Photograph of Harper Trio by Pam Mann

EFG LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL 2025

DAY TWO, SATURDAY NOVEMBER 15th 2025

HARPER TRIO, PIZZA EXPRESS, SOHO

Maria-Christina Harper – electro-acoustic harp, effects, voice, Josephine Davies – tenor & soprano saxophones, voice, Even Jenkins – drums, voice

The first of numerous visits to the ‘Pizza’ in Dean Street saw me revisiting the Music of Harper Trio, the ensemble led by the aptly named harpist and composer Maria-Christina Harper.

At the 2024 EFG LJF the trio had also performed a lunchtime show at this venue, a highly enjoyable event that is reviewed as part of my 2024 Festival coverage here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/efg-london-jazz-festival-2024-second-saturday-23-11-2024

Harper Trio is led by the Greek born harpist and composer Maria-Christina Harper and features saxophonist Josephine Davies, winner of the 2019 Parliamentary Jazz Award for Best Instrumentalist, and the great Evan Jenkins, drummer with the Neil Cowley Trio, blues guitarist / vocalist Matt Schofield and rock singer songwriter Nadine Shah.

Harper Trio released its debut album “Passing By” in October 2023, the disc attracting a considerable degree of critical acclaim. Previously Harper had recorded under the name MC & The 7 Pedals and she has also released the duo album “Draft”, a collaboration with the Cretan lute player Υiagos Hairetis.

Now based in London after a period of being based in Hastings the band has recently released its second album “Dialogue of Thoughts” and the prospect of seeing them again and playing new material was too good to resist.

Last year’s show featured a single seventy five minute set largely comprised of material from the “Passing By” album. This year’s performance was spread over two sets, the first largely concentrating on music from the debut, the second on music from the latest album.

Harper writes all the material for Harper Trio and her compositions draw inspiration both from personal experiences and from her Greek and Egyptian heritage. She describes her music as “it’s where East meets West”. Another vital component in her music making is the use of electronics, with the sound of her harp often being manipulated via a range of effects pedals and other devices.  Harper’s role is very much that of an orchestrator, her harp and its associated effects are always at the heart of the trio’s sound, but less frequently front and centre. 

As in 2024 the band commenced with “Quiet Mind”, a then unrecorded composition that has subsequently emerged on the “Dialogue of Thoughts” album.  As its title might suggest this was a reflective and atmospheric piece that featured the leader’s use of an array of FX pedals to create a meditative wash of sound that underscored Davies’ lilting soprano sax melodies and Jenkins’ subtle mallet generated drum colourations.

Next the band returned to their debut for “Castle Hill Road”, a tune named for the thoroughfare in Hastings in which they used to rehearse. This was a more forceful piece that saw Jenkins switching to sticks and Davies delivering a powerful tenor sax solo while Harper’s use of a bow on the harp strings was also a distinctive component of the music.

Also from the first album “Safe Place” was inspired by mountain landscapes and featured a solo harp introduction featuring the use of electronics and extended techniques. On a second quiet and atmospheric piece the sounds of Davies’  tenor sax and Jenkins’ mallet rumbles were almost subliminal at first, before Davies’ sax ululations became more forceful, representative perhaps of the winds blowing in the mountains, as the leader’s harp seemed to emulate the trickling sounds of melting ice.

Also from the first album the title track “Passing By” saw Harper deploying live looping techniques, her layered arpeggios forming the backdrop for Davies’  gently sinuous soprano sax soloing, a more obvious Mediterranean influence emerging as the melodic theme continued to evolve.

Harper’s grandmother is from Cairo and she is celebrated in the linked tunes “In Cairo / Grandmother’s Coat”, a track from the “Passing By” album. Driven by a rapidly brushed drum groove this is one of the liveliest items in the trio’s repertoire and featured the sound of electronically distorted harp alongside Davies’ vibrant tenor sax soloing.

