Songs for the Earth, Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham, Glos. 05/07/2025 (Part of Cheltenham Music Festival).

Bridget O’Donnell violin, percussion, vocals,
Simmy Singh violin, shruti box, percussion, vocals
David Shaw viola, vocals
Colin Alexander cello, vocals,
Misha Mullov-Abbado double bass, vocals

The mainly classical Cheltenham Music Festival was founded in 1945 and is currently celebrating its 80th anniversary. It specialises in presenting new British music, some of which extends beyond contemporary classical into other musical genres, including jazz, folk, world and electronic music.

Cheltenham Music festival is presented by Cheltenham Festivals Ltd,. who also run the Jazz Festival (founded 1996) and the Science and Literature Festivals.

Although this site specialises in jazz the Music Festival occasionally features events which are of interest to jazz listeners.

Back in 2015 The Jazzmann covered a CMF event at the Parabola Arts Centre featuring a rather challenging collaboration between saxophonist Trish Clowes and her Emulsion Sinfonietta ensemble in a collaboration with the Anglo-Norwegian electro-improvising duo Food (saxophonist Iain Ballamy and drummer Thomas Stronen).  Review here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/emulsion-sinfonietta-featuring-food-parabola-arts-centre-cheltenham-04-07-2

The Jazzmann also covered two 2014 CMF events at the Parabola Arts Centre with a film and talk about the history of the Moog synthesiser followed by a live performance by the Smith Quartet with percussionist Joby Burgess playing the music of three contemporary composers, the programme consisting of;
Steve Reich - “Different Trains”
Graham Fitkin – “Distil”
Steve Martland - “Starry Night”

My account of the above evening can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/an-evening-at-cheltenham-music-festival-04-07-2014

In 2013 I reviewed the event SANS - Ethno-Ambient Journey, also at the Parabola Arts Centre. This featured an international quartet led by the multi-instrumentalist and composer Andrew Cronshaw and featuring  Finnish singer Sanna Kurki -Suonio, Canberra based reeds player Ian Blake and Armenian duduk specialist  Tigran Aleksanyan. The programme featured the music of several different folk traditions from around the globe and my review of a fascinating performance can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/sans-etho-ambient-journey-at-pac-cheltenham-06-07-2013-part-of-cheltenham-m

Although the intervening years have presented other tempting ‘crossover’ events this afternoon’s performance by the ensemble Songs for the Earth represented my first visit to CMF for quite some time. I was tempted both by the afternoon slot, which was ideal for me, and the fact that the event featured double bassist and composer Misha Mullov-Abbado, who has been a regular presence on the Jazzmann web pages in recent years. I have reviewed three of his four jazz albums to date, “New Ansonia” (2015), “Cross Platform Interchange” (2017) and “Effra” (2025), plus a live appearance by his sextet at The Hive in Shrewsbury in 2017.  His 2020 album “Dream Circus” somehow slipped through the net.

Mullov-Abbado has also featured frequently on the recordings and live shows of others, among them saxophonists Stan Sulzmann, Dave O’Higgins and Helena Kay, drummer Enzo Zirilli, vibraphonist Ralph Wyld, trombonist Tom Green, guitarist Rob Luft and pianists Tom Millar and Liam Dunachie.

 Mullov-Abbado also co-runs the Patchwork Orchestra, a London based big band playing original compositions by its members, some of the capital’s most outstanding young jazz musicians. The majority of the Mullov-Abbado sextet are part of the PJO and appear on the Orchestra’s albums “The Adventures of Mr Pottercakes”, (2019) and the EP “The Light that Shines” (2020), the latter recorded by the band members in isolation at the height of the Covid crisis. Both recordings are reviewed elsewhere on The Jazzmann, as is a 2016 live appearance by the Patchwork Jazz Orchestra at the 606 Club as part of the 2016 EFG London Jazz Festival.

His current projects also include the membership of a collaborative trio alongside vocalist and violinist Alice Zawadzki and multi-instrumentalist Fred Thomas. In 2024 the trio released the acclaimed album “Za Gorami” on the prestigious German record label ECM. A superb live performance by the trio at Kings Place formed part of the 2024 EFG London Jazz Festival and is reviewed as part of my Festival coverage here;
tps://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/efg-london-jazz-festival-2024-second-saturday-23-11-2024

The son of conductor Claudio Abbado and violinist Viktoria Mullova Misha also works with his mother in the cross genre duo Music We Love.

