Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra with guest soloist Ben Creighton Griffiths, BBC Hoddinott Hall, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, 14/06/2025.

It’s a rare event when The Jazzmann covers what is essentially a classical performance, but I guess it’s good for me to be taken out of my musical comfort zone every now and again, both as a listener and as a writer.

The reason for my first visit to the impressive classical venue that is the BBC Hoddinott Hall was an invitation from jazz harpist Ben Creighton Griffiths to cover the Welsh premiere of his five movement “Concerto for Jazz Harp and Orchestra”, a new work combining elements of both jazz and contemporary classical music.

Cardiff based Creighton Griffiths has been a regular presence on The Jazzmann web pages since I first discovered his playing at the 2016 Wall2Wall Jazz Festival in Abergavenny. A highly versatile musician with a foot in several musical camps Creighton Griffiths began playing the harp at a very young age and was something of a child prodigy. He has toured internationally and has played at harp festivals in the UK, Europe, India, Hong Kong, the Caribbean and both North and South America. Later in 2025 he will tour Australia for the first time.

The Jazzmann has covered his playing in a variety of musical contexts and formats, from solo performances to tonight’s event with an enormous ninety five piece orchestra!

Along the way there has been his duo with double bass virtuoso Ashley John Long and the gypsy jazz flavourings of the Swing Strings Trio, an occasional collaboration featuring Long and violinist Xenia Porteous. He has also collaborated with the Swiss vocalist Tatiana Eva-Marie .

In addition to his work as a solo artist Creighton-Griffiths’ primary creative outlets are the bands Transatlantic Hot Club and Chube.

The former is a musical collective co-led by Creighton Griffiths and the French born, New York based violinist and vocalist Adrien Chevalier. As the group’s name suggests the music is based on the repertoire of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, with Creighton Griffiths’ harp taking the role of Reinhardt’s guitar. The band has toured internationally and is a popular live attraction. A five piece version of the group, featuring bassist Edouard Pennes, guitarist Adrien Tarraga and clarinettist Corentin Giniaux has just released its eponymous debut album, which was recorded in Paris. Other musicians to have played with the group include Long, accordionist Jeremy Lohier and vocalist Tara Minton.

Chube couldn’t be more different, a trio that Creighton Griffiths describes as playing ‘electro-fusion’ music. The current line up features Long on electric bass and Jon Bradford-Jones at the drums. Creighton-Griffiths doubles on harp and keyboards and deploys effects pedals and phasers on the harp, totally transforming its sound. It’s Chube that’s the outlet for Creighton Griffiths’ love of pop and rock music and in addition to group originals the trio’s repertoire includes covers of songs by acts such as Led Zeppelin and Outkast. The band has released two EPs and The Jazzmann has also covered a number of exciting live performances by the trio, including a memorable collaboration between Chube and trombonist Dennis Rollins at 2019 Wall2Wall Jazz Festival.  It’s loud, brash and exciting and I have to admit that Chube is probably my favourite Creighton Griffiths project, although I do enjoy all of them.

In addition to the Transatlantic Hot Club and Chube recordings mentioned above Creighton-Griffiths  has released a number of solo recordings including “1 Man Band” (2017) and the excellent “Pedals & Paws” (2015). He actually made his first recording at the age of seven, “Ben Jamming” being a charity single in aid of the BBC Children in Need Appeal. Two full length albums followed, “A Ceremony of Carols” in 2009 and “An Incomplete A-Z of Jazz Harp Music” in 2012. All of these recordings, plus a live DVD from 2009 can be purchased at Ben’s website http://www.bjcg.co.uk/

Following in the wake of his youthful “Pedals & Paws” suite Creighton Griffiths’ “Concerto for Jazz Harp and Orchestra” represents his most ambitious and most mature work to date. Tonight’s event represented its fourth public performance and, incredibly, its Welsh premiere following previous shows in Malvern, Swindon and Trowbridge. The Cardiff Philharmonic is the largest ensemble that he has performed the work with, although as a classical musician he is no stranger to working with symphony orchestras.

The Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) was formed by its conductor Michael Bell MBE in 1982 and has performed regularly at venues in South Wales ever since, in addition to touring in France and Switzerland. It features Wales’ leading non-professional musicians and the standard of the playing at this evening’s event was quite exceptional considering that these were essentially ‘amateur’ players – if I hadn’t read this information in the programme I never would have guessed. In all but the financial sense (the CPO is a registered charity) this was a thoroughly professional production.