Also from the first album “A Greek In Spain” ended the first set,  commencing with an atmospheric solo harp intro underscored by an electronic drone. Jenkins began to add a subtle drum and cymbal commentary before eventually setting up a groove that fuelled for Davies’ powerful tenor sax soloing as Jenkins’ drumming became increasingly dynamic. Ultimately this was a high energy conclusion to an engaging and enjoyable first set.

Set two placed a greater emphasis on the new album and commenced with the track “Ephemeral Now”,  introduced by the combination of tenor sax and harp with Jenkins laying down a gentle but subtly propulsive groove in support of the soloing of Harper and Jenkins.

Also from the new album “Walk” saw Jenkins establishing an implacable drum groove, this fuelling Davies’ powerful tenor sax soloing on of the most forceful pieces of the entire performance, with Harper making extensive use of distortion and other electronic effects.

A return to the first album for “Standing Alone”, described by Harper as being a “softer” piece. This was ushered in by a solo harp intro and featured Davies’ gently melodic tenor sax explorations, with Jenkins variously deploying brushes and mallets during the course of an admirably sensitive drum performance.

“Dialogue of Thoughts” is a semi-conceptual work with an emphasis on mindfulness and meditation. From that album “Madness while Trying to Meditate” gave musical voice to the difficulties of trying to find a relaxed state in the too often pressurised modern environment. This was expressed via a relentless drum driven piece incorporating a heavily distorted harp sound allied to earthy tenor sax.

“Sometime In Cairo” was another tune written about Harper’s grandmother. Featuring a solo harp intro this was a two part piece that combined live looping with a North African feel, with Davies’ melodic tenor sax weaving its way around the electronics and subtle tempo changes.

The performance concluded with “Moving On” from the new album, a piece inspired by the Delphic Maxims, a set of moral precepts that were inscribed on the  wall of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Following a solo harp introduction and the creation of an electronic sound-wash the voices of the trio members were cleverly combined in spoken word utterings of some of these maxims, words of wisdom from the temple walls augmented by wispy, fragile soprano sax melodies and delicately brushed drums. The effect was beautiful and strangely moving, making for an unusual end to another excellent performance from Harper Trio.

The new album is more ambitious than its predecessor and arguably a little less accessible. It’s a much more personal record for Harper but the use of spoken word, so effective in live performance doesn’t always work quite so well on disc. An enjoyable and thought provoking release nevertheless from this hugely accomplished trio.

L’ANTIDOTE, HALL TWO, KINGS PLACE

Rami Khalife – piano, Redi Hasa – cello, Bijan Chemirani – percussion, tar, voice

Featuring musicians now all based in France L’Antidote is an international trio featuring the talents of Lebanese pianist Rami Khalife, Albanian cellist Redi Hasa and Iranian percussionist Bijan Chemirani.

They are adventurous musicians who all pursue careers as solo artists but were brought together by producer Titti Santini who saw their potential as a trio. It’s a potential that has been   fully realised both by the quality of their live performances and by their recently released eponymous debut album, which appears on the Italian imprint Ponderosa Music.

The trio’s music draws on a variety of sources including jazz, contemporary Western classical music and the folk music of the various homelands of the trio members. Forged in France L’Antidote is a truly international and cross cultural collaboration with a group name intended to convey a message of hope and light in an increasingly fractured and poisonous world. As Khalife was to tell us during the show all three members are essentially refugees, exiled from their own countries.

Few tune titles were actually announced but the trio began in atmospheric fashion with a piece featuring the sounds of piano innards, bowed cello and Chemirani’s plucking of the Iranian stringed instrument the tar, on which he seemed to be highly proficient. But his chief focus was on an impressive array of percussion and it was in this role that he excelled, also adding occasional vocals, some of them drawing upon the Indian konnokol tradition.

Playing the venue’s impressive Steinway grand Khalife proved to be a genuine piano virtuoso dedicated to utilising the full sonic capabilities of the instrument. He played ‘under the lid’ a great deal and did so very impressively and effectively. Such was his mastery in this department that I later asked him if he deployed prepare piano techniques. Essentially the answer to this was no, all the interior sounds were generated with the hands alone. The impressive Khalife is a virtuoso both at the keyboard and inside the piano and occasionally makes use of live looping techniques to expand his sonic palette even further.