Songs for the Earth, co-led by the husband and wife team of Mullov-Abbado and the Australian born violinist Bridger O’Donnell is similarly wide ranging and embraces elements of jazz, folk and classical music. The co-leaders, who are pictured above,  say of the project;
“Songs for the Earth is a fusion of folk, jazz and classical music, inspired by our need to connect with nature and the outdoors. This performance will take you on a journey, linking the spirit of folk music to nature, the seasons, and the ways we connect with the outdoors through walking, gardening, observing and just being. This will be a relaxed performance, suitable for all ages, and the programme will include arrangements of nature-inspired music from Celtic, Nordic, North & South American, Eastern European and Middle-Eastern traditions – some will be traditional folk songs from hundreds of years ago, others will be more recent songs by songwriters of today. Some of this music you will know, some maybe not”.

Originally commissioned by Sinfonia Cymru Songs for the Earth was inspired by the lockdown period when musicians such as O’Donnell and Mullov-Abbado were unable to tour and found themselves spending more time re-connecting with nature, an experience that was common to so many of us.

The Songs for the Earth quintet also includes violinist Simmy Singh, a musician who also straddles genre boundaries and who has played with jazz artists such as Alice Zawadzki,  Bill Laurance, Alfa Mist, Portico Quartet, Vega Trails and bassists Joshua Cavanagh- Brierley and Paula Gardiner. Today’s line up was completed by viola player David Shaw and cellist Colin Alexander, the latter replacing the advertised Denny Teo.

Primarily centred around folk musics from various parts of the globe today’s programme was a well chosen selection of material that was both fascinating and entertaining and which delighted the audience at the elegant Regency venue the Pittville Pump Room, set in the magnificent surroundings of Pittville Park, the perfect location for a pre-gig stroll.

The performance was introduced by Jack Bazalgette, CMF’s Artistic Director, with announcing duties subsequently shared by O’Donnell, Singh and Mullov-Abbado.

The quintet commenced with “Old Reinlender from Sonndala” a traditional Norwegian folk tune in an arrangement by the Danish String Quartet. This was ushered in by viola and cello, subsequently joined by the two violins, O’Donnell playing pizzicato and Singh arco. O’Donnell then took up her bow to deliver the stirring folk melody, the momentum of the music increasing as Mullov-Abbado also joined the fray, first using the body of his bass as a form of percussion before switching to a more conventional (in jazz terms) pizzicato technique. A more loosely structured passage signalled the quintet’s commitment to improvisation before the rousing folk melodies returned.

A lively and invigorating start, but one that came at some cost as Shaw scurried from the stage. The reason for his distress was a broken viola string, which he was unable to repair. He played the rest of the set on three strings, making some necessary musical adjustments along the way. It was an impressive feat of musicianship and I suspect that many audience members, including myself,  hadn’t noticed exactly what had happened until Mullov-Abbado made reference to it.

O’Donnell and Singh filled in verbally during the time Shaw was off stage, O’Donnell telling us a bit more about the Songs from the Earth project and Singh demonstrating her pedal operated shruti box, which we were to hear more of later.

When Shaw returned the quintet performed an arrangement of “Ne’ama”, a song by the Yemeni songwriter Ofra Haza telling the tale of a young woman falling in love for the first time but reluctant to tell her friends and family. Instead she confesses her love to Ne’ama, the Goddess of the Wind. Introduced by the core string quartet this was a piece with a distinctive Middle Eastern feel with Mullov-Abbado’s plucked double bass subsequently providing an underpinning rhythmic heft in addition to taking a jazz style solo.

The ‘wind’ theme continued with Singh’s own “Whispers of the Wind”, a piece originally commissioned by the Cowbridge Music Festival for just violin and viola, but now re-arranged for quintet,  and depicting the wind as a living force, variously gentle and violent. Introduced by the sounds of violin, viola and shruti box this saw the string players variously deploying pizzicato and arco techniques. Soft and gentle at first (“like a brush against the skin”) it was the addition of Mullov-Abbado’s vigorous bass plucking that suggested the destructive power of the wind, especially when combined with a hint of wilful dissonance from the bow of cellist Colin Alexander. In addition to her work as musician Singh also describes herself as an “Earth Activist” and this was a piece with a strong environmental message.

