BMJ Collective with Nicolas Meier, Black Mountain Jazz, Melville Centre for the Arts, Abergavenny, 14/06/2026.

Jack Mac (Jack McDougall) – tenor sax,  Nick Kacal – double bass, Ryan Thrupp – drums
with Nicolas Meier – guitar

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 / vocalists Hilary Cameron 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 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 NICOLAS MEIER

Swiss born, UK based guitarist and composer Nicolas Meier is something of a Jazzmann favourite, so it was great to see him visiting Abergavenny for the second time.

Meier and BMJC bassist Nick Kacal have enjoyed a friendship dating back some twenty years and Meier was part of the Guerillasound group that Kacal brought to the 2019 Wall2Wall Jazz Festival.

I’ve also seen and heard Meier leading his own groups on multiple occasions. The albums “Orient” (2006), “Journey” (2010), “Breeze” (also 2010), “From Istanbul to Cueta With a Smile” (2013), “Peaceful” (2019), World Group Live” (2020) and the triple set “Magnificent” (2022) have all been reviewed elsewhere on these web pages.

I have also been fortunate enough to see Meier leading his regular working band, Nicolas Meier’s World Group, on numerous occasions at the EFG London Jazz Festival.

He has also enjoyed a long running and consistently creative partnership with fellow guitarist Pete Oxley, the Oxley-Meier guitar project, which performs in both duo and quartet configurations. He has also collaborated with Oxley as part of the band Eclectica!

In addition to leading his own groups Meier is also much in demand as a sideman, most famously with fellow guitarist Jeff Beck.

Others with whom Meier has worked include vocalist Gabrielle Ducomble, cellist Shirley Smart, drummer Robert Castelli and guitarist Pete Roth.

Meier also runs his own MGP (Meier Group Productions) record label, works as a producer for other artists and was a particularly active online presence during the lockdown years. He’s a restlessly creative musician and composer whose output has been of a consistently high quality throughout a long and glittering career.

Initially influenced by Pat Metheny Meier has diverged from this initial inspiration to absorb a broad variety of musical influences, often sourced from the Middle East, North Africa, Iberia and other areas around the Mediterranean.

His fascination with the music of the Middle East is inspired by his Turkish wife, Songul, who acts as his muse and who also provides the distinctive artwork that has graced the covers of many his recordings.

Meier has developed a musical style that is very much his own, something encouraged by his use of nylon strung guitars manufactured by the Canadian company Godin. Godin guitars have a very distinctive sound that is perfectly suited to Meier’s music.

Despite his long association with Kacal today was the first time that Meier had met Mac and Thrupp. As is usual with these BMJC With… events the programme was chosen by the visiting artist and tonight included a mix of Meier originals and jazz standards, but with the emphasis very much on Meier’s own music. This was definitely a Nicolas Meier gig but this much admired ‘house trio’ was more than up to the challenge.

Meier ushered in the first piece on his Godin six string, with brushed drums, tenor sax and double bass subsequently added. This proved to be an arrangement of the jazz standard “Look For The Silver Lining”, composed by Jerome Kern. Mac took the first solo on tenor sax, his only horn tonight, with Thrupp switching to sticks as the music gathered intensity. Meier subsequently followed on guitar before handing over to Kacal at the bass, with Thrupp gravitating between brushes and sticks as the situation required.

The first of Meier’s originals was “Under An Olive Tree”, a tune in the style of a Brazilian samba that was actually written in Turkey. A shaker wielding Thrupp did an impressive job of laying down the infectious Brazilian rhythms as Mac stated the main melodic theme on tenor before handing over to Meier for the first solo, which included a brief passage of unaccompanied guitar. Mac then took over on tenor, supported by bass, drums, and Meier’s rapid rhythmic comping. Meier then traded phrases with Thrupp, quickly establishing an impressive rapport with the responsive young drummer, as so many visiting musicians have done. A reprise of the theme, with Thrupp again wielding shakers, was then followed by a gradual diminuendo as the piece resolved itself. Great stuff.

From Brazil to Argentina for the new original “The Last Tango”, introduced by a duet between old friends Meier and Kacal. The sounds of hand drumming, a Thrupp speciality, and breathy tenor sax were then added with Mac stating the main melodic theme above authentic tango rhythms. Solos here came from Mac on tenor, Kacal on double bass and Meier on guitar, with the latter adopting a guitar synth sound, generated via an impressive array of foot pedals.

