Photograph of Marilyn Mazur sourced from the EFG London Jazz Festival website http://www.efglondonjazzfestival.org.uk

EFG LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL

FRIDAY 22/11/2024

KIELAN SHEARD TRIO, PIZZA EXPRESS JAZZ CLUB, SOHO

Kielan Sheard – electric bass, Tom O’Brien – piano, Jonah Evans – drums
with Dom Howard - guitar

Friday’s free admission lunchtime event at the Pizza featured a trio led by electric bass specialist Kielan Sheard, a finalist in the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year competition 2020, which was won by pianist Deschanel Gordon, another artist playing at this year’s EFG LJF.

Today’s performance was part of the Heads Up series of events curated by singer, flautist and all round organiser Kasia Konstance. The series promotes the work of young, emerging musicians and presents monthly events at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho. During EFG LJF several other lunch time events had been presented under the Heads Up banner. Konstance is also a broadcaster with a Heads Up radio show on One Jazz radio, which can be found here;
https://www.onejazz.net/contributors/kasia-konstance/

Kasia is a tireless worker for British jazz and deserves every credit for her work, even if her support of others sometimes means that her own musical career has to take something of a back seat. The Jazzmann reviewed her work as a performer, under the name Kasia Kawalek 5tet, at the 2017 EFG LJF and I have also liaised with her in her various administrative capacities. It was good to meet up with her again for the first time in five Covid affected years.

Turning now to twenty two year old Kielan Sheard, who is currently in his fourth year of study at Trinity Laban. In addition to this he is already an incredibly busy musician on the London music scene, playing both electric and acoustic bass with a myriad of different bands across a range of musical genres.

He made his recording debut in 2023, and on the famous Blue Note record label no less. Sheard appears as a member of trumpeter Byron Wallen’s band Indigo on the compilation album “Transmissions from Total Refreshment Centre”, a collection of performances from some of the leading lights on a vibrant London jazz scene. He also appears on the 2023 album “Being”, the debut recording of pianist and composer Benjamin Rocca.

Today’s performance was introduced by Kasia Konstance who told us something about the work of the Heads Up organisation before handing over to the band. The trio is Sheard’s regular working group and sees him specialising on electric bass. It features his own compositions exclusively and places the focus on group interaction with the aim of the trio functioning as a single entity, or “Three as One”.

Nevertheless there’s no doubting that this is Sheard’s band and his bass plays a substantial part in the trio’s music, as exemplified by the unaccompanied bass intro to “Mahona”, a complex composition written in eleven, as Sheard explained. The leader’s bass very much drove the tune, which included solos from both O’Brien and Sheard.

“Redressment” exhibited a more conventional jazz feel and incorporated expansive solos from O’Brien and Sheard plus a drum feature from the impressive Evans that provided the segue into the next piece.

This proved to be “Dunedin”, a tune named after a village in Scotland to which the Sheard family travelled for holidays. This was a gentler, more lyrical piece that saw Sheard moving to a Fender fretless bass in order to obtain a sumptuously languid and liquid electric bass sound. This was allied to O’Brien’s lyrical piano soloing and Evans’ deft and imaginative brush work, his drumming neat and packed with small but delightful details. This was an episodic composition that gathered a greater momentum during the course of O’Brien’s solo, the energy then dissipating prior to a gentle and lyrical finale.

The enigmatically titled “9124” was more riff based and angular and represented a good platform for Sheard to demonstrate his chops, he really is an electric bass virtuoso and could often be seen swarming all over the instrument. He was matched here by the excellent O’Brien at the piano.

For the last two numbers the trio were augmented by guitarist Dom Howard, which resulted in a more obviously ‘fusion’ sound – but the music wasn’t any the worse for that and if anything Howard’s presence moved it up a gear. The newcomer made his presence felt as he took the first solo on “Devolution”, followed by O’Brien at the piano and Sheard on bass, with Evans also weighing in with a powerful drum feature.