Michael Bell has also conducted the Brecknock Sinfonia (featuring cellist Sonia Hammond, another Jazzmann ‘regular’) and also the Abergavenny and Hereford Symphony Orchestras.

I did look down the personnel listings to see if any jazz musicians were featured amongst the ranks, but the only name I recognised was that of Lizzie Prendergast amongst the second violins, once the leader, violinist and lead vocalist of the cult Cardiff folk-rock band Blue Horses, a group that I enjoyed seeing perform on several occasions back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. More recently she guested with the Cardiff glam metal group Tiger Tailz at a show at the city’s Tramshed venue, the guest list also including former Mott The Hoople organist Verden Allen, but I digress.

Tonight’s event was primarily the CPO’s show and represented their major Summer Concert for 2025. In addition to Creighton Griffiths’ work the programme also included music by Dmitri Shostakovich, George Gershwin and Maurice Ravel.

Led by violinist Jill Francis-Williams the CPO opened the performance with “Festive Overture”, written by the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75). To my untrained classical ear this appeared to be a piece designed to demonstrate the full sonic capabilities of the symphony orchestra. Opening with a brass fanfare both the brass and the woodwind were prominent in the early passages. The masses of strings were featured comprehensively, with the lush textures of the violins and violas contrasting with the deeper, woodier tones of the cellos and double basses, with pizzicato techniques being deployed judiciously on occasion. The eight person percussion section was also kept busy with the sounds of snare drum, cymbals and timpani all featuring in the score. This represented an impressive start to the proceedings and once the applause had died down Bell informed us that Shostakovich had written the work in 1954 and that it had been commissioned by the Bolshoi Theatre to celebrate the 37th anniversary of the October Revolution.

Bell now called Creighton Griffiths to the stage, revealing that the CPO had first worked with him in 2009 when he was a finalist in the Young Welsh Musician of the Year competition. There have been other collaborations since, culminating in this Welsh premiere of Creighton Griffiths’ “Concerto for Jazz Harp and Orchestra”. At present the five movements have what are basically ‘working titles’, simple descriptions of the musical style of each section. Creighton Griffiths hopes to document the music on disc at some point, in which case the movements might gain more poetic or evocative titles.

Tonight the working titles sufficed and the Concerto began with “Prelude”, which featured a lengthy passage of unaccompanied harp that incorporated a degree of spontaneous improvisation. The addition of various items of percussion, notably cymbals, glockenspiel and drum kit, plus the sounds of bowed double basses, steered the music in a more obviously jazz direction, with the drum kit a particularly vital component in this regard – “you need the drum kit to make it swing”, Creighton Griffiths told me later. As Creighton Griffiths soloed in the manner of a jazz improviser his playing was also buoyed by the lush textures of the strings and woodwinds, with the trumpets adding a touch of bluesiness to the proceedings. This opening movement then concluded much as it had begun with the sound of unaccompanied harp.

The second movement, “Waltz”, was led by the harp, with Creighton Griffiths exhibiting the kind of instrumental virtuosity that has been so widely lauded by admirers of his jazz output over the years. Here he was complemented by the lush lyricism of the strings and the woodwinds, with the strings again mixing arco and pizzicato techniques, with the brass providing an element of counterpoint. Creighton Griffiths’ own playing, plus the percussive sounds of timpani, cymbals and glockenspiel also suggested the influence of flamenco music.

The stately “Ballad” was introduced by the sound of unaccompanied harp, later complemented by the warmly rounded tones of the four french horns. In terms of rhythm and cadence this was a gentler piece with the kit drummer deploying brushes and the strings again providing lush colouration. The piece concluded with an unaccompanied harp cadenza.

The energy levels increased markedly on “Latin”, a lively piece that introduced Afro-Cuban and Brazilian flavourings and rhythms, with the percussion section again playing a particularly active role, with both congas and drum kit prominent in the arrangement. The punchy playing of the trumpets and trombones was also a distinctive component during the course of a piece that featured more virtuoso playing from the featured soloist and which maintained a degree of momentum even during its more reflective moments.

