Dave Tidd courtesy of Clement Regert

EFG London Jazz Festival 2019,
Day Two, Saturday 16th November 2019.

DAYLIGHT MUSIC, UNION CHAPEL, ISLINGTON

featuring

MATTHEW GEER

HELENA KAY & SAM WATTS

KAIDI AKINNIBI & LORENZ OKELLO-OSENGOR

NILS OKLAND

One of my favourite musical discoveries of recent years has been Daylight Music, the weekly event held on Saturday lunchtimes in the beautiful environs of the Union Chapel, Islington, a moderate walk from our Festival base.

Now in its tenth season Daylight Music typically presents thirty concerts per year. These pay what you can events (suggested donation a mere fiver) present an eclectic mix of music across a range of genres ranging from jazz to folk to classical. Three different acts are normally presented with interval music also provided as customers avail themselves with tea and cake during the intervals. It really is a wall to wall listening experience.

Union Chapel is a terrific venue, beautiful, spacious, superb acoustics and incredibly warm and comfortable for a church in the middle of winter. It’s a huge building but with no pillars to spoil the sight lines, making it an ideal space in which to enjoy live music.  The tea and cakes offered for sale by the Margins Foundation, a charity dedicated to helping the homeless and the isolated of London, represent a delicious bonus.

MATTHEW GEER

As we entered we were greeted by introductory music provided by Matthew Geer who was playing the Chapel’s superb triple manual Father Willis organ, an instrument that has previously been graced by the playing of British jazz musicians Kit Downes and Ivo Neame and rock organist Hugh Banton of the group Van Der Graaf Generator.

Geer is an organist, composer and conductor currently studying classical composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and London. More information about his various musical activities can be found at his website http://www.mattgeer.co.uk

Unfortunately the organ console is hidden by the pulpit and it is difficult for audience members to see exactly what those musicians who perform on it are actually doing. Perhaps modern video technology could be deployed in some way with a screen set up so that the majority of the audience can witness the playing of the organists. I appreciate that this may be an expensive business but it would certainly be something worth examining, perhaps with the establishment of a dedicated fund-raising campaign.

That said the comparative invisibility of the musician does add a certain air of mystery to the performance and Geer sounded wonderful throughout his various ‘interval’ slots, his playing rich in terms of atmosphere and timbre. ‘Background’ music has never sounded so good.

HELENA KAY / SAM WATTS DUO

The first ‘proper’ act of the day was the duo of tenor saxophonist Helena Kay and pianist Sam Watts. Scottish born Kay is a former Peter Whittingham Jazz Award winner. In 2018 she released her début album “Moon Palace”, a recording featuring her KIM Trio comprising of bassist Ferg Ireland and drummer David Ingamells. The album received a compelling amount of critical acclaim and My review of the recording can be read here;
http://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/helena-kays-kim-trio-moon-palace/

Birmingham born pianist and composer Sam Watts attended Leeds College of Music before moving to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music. Still based in the capital he performs regularly with many of the rising stars of the UK jazz scene. A bandleader in his own right Watts has led his own octet and my account of a 2016 performance by this group in Birmingham can be found here;
http://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/sam-watts-octet/

Today Watts was playing the Chapel’s resident upright piano and he and Kay commenced their performance with a convincing rendition of the title track from Kay’s “Moon Palace” album. Also an accomplished alto saxophonist and clarinettist Kay has since chosen to specialise on the tenor, the instrument she plays throughout the “Moon Palace” recording.

A passage of solo piano from Watts introduced “Unconditional Love”, a composition written by the late, great American pianist and composer Geri Allen (1957-2017). He and Kay subsequently traded further solos as well as interacting vigorously around the complex contours of Allen’s piece.

Solo saxophone introduced a ballad performance of the jazz standard “You’ve Changed”, with the sound of Kay’s tenor enhanced by the resonance of the Chapel’s superb acoustics. She and Watts again exchanged solos before the piece came full circle to end with an unaccompanied tenor sax cadenza.