“Solo Dios Sabe Si Vuelvo” (translating as “Only God Knows When I Will Return”), a song by the Chilean songwriter Julian Herreros began with a rousing vocal passage featuring the singing of all five band members. Mullov-Abbado’s percussive bass plucking was also complemented by O’Donnell’s use of percussion as Singh played the violin melody, these two later changing roles. Rousing passages featuring folk inspired melodies alternated with quieter, more impressionistic moments in a piece that embraced a wide range of dynamics and musical styles. Described by Mullov-Abbado as a “South American spiritual” this was a piece that was one of many that the members of the quintet have collected over the years.

I was in rather more familiar territory with “John Barleycorn”, a traditional folk song that has variously been accredited as both English and Scottish. One of the best known items in the folk canon it’s been updated by groups such as Traffic and Oysterband. Today’s all instrumental arrangement was something of a showcase for the viola playing of David Shaw, who introduced the piece unaccompanied, his playing later underpinned by violins, cello and bass. As the journey of John Barleycorn continued, from the earth to the glass, the music sped up, now led by the violins.

Mullov-Abbado’s original “Equinox” was written to mark those moments of equal daylight and darkness, periods of the year that make the composer feel “tender and emotional”. That melancholy was reflected in an arrangement that included a melodic pizzicato double bass solo. Mullov-Abbado then passed the lead to Singh for an achingly lovely violin led passage prior to a quiet conclusion.

The traditional North American spiritual “Down to the River to Pray” was ushered in collectively before fragmenting into a duet between O’Donnell on violin and Shaw on viola. Second violin, cello and double bass were gradually re-introduced until the full quintet sound was restored once more, this time with a renewed power as Mullov-Abbado moved between pizzicato and arco techniques. The wordless vocals of O’Donnell and Singh featured on the coda and following the performance O’Donnell told us something about the coded nature of the lyrics and their references to the ‘Underground Railroad’.

From the Scots Gaelic tradition came “Fear a’ Bhàta” (translating as “The Boatman”) a song of lost love written by Sìne NicFhionnlaigh. This was teamed with two versions of the traditional tune “Da Full Rigged Ship”, played first as a reel and then as a jig. The sadness of “Fear a’ Bhàta”, led by Alexander’s melancholy cello, contrasted effectively with the lively performances of “Da Full Rigged Ship”, exuberantly led by the twin violins.

I’d guess that the traditional Welsh tune “Lloer Dirion Lliw’r Dydd” (translating as “Gentle Moon, The Colour Of Day”)  was brought to the group by the Welsh born Singh, particularly as it featured the drone of the shruti box. Also featuring the drones of the strings, led by Alexander’s cello, this was music that expressed a beautiful sadness, the sadness of a man at the end of his life but fully accepting of it and acknowledging his lifelong companion, the moon.

The programme concluded with a traditional Bulgarian folk dance, the “Kopanitsa”, danced in lines and with eleven beats to the bar. “The formation is in the shape of an eagle”, explained O’Donnell, “the music causes it to take flight.” Again the players deployed a mix of pizzicato and arco techniques on a piece with a decidedly Balkan / Middle Eastern feel that gradually began to accelerate in pace via a violin solo from O’Donnell and a passage of highly percussive unaccompanied double bass from Mullov-Abbado. Even more extraordinary was the vocalising of Shaw, who proved to be a highly accomplished vocalist, his muezzin like wail backed by the wordless singing of his fellow band members. An impressive and unexpected finale.

The members of Songs for the Earth received a rapturous reaction from the audience at the Pittville Pump Room, with many getting to their feet to applaud the ensemble, who took their bows in the classical manner but didn’t decide to stick around and maybe run through a standard as an encore, as a jazz group might have done.

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this performance, as I had hoped I would. The playing was exceptional throughout from all the members of the ensemble and even the hiatus with Shaw’s viola couldn’t put them off their stride. The programme was well chosen and consistently interesting and the presentation relaxed and informative. All in all an excellent performance to brighten up even further an already pleasant summer afternoon. Well done to everybody concerned and my thanks to Jade Beard, PR and Communications manager for Cheltenham Jazz Festivals, for providing my press tickets.

 

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