Meier switched to fretless guitar for “Stories From The Garden”, a tune from the “Magnificent” album inspired by his lockdown experiences. Featuring the use of quarter tones this was the most obviously ‘Turkish’ sounding piece thus far and was introduced by a passage of unaccompanied guitar, subsequently augmented by the sounds of Kacal’s bowed bass and Thrupp’s filigree cymbal work, which nevertheless embraced the occasional scrape. As Kacal put down the bow the sound of Mac’s tenor sax was added before Kacal delivered a melodic double bass solo. Meier’s guitar solo again saw him making effective use of his array of foot pedals before Mac’s tenor sax solo invested the music with an impressive power.

I’ve often written that Nicolas Meier gigs are like ‘musical world tours’, such are the ranges of styles performed, and tonight was to be no different. Next a trip to the Caribbean for “Mambo Influenciado”, written by the Cuban pianist and composer Chucho Valdes. With Kacal and Thrupp proving themselves to be equally at home with Afro-Cuban rhythms as with Brazilian ones this beguiling performance incorporated solos from Mac on tenor and Meier on his regular Godin guitar. There was also another duo episode between Kacal and Meier plus a drum feature from Thrupp. A hugely enjoyable conclusion to an excellent first set.

Meier is set to release a new album in the Autumn, a recording that will include both “The Last Tango” and “Discover The World”, the new tune that kicked off the second set. This was introduced by a passage of solo guitar including the use of effects. This was a rhythmically vibrant tune driven by a combination of guitar, bass and drums and a piece with a decidedly Middle Eastern feel. Meier and Mac were featured as soloists, with the leader switching to fretless guitar during Mac’s excursions. Meier was then featured as a soloist for the second time, again making good use of his effects pedals.

“Sous Le Ciel De Paris”, a song associated with Edith Piaf, was introduced by an extended passage of unaccompanied guitar, with tenor sax and double bass subsequently added as Thrupp temporarily sat out. Mac’s theme statement and subsequent variations were followed by a more substantial solo from Meier, accompanied by double bass and brushed drums. A duo episode featuring guitar and tenor sax was then followed by a more conventional solo from Mac, growing in intensity as Thrupp switched to sticks, before concluding with a solo sax cadenza.

A sequence of standards continued with “I’ll Remember April”, again introduced by a passage of unaccompanied guitar and with bass and drums subsequently added. Thrupp established a marching rhythm as Mac stated the theme on tenor sax and took the first solo, followed by Meier on guitar. A further series of exchanges between Meier and Thrupp then culminated in a full on drum feature.

Mac and Thrupp exited the stage as Meier and Kacal performed “Mona Lisa” as a guitar and double bass duet, an intimate duo performance that combined genuine beauty with moments of musical humour.

The performance concluded with the Meier original “Adiguzel”, a tune that first appeared on his 2006 album “Orient”. It’s a piece that has featured in the majority of the live shows that I’ve seen him play, so it’s obviously a personal favourite of its composer, maybe even a ‘greatest hit’. A fast moving piece and one of the first of Meier’s tunes to exhibit a distinct Turkish influence it was delivered by the quartet with great elan, combining impressively cohesive unison passages with expansive individual solos from Mac and Meier fuelled by Kacal’s powerful bass lines and Thrupp’s crisp handling of some pretty complex rhythms.

The deserved encore saw Meier picking up a third guitar, a previously unused solid bodied Gibson guitar similar to that used by Pat Metheny. The tune chosen was Metheny’s “The Chief”, written for the 1990 “Reunion” album, recorded with vibraphonist Gary Burton. Tonight’s performance of the piece featured unison guitar / sax melodies followed by individual solos from Mac, Meier and Kacal plus a series of trades between Mac, Meier and Thrupp. This was followed by a further guitar / drums dialogue. Thrupp has recently moved from Bristol to London and is quickly making his mark on the capital’s jazz scene. Meier was obviously very impressed with him.

As a long time admirer of Meier’s music tonight’s gig was definitely one of the highlights of this consistently impressive series, with the BMJC members handling Meier’s often complex original material with considerable aplomb. Kacal, Mac and Thrupp really bought into Meier’s vision and in doing so helped to deliver a truly memorable performance that was very warmly received by the BMJ audience.

My thanks to Nic Meier for speaking with me after the show and I hope to take a look at his forthcoming album later in the year.

 

 

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