The duo concluded with a performance of the Kay composition “Golden Sands”, another compelling and convincing piece of original writing.

Kay and Watts impressed with their easy rapport and excellent playing with Watts pianism bringing a subtle Brazilian tinge to some of the music. Apparently Kay has recently moved to New York and her British fans will no doubt wish her well on her American adventure.

Today’s duo performance got this Daylight Music event off to a great start and was the most orthodox ‘jazz’ performance of the three acts. It was certainly well received by the Union Chapel crowd who gave the duo an excellent reception.

KAIDI AKINNIBI / LORENZ OKELLO-OSENGOR DUO

The young musicians Kaidi Akinnibi and Lorenz Okello-Osengor are both products of the increasingly influential Tomorrow’s Warriors programme.

They have also been involved with the Jazz NewBlood scheme, centred at Waterloo Creative Studio and co-ordinated by Patricia Pascal. Indeed I recall first seeing Akinnibi at a Jazz NewBlood showcase event at the 2016 EFG LJF when he guested with the band TriForce and made a very favourable impression.

Meanwhile Okello-Osengor impressed at the following year’s Jazz Newblood showcase when he played keyboards with two different ensembles at the same event, vocalist Kasia Kawalek’s 5tet and the band Nihilism, fronted by violinist and vocalist Saskia Horton.

Okello-Osengor impressed with both groups and plays both acoustic piano and electric keyboards. However today’s event represented the first time that he had played church organ in public. It was revealed that he had visited the Chapel earlier in the week to familiarise himself with the ‘Father Willis’, but nevertheless entering into a twenty minute improvised dialogue still represented something of a challenge, and it was one that he rose to magnificently.

The combination of church organ and tenor saxophone is far from new with the duos of Jan Garbarek and Kjell Johnsen, Dave Stapleton and Deri Roberts and Kit Downes and Tom Challenger all representing recorded examples of the format. At last year’s EFG LJF Ivo Neame and Pete Wareham made a successful one off appearance in this configuration at Daylight Music.

Akinnibi and Okello-Osengor delivered a single improvisation lasting a little over twenty minutes or so. The young musicians quickly came to terms with the format to produce music that was intelligent, imaginative, absorbing and undeniably beautiful.

Since I last saw him three years ago Akinnibi has matured as both a man and a musician and his economical tenor playing was the perfect foil to Okello-Osengor’s colourful keyboard work, which saw the rookie organist deploying the full orchestral and sonic capabilities of the Father Willis, his imaginative use of the three manuals, the pedals and the various stops, including vox humana, helping to give the music an epic grandeur.

I assume that the pair have worked regularly together before, but never in this context, and they quickly established an excellent rapport that suggested that they’d actually been playing in this format for years. This was a genuinely impressive performance that demonstrated an impressive maturity and an innate and instinctive musicality.

Several musicians from the Tomorrow’s Warriors and Jazz NewBlood programmes have gone on to bigger things and I predict similarly bright features for Akinnibi and Okello-Osengor. This was a highly satisfying and enjoyable performance by two young men thrust into an unfamiliar instrumental context, within which they acquitted themselves superbly. Expect to hear a lot more from both of them.

NILS OKLAND

Today’s headliner was the Norwegian violinist Nils Okland, a musician associated with the ECM label whose presence tied in nicely with EFG LJF’s ECM 50th anniversary celebrations. Okland is also associated with the Norwegian Hubro label, both as a solo artist and as a member of the improvising trio 1982.

Okland plays a variety of stringed instruments but has come to specialise on the Hardanger Fiddle, a folk instrument exclusive to Norway that features sympathetic ‘understrings’ in addition to the usual four strings of the conventional violin. These eight (sometimes nine) stringed instruments are often elaborately carved and Okland’s fiddle was no exception.

Okland’s career has seen him blurring the boundaries between jazz, folk, classical and ambient music, bringing the sensibilities of jazz improvisation to what is essentially a folk instrument.

