Photograph of Ian Shaw by Kasia Ociepa

Sunday at Wall2Wall Jazz Festival, various venues, Abergavenny, 28/09/2025.

COMMUNITY SUNDAY AFTERNOON

Black Mountain Jazz, the organisation behind Abergavenny’s annual Wall2Wall Jazz Festival have always been keen to foster links with the local community and also to encourage young people to develop a love and understanding of jazz, thus passing the music on to the next generation.

Prior to the pandemic the Wall2Wall Festival hosted a series of free live music events in the town’s Market Hall under the generic name ‘Jazz Alley’, successfully bringing jazz to the attention of a local audience that might otherwise have been unaware of it.

In 2024 BMJ introduced the ‘Community Sunday Afternoon’ with a programme of free jazz events at various venues around the town, with numerous cafes and bars participating. There was also a programme of outdoor and street music, including a New Orleans style marching band led by saxophonist Jack Mac (Jack MacDougall).

2025’s event followed a broadly similar pattern with a Piano Jazz Trail being hosted at participating cafes and bars and with outdoor performances outside the Tithe Barn and in the entrance to the Market Hall. There were also a number of other ‘pop up’ events.

Following the conclusion of the numerous free community events there was a sold out ticketed performance by the esteemed pianist and vocalist Ian Shaw at the Melville Centre to round off what proved to be a hugely successful Festival.

The Piano Jazz Trail featured four exceptional young pianists based in Cardiff, each resident at one of the four participating venues. Each pianist gave two performances, joined in a variety of duo combinations by a cast of rotating guest musicians. Sourced from the BMJ Facebook page the Piano Jazz Trail schedule was as follows;

Bean & Bread – Pianist Nils Kavanagh
• + Joe Northwood (sax) 1.30–2.30pm
• +ElijahJeffery (vocals) 3.30–4.30pm

Portico Lounge – Pianist Eddie Gripper
• + Elijah Jeffery 1.30–2.30pm
• + Joe Northwood 3.30–4.30pm

The Vaults – Pianist Ross Hicks
• + John Close (guitar) 12.30–1.30pm
• + Debs Hancock (vocals) 2.30–3.30pm

Chesters – Pianist Newman Tai
• + Debs Hancock 12.30–1.30pm
• + John Close 2.30–3.30pm

Outside the Tithe Barn there were open air performances from BMJ’s youth ensemble The Jazz Katz, from the male vocal ensemble Synergy and from Ian Cooper’s Ukulele Orchestra. Other open air venues around the town hosted other ad hoc performances.

MARTHA SKILTON TRIO, FUZION RESTAURANT

Martha Skilton – alto sax, Giles Davies – tenor sax, Paul Barker – alto sax

The Fuzion restaurant hosted a saxophone trio led by Martha Skilton, followed by a performance from singer, guitarist and songwriter Paola Scarpetta.

This venue represented my first port of call and I relaxed over a coffee as saxophonist Martha Skilton, an experienced jazz player who also performs with function bands and works as a saxophone tutor, performed alongside two of her students.

It was still early in the day and the venue was sparsely attended. When it did begin to fill up I moved on – this was a day designed to facilitate the dipping in and out of different events.

Skilton and her students performed a selection of standards, playing over backing tracks. These included “The Pink Panther Theme” and “Bye Bye Blackbird” and at various junctures all three saxophonists were featured as soloists. Skilton and Davie also performed very effectively as a duo.

I have to admit to not being overly fond of backing tracks and having enjoyed Skilton’s playing in more conventional jazz settings in the past I decided to catch up with something else. That’s not to say that the three saxophonists didn’t acquit themselves well, and in Skilton they have a very capable tutor.

BMJAZZ KATZ, THE TITHE BARN

It’s traditional for Wall2Wall to host a performance from BMJ’s youth ensemble The Jazz Katz. Mentored by tutors Jack Mac (reeds), Nick Kacal (double bass) and Ryan Thrupp (drums) these young musicians have made great strides over the past few years and their performances are always happy and enjoyable affairs.

On a gloriously sunny early autumn day this show was no exception, even though the young musicians had to battle against the noise of passing traffic at this outdoor venue.

The Katz had attracted a pleasingly large crowd, Abergavenny audiences are always keen to support these young musicians.

Arriving part way through the performance the first tune that I managed to catch was “After You’ve Gone”, a feature for sixteen year old tenor saxophonist Reuben Carter, an increasingly mature and confident performer. Tutor Jack Mac was also featured on soprano saxophone. Ryan Thrupp was unavailable and his place at the drum kit was taken by Patrick Barrett-Donlon, who fitted seamlessly into the Jazz Katz ethos.

Vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Paola Scarpetta is another musician who has blossomed in the Jazz Katz environment and now performs solo shows at various venues around town on a regular basis. She was scheduled to appear at the Fuzion Restaurant later in the day. Here she performed a lovely vocal version of Errol Garner’s “Misty”, the purity of her vocals augmented by her own guitar and the sensitive rhythmic support of Kacal and Barrett-Donlon.

“Mack The Knife” featured one of the Katz’ youngest members Gia Skilton-Breakey (daughter of Martha Skilton) at the drum kit plus the vocals of Eloise Knight. Tenor saxophonist Carter was also featured, plus a very young clarinettist, whose name I didn’t catch. The Katz line up is, by its nature, fluid and there were also new faces on electric bass and at the keyboard. I failed to get a full personnel listing from Nick Kacal, which in retrospect was rather remiss of me. I like to name check everybody if I can, so apologies to the young musicians concerned.

The Katz rounded off a typically vibrant and enjoyable performance with a romp through the New Orleans classic “Iko Iko”.

As ever well done to the young musicians and their tutors for another excellent show.

NILS KAVANAGH / JOE NORTHWOOD DUO, BEAN & BREAD

Nils Kavanagh – keyboard, Joe Northwood – tenor sax

Nils Kavanagh was the only featured pianist on the Piano Jazz Trail that I hadn’t seen play before so I decided to check him out first.

A graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (RWCMD) in Cardiff Kavanagh is of Irish – Danish descent and originally hails from Sligo, an Irish jazz hotspot with its own jazz festival. Kavanagh is a former Young Irish Jazz Musician of the Year(2022)  and was a finalist in the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year competition in 2024.

He continues to base himself in Cardiff and recently released his debut album “No Expectations”, a selection of original compositions performed by Kavanagh as part of a Cardiffian trio featuring bassist Marcus Baber and drummer Sam Green. The album has already been featured on Soweto Kinch’s BBC Radio 3 jazz programme ‘Round Midnight and is an impressively mature debut and an excellent example of contemporary piano jazz. Nils has very kindly supplied me with a review copy of the album and I intend to take a fuller look at this in due course.

Today’s performance at a well populated Bean & Bread cafe was very different, with Kavanagh playing an electric keyboard in the company of tenor saxophonist Joe Northwood, another musician based in Cardiff, a bandleader in his own right and a busy presence on the South Wales jazz scene.

The duo played a standards based set to a largely indifferent audience who were focussed on food and drink rather than music. Tune announcements were to difficult to pick up in such an atmosphere but among the songs I recognised were “If I Were A Bell”, “I’ll Be Seeing You” and a second “Bye Bye Blackbird”. There was also what I’m certain was Thelonious Monk tune, although I couldn’t pin a title on it. There was some quality playing here, not always fully appreciated in this informal situation.

My thanks for Nils for sitting down and talking with me afterwards, but the conversation was about the new album rather than today’s set. Look out for the album review in due course.

NEWMAN TAI / JOHN CLOSE DUO, CHESTER’S WINE SHOP & BAR

Newman Tai – keyboard, John Close – guitar

Newman Tai was one of the busiest musicians in town on this Wall2Wall weekend. He had played with vocalist Debs Hancock in a duo on Friday, with the Siglo Section Big band on Saturday and now here he was playing a duo show again with fellow Siglo member, guitarist John Close.

Despite the temptations of the grape the Chester’s audience was generally more attentive as these two young musicians performed another hugely enjoyable set of jazz and bebop standards.

Tai, originally from Hong Kong but now based in Cardiff, is a considerable talent, as is Close, a graduate of the RWCMD. The latter’s guitar style is rooted in bebop and he wrapped his fingers around some slippery lines on “If I Were A Bell”, his tone clean and singing.

In 2024 Close played an excellent duo set with Ross Hicks at the Portico Lounge. Tai proved to be a similarly able and simpatico partner in a set that also included “Embraceable You”, “Oleo”, “All The Things You Are” and Jobim’s “Wave”.

Perhaps the most appropriate choice was the closing blues, “Take The Coltrane”, particularly apposite as Close curates the Saturday morning jazz programme at the intimate Coaltrain’s venue at Barry Railway Station, a series of events that is rapidly acquiring a very loyal following.

A delightful, if understated,  set from these two young masters.

Look out for Close at Coaltrain’s, where he performs regularly, and also together with fellow guitarists Steven Kirby and Deirdre Cartwright at Brecon Jazz Club on 14th October 2025.

 

IAN SHAW PERFORMS THE MUSIC OF JONI MITCHELL AND DAVID BOWIE
MELVILLE CENTRE

Ian Shaw – voice, piano

The day’s main event was this sold out ticketed concert performance by pianist and vocalist Ian Shaw at the Melville Centre.