Hasa is just as inventive and versatile as his colleagues, both bowing and plucking the cello as well as strumming it while holding it in the style of a guitar. He delivered a series of brilliant solos that at various times deployed all of these techniques. The sheer range of sounds that these three musicians are able to produce is genuinely impressive.

The trio played a total of eight pieces plus an encore, presumably the nine tracks of their debut album. The pieces were variously playful, joyous, sombre and reflective. One of the more solemn pieces was dedicated to the memory of Chemirani’s father, who passed away recently.

In this case I don’t intend to do a piece by piece description as tune information is too thin on the ground, despite Khalife speaking to us briefly in English, basically explaining the concept behind the band and its and giving credit to Santini, who was present in the audience, for bringing it all together.

Instead I just absorbed myself in the music, which was immersive and often beautiful, the mix of western classical instruments, these often explored beyond the usual limits, and Iranian percussion making for a fascinating combination. To most western listeners L’Antidote’s music will sound vaguely ‘exotic’, thanks to the presence of Middle Eastern instruments and the unfamiliar rhythms that flow through them.

My account may be lacking the usual detail but believe me this performance, the first of two that day at Kings Place, was a genuine Festival highlight and the fact that the trio were afforded the luxury of a rare Festival encore was a tribute to just how successful the performance by these three understated virtuosos had been.

My thanks to Rami Khalife and to Titti Santini for speaking with me after the show and to Titti for gifting me a copy of the trio’s album, which I have enjoyed listening to as I write this. I had hoped to match the individual tracks up with the notes that I had made during the performance but found this a bit too difficult, I suspect that improvisation plays an important role in the trio’s performances. I do however intend to review the album itself in due course.

And finally, if you get the chance to see the fascinating trio that is L’ Antidote, please take it.

FIVE WAY SPLIT, CRAZY COQS

Quentin Collins – trumpet, flugelhorn, Vasilis Xenopoulos – tenor saxophone, Rob Barron – piano, Matyas Hofecker – double bass, Matt Home – drums

Five-Way Split is an all star quintet co-led by trumpeter Quentin Collins, saxophonist Vasilis Xenopoulos and pianist Rob Barron. The line up is completed by bassist Matyas Hofecker and drummer Matt Home.

The co-leaders all lead their own projects and are also in great demand as sidemen, as are the rhythm team of Hofecker and Home.

The London based quintet first came together in the summer of 2020 at the height of the pandemic, a time that the band members describe as “when performance opportunities were scarce, but creative energy was strong”. A slight easing of the Covid restrictions allowed them to gather at Home’s house for a lockdown jam, the group members rapidly establishing a rapport that has eventually led to a more permanent alliance.

Their shared love of hard bop initially saw them playing material by composers such as Jimmy Heath, Cedar Walton, Horace Silver and Fred Lacey, with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Silver’s quintet being acknowledged as particularly important sources of inspiration.

Having honed their sound playing classics from the hard bop canon Collins, Xenopoulos and Barron began to bring their own compositions and arrangements to the quintet’s repertoire, still essentially writing within the classic hard bop template. Recorded in October 2021 and released in March 2023 the band’s début album “All The Way” featured seven original compositions from members of the band plus a Barron arrangement of Jimmy Van Heusen’s title tune and the quintet’s interpretation of Fred Lacey’s “Theme for Ernie”. My review of the album, from which much of the above biographical detail has been sourced, can be found here.
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/five-way-split-all-the-way

I’ve always harboured an ambition to see the band play live, something fostered by guest contributor Trevor Bannister’s very favourable review of a performance by the quintet at the Progress Theatre in Reading in May 2024. Trevor’s account can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/five-way-split-progress-theatre-reading-berkshire-10-05-2024

More recently I saw the group’s Greek born saxophonist Vasilis Xenopoulos give a superb performance fronting a Midlands based trio led by drummer Aaron Moloney at Kidderminster Jazz Club, another factor in my decision to make Five Way Split my Saturday night EFG LJF gig.
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/aaron-moloney-trio-with-vasilis-xenopoulos-kidderminster-jazz-club-st-ambrose-parish-centre-kidderminster-05-09-2025

Hosted by Spice Jazz, Soho the event had drawn a capacity crowd to Crazy Coqs with the musicians having plenty of family, friends and supporters in the audience.

