BMJ Collective with Jim Blomfield, Black Mountain Jazz, Melville Centre for the Arts, Abergavenny, 16/08/2024.

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

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 monthly 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 / vocalists Hilary Cameron, Fabienne Ambuehl and Gareth Williams, 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, Nicolas Meier 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

Nick Kacal spent many years on the London jazz circuit before re-locating to South Wales. He quickly established himself as a vital presence on the Welsh jazz scene but has retained his links with the English capital and more recently many of Kacal’s old London friends have been travelling up to Abergavenny to play a guest slot with the BMJ Collective.

When the BMJC With series first began the majority of the guests were from South Wales or Bristol but the word has got around within the jazz community about just how good the BMJ house band is and how appreciative the Melville audience is. Established London names now seem to be queueing up to come to play with the Collective in Abergavenny. I’ve consistently championed the series for “punching above its weight” and I’m pleased to see that its fame is continuing to spread. It’s become a very attractive gig for London based musicians, the early start of 7.00 pm making it easy for them to get back to ‘town’ at a reasonable hour.

BMJ COLLECTIVE with JIM BLOMFIELD

Following a succession of London based guests August’s event saw the BMJC returning to their roots for this performance in the company of Bristol based pianist and composer Jim Blomfield. That’s not to say that there was any decline in terms of quality, Blomfield is an artist of whom The Jazzmann has previously said;
“All fans of contemporary jazz piano should look out for the highly inventive and fiercely independent Jim Blomfield. He’s much more than just a good ‘regional musician’.”

Blomfield is an exciting and imaginative player on both the acoustic and electric versions of his chosen instrument and can also play organ and synthesiser. He has released three albums as a leader, beginning with 1998’s “Peaks and Troughs” which featured  pieces from Blomfield’s Latin flavoured septet Septimbre alongside a set of compositions for a quartet that featured saxophonist Andy Sheppard, arguably Bristol’s best known jazz export.

More recently Blomfield has released two albums in the piano trio format, “Wave Forms and Sea Changes” (2014) and “Strange Beauty (Every Way OK)” (2019). Both these albums feature bassist Roshan ‘Tosh’ Wijetunge and drummer Mark Whitlam, two leading figures on the jazz scene in Bristol and the South West.  Both trio albums are favourably reviewed elsewhere on this site.

Besides leading his own groups Blomfield is also a prolific sideman on the jazz scene in Bristol and the wider South West. He has appeared on recordings by saxophonists Kevin Figes and Pete Canter, trumpeter Andy Hague and bassist Greg Cordez and has also worked with violinist/vocalist Azhaar Saffar, trumpeter Ben Thomas and Balanca, the Latin flavoured band led by vocalist and percussionist Cathy Jones. Blomfield has also been part of the Bristol based Resonations Big Band.

He has often performed as the ‘house pianist’ at various Bristol jazz clubs and in this role has played with musicians such as saxophonist Barbara Thomson and guitarist John Etheridge.

In recent years his love of Latin music has come increasingly to the fore and he is currently a member of Buena Bristol Social Club, a project celebrating Cuban music while incorporating specially arranged Latin style arrangements of material by iconic Bristol band Massive Attack.

With Cuban trumpeter Michel Padron Blomfield also co-leads Saoco Collective, a Latin jazz ensemble that performs classics of the repertoire alongside original compositions from members of the band.

He has toured with the Afro-Cuban band Asere and performed with the Bristol based Latin ensemble K’Chevere.

In addition to his work as a performing musician Blomfield is also an acclaimed educator with a teaching post at the University of Bristol. He also hosts workshops, residential courses and masterclasses, specialising in Afro-Cuban Jazz.

Tonight’s show featured the now customary blend of original compositions by the guest musician together with a selection of jazz standards chosen, and often arranged by, the guest.

A lengthy opening sequence featured a segue of the classic Wayne Shorter composition “Speak No Evil” with Blomfield’s own “N’Trance” from the pianist’s “Wave Forms and Sea Changes” album. The Shorter piece incorporated expansive and probing solos from both Mac on soprano sax and Blomfield at the Melville Centre’s upright acoustic piano. The two soloists were urged on by Thrupp’s propulsive, often explosive, Blakey-esque drumming. Kacal’s double bass solo was followed by an increasingly complex passage of unaccompanied piano from Blomfield that acted as the link into the pianist’s own piece. Mac continued on soprano sax, again sharing the solos with Blomfield. Again these were exploratory and expansive, with Mac bringing a vaguely Middle Easter feel to his playing as he soloed above the patter of Thrupp’s hand drumming. Once again the excellent Kacal was also featured as a soloist.

