Tiggy Blackwell Quintet / Huw Llewellyn Quartet, Brecon Jazz Festival, The Muse Arts Centre, Brecon, 08/07/2025

PROLOGUE

Tonight’s double bill featuring two young Cardiff based bands was a product of Brecon Jazz Club’s Llwyfan (or Platform) project, established to support young and aspiring instrumentalists, vocalists and promoters based in Wales.

June’s event had featured the singers and instrumentalists of the Cardiff based Tân Cerdd Community Interest Company (CIC), founded by vocalist and educator Dionne Bennett and this performance is reviewed here.
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/brecon-jazz-club-presents-jazz-more-with-music-networktan-cerdd-the-muse-arts-centre-brecon-10-06-2025

Both the Tân Cerdd  event and tonight’s double bill were made possible thanks to the financial support of the Gwendoline & Margaret Davies Sisters Charity, based in Newtown, Mid Wales. For further details and a full history of the Charity and its work please visit;
https://daviescharity.org.uk/

Whereas the first event of two to be supported by the Sisters Charity focussed on vocalists this second item in the series concentrated on promoters and instrumentalists.

Tonight’s show was a collaboration between Brecon Jazz Club and aspiring promoter John Close, who presents Saturday morning jazz events at the recently established Coaltrain’s venue in Barry. Based in the cafe at Barry Railway Station Coaltrain’s is a small, intimate venue that presents live jazz every Saturday morning from 11.00 am to 1.00 pm. Events are free but feature top quality musicians, many of them graduates of the jazz courses at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) or the Music School at Cardiff University. It has already established a strong local following with many audience members arriving as early as 10.00 am to enjoy a cup of coffee and a bacon roll before settling back to enjoy the music.

I have only been able to visit Coaltrain’s once but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, getting there early for coffee and a roll and soaking up the ambience, which is enhanced by the music related artwork that adorns the walls. There’s a pleasantly relaxed and bohemian feel about Coaltrain’s that really heightens one’s enjoyment of the music.

On the morning that I visited Close’s own trio was playing. Originally from the North of England Close is a graduate of the RWCMD and a talented guitarist who has appeared at both the Brecon ans Wall2Wall (Abergavenny) jazz festivals. Together with bassist Aeddan Williams and drummer Zach Breskal he delivered a hugely enjoyable standards based set featuring some real jazz and bebop classics.

For more information on Coaltrain’s please visit;
https://www.facebook.com/coaltrainscoffeeshop/

Close’s successful start in his role as a promoter at Coaltrain’s led to this invitation to host and curate an evening at Brecon Jazz Club. He invited two artists who have already performed in Barry to put together a band to perform for the discerning and supportive Brecon Jazz Club audience. Even on a glorious summer evening The Muse hosted a large crowd eager to see these two talented young bands, variously led by trombonist Tiggy Blackwell and trumpeter Huw Llewellyn.

TIGGY BLACKWELL QUINTET

Tiggy Blackwell – Trombone, Evan Extence – Tenor Saxophone, Charlie Herbert – Piano
Benedict Stephens – Double Bass / Sam Green – Drums

Antigone ‘Tiggy’ Blackwell is a First Class Honours graduate of the Jazz course at the RWCMD, graduating in 2024. She is currently working as the Students’ Union President at the RWCMD in addition to playing as a freelance jazz musician on the Cardiff and wider South Wales jazz scene.

A frequent award winner she was the inaugural recipient of the ‘Anjool Malde Jazz Prize’ and the 2024 Musicians’ Company Silver Medal.

Blackwell, aged twenty three,  has previously appeared on the Jazzmann web pages thanks to Brecon Jazz Festival appearances with the bands Funkyard and New Orleans Jazz Quintet (both 2023) and Mingus Project and Siglo Section Big Band (both 2024). She has also worked with saxophonist YolanDa Brown vocalist Aisha Kigs, pianist Michael Blanchfield, the Capital City Jazz Orchestra and with the Cardiff based bands Afro Cluster, Soul Lotta Funk and The Navarones.