The band are set to release their second album in 2026 and tonight’s performance included several new tunes that are due to be recorded for the new album.

Collins, Xenopoulos and Barron shared the tune announcements and the evening kicked off with “Out of Wayne’s Bag”, a Xenopoulos composition that opens the band’s debut album. With its classic hard bop style ‘head’ featuring the sounds of unison horns this tribute to the late, great Wayne Shorter got the evening off to a rousing start. Collins took the first solo on trumpet, his playing bright and punchy. Xenopoulos exhibited a similar power and fluency on tenor and was followed by Barron at the venue’s Yamaha grand piano. The outro featured some excellent interplay between the horns and Barron at the piano, with Home’s drums also prominent in the arrangement. A rousing and enjoyable start.

The title of the new Rob Barron composition “Dr. Stol” is a cleverly coded homage to one of Five Way Split’s favourite London venues, the 606 Club on Lots Rd. This featured a softer sound and incorporated fluent and expansive solos from Collins on flugel, Xenopoulos on tenor and the composer at the piano.

Collins’ first compositional contribution was the new tune “Modus Operandi”. Collins revealed that he writes at the piano but it was his trumpeting that caught the eye and ear here with his rapid phrasing on the head developing into an inventive solo. Xenopoulos squeezed a couple of quotes into his tenor solo before handing over to Barron at the piano.

A second new Collins tune “XO Buzz”, was an altogether more gentle affair, a latin tinged ballad that featured the composer on mellow toned flugel alongside lyrical solos from Barron on piano and Hofecker on double bass.

Barron is also a skilled arranger and it was his interpretation of the Jimmy van Heusen tune “All The Way” that followed. Famously sung by Frank Sinatra it’s also the title of Five Way Split’s debut. Featuring Collins on trumpet, Xenopoulos on tenor and Barron himself at the piano this was an item that was particularly well received by a supportive, knowledgeable and appreciative crowd.

The new Xenopoulos composition “Two Little Alphas” is a dedication to his two young sons, Andreas and Alexander. It’s lively Latin-esque composition that captures something of the energy of its two young dedicatees. Collins was in particularly brilliant form here with a strident solo featuring some dazzling high register trumpeting, reminiscent of Cuban master such as Arturo Sandoval. Xenopoulos and Barron followed, with Home enjoying a dynamic drum flourish towards the close. The crowd loved it.

A comparative pause for breath with Barron’s arrangement of the Henry Mancini ballad “Dreamsville”. Interestingly this piece was played by guitarist Nigel Price at a recent Kidderminster Jazz Club gig and Price and Xenopoulos work regularly together. Tonight’s version featured Collins on flugel as he and Xenopoulos exchanged solos. Hofecker was also featured with a melodic double bass solo.

The performance concluded with a romp through the uptempo Xenopoulos composition “Pandora’s Box”, a blistering slice of hard bop with a tricky bebop style ‘head’ followed by scorching solos from Xenopoulos on tenor, Barron at the piano and Collins on trumpet. The latter displayed an astonishing power and fluency and his solo was followed by a drum feature from Matt Home, a musician who is very much the heartbeat of the band.

Despite not being the most adventurous performance of the Festival this was a thoroughly enjoyable musical experience, the quality of the playing and the enthusiasm of the audience combining to create an unforgettable atmosphere.

The new Five Way Split album is due for release in March 2026 and the recording will be launched at Ronnie Scott’s before the quintet embark on a nationwide tour in support of the release.

 

 

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