For his arrangement of trumpeter Freddie Hubbard’s fusion era classic “Red Clay” Blomfield altered the chord sequence, but kept the familiar melodic hook very much in place. Blomfield and Mac, this time on tenor, were the featured soloists while Blomfield brought a Latin-esque flavour to his dialogue with Thrupp, which later evolved into a full on drum feature.

Blomfield’s slowed down, re-harmonised arrangement of the jazz standard “Secret Love” approached the song as a ballad. It was ushered with a passage of unaccompanied piano, eventually joined by soprano saxophone,  double bass and brushed drums. Lyrical and melodic solos came from Kacal on bass, Mac on soprano and Blomfield at the piano. The performance concluded much as it had begun with a solo piano passage that was full of both harmonic and rhythmic interest. This was a piece that was particularly well received by the audience.

An excellent first half concluded with the recent Blomfield original “Mambo Optimista”, a tune reflecting Blomfield’s burgeoning interest in Latin and salsa music. “It’s a bouncy, optimistic tune, very out of character”, deadpanned Blomfield. The lively Latin flavoured tune certainly lived up to its title with fluent solos from Mac on soprano, Blomfield at the piano and Kacal at the bass. Thrupp was then involved in a series of exchanges with Mac and Blomfield.

The close rapport between Blomfield and Thrupp had been apparent throughout the set, I’m not sure how closely these two had worked on the Bristol scene before Thrupp’s recent move to London. That said Thrupp seems to establish an instant rapport with all of BMJC’s guests. He’s a ’listening’ drummer whose skills have led to a phenomenal demand for his services. Over the course of the last two months he’s played in excess of fifty gigs.

Set two got under way in terrific fashion with Blomfield’s Afro-Cuban style arrangement of Charles Mingus’ “Nostalgia in Times Square”, introduced by Kacal’s bass motif and later featuring the sounds of hand claps, shakers and cow bell alongside the soloing of Blomfield on piano and Mac on soprano sax.

An early, still unrecorded Blomfield original followed. “Slippery Slope” was variously inspired by “serial music” and the sound of the ‘Belonging’ quartet featuring pianist Keith Jarrett and saxophonist Jan Garbarek.  This featured a subtly probing soprano solo from Mac, followed by one from Blomfield that began lyrically before developing into something more forceful and exuberant. Kacal’s double bass solo cooled things down once more, augmented by Thrupp’s filigree cymbal work.

Blomfield’s original composition  “Bits and Pieces” appears on the “Strange Beauty” album as a ‘jazztronica’  piece featuring the sounds of synthesiser, bowed bass and pre-programmed beats. It’s an effective piece of work in its own right but tonight we were treated to the “acoustic version”. An extended solo piano intro embraced elements of free jazz and wilful dissonance, combining these with classical flourishes. As a pianist / composer Blomfield combines imagination and intelligence with great technical skill, and this was very much in evidence here. Thrupp eventually set up a martial style groove at the drum kit, this augmented by Blomfield’s pounding left hand and occasional use of shaker, as Mac stated the main melodic theme on soprano before utilising it as the launch pad for his subsequent solo. Blomfield’s piano solo was feverish and percussive, a rhythmic tour de force.

Following the intensity of “Bits and Pieces” the next item represented a total contrast as Thrupp and Mac exited the stage for Blomfield and Kacal to perform an intimate, blues inflected duo version of “You Don’t Know What Love Is” that included a melodic double bass solo from Kacal, plus his brief use of the bow at the close.

Mac and Thrupp returned as the performance concluded with a high octane romp through the Dizzy Gillespie composition “Manteca”, described by Blomfield as “one of the classics of Latin Jazz”. This featured exuberant solos from Blomfield on piano and Mac on soprano, allied to a dynamic performance from Thrupp at the drum kit.

The crowd loved this, and with Mac whipping them up even more a deserved encore was inevitable. From Blomfield’s solo piano intro the heavily disguised melody of the jazz standard “All The Things You Are” eventually emerged, as did a straight ahead swing rhythm. Mac took the first solo on tenor sax, followed by Blomfield at the piano, who again provided the song with an extra Latin-esque flourish.

This was yet another performance that lived up to the high standards set by this series with the members of the BMJC and their guest all delivering brilliant performances. It was certainly interesting to see Mac focussing on the soprano sax so extensively, and so effectively. Blomfield himself was an inspired piano soloist and also provided an excellent set of compositions and arrangements. Kacal and Thrupp were their usually immaculate selves. Thanks for a great evening of music guys.

 

 

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