Jon Crespo Quartet, ‘Beyond Armstrong’, Black Mountain Jazz, Melville Centre, Abergavenny, 31/08/2025.

Jon Crespo – trumpet, flugelhorn, congas, shakers, Mark Sambell – piano, keyboard, Jon Goode – electric bass, Greg Evans – drum kit

Trumpeter Jonathan Crespo was born in Chile but the volatile politics of his original homeland resulted in his family moving to Ontario, Canada when Crespo was still a child.

Crespo’s brother started playing trumpet in high school and Jonathan followed suit, studying classical music but also absorbing the rock the music of the era including The Who, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Pink Floyd and The Beatles. Crespo has since described himself as a “rocker in a trumpet player’s body” 

Crespo discovered jazz via Chet Baker and studied the music at Humber College in Toronto, a specialist jazz college. Crespo later became member of the Humber College Music Program Advisory Committee, an honour also shared by the late, great jazz pianist Oscar Peterson.

Crespo’s versatility has led to an interesting and diverse career that has included touring with the Beach Boys, KC and the Sunshine Band, The Box Tops and Lenny Kravitz among many others. He has acted as trumpet player and musical director for a number of mainstream entertainers such as Michael Ball and Gareth Gates, with this aspect of his work also including stints on US cruise ships and residencies in lounges and casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Crespo has been resident in South Wales for a number of years, firstly in Cardiff and now in Barry. An acclaimed educator he teaches jazz, classical and commercial trumpet to students in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan and is a popular and active presence on the Welsh jazz scene. Prior to the pandemic he ran a weekly Saturday night residency at the now sadly defunct Café Jazz in Cardiff.

I first encountered Crespo’s playing in 2016 when he was part of a Cardiff based ensemble that performed with the late, great vocalist Tina May at that year’s Brecon Jazz Festival. Crespo appeared on both trumpet and percussion and my review of this event can be found as part of my Festival coverage here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/saturday-at-brecon-jazz-weekend-13-08-2016

I was very impressed with Crespo’s contribution to the May performance, a themed event titled “Tina May Sings The Music of Brazil”. The following year he returned to BJF as part of the Slice of Life Big Band, led by trumpeter and broadcaster Rhys Phillips.

Also in 2017 Crespo brought his own quartet featuring pianist Dave Jones, bassist Ashley John Long and tonight’s drummer Greg Evans to Black Mountain Jazz in Abergavenny to play an enjoyable standards based set. Again I was suitably impressed and my account of this performance can be read here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/jon-crespo-quartet-black-mountain-jazz-melville-centre-abergavenny-30-07-20

I didn’t catch up with Crespo again for a number of years until he turned up not once but twice at the Brecon Jazz Springtime Jazz Day Festival in April 2025. Here he made a brief but memorable cameo appearance with saxophonist Jack McDougall’s Full House Brass Band at The Muse prior to leading his own group, featuring Jones, Evans and vocalist / ukulele player Jane Williams at The Brecon Tap. My accounts of these performances can be found as part of my Festival coverage here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/brecon-jazz-festival-springtime-jazz-day-festival-various-venues-brecon-12-04-2025

Crespo’s first performance at BMJ for eight years found him introducing a new quartet featuring long time collaborator Evans alongside Mark Sambell on piano and keyboard and Jon Goode on electric bass. Sambell and Goode were recently seen performing together as part of a quintet led by vocalist Dionne Bennett at the 2025 Brecon Jazz Festival.

Tonight’s event was subtitled ‘Beyond Armstrong’ and saw Crespo and his colleagues exploring the music of trumpeter / composers who emerged post Louis Armstrong, but who still bore, or bear, his indelible influence. Crespo describes his project thus;
“Beyond Armstrong is a unique tribute to trumpet players who were inspired by and appeared on the jazz scene after Louis Armstrong. Arguably, one would suggest that modern jazz trumpet playing owes its roots and influences to him. In some way, every trumpet player owes approach, understanding and their sound to Armstrong. This tribute will explore and pay homage to some of those players - including Miles Davis, Tom Harrell, Woody Shaw and more.”

Crespo sells himself rather short here, in addition to tunes from Davis, Harrell and Shaw, as promised, we also heard compositions from Chuck Mangione, Freddie Hubbard, Duke Ellington, Clifford Brown and Crespo himself, who contributed two excellent original compositions to the repertoire.

In the pre-publicity for this performance Crespo had promised us more than ‘just a gig’ and tonight’s show had been very carefully co-ordinated, right down to the music played over the PA prior to the performance, during the interval and after the show.

The soundtrack before the show featured a series of modern jazz classics curated by Crespo featuring the music of Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Keith Jarrett, Michael Brecker and others. At the interval we enjoyed hearing Weather Report.

After Evans, Goode and Sambell had sidled onto the darkened stage Crespo himself made the ‘Grand Entrance’ to the strains of Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” – this man is not just a trumpeter, he’s an entertainer, a legacy perhaps of his days on the cruise ships.

But make no mistake, Crespo can play, as he demonstrated on the quartet’s version of the Miles Davis composition “Four” which featured his fluent and often strident trumpet soloing alongside features for Sambell, Goode and Evans, the latter in a series of exchanges with both trumpet and keyboard.

On the opening number Sambell effected an acoustic piano sound on his Nord Stage 3 keyboard but for Tom Harrell’s “Train Shuffle” he moved to the Melville’s upright acoustic piano, sharing the solos with Crespo’s trumpet. This was a more subdued and thoughtful performance that saw Evans deploying both sticks and brushes as appropriate.