Okland had flown in specifically for today’s performance, a solo show that saw him demonstrate his mastery of both the Hardanger Fiddle and the conventional violin. He had brought three instruments with him, all with different tunings as he subsequently explained.

His first piece, played on the Hardanger Fiddle exploited the sonic capabilities of the sympathetic strings, the possibilities of which have allowed him to collaborate with guitarist Per Stainer Lie and drummer Ørjan Haaland in the ‘psychedelic drone band’ Lumen Drones.

Played on what looked like a conventional violin a piece described by Okland as “an old religious tune” was chosen for its suitability to the surroundings and was both direct and eerily beautiful. A brief “travelling song”, also played on violin, then introduced a more obvious folk element.

To close Okland took up the Hardanger Fiddle once more for a virtuoso performance of “Song Of Wild Horses”, which fused various musical forms and deployed three different rhythms.

Finally Okland called the earlier performers back to the stage for a ‘jam session’. Okello-Osengor took up his place behind the pulpit as Okland, on violin, was joined by Watts at the piano and the twin tenors of Kay and Akinnibi. The subsequent improvisation was atmospheric and genuinely beautiful, a one off triumph that almost sounded pre-composed, concluded by a final piano flourish from Watts.

This was an excellent way to conclude another successful Daylight Music event that had seen superb performances from all three main acts and with all the performers coming together for an effective collective finale. Matthew Geer deserves credit for his contribution to the proceedings too.

WILD CARD, SPICE OF LIFE

Over the years The Jazzmann has covered a number of releases by Wild Card, the group led by the French born, London based guitarist and composer Clement Regert.

The core of the band has always been the ‘organ trio’ of Regert,  Australian born keyboard player Andrew Noble and drummer Sophie Alloway, who appear on all of the group’s albums and at the majority of their live shows. Both the recordings and the live gigs habitually feature the contributions of guest instrumentalists and vocalists and tonight’s keenly anticipated live show was no exception.

Having reviewed the recordings “Everything Changes” (2012), “Organic Riot” (2015) and “Life Stories” (2018) I decided that it was high time that I finally got to check Wild card out in a live situation, an environment that I’ve always felt represents their natural habitat. Once again my thanks are due to Clement Regert for providing guest tickets for my wife and I at this sold out gig at a hot and crowded Spice Of Life. Thanks are also due to Tony from Greenwich for letting us share his table. Tony has great jazz knowledge and is a great supporter of the London jazz scene and we quickly struck up a friendship, meeting up again at several other gigs during the Festival period.

Wild Card were premièring material from their soon to be released fifth album “Beast from the East”, which will be unleashed to the general public on February 7th 2020, but which is already available at gigs.

The new recording features guest appearances by trumpeter Graeme Flowers, trombonist Rosie Turton and saxophonist Tim Garland among others. Turton was also a guest with the band this evening, alongside the Italian born alto saxophonist Roberto Manzin, a regular Wild Card collaborator who was replacing the advertised Paul Booth. Manzin proved to be capable and popular ‘sub’, his powerful and exuberant playing well received by a supportive crowd.

Tonight’s Wild Card quintet delivered two energetic sets featuring a variety of jazz styles including soul, funk and Latin with the core group joined on some numbers by the Brazilian born, London based vocalist Luna Cohen.

The performance began with the curiously titled “The Saga of Harrison Crabfeathers”, the opening track from Wild Card’s forthcoming CD. It was ushered in by a passage of unaccompanied guitar from Regert with the leader subsequently joined by Noble and Alloway. The first solo went to Noble, who conjured an authentic Hammond sound from his keyboard. He was followed by Turton, who delivered the first of a series of rousing solos on trombone, then by Regert on his distinctive Godin guitar. The powerful solos were punctuated by passages of more delicate instrumental interplay that helped to demonstrate a gentler, more subtle side of the band. Guest vocalist Emilia Martensson appears on the recorded version.

