Tori Freestone / Huw Warren Quartet, Black Mountain Jazz, Melville Centre, Abergavenny, 18/05/2025

Tori Freestone – tenor sax, flute, violin, vocals, Huw Warren – piano, Yuri Goloubev – double bass, Liz Exell – drums

For a number of years Black Mountain Jazz has fostered important links with the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) in Cardiff. Various student ensembles, including several editions of the RWCMD Big Band, have visited Abergavenny, either for regular BMJ club nights or for the annual Wall2Wall Jazz Festival.

BMJ has also acted as an important stepping stone for recent RWCMD graduates, offering them performance opportunities at an early stage of their professional careers. Drummer Alex Goodyear