Shaw is no stranger to Abergavenny having played at Wall2Wall in 2017 and 2019. He’s a musician that I’ve been lucky enough to be entertained by on numerous other occasions, including Festival appearances at Lichfield and Brecon and a club performance at Kidderminster. I have also covered his excellent 2018 album “Shine Sister Shine” plus 2020’s “What’s New”, a trio recording featuring Shaw with saxophonist Iain Ballamy and pianist Jamie Safir.

Tonight’s set was a themed show featuring the music of two of Shaw’s favourites artists, Joni Mitchell and David Bowie. Shaw has always included Mitchell’s songs in his performances, Bowie’s less so. However it’s evident that both are extremely important to him and have been so since he first discovered them during his teenage years in North Wales.

As anybody who has ever seen him perform before will tell you Shaw is far more than just a gifted jazz pianist, vocalist and songwriter. He’s a genuine polymath who has been an actor, comedian and an Alternative Cabaret entertainer. He’s a raconteur with a ready, and often salty wit and his between songs banter is genuinely hilarious.

Openly gay Shaw is also an artist with strong political convictions and is a trustee of the Side By Side With Refugees organisation. He has done much to raise public awareness of the refugee crisis through his fund raising concerts and has also been a frequent visitor to the camps in Calais.

In purely jazz terms Shaw is a highly skilled improviser who sings with great technical facility and is prepared to criss-cross genres and take musical risks. Add that to his comedic skills and his fierce political and social commitment and you have a compelling performer capable of holding an audience spellbound with both his music, wit and his wisdom. Introducing the show Debs Hancock wasn’t kidding when she opined that Shaw would have the audience in “the palm of his hand”.

I’m sure there were many in the audience who had seen Shaw’s previous visits to Wall2Wall, but it’s possible that fans of Mitchell and Bowie may have helped to swell the crowd to capacity. I don’t think that they would have been disappointed, Shaw took the songs of both writers and made them his own, but without comprising the identity of the originals. He didn’t disrespect the songs in any way at all, but still managed to put his own unique stamp on them.

Interspersed with the performances was Shaw’s account of how he came to be immersed in the music of Mitchell and Bowie as a young gay man growing up in a small, sheltered,  ultra-conservative (with a small ‘c’) area of North Wales, a tale that was variously deeply poignant and absolutely hilarious. Shaw is a sharp eyed observer of social and sexual mores and this frequently informs his quick-fire repartee.

Shaw bills this themed show as “When Bowie met Joni” and the songs of each artist were frequently alternated and sometimes segued together. He opened in lively fashion with Mitchell’s “Night In The City”, followed by Bowie’s “Fantastic Voyage”, a song from the “Lodger” album that Shaw described as being “weird and wonderful”.

“Fantastic Voyage” was segued with a stunning rendition of Mitchell’s “A Case of You”.

In between the songs we heard how the young Shaw had come to fall in love with the music of Bowie and Mitchell. Not yet in his teens Shaw heard the Bowie album “Hunky Dory” and saw the famous “Starman” episode of Top of the Pops. A little later he immersed himself in “Cracked Actor”, the 1975 TV documentary about Bowie directed by Alan Yentob and named after one of Bowie’s songs.

The memories of these seminal musical moments were set into context with more personal recollections of growing up as a young gay in the cloistered environment of North Wales in the 1970s. Anecdotes of family and school life and of the culture of the day were frequently laugh out loud funny, this was autobiography as musical performance.

The songs were punctuated by Shaw’s spoken word rambles, often improvised but never dull, we all felt part of his musical and cultural journey and variously laughed at or sympathised with him.

The songs kept coming, including Bowie’s “Time” with its infamous ‘wanking’ lyric, this line providing the opportunity for more suitably amusing family anecdotes. On a more serious note he observed that Bowie’s songs were often scarily perceptive, acting as warnings for future dystopian events, among them climate change.

Shaw’s route into Mitchell’s music came in 1983 when he heard the “Shadows and Light”  live double album, attracted by the all star cast of jazz musicians playing on the record – Pat Metheny (guitar), Lyle Mays (keyboards), Jaco Pastorius (bass), Michael Brecker (saxophone) and Don Alias (drums & percussion).

Although attracted to the album by the presence of the stellar instrumentalists he loved the songs and proceeded to thoroughly immerse himself in the Mitchell back catalogue. And Mitchell too is a prophetic writer, as Shaw demonstrated with his versions of 1994’s “Borderline”, a beautiful song with a scarily insightful and perceptive lyric that seems to anticipate the age of online hatred.

This was followed by the better known “Big Yellow Taxi”, an environmental warning that was actually a hit single, thanks to its catchy tune. Still scarily relevant lyrically it saw Shaw making it his own by putting a bebop style vocalese spin on it.

