BMJ Collective with Gareth Williams, Back Mountain Jazz, Melville Centre for The Arts, Abergavenny, 17/05/2026.

Jack Mac (Jack McDougall) – tenor & soprano sax,  Nick Kacal – double bass, Ryan Thrupp – drums
with Gareth Williams – piano, vocals

PROLOGUE

BMJ Collective is essentially the house band of Black Mountain Jazz.  Originally formed in 2021 for that year’s ‘hybrid’ Wall2Wall Jazz Festival the line-up has undergone a number of personnel changes and currently features founder member Jack Mac on reeds and occasional vocals, together with Nick Kacal on double bass and Ryan Thrupp at the drums.

Mac, Kacal and Thrupp also act as tutors at the BMJazzKatz sessions which bring young people  together for regular jazz sessions at the Melville Centre, with the intention of forming a youth big band. Mac is heading the programme and the Katz, together with their tutors, have already made a number of public performances, with some of these covered elsewhere on this site.

The idea of the tutors then performing for the public in the evening following the Sunday afternoon sessions is not only for ticket sales to contribute towards the teaching costs, but also for the students to see their tutors performing at their best and embodying the JazzKatz motto of “work, play, inspire”.

As these BMJ Collective gigs have now become regular events it is intended that a different guest musician will be invited to perform with the group each time. To date the ‘BMJ Collective With’ series has featured vocalist Sarah Meek, pianist / vocalist Hilary Cameron, pianists Alex Hutton, Ross Hicks Michael Blanchfield, Tom Berge. Dom Pipkin, John Crawford, Sean Hargreaves and Anders Olinder, trumpeter Gethin Liddington and guitarists Rob Luft, Chris Cobbson, Denny Ilett, John Close, Nigel Price and Mike Outram  Founding member Alex Goodyear also returned for a guest appearance at the drum kit, temporarily replacing Ryan Thrupp. All of these performances have been hugely enjoyable events and the majority have been reviewed elsewhere on The Jazzmann.

Every performance in the series has included an interesting selection of material sourced from the jazz canon and beyond, the majority of it chosen, or written, by the guest performer. All of the gigs have exceeded my expectations, representing far more than the usual obligatory or perfunctory ‘house trio with guest soloist’ session.   As I have previously observed,  “this is a series of events that continues to punch well above its weight”.

BMJ COLLECTIVE WITH GARETH WILLIAMS

Born in North Herefordshire of Welsh heritage pianist, composer and occasional vocalist / guitarist Gareth Williams has been based in London for many years, hence his connection with BMJC bassist Nick Kacal and the invitation to come and appear as the Collective’s guest at the Melville.

Not that Williams is any stranger to Wales, he has always stayed in touch with his Welsh roots and regularly returns to play in the land of his father. He has appeared at the Brecon and Swansea jazz festivals and regularly returns to Wales for club dates, although I think I’m correct in saying that this was his first visit to BMJ.

A phenomenally gifted pianist and an in demand sideman he leads his own groups and the Jazzmann web pages have also documented his work with bands led by guitarist Jim Mullen, bassist Laurence Cottle, saxophonist Art Themen and drummers Clark Tracey and Gary Willcox.

As a leader Williams has only recorded sporadically and I think I’m correct in believing that his most recent album release is 2022’s “Short Stories”, a collection of music that was actually recorded in 2019 but which was subsequently delayed by the pandemic. However it was well worth the wait as this proved to be an excellent album that largely focussed on Williams’ original writing, but with a couple of jazz standard thrown in for good measure. The album featured a truly heavyweight line up with the late, great Martin France (1964 - 2024) at the drums and with bass duties shared between Chris Laurence and the late, great Palle Danielsson (1946 -2024). My review of “Short Stories” can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/gareth-williams-short-stories

Apparently “Short Stories” was Williams’ first album release under his own name since “Shock!”, by his still ongoing electric ‘Power Trio’, with Williams on electric keyboards and featuring Laurence Cottle and drummer Ian Thomas, appeared on Linn Records way back in 2009.

John Fordham’s liner notes for the “Short Stories” album inform us that Williams has also worked with the American saxophonists Pee Wee Ellis, George Coleman and James Moody and with the great British vocalist Claire Martin. Others that he has performed with include blues / jazz vocalist Zoe Schwarz and the band Us3.

Williams’ influences include Welsh folk music and hymns plus classical lieder in addition to jazz pianists such as the Americans Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock, plus the UK’s own John Taylor. 

Tonight’s performance focussed almost entirely on the standards canon with only one original composition featuring over the course of the two sets. Perhaps that was not so surprising as Williams had only met Mac and Thrupp on the day of the gig, but that’s fairly usual for these BMJC sessions and most guests bring along more original material than just one tune. The BMJC members are skilled sight readers and usually up for a challenge.

Perhaps Williams’ decision to concentrate on standards was because it allowed him to demonstrate his vocal abilities, which are rarely heard in other jazz contexts, although this multi-talented artist has  previously performed solo guitar / vocal shows. Tonight’s performance featured two vocal numbers in each set, plus the encore.