The concluding movement, “Jive”, was even more exuberant and was counted in by a “one, two, three four” by Michael Bell, who’d already given it a dummy run on “Latin”! This was the most obviously ‘jazz piece thus far, featuring the ‘jazz’ instruments of drum and vibraphone, with the pizzicato playing of the double basses helping to replicate a regular jazz rhythm section. Meanwhile the rest of the Orchestra essentially functioned as a jazz big band. Thrilling stuff, and rapturously received by the audience.

Such was the warmth of the ovation that Bell gave his permission for Creighton Griffiths to perform an unscheduled encore. After thanking the audience and the Orchestra itself Creighton Griffiths played a solo version of the eden ahbez song “Nature Boy” in an arrangement inspired by a recording of the song by guitarist / vocalist George Benson. This compelling solo performance represented a very welcome bonus.

After the break the CPO returned without Creighton Griffiths. Tellingly the drum kit and vibraphone had also been removed from the stage. Nevertheless there was still a strong jazz component in the music of George Gershwin’s twenty minute orchestral tone poem “An American in Paris”. Bell spoke of the work as being “brilliantly written and colourfully orchestrated”, and also recounted two amusing anecdotes about Gershwin’s meetings with his contemporaries Shostakovich and Ravel. “An American in Paris” premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1928 and is a brilliant evocation of the joy of an American citizen, perhaps Gershwin himself, visiting Paris for the first time and soaking up the sights and sounds of the streets while strolling giddily up the Champs Elysée. There was a sense of joyousness in the opening stages, complete with the sounds of taxi horns, played by the same young lady who’d featured at the drum kit in the first half. More reflective passages, distinguished by the blues inflected brooding of the trumpets, was meant to signify occasional moments of homesickness.  A swing section featured the sounds of tenor saxophone, an instrument rarely heard in a classical context. Woozy sounding violins introduced a closing section depicting the title character wending his drunken way back to his hotel in the early hours, with the role of the protagonist taken by the tuba. “Typecast again” Bell had joked in his introduction, and at the conclusion of the piece as the individual soloists took a bow and raised their instruments to the crowd tuba player Louise Alexander raised her wine glass, a nice touch.

Finally we heard “Fragments Symphoniques” by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) from his ballet “Daphnis et Chloe”, composed in 1912 for the Ballet Russes. Bell told us something of the story of the romance between the Greek goatherd Daphnis and the shepherdess Chloe. When Chloe is abducted by pirates Daphnis falls into despair, but Chloe is eventually rescued thanks to the intervention of the god Pan and the pair are eventually reunited, a cause for celebration and wild bacchanalia. Ravel’s music traces this story, beginning with flutes and piccolo replicating a dawn chorus and the textural lushness of the nearly sixty string players depicting a glorious sunrise, the beauty of which is oblivious to the grieving Daphnis. An extended flute solo, backed by cushioning strings,  depicts the release of Chloe and provides the bridge into the joyous and sometimes raucous final section with is strident brass and dramatic percussion, including cymbal crashes and the sound of an enormous bass drum.

Tonight’s concert was a triumph for both Ben Creighton Griffiths and the Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra. Creighton Griffiths’ Concerto was rapturously received by an audience that included several of his family members. But the audience was no less appreciative of the rest of the programme and of the CPO itself.

Of course I enjoyed The Creighton Griffiths Concerto the most due to its very pronounced jazz elements but I also enjoyed the three ‘classical’ performances. I was already familiar with the Gershwin and had actually expected Creighton Griffiths to play on it. The other two pieces I didn’t know, but found myself able to engage readily with both of them. I don’t really listen to classical music at home, but live music is different and it’s a wonderful and moving experience seeing a full scale symphony orchestra in action.

Thanks to Ben Creighton Griffiths for speaking with me during the interval and after the show, by which time he’d changed into a Guns N’ Roses T-shirt, you don’t see too many of those at classical music concerts! Ben told me that he thought this performance of the Concerto was the best so far, the sheer size of the string section providing the music with a depth and colour that smaller ensembles hadn’t been able to provide. And of course a triumphant home town concert was something to be enjoyed and treasured. He hopes to record the work at some point in the future. Let’s hope that he succeeds, this is music that deserves to be ‘out there’.

The next performance of the Concerto will in Alcester, Warwickshire. Meanwhile I’m looking forward to catching up with Ben and Chube at Brecon Jazz Festival. Check out his website for forthcoming dates.

My thanks to Ben for inviting me to cover this event. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but I’m glad that I was able to accept and that the concert turned out to be such an outstanding success for him and such a memorable experience for me.