Shaw continued to draw parallels between the work of Bowie and Mitchell. First we heard “Kooks”, written by Bowie for his then new born son (film director Duncan Jones),  a paean to non conformity,  and thus a subject Shaw could readily identify with.

He followed this with “Little Green”, a song written about Mitchell’s daughter, who was given up for adoption in 1966. It’s another song about family and non-conformity, but written from a very different perspective. Shaw’s delivery treated the song with the necessary gravitas, but he’s also capable of putting his own stamp on the songs of others, Bowie’s “Absolute Beginners” was delivered with an unexpected poignancy, while the brief snippet of “Heroes” was understated and stripped of the bombast of the more familiar recorded version.

Set two offered more of the same, but with an even greater focus on “the hits”.

However we started in album track territory with Mitchell’s “Chelsea Morning”, one of her early songs and the cue for more Shaw anecdotes about mistaking the Chelsea reference for a district of London rather than the famous New York hotel.

From Mitchell’s “The Hissing of Summer Lawns” album came “Edith and the King Pin” followed by “Come In From The Cold”, one of Mitchell’s most openly autobiographical songs, with Shaw rousing a rapt audience from their reverie to engage (very willingly) in a little audience participation.

Shaw is also a songwriter himself and in this capacity has collaborated with Mari Wilson and with Julia Fordham. The latter has collaborated with Shaw on the new song “Little White Caravan”, Shaw’s own autobiographical account of family holidays in Blackpool. Perhaps not as exotic to British ears as Mitchell’s account of her teenage years in late fifties Ontario, but nonetheless a charming and well observed account of British family life that many of today’s audience members could readily identify with.

Something of a travel theme was now explored with Bowie’s “Drive In Saturday” followed by a segue of Elton John’s “Rocket Man” and Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, with Shaw delivering his own lyrical asides in the style of Julian Clarey. Hilarious.

This set the stage for a final run through some of those hits from both Bowie and Mitchell. First Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”, perhaps her most famous song and a stunningly mature piece of writing from one then so young, followed by Bowie’s “Oh You Pretty Things”, with more audience participation encouraged.

Finally Bowie’s “Life On Mars”, with Shaw complaining that it’s a rather difficult song to play – mainly because of Rick Wakeman’s famously complex piano break.

It’s hard to do justice to the brilliance of Shaw’s performance. Yes, the man has the instrumental and vocal abilities to play these songs and to make them his own, but an Ian Shaw performance is so much more than that. He really does take the audience on a journey, you feel totally immersed in his musical world throughout the time he is on stage. He draws you in with humour, pathos, political and social commentary, and of course the quality of his singing and playing. He interrupts and punctuates his own performances in a way that feels totally spontaneous, but which is probably half scripted, half stream of consciousness - whatever that golden ratio may be it works brilliantly. I’ve seen Shaw on several occasions and every show has been different, both in terms of the musical content and the verbal repartee. The audience absolutely loved him, with many clambering to their feet to give him a genuine standing ovation. We filed out with a collective smile on our faces to the strains of a recorded version of “Little White Caravan”. What a way to end a hugely successful Wall2Wall 2025.

My thanks to Ian for speaking with me afterwards and for clarifying some of the set list details. Most of the songs were very well known, but there were one or two album tracks I wasn’t totally sure about.

FESTIVAL SUMMARY

Wall2Wall was another triumph for its organisers with all three headline concert events (the Misha Mullov Abbado Sextet, Siglo Section Big Band with Kat Rees and finally Ian Shaw)  playing to sold out or near capacity crowds, with those audiences going home feeling very satisfied about what they had seen and heard.

The Community Sunday Afternoon also succeeded in its remit of bringing the music to a non jazz audience and included some excellent performances. There was just too much music going on for me to cover it all, but I did enjoy what I heard.

That said numbers for the free events were a little down on 2024 but rather ironically this may have been because the weather was TOO good, on a glorious late summer afternoon people may have found other things to do. In 2024 the weather was filthy with a storm brewing and the venues were rammed with people crowding indoors to catch some free live music. I remember Chester’s being absolutely rammed and I couldn’t even get through the door at the Bean & Bread. It was a bit more comfortable this time, but hopefully the organisers still thought the free music programme was a success.

A special thanks to Nick Kacal who did a magnificent job with the sound at all three concert events in addition to playing double bass and acoustic guitar with the young Jazz Katz. He was very much a key figure in the Festival’s success.

Also to Debs Hancock, multi tasking as ever as organiser, performer, MC, artist liaison, etc., etc. Another vital presence – ‘without whom…’

The only downside was that Mike Skilton, head of Black Mountain Jazz, was taken ill on the Saturday and had to miss two days of the very Festival that he had helped to organise. I’m pleased to say that he is now well on the road to recovery and wish him well. With a full Club programme coming up in October and November I don’t think it’s going to dampen his drive and enthusiasm.

 

 

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