Ruta Di Trio, The Muse Arts Centre, Brecon, 13/03/2026.

Ruta Di – guitar, vocals, Paula Gardiner – double bass, Liz Exell – drums

Brecon Jazz Club’s second presentation during March 2026 (the first featuring a trio led by trumpeter Tomos Williams is reviewed elsewhere on this site) was a joint production with The Muse venue and represented both a celebration of International Women’s Day, which took place on March 8th,  and the long running Brecon Women’s Festival, itself founded as a celebration of International Women’s Day. 

Representatives of Brecon Jazz Club (Lynne Gornall), The Muse (Ruth Gibbs) and Brecon Women’s Festival (Leigh Hendra) all helped to present the evening while the music was provided by an all female trio led by guitarist, singer and songwriter Ruta Di.

Di is a Lithuanian born, London based musician with two full length albums to her credit, “Hooligan” (2019) and “Yellow Summer” (2022). She has also released the EP “Notes From The Lockdown” (2020). 

The “Yellow Summer” album has also yielded a number of singles and was recorded in the company of jazz musicians Al MacSween (piano), Daniel Casimir and Jakub Cywinski (basses) and Eric Ford (drums), plus  Lucia Viola (flute).

Tonight’s performance teamed Di with the Cardiff based rhythm section of Paula Gardiner (double bass) and Liz Exell (drums), both of whom are regular visitors to The Muse and great favourites with Brecon Jazz audiences. Di only met her colleagues on the day of the show but the trio gelled remarkably quickly, benefiting from a short pre-gig rehearsal plus the highly developed sight reading skills of both Exell and Gardiner.

The programme consisted of a mix of Di’s original songs plus a selection of Brazilian and Latin jazz standards, many of these very well known. It was a beguiling mix of the new and the familiar, with the mainly Brazilian standards being approached in an inventive and distinctive manner. Di’s own songs inhabited relatively conventional singer/songwriter territory while also exhibiting something of an indie pop / rock sensibility.

During the course of the performance Di told us something about herself and her career. We learned that as a child she started out learning classical piano before switching to the guitar in her teens, playing in rock bands in addition to other musical genres.  She also got into painting in a big way during her teens before studying guitar at music college. She initially came to London for six months but has now been based in the English capital for fourteen years.

Di was primarily a guitarist before she became a vocalist and songwriter in her twenties. Her capabilities as an instrumentalist were apparent right from the start of tonight’s show. Opener “Perfect As It Is”, a single from the “Yellow Summer” album demonstrated her command of a range of guitar effects pedals, drawing on wah wah and guitar synth sounds.

I didn’t catch the Portuguese title of the next song, which represented an early example of Di’s love for Brazilian music. Di delivered the lyrics in both Portuguese and English and the performance included instrumental solos from Di on guitar and Gardiner on double bass.

“Expectations”, a song from the 2019 album “Hooligan” was introduced by a voice / double bass duet with Exell temporarily sitting out. Once Exell’s drums were added to the equation Gardiner was featured as a double bass soloist.

The songs of Antonio Carlos Jobim were widely featured throughout this evening’s event. “The Girl From Ipanema” saw Di changing the pronoun during the course of a performance that again featured a mix of Portuguese and English lyrics and with both Di and Gardiner delivering instrumental solos, the latter effectively a dialogue with Exell’s brushed drums.

The original “Cold Way”, from “Yellow Summer” was a song about unrequited love and again featured Gardiner as a soloist.

Di informed us that the title track from “Hooligan” drew its initial inspiration from the jazz standard “Someday My Prince Will Come” but one would never have known otherwise. Featuring wah wah and guitar synth sounds this foray into indie pop / rock territory was very well received by the audience.

“Oye Como Va”, famously a hit for Santana, represented a venture into Afro-Cuban jazz with Di singing the Spanish lyrics and delivering a suitably impressive guitar solo.

The first set concluded with “I Like Both Of You”, another single from the “Yellow Summer” album, a love triangle song with a risqué lyric and a heavy guitar sound.

Set two commenced with “Self Portrait”, another song from the “Hooligan” album and featured introspective, self analytical lyrics partly inspired by the artworks of Frida Kahlo.

Jobim’s “Wave” is one of the most familiar items in the bossa nova canon but Di and the trio made it sound fresh with the singer again delivering the lyrics in both Portuguese and English.

The new original “Can’t Feel The Ground” explored the subject of “small moments with the one you love” and included a synth-guitar solo that incorporated some pretty impressive string bending.

“Corcovado” was another familiar bossa given a new twist, commencing with a guitar / voice and double bass duet, with Di singing in English. Gardiner was later featured as an instrumental soloist.

“Endings”, the closing track on “Yellow Summer” was a response to the many songs that celebrate new beginnings, sometimes the end of something, a romantic relationship perhaps, can be a positive. This saw Di adopting a pure, more orthodox jazz guitar sound for her instrumental solo. Gardiner was also featured as an instrumental soloist.

Voice and the patter of Exell’s hands on drum skins introduced the Brazilian standard “Mas Que Nada”, written by Jorge Ben Jor and famously covered by Sergio Mendes. Gardiner eventually emerged as the featured soloist and this lively rendition of one of the most popular and accessible songs in the Brazilian canon was enthusiastically received by the Brecon audience.

Suitably heartened by the crowd’s response the trio remained on stage to encore with Di’ s original “Happiness Comes To Me”, a song about finding the titular commodity in unexpected places. Recorded for the “Hooligan” album the song was performed in a broadly bossa style and was notable for Di’s synth guitar solo and Exell’s excellent cymbal work.

Tonight’s performance was significantly different to Brecon Jazz Club’s regular jazz night productions, particularly with regard to Di’s original songs, which mixed jazz flavourings with elements of rock and pop. In the context of a live show I didn’t find it easy to pick up much in terms of the lyrics and I have to admit that I enjoyed Di’s instrumental work rather more than her singing and I would have liked to have seen the set punctuated with a couple of all instrumental numbers. I was very impressed with Di as a guitar soloist and she deployed her range of effects pedals imaginatively. I assume that her frequent use of the guitar synth pedal was inspired by Pat Metheny, himself a great admirer of Brazilian music.

The trio’s approach to the familiar Brazilian and Latin standards was also intelligent and distinctive and brought a new sound and approach to some very well known tunes. Gardiner and Exell provided Di with the kind of empathic support that one would expect from these hugely accomplished musicians.

Despite some personal reservations this was an enjoyable, if slightly belated, celebration of International Women’s Day, and also of Brecon Women’s Festival,  from a highly talented trio of female musicians.

Ruta Di’s recordings are available here;
https://rutadi.bandcamp.com/album/hooligan

See also;
https://www.rutadimusic.com/

 

 

blog comments powered by Disqus