Her quintet features a mix of current students recent graduates from the RWCMD and Cardiff University Music School and includes tenor saxophonist Evan Extence, actually a medical student, pianist Charlie Herbert, bassist Benedict Stephens and drummer Sam Green.

By her own admission Blackwell was as little apprehensive about this gig. Her commitments as Student Union president has curtailed her playing, especially in small group situations, although she has continued to work regularly with the Mingus Project and the Siglo Section Big Band. But encouraged by Close and Lynne Gornall of Brecon Jazz Club here she was, leading her quintet in a very successful programme of pieces sourced from the standards repertoire, but by no means the obvious choices.

The quintet commenced with two pieces arranged by the late, great Curtis Fuller (1932 – 2021), presumably one of Blackwell’s trombone heroes.

“Love, Your Magic Spell is Everywhere” featured the unison melody lines of Blackwell and Extence, accompanied by the sounds of piano, double bass and brushed drums. The piece proved to be an effective introduction to the instrumental voices of the band with subsequent solos from Extence, Blackwell, Herbert and Stephens, with the impressive Green switching between brushes and sticks as the music required.

The second Fuller arranged piece was “Arabia”, a far more robust item introduced by Green at the drums and featuring a degree of counterpoint and interplay between Blackwell and Extence followed by expansive individual solos from each, and also from Herbert. The trombone / tenor interplay was then rekindled towards the close.

Written by saxophonist Benny Golson the standard “Whisper Not” began in ballad mode, introduced by trombone and double bass, with brushed drums and piano subsequently added. The group switched into piano trio mode for Herbert’s solo, with Blackwell subsequently taking over on trombone. Extence is a powerful and impressive tenor sax soloist and his feature saw Green switching to sticks, prior to an extended dialogue with Stephens’ bass.

Stephens’ bass introduced a Latin tinged arrangement of Cole Porter’s “I Concentrate On You”, which included some tricky melodic lines for Blackwell and Extence to get their teeth into. Fluent solos came from Blackwell, Extence and Herbert, these followed by a drum feature from Green. This energetic group performance was particularly well received by the Brecon audience.

“Stolen Moments” was ushered in by a passage of unaccompanied trombone, with piano, bowed bass, drums and tenor eventually added as part of an atmospheric introduction. There was a brief passage in piano trio mode before Blackwell and Extence combined powerfully, with forthright solos following from each. Herbert, who is also the leader of his own organ trio, followed at the piano, succeeded in turn by Stephens, an increasingly in demand player on the South Wales jazz scene, on bass.

For the last number, effectively the encore, Blackwell offered the audience a choice of two tunes. I can’t recall what the other selection might have been but the audience plumped for “Blue Monk”, which was given an authentically bluesy interpretation by the horns. Blackwell took the first solo, followed by a buccaneering solo from Extence that brought smiles to the faces of both his band mates and the audience. Herbert was also featured at the piano.

This was an enjoyable set that was very well received by the attentive and supportive Brecon Jazz Club crowd. Any rustiness in Blackwell’s own playing was quickly forgiven and all the musicians involved impressed as they made substantial contributions to the success of the performance.

My thanks to Tiggy Blackwell for speaking with me and for verifying set list and personnel details. Congratulations on a very successful set.

Thanks also to Evan Extence for finding the time to chat. I was astonished to learn that he is studying medicine rather than music but he tells me that he spends a lot of time hanging out with the music faculty and that he hopes to keep his music career going. He certainly impressed a lot of people tonight with his fluent and often powerful playing.

HUW LLEWELLYN QUARTET

Huw Llewellyn – Trumpet, Toby Comeau – Piano, Josh Sharp – Double Bass, Patrick Barrett-Donlon - Drums

The second band of the evening was a quartet led by trumpeter and composer Huw Llewellyn. This appeared to be a more experienced line up and included pianist Toby Comeau, who first came to my attention in 2017 as part of the band Jam Experiment, the group later known as Bonsai.