An interesting and hugely enjoyable set concluded with “Balance”, another complex piece written in thirteen but whose odd meter rhythms were hypnotic and thoroughly compelling. Again Howard kickstarted the solos with a powerful six string excursion that drew heavily on the dynamics of rock. Terrific stuff. O’Brien followed at the piano and Sheard at the bass, a truly virtuoso sign off from the leader.

Although only six tunes were played this was still a seventy five minute show which saw the trio, and their guest, really stretching out on the material and throwing a substantial amount of improvisation into the mix. The arrival of Howard certainly kicked things up a notch and the addition of guitar helped to broaden the range of the music in terms of colour, texture and dynamics. It will be interesting to see if they decide to work as a quartet again. Sheard hopes to record this music and remains to be seen which instrumental format he chooses to use. Whatever he decides the results are going to be well worth hearing.

My thanks to Kielan, Dom and Kasia for speaking with me after the show. For details of more Heads Up events please visit http://www.kasiakonstance.com.

And make sure you keep an eye out for Kielan Sheard and his bandmates too.

MARILYN MAZUR’S SHAMANIA, MILTON COURT

EFG LJF offers the opportunity to see international musicians who rarely visit the UK. Yes, I know percussionist, composer and bandleader Marilyn Mazur has played the Festival before but her British live appearances are not exactly an everyday occurrence.

After some deliberation, once again there were lots of tempting alternatives, I opted to see Mazur’s all female ensemble Shamania, which lined up as follows;

Josefine Cronholm - voice
Hildegunn Øiseth -  trumpet and goat horn
Lotte Anker - tenor and soprano saxophone
Sissel Vera Pettersen -  voice and alto saxophone
Lis Wessberg -  trombone
Makiko Hirabayashi - piano and keyboard
Ida Gormsen -  electric bass
Lisbeth Diers -  congas and percussion
Marilyn Mazur  - composer/leader, drums, percussion

Prior to this evening’s event I have to admit to knowing precious little about Mazur other than that she has worked with saxophonist Jan Garbarek and trumpeter Miles Davis. Research reveals that she has released fifteen albums as a leader, including the Shamania recordings “Shamania” (2019) and “Re-Rotting” (2022).

Shamania is just one of the many projects that the Danish musician has on the go and has its roots in an earlier project, the music theatre group the Primi Band. Mazur describes Shamania as a world jazz orchestra / music theatre group and that music theatre aspect was emphasised as the ensemble made its entrance through the side doors of the venue, parading past the crowd Loose Tubes style to the stage, with each band member playing a small item of percussion.

As the other band members put down their small drums and took up their usual instruments Mazur and Diers entertained the crowd with a furiously rhythmic percussive duet, with Mazur playing a snare drum placed centre stage. Gradually electric piano, electric bass and trumpet came on board, followed by trombone, saxes and the soaring wordless vocals of Cronholm. Anker was the first featured instrumental soloist, coming to the front of the stage to join Mazur and Diers and really tearing it up on tenor. Although the tune title was unannounced this represented a hugely invigorating start, visually exciting, rhythmically vibrant and hugely entertaining.

Mazur now retreated behind her huge percussive set up incorporating kit drums, congas, tabla, bells, gongs and much, much more. The next piece commenced with the sound of Cronholm’s wordless vocals accompanied by the shimmering of Mazur’s bells, the patter of Diers’ congas and the rippling piano arpeggios of Hirabayashi. As Gormsen’s electric bass began to growl and Anker switched to soprano sax Cronholm’s vocals became more extreme, acquiring a truly shamanistic quality and reminiscent at times of a Sami Joik. Alto saxophonist Petterson, a hugely accomplished vocalist herself joined to provide additional vocal harmonies. Mesmerising stuff.

A passage of unaccompanied alto saxophone appeared to mark a transition into the next piece. Mazur then added percussive rumbles and shimmers as the music evolved into an alto / sax percussion dialogue, with Mazur deploying bells and gongs to extremely musical effect. A brief passage of unison squalls from the horns then led into a feature for conga specialist Diers.