Crespo paid homage to the recently deceased Chuck Mangione (1940 – 2025). Trumpeter and composer Mangione first made made his name in the 1960s with Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers before leading his own groups and also working as an actor and as a film and TV composer. Mangione was something of a flugel specialist and Crespo switched to this instrument for a segue of two of Mangione’s tunes, “Feels So Good” and “Land of Make Believe”. Things began gently with a duet between Crespo on flugel and Sambell on acoustic upright before the addition of bass and drums introduced vibrant Latin rhythms with Crespo alternating between flugel and shakers / congas. Sambell moved to the Nord, adopting an electric piano sound for his solo as he followed Crespo on flugel. The leader was also featured in a conga / drum dialogue with Evans, underpinned by bass and electric piano. Crespo then returned to the flugel on the outro.

The Duke Ellington composition “Do Nothing ‘Til You Hear From Me” was written as a feature for Ellington trumpeter Cootie Williams and was originally titled “Concerto for Cootie”, only acquiring its current name with the addition of Bob Russell’s lyrics. The piece is a very personal one for Crespo, who dedicated it to the memory of two old friends from Canada. An emotive performance featured the bluesy sound of vocalised, plunger muted trumpet on a marathon solo that culminated with Crespo playing with an open bell. Sambell was featured on acoustic piano, supported by electric bass and brushed drums, followed by a dramatic solo trumpet cadenza at the close. The intensity of Crespo’s performance ensured that this piece received a terrific ovation from a capacity audience at The Melville.

An excellent first set concluded with the bebop flavourings of the Clifford Brown composition “Blues Walk” with Sambell leading off the solos at the keyboard followed by Crespo on trumpet, whose solo evolved into a series of exchanges with each musician in turn as the entertainment continued.

Crespo and the band returned to the stage to the strains of “Welcome Back”, the theme tune to the 1970s US sitcom “Welcome Back, Kotter”, a series that starred comedian Gabe Kaplan and which gave John Travolta his first big break. The theme tune was sung by John Sebastian, of Lovin’ Spoonful fame.

In a nicely symmetrical touch it was a Clifford Brown composition that opened the second half, another sturdy slice of bebop that featured solos from Crespo on trumpet and Sambell on ‘acoustic Nord’. Evans was featured in a series of exchanges with trumpet and keyboard before Crespo restated the theme of a piece that he described as being “very difficult to play”.

The most famous jazz trumpet recording of all time is of course Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue”. From that album Crespo chose to play “All Blues”, but not in its usual 6/8 modal style arrangement. Instead the quartet played in 4/4, giving it an agreeably funky twist and featuring solos for trumpet and electric piano.

The first of two Freddie Hubbard compositions was “Gibraltar”, from Hubbard’s 1982 album “Born To Be Blue”.  This was introduced by an unaccompanied passage from Crespo at the congas, subsequently joined by keyboards, bass and drums.  Crespo gravitated between trumpet and percussion on this Latin flavoured slice of hard bop, soloing first on the horn before entering into another drum / conga dialogue with Evans. Elsewhere we heard from Sambell on piano on another offering that was particularly well received by the crowd.

Crespo now decided to slow things down with a performance of his original composition “Maz”, a piece written in the aftermath of a difficult period in his life when he had actually been homeless for a while. Performed as a flugel / piano duet this was an unexpectedly beautiful composition that revealed Crespo’s considerable gifts as a writer. A tender but emotional performance elicited another excellent response from the audience.

Crespo promised to “lighten the mood” with a performance of “Povo”, another Freddie Hubbard composition, this time from Hubbard’s 1972 album “Sky Dive”. From Freddie’s funk period this was an appropriately upbeat, and indeed funky, offering introduced by the combination of Goode and Evans and with Sambell adopting a vintage electric piano or ‘Fender Rhodes’ sound. Crespo was featured on trumpet as he shared the solos with Sambell on a piece that seemed to owe something to Herbie Hancock’s earlier composition “Canteloupe Island”.

Another of Crespo’s trumpet heroes, Woody Shaw (1944-89), was represented by Shaw’s composition “Rahsaan’s Rush”, a dedication to the then recently deceased saxophonist and multi-reeds player Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1935-77) from Shaw’s 1977 album “Rosewood”. Rooted in the legacy of hard bop and modal jazz this piece elicited a fiery quartet performance with solos from Crespo on trumpet and Sambell at the keyboard.

Crespo and the quartet exited to the sounds of Green Day’s “The Time of Your Life”, a rare acoustic moment from the US punk power trio. Its alternative title, “Good Riddance”, was rendered entirely inappropriate as the quartet responded to a rousing reception from the near capacity crowd by returning to the stage for a rendition of the Crespo original “Mr. Wolfe”, a title derived from Evans’ physical resemblance to the character Mr. Wolfe in the Quentin Tarantino film “Pulp Fiction”. Introduced by Evans himself at the drums this was a funky offering with a suitably dark edge that incorporated solos from Sambell on electric piano and Crespo on trumpet, the latter throwing in a number of humorous quotes. Evans enjoyed a further feature at the drums before Crespo returned for a final theme statement.

Tonight’s event was a hugely successful one for Black Mountain Jazz with an excellent audience turnout. It was also a triumph for Crespo and the band who delighted the crowd with two energetic sets of music, skilfully played. In addition to the well chosen covers I was also impressed with the quality of Crespo’s original writing on the beautiful ballad “Maz” and the wickedly funky “Mr. Wolfe”. It would be interesting to hear more of his own compositions, either live or on disc.

As promised this was more than “just a gig” with the intro and outro music specifically curated by Crespo also playing its part in the course of a highly enjoyable and successful evening. This aspect of the show revealed something of Crespo’s “rocker” side but it was his playing as a jazz trumpeter, composer and bandleader that was the most impressive and which delighted the highly appreciative audience.

My thanks to Jon for speaking with me afterwards and clearing up the set list details – and of course to him and the rest of the band for a terrific gig.

 

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