Steven Kirby / Deirdre Cartwright Quartet, Brecon Jazz Club, The Muse Arts Centre, Brecon, 14/10/2025

Steven Kirby – guitar, Deirdre Cartwright – guitar, Nick Kacal – double bass, Ryan Thrupp – drums

with guest John Close – guitar

Jokingly referred to as “Guitar-mageddon” Brecon Jazz Club’s October event featured a quartet co-led by the esteemed guitarists Steven Kirby and Deirdre Cartwright. At one point they were joined by a third guitarist, John Close, one of Kirby’s former students.

The guitar slingers were supported by the rhythm team of bassist Nick Kacal and drummer Ryan Thrupp, best known as the rhythm section of the BMJ Collective, the house band at Black Mountain Jazz in nearby Abergavenny. Kacal and Thrupp are an intelligent and flexible rhythm section who have worked with a wide variety of guest musicians, most recently yet another guitar player, the indefatigable Nigel Price. It’s a regular occurrence for the visiting guests to be blown away by the quality of the duo’s playing, and particularly that of the versatile young drummer Ryan Thrupp. Kacal plied his trade on the London jazz scene for many years before moving to South Wales and is thus better known, and has often been the catalyst in bringing leading London soloists to perform in Brecon and Abergavenny.

However that wasn’t the case here, both Kirby and Cartwright have been previous visitors to Brecon. Kirby featured as the artist in residence at the 2024 Brecon Jazz Festival where he played as part of a quartet led by the young drummer Zach Breskal that also featured John Close. Kirby also conducted a guitar masterclass and appeared with a quartet co-led by pianist Rachel Starritt and alto saxophonist Glen Manby.

 The American Kirby is a Professor at the esteemed Berklee College of Music in Boston, Ma, USA. In addition to being an acclaimed educator he is also a performing musician, composer and bandleader and has released three albums as a leader, “Point of Balance” (1998), “North Light” (2003) and “Illuminations” (2016). “North Light” features contributions from such jazz luminaries as Chris Potter (saxes), Bruce Barth (piano) and Scott Colley (bass).

In addition to leading his own groups, including a duo with bassist and fellow Berklee Professor Mark Poniatowski Kirby has also worked with the renowned saxophonist Joe Lovano

Deirdre Cartwright first came to prominence as the guitar tutor on the 1983 BBC TV series Rock School. She’d already played with Painted Lady, the group that evolved into Girlschool, but turned towards jazz, leading her own groups in addition to performing as a member of the fondly remembered all female Latin jazz ensemble The Guest Stars.

With bassist Alison Rayner Cartwright co-ordinated the long running Blow The Fuse jazz nights at London’s Vortex Jazz Club and also established the Blow The Fuse record label. She is currently a member of Rayner’s acclaimed quintet ARQ, which visited Brecon Jazz Club back in 2017.

In addition to appearing on all four ARQ albums Cartwright has also released six albums under her own name, these embracing a broad variety of jazz styles in the company of a wide range of contributors, among them Rayner and fellow ARQ members Diane McLoughlin (reeds) and Steve Lodder (keyboards).

Current projects include her Organik Trio alongside Pete Whittaker on organ and long time associate Gary Hammond on percussion.

In 2015 Cartwright brought a band to that year’s Brecon Jazz Festival to perform a show celebrating the music of two influential guitarists who were both lost to the world far too early, Wes Montgomery (1925-68) and Emily Remler (1957-90). Like tonight’s show this was also an event that represented something of a ‘six string summit’ with Cartwright joined by two fellow guitarists, local hero Will Barnes and a then very young Tom Ollendorff, who had just graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff. Bass duties were undertaken by Rayner, with Cardiff based drummer Greg Evans completing the group. Review here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/deirdre-cartwright-band-friends-brecon-jazz-festival-09-08-2015

There were links to that 2015 show in tonight’s performance as Kirby and Cartwright each brought some of their favourite tunes, mostly written by, or arranged by, other guitarists, to the session.

Indeed things kicked off with Remler’s arrangement of the jazz standard “Softly As In A Morning Sunrise”, chosen by Cartwright and a tune that was also performed back in 2025. Introduced by Cartwright and featuring Thrupp’s brushed drums this featured the contrasting guitar sounds of Cartwright’s Gibson SG 175, a classic arch-top guitar ideal for the playing of bebop, and Kirby’s lightweight, headless Strandberg with its more contemporary sound and feel.

Also selected by Cartwright Cole Porter’s “Love For Sale” featured the engrossing interplay of the two guitars followed by similarly absorbing extended individual solos. Kacal was also featured as a soloist on double bass.

Kirby’s first selection was a tune actually written by a pianist, Steve Kuhn’s composition “The Saga of Harrison Crabfeathers”. As Kirby explained it was an exploration of “the same tune in different keys and in inventive ways”. This featured Kirby’s deployment of a range of effects – both guitarists had a selection of pedals from which to choose – and the performance also included solos from Cartwright, Kirby and Kacal. It was a delight to hear this intriguing and rarely heard item, although it wasn’t completely new to me. The piece also features in the repertoire of the London based band Wild Card, led by guitarist Clement Regert.