Mazur now spoke to the audience for the first time, introducing the members of the all Scandinavian ensemble and announcing the next song as “Unison Towers”, a track from the “Re-Rooting” album. Powerful unison horn passages contrasted with the delicate, filigree sounds of bells, finger cymbals and singing bowls. The full band was then unleashed, all wielding shakers at first as Petterson’s singing explored aspects of extended vocal technique, think Julie Tippetts, Maggie Nichols etc.  Cronholm then joined Petterson to deliver a semi-spoken English language lyric. I suspect that this was actually a segue of “Unison Towers” and “Largo of Voices”, which are sequenced back to back on the album.

The next item was introduced by an extended passage of unaccompanied piano and also included a spectacular solo percussion feature from the leader. The two vocalists continued to play an important role as they soared wordlessly above the grooves generated by the rhythm section. Trombonist Wessberg was the other featured instrumental soloist.

Gormsen’s unaccompanied electric bass introduced the next piece, joined by the leader’s percussion and then by Cronholm’s shamanistic vocals. This piece was something of a vocal showcase with all the members of the ensemble singing at one point, prior to instrumental solos from Gormsen on bass, Anker on tenor sax and Øiseth on trumpet.

Mazur explained that much of the music for “Re-Rooting” had been written during the Covid years, including the next piece “Virtual Towers”, which commenced in disciplined fashion with short unison horn phrases played over a percussive groove, before shading off into a free jazz episode that included the use of extended techniques from tenor saxophonist Anker during the course of her dialogue with Mazur. The pattern continued with riff and groove based passages punctuated by free jazz episodes including a piano and trombone dialogue and a subsequent trombone solo. Mazur had spoken about the music exploring different musical landscapes and embracing different atmospheres and emotions as well as incorporating improvised set pieces. These qualities were apparent throughout tonight’s performance but were particularly well encapsulated by this piece.

The next item began with Mazur solo, playing kalimba. She was joined by Petterson’s vocals and Hirabayashi’s piano, the singer’s rarefied vocals again embracing extended techniques as first Cronholm, and then the entire ensemble, added vocal harmonies.

The final piece was introduced by the extraordinary sound of Øiseth on goat horn, playing over Hirabayashi’s synth drone and manipulating her own sound electronically to produce a noise that was simultaneously ethereal and primal, reminiscent at times of Garbarek or perhaps more appropriately Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen. In any event it was quite remarkable. She was joined by the leader’s percussion and eventually by the rest of the ensemble as Gormsen established an electric bass groove that formed the basis for an inventive electric piano solo from Hirabayashi that explored a kind of twisted funk. The piece ended with a free jazz style freak-out featuring the sounds of braying horns and other worldly vocal incantations as dry ice swirled around the members of the ensemble. It was a spectacular climax to an intriguing evening of music making.

The audience turnout at Milton Court was actually disappointingly small but those of us that were there were enthusiastic enough to bring the band back for a deserved encore. This was introduced by Mazur and Diers both playing congas and working in conjunction with electric bass and electric piano to form an African style groove that provided the backdrop for Anker’s soprano sax soloing. Voices were raised to sing of the virtues of togetherness, a declaration of female solidarity,  and the evening ended as it began with the sounds of the twin percussionists Diers and Mazur. We didn’t get the parade back through the crowd though.

This was certainly an entertaining show, one that mixed a variety of jazz styles and which was simultaneously tightly disciplined within an overall musical framework while allowing plenty of scope for improvisation and self expression. The use of vocals was inventive and distinctive and the project’s background in musical theatre was also apparent throughout and added a unique element to the group’s work. Occasionally I was reminded of an avant garde jazz version of David Byrne’s “American Utopia”. As a big David Byrne / Talking Heads fan I hope he’d like that analogy.

Mazur has certainly created a sound and aesthetic that is very much her own and this was perhaps the most unusual performance that I saw during the course of the Festival. It’s just a shame that the venue wasn’t full and that there weren’t a few more people there to appreciate it.

 

 

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