Drummer Patrick Barrett-Donlon has also been a regular presence on the Jazzmann web pages thanks to his work with pianist and composer Eddie Gripper. He also leads his own project “Leading From The Back”, which celebrates the compositions of drummers and bass players (Max Roach, Ray Brown etc).

Barrett-Donlon’s group also includes tonight’s leader, Huw Llewellyn, a native of Port Talbot and a graduate of the RWCMD who is set to move to London in September to study for a Masters in Jazz with Nick Smart at the The Royal Academy of Music.  In addition to leading his own quartet Llewellyn is also a member of the band Flat Top, which celebrates the music of Louis Prima. Like Blackwell Llewellyn has also played with Funkyard and he has also worked with vocalist and songwriter Elijah Jeffery.

Comeau is now a resident of Barry and by all accounts the Llewellyn Quartet, with Comeau on keys, played a storming set at Coaltrain’s earlier in the year. Completed by bassist Josh Sharp, who is in his final year at the RWCMD, the Quartet delivered the goods again this evening with an assured set that included a couple of Llewellyn originals alongside the well chosen standards, the majority of them linked to Miles Davis.

The quartet kicked off with Llewellyn’s original composition “W.B.”, but I didn’t get the chance to ask him who it was dedicated to. In any event it was an excellent composition, ushered in by Barrett-Donlon at the drums and featuring the leader’s bright, fluent trumpet sound. Right from the start Llewelyn’s assuredness as a trumpet soloist was impressive on an extended opening statement that mixed fluency with a genuine swagger. Comeau is an excellent addition to the South Wales music scene and exhibited a similar confidence at the piano.

Talking over the sounds of double bass and brushed drums Llewellyn introduced the Miles Davis tune “Neo”, with snatches of trumpet melody paving the way for another impressive solo. Barrett-Donlon switched to sticks as the music gathered momentum, with Comeau again the other featured soloist.

“Joshua”, a tune written by the British composer and multi-instrumentalist Victor Feldman and recorded by Miles Davis was the vehicle for more expansive soloing from Llewellyn and Comeau, their excursions underpinned by the vigorous rhythmic accompaniment of Sharp and Barrett-Donlon, both of whom impressed with their contributions.

After a blistering first three numbers the quartet slowed things down a little with an arrangement of the Wayne Shorter composition “Contemplation” with Barrett-Donlon deploying brushes behind Llewellyn’s melancholy trumpet melodies. This featured a more lyrical type of soloing from Llewellyn and Comeau and included an unaccompanied trumpet cadenza at the close, which provided the line into the next piece, Llewellyn’s own composition “Red Eye”.
This proved to be a much faster, uptempo piece with a real hard bop feel about it. Propulsive bass lines and dynamic drumming fuelled dazzling solos from Llewellyn on trumpet and Comeau on piano, the latter swarming all over the keyboard. Terrific stuff.

Llewellyn and the quartet rounded things off with “Walkin’”, a blues recorded by Miles Davis in 1954. This was a great choice to close out the performance and included typically inventive solos from Llewellyn and Comeau and also saw the consistently supportive Barrett-Donlon breaking free with a drum feature,  followed by a series of drum / piano exchanges with Comeau.

The quality of the quartet’s performance resulted in a deserved encore with “All of You”, a Cole Porter song also recorded by Miles Davis. This cooled things down a little with Barrett-Donlon deploying brushes behind solos from Llewellyn and the impressive emerging bassist Josh Sharp.

This was an excellent performance from the Huw Llewellyn Quartet. The leader impressed with his fluency, inventiveness and the maturity of his soloing. He played with an impressive confidence and he looks more than ready to make the move to London to continue his jazz career. I was also impressed by the quality of his original compositions.

The presence of the experienced Comeau was a real bonus and the always reliable Barrett-Donlon and the emerging talent that is Sharp also made impressive and vital contributions.

Congratulations to Huw Llewellyn and Tiggy Blackwell and their bandmates for an excellent evening of music and to John Close and Brecon Jazz Club for putting it all together. Overall a very pleasing triumph for everybody involved.

 

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