The rock band Radiohead remain popular with jazz artists and their songs have provided fertile ground for re-interpretation. Wild Card chose to cover “Exit, Music for a Film”, with Regert picking out the familiar melody on guitar and giving the music a subtle Latiin-esque twist.  Subsequent solos came from the leader and from Manzin on bug miked alto sax, whose incisive, barnstorming solo was followed by an Alloway drum feature.

The title track from “Beast from the East” followed with Regert moving to a more conventional electric guitar as Manzin and Turton thrillingly traded phrases over a shuffling, rocky groove. Later both stretched out further, tearing it up with full blooded solos, the horns followed by Regert’s rock influenced guitar.

Vocalist Cohen joined the group for the samba “Canto de Ossanah”, soulfully delivering the lyrics in Portuguese as she shared the limelight with Manzin’s blistering alto sax.

The jazz waltz “Doctor K” commenced with a solo passage from Regert on his semi-acoustic Godin guitar that incorporated a number of flamenco style flourishes. The first orthodox jazz solo came from Turton on trombone, fresh from her recent TV appearance on Later with Jools Holland with Nerija band. Regert subsequently took over on guitar, soloing effectively and trading phrases with Manzin’s alto.

A highly exciting and entertaining first set concluded with “La Paranthese Enchantee”,, a tune blending marching and samba rhythms and incorporating features for Regert, Turton and the irrepressible Alloway.

The interval allowed me the opportunity of speaking with Clement Regert and I’m also grateful to him for providing me with a copy of the set list, which has made the writing of this review so much easier. Cheers, Clement.

Set two kicked off with Regert and his colleagues giving Irving Berlin’s “Putting on The Ritz” the Wild Card treatment with souped up grooves fuelling buccaneering solos from Noble and Manzin.
Regert and Manzin then traded ideas in animated fashion with drummer Alloway. This was “The Ritz” as I’d never heard it before.

“Favela” took us back to Brazil as Cohen joined the band once more, again singing in Portuguese to the samba rhythms and with solo instrumental features for Regert, Turton and Alloway.

The instrumental “Beat the Beast” introduced a powerful funk groove as Regert and Manzin doubled on the tricky unison melody lines. Noble delivered a blazing organ solo before Manzin encouraged the audience to clap along with his sax solo. Manzin proved to be a great crowd pleaser and the style and power of his playing suggested that he’s a potential Blockhead, should Gilad Atzmon ever decide to relinquish the role.

“Shake It Up” maintained the energy levels, but now at a fast swing tempo with Noble adopting a classic Hammond sound as he again opened the soloing. Turton and Manzin then traded phrases before a more extended solo from the latter. Regert and Manzin had been exchanging verbal banter all night and the Italian included a quote from “The Marseillaise” in his solo in acknowledgement of his leader.

To close “Better Remorse Than Regret” introduced a contemporary Afro-beat feel with solos from Regert and Turton and with a dynamic closing drum feature from Alloway.

The supportive crowd at a sweltering Spice loved this and a deserved encore was inevitable.  For this Regert invited Cohen back to the stage to sing the Portuguese lyrics to “Black Orpheus”. The last two instrumental solos of the night came from guest musicians Turton and Manzin as this good natured and hugely enjoyable show came to a close.

As my previous listening experiences had suggested this was very much the best environment in which to see Wild Card, a small, hot and sweaty club with band and audience in close proximity to each other. The core trio have a well established rapport – Regert and Alloway have played over 200 gigs together – and their guests slotted in brilliantly. Manzin has appeared on previous Wild Card recordings and Turton is present and correct on the “Beast from the East” release.

The energy and bonhomie was complemented by some excellent musicianship as the band effectively explored a variety of jazz styles, keeping their audience engaged throughout. For myself I was delighted to have finally seen Wild Card live for the first time and I intend to take a look at the forthcoming “Beast from the East” album in the New Year.

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