Things got off to a strong start with an interpretation of one of the great Wayne Shorter’s most popular compositions, the modern day jazz standard “Black Nile”, from Shorter’s 1964 Blue Note album “Night Dreamer”. Following Mac’s tenor sax theme statement Williams took the first solo, really setting the hammers dancing on the Melville’s upright acoustic piano. Mac followed on tenor and Kacal on double bass prior, to a series of exchanges between Williams, Mac and drummer Ryan Thrupp.

The first number to feature Williams’ voice was the Cole Porter song “Everything I Love”, written in 1931. Williams is a pianist first and a singer second but his understated, almost casual, vocal approach worked well enough. As an instrumentalist he delivered an expansive solo at the piano, with Mac following on tenor and Kacal on double bass.

A passage of unaccompanied piano introduced the Harry Warren tune “Summer Night”, which was played in waltz time. The introduction of double bass and brushed drums then led to a passage in classic piano trio mode. Mac was a late entrant on tenor but delivered the first full length solo, with Kacal following on double bass, an extended but highly melodic offering. Williams’ solo saw Thrupp switching from brushes to sticks as the momentum of the music increased, culminating in a drum feature.

Williams began to sing “Come Rain or Come Shine” but then realised that the other musicians didn’t have the charts, as these were still in the green room. As Williams’ hurried off stage to collect them the BMJ trio played an impromptu instrumental version of “The Girl from Ipanema”, to much amusement from the crowd. The lapse was quickly forgiven, this was a jazz gig after all.

Take two of “Come Rain or Come Shine” featured an extended solo piano introduction leading into an easy swinging,  blues tinged arrangement featuring expansive instrumental solos from Mac on tenor and Kacal on bass alongside Williams’ vocals.

The first set concluded with the only original composition of the evening, “Mr. J.T.”, Williams’ tribute to the late, great British jazz pianist and composer John Taylor (1942 – 2015). It’s a piece that appears on the “Short Stories” album where it features the playing of Danielsson and France, who were also members of Taylor’s own much celebrated trio. Mac stated the theme on tenor and delivered the first solo, followed by Williams at the piano. A delightfully melodic bass solo from Kacal was then followed by a series of exchanges between Mac and Williams with Thrupp.

Set two commenced with an interpretation of the Victor Young composed jazz standard “Stella by Starlight”, ushered in by an extended passage of unaccompanied piano. The addition of tenor sax, bass and brushed drums saw Mac state the main melodic theme, before handing back over to Williams for an expansive, and sometimes quirky piano solo. Kacal followed on double bass before Thrupp rounded things off with a brushed drum feature.

The first vocal performance of the second set came with a Frank Sinatra inspired version of the jazz standard “I Fall In Love To Easily”. Introduced by a passage of solo piano this featured Williams’ relaxed, but world weary and vulnerable, vocals. Played as a ballad the performance featured delightfully lyrical solos from Mac’s warm, breathy tenor and Kacal’s melodic double bass, with Thrupp’s delicate brush work also worthy of note.

Mac switched to soprano sax for a powerful interpretation of Herbie Hancock’s classic composition “Maiden Voyage”. Williams took the first solo at the piano, followed by Mac’s probing and incisive soprano excursions and finally a neatly constructed and increasingly powerful drum feature from Thrupp.

The next vocal item was the Jimmy McHugh / Harold Adamson song “Too Young To Go Steady”, famously recorded by Nat King Cole and also by Williams for the “Short Stories” album. Following an extended solo piano introduction Williams’ vocals were imbued with a kind of bruised innocence. Mac continued on soprano, sharing the instrumental solos with Kacal’s double bass as Thrupp provided sensitive brushed drum accompaniment.

The set concluded with an unusual arrangement of the familiar standard “All The Things You Are”,  with Williams explaining; “we’ve taken a beat out of it, intentionally”. Performed as an instrumental this featured a bravura solo piano intro followed by more conventional jazz solos from Mac on tenor, Williams at the piano and Kacal on double bass, plus a final series of exchanges between Williams, Mac and Thrupp.

The encore was a version of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia On My Mind” that featured Williams’ vocalising and Mac’s tenor sax soloing.

This was a highly successful evening for Black Mountain Jazz and the attendance was one of the highest that there has been in the ‘BMJ Collective With…’ series, an indication of the esteem in which Williams is held. In addition to the musical performances Williams’ rambling, wilfully eccentric presenting style, which included references to Ronnie Scott, Steve Winwood, Spencer Davis and Williams’ own father, who, like Davis hailed from Swansea,  also endeared him to the audience.

For all this I was still left feeling a little disappointed. Most of the collaborations in this series have featured more than one original composition by the guest artist and I had hoped to hear a bit more of Williams’ own writing, especially in the light of the excellence of the “Short Stories” recording. For me there was an over reliance on standards, with most of them following the same format with regard to soloing.

However I do appreciate that the occasion allowed Williams to do something that was probably out of the ordinary for him, giving – i.e.giving him the opportunity to show off his vocal talents. This aspect of the performance seemed to be well received by the majority of the audience but I have to admit that in general I preferred the instrumental items, and particularly “Black Nile”, “Maiden Voyage” and Williams’ own “Mr. J.T.”.

Overall the positives far outweighed any negatives and I’m grateful to Gareth for speaking with me after the show as we talked about our shared North Herefordshire roots.

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