Cartwright’s next choice was the Wes Montgomery classic “Four on Six”, which Kacal and Thrupp had performed with Nigel Price in Abergavenny just a couple of days previously. Propulsive bass lines and rapidly brushed drums imparted tonight’s performance with an admirable sense of swing as Kirby and Cartwright exchanged solos, Cartwright throwing in an appropriate quote to acknowledge the fact that Montgomery’s composition was based on the chord sequence of George Gershwin’s “Summertime”. Thrupp further impressed both his bandmates and the audience with a drum feature towards the close.

The Montgomery theme continued with Cartwright’s next choice “Willow Weep For Me”, written by Ann Ronell and performed by Montgomery on the live album “Smokin’ at The Half Note”, where he was accompanied by pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb. Something of a feature for Cartwright this piece concluded with a series of guitar exchanges and was also notable for the sympathetic performances of Kacal and Thrupp, the latter deploying bare hands on the drum skins at one juncture.

The final number of the first set saw Cartwright changing her Gibson for her old Epiphone – “it’s hard to rock out on an arch-top”, as she later explained. Selected by Kirby the John Scofield tune “Everybody’s Party” introduced a blues and rock element with Kirby stepping on his distortion pedal and incorporating numerous other effects during the course of his solo. Cartwright’s solo also introduced a strong blues feel thanks to her astute use of sustain as muscular bass and busy drumming helped to fuel the solos. Thrupp was rewarded for his efforts with a dynamic drum feature.

Set two commenced with a delightful duo reading of Pat Metheny’s classic composition “Bright Size Life”, the title track of Metheny’s debut album from 1976. This saw Kirby and Cartwright democratically sharing the lead and alternating the solos on a beautiful interpretation of one of Metheny’s best loved tunes.

Kacal and Thrupp returned for Kirby’s arrangement of the jazz standard “All The Things You Are”, performed in an unusual 3 / 4 time signature. Introduced by Kacal at the bass this included solos from Kirby and Cartwright, plus further features for bass and drums.

Also chosen by Kirby an arrangement of “This I Dig Of You”, a composition by the saxophonist Hank Mobley, fairly bustled along with Kirby and Cartwright exchanging solos before both trading fours with drummer Thrupp. It was both fascinating and enjoyable to hear this much loved composition transposed to the guitar.

It was back to Cartwright to choose a bossa nova, an arrangement of Luiz Bonfa’s “The Gentle Rain”, ushered in by an extended unaccompanied guitar passage from Cartwright. Authentic bossa rhythms supported solos from Kirby and Cartwright, before Kacal took over with a melodic double bass solo.

John Close joined the ensemble for the next piece, an arrangement of the Pat Martino tune “Cisco”, selected by Kirby. Originally from Northumberland, Close is a graduate of the RWCMD who has subsequently settled in Cardiff. In addition to his work as a performing musician and guitar tutor he also runs the hugely successful Coaltrain’s Jazz Club, which is based in the cafe at Barry Railway Station and presents free live jazz events every Saturday morning at 11..00 am. I’ve been fortunate enough to attend one of these sessions and can confirm that Coaltrain’s is a very welcome and thriving addition to the South Wales jazz scene. Well done, John.
Close, standing centre stage and looking totally home amongst such jazz guitar royalty as Kirby and Cartwright, exchanged solos with his six string colleagues, before all three guitarists traded fours with the excellent Thrupp.

Close has previously studied with Kirby and also appeared alongside him at the 2024 Brecon Jazz Festival as you’ve already read. One of the tunes at that session was Kirby’s original composition “Webop”, a ‘rhythm changes’ tune that was revisited here with solos from all three guitarists, these underpinned by funky bass and drum grooves, and with Kacal also enjoying his own feature.

The core quartet then took a deserved encore with a relaxed and swinging take on Wes Montgomery’s “Road Song”, with solos from Cartwright on guitar and Kacal on double bass.

This was a highly enjoyable performance that won the approval of a near capacity audience at The Muse – it was good to see so many people out and enjoying the music on a chilly October night. The tune selections were interesting and the standard of the playing consistently high, the fleet fingered dexterity and the musical sophistication of all three guitarists was consistently impressive and often downright jaw dropping. Kacal and Thrupp were the perfect foils, always flexible and supportive and more than capable of stepping into the limelight themselves when the music demanded it.

On the debit side things were occasionally a little ragged at times, understandable in a one off ensemble such as this, but less forgivable was a constant hum from the guitar amps and the high pitched whistle of feedback from the effects pedals. I wasn’t the only listener to notice it and it did genuinely interfere with the enjoyment of the music.

However what I’ll take away from this evening is the skill of the playing and the good natured warmth of the occasion. The musicians did genuinely seem to enjoy themselves, and so did their audience.

My thanks to Deirdre and Steven for speaking with me after the show. Deirdre was staying in Brecon over night before heading back to London in the morning. Meanwhile Steven and John were due to host a guitar workshop at The Muse the following lunchtime and there were many aspiring guitarists in tonight’s audience.

Steven Kirby and John Close are also due to perform as a duo at Coaltrain’s on the morning of Saturday 18th October 2025. I can’t make that, but it’s certain to be a rewarding event.

 

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