The Noonan Trio
St John’s College Auditorium, Oxford
30 May 2026

Sean Noonan – Drums, Vocals, Composer
Matthew Bourne – Piano
Michael Bardon – Double Bass

Currently London based, Irish American drummer, composer and speech vocalist Sean Noonan is a highly theatrical performer whose style has led to comparisons with Frank Zappa. As well as his own projects he’s collaborated with leading improv musicians both in the US and in the UK. Matthew Bourne and Michael Bardon both are highly respected and well established on the jazz, improv and experimental scene. All three have featured on the pages of this site but never together.

The trio were billed as performing music from their debut album’ ‘Inherit A Memory’. Noonan has said it draws on the ideas of Dr Rupert Sheldrake who argues patterns of activity are habitual rather than rule driven and each person inherits and contributes to a collective memory.

The debut album is the trio’s only release so far. Noonan though is prolific and has released 34 albums according to his website. He describes himself as a “rhythmic storyteller” who is in the tradition of wandering minstrels and African griots” who gather material for stories and tell tell them as they go. Recently he’s turned a 300 year old ghost story into a piece with the London Symphony Orchestra, in which a drummer drums the universe into chaos ( ‘The Drummer of Tedworth’).

Tonight’s presenter told us Noonan had insisted the trio be introduced as having just come from the desert. Perhaps for the lyrics of one of the numbers that the trio played in which Noonan’s girlfriend banished him to the desert for 40 days. But it’s more likely the trio had arrived from London and Leeds.

The first story they told is ‘Drunkard Landlady’. I had listened to this track on YouTube ahead of the performance but this had not prepared me for the extended scorching double time drum solo with which Noonan launched the gig, nor the menace in his voice as he intoned “ I’m your drunken landlady and I’m here to collect”, nor the sheer physicality of his drumming.

When he played standing with arms extended and bent at the elbow, he looked to me like a gigantic bird, a wader with broken wings, an effect which was heightened by the lines across his tee shirt/ sweater which drew my eye to the horizontal. In due course Bourne and Bardon joined in and matched Noonan in ferocity.

Noonan’s voice was much more introspective delivering the next lyric, a quasi-philosophic mediation on humanity’s past, present and future that drew on Dr Sheldrake’s ideas. A jerky, broken- up minimalism underpinned the words. A couple of times the vocal passages were displaced by an attractive instrumental earthy slow blues. Noonan used his elbows on the drum skins and threw his sticks at the kit. When the blues returned for a final time Bourne played them Keith Jarrett style over Bardon’s walking bass. Then the blues disappeared, displaced by playing that was jagged and became more and more edgy.

Whereas that number’s lyric could be interpreted as having offered an optimistic message about humanity “our story never never ends”, the next song was disquieting . The lines “tell me that the military is the monetary, that if the generals did not have war they could not command the peace” have stayed with me. Underneath the words Bourne played repeated fast phrases which built up in intensity, and the ending left the tension unresolved.

In the ‘Stealing of Cream by Blue Tits’ some of the birds tragically drowned in milk bottles, though reassuringly the majority got a free breakfast. Noonan spoke this story in a voice of someone telling a story to child, with Bourne’s gently tinkling piano in the background. Then instrumental discord took over initiated by Bardon’s double bass with a hint that a swirling murmuration was happening before the number concluded with crashing chords.

‘Polly’s Eyes’ was an elegy for a drug addict who has been raped, now has died and been forgotten. It was very moving. Noonan speech-vocal and singing was hushed and tender and Bourne’s piano matched Noonan’s tone beautifully, using space and restraint, and he brought the piece to a poignant end by playing single notes spaced out before he lapsed into silence.

Most of the lyrics had striking images. In one number we were told “ The King is Dancing” ( Charles III, George III, Elvis Presley, ???). He’s danced to a repeated catchy riff that sounded similar to a Frank Zappa jazz rock chorus. The King also had a fine double bass solo from Bardon for company. In another number Noonan speech-song he had two pork chops in his mouth.

The ferocious energy of the opening number recurred in bursts throughout the set but each time a little differently and never with quite the same level of ferocity of ‘Drunkard Landlady’. This was welcome. A diet which consisted only of ferocity would have been unpalatable, and the set and some of the numbers seemed to have been artfully constructed to avoid this.

The quieter numbers and passages were as enjoyable as the power passages with Bourne’s touch on the piano elegantly precise. Bardon’s bowing created a range of textures from a Purcell like ground bass to avant garde classical music , with Noonan applying a light touch and brushes to his kit or using shakers.

I had to strain a little to hear Bardon as rather than half facing towards the audience he stood turned towards Noonan who was situated towards the rear of the stage. But I heard enough to know he and Bourne were completely in tune with Nonnan, and they were superb both as ensemble players and soloists. Bourne played bare foot, and for a few minutes I became fixated on his bare right foot wrapped around the sustain pedal, and momentarily Bardon bowed the neck of his instrument which I’d never seen or heard done before.

Noonan’s inventive exciting and varied drumming was better than his vocals. As a friend said’ ‘Drunkard Landlady’ would be even more powerful if delivered by a rock singer. He used different voices for speech vocals with his tender sad voice for ‘Polly’s Eyes’ having the greatest impact.

Noonan’s theatrics, arms waving faux ‘conducting’ the trio with his drum sticks, were integral and added additional drama to the drama of his words and music . The theatrics worked best in the blue tits song, his flapping arms became birds’ wings before he collapsed over the drum kit presumably mimicking the fate a bird drowned in a milk bottle. The contrast between the physicality of his performance and his quiet polite ”Thank you” at the end of numbers was discombobulating, which I suspect was exactly what he hoped would be the effect. The theatrics though did become a little wearing after a time.

The music while a demanding listen did remain accessible. This wandering story teller gathered and used diverse musical styles from jazz rock riffs to avant garde classical and made them hold together. Improv undoubtedly was an influence but most of the music was predetermined with the trio using scores. Bourne and Bardon did so almost all the time except with Bourne soloed. Even Noonan turned to his score every now and then as if seeking a point of reference.

After the gig I bought the album. Having played and enjoyed it, nonetheless I think you do have to see the the Noonan Trio live to get the full experience. So thanks to Oxford Contemporary Music ( OCM) who took the risk of putting them on, and on the night of the Champions League final.

It was an exciting and enjoyable performance in which most things, but not everything, came off. I came away with the impression that Noonan’s multi genre music and his performance style has elements that can seem off the wall, but that he is a very serious and disciplined composer and performer, and in Matthew Bourne and Michael Bardon he has the perfect companions for his free spirited wanderings.

Thanks to Victoria Larkin of OCM for arranging my ticket.

For more about Sean Noonan please see https://seannoonanmusic.com/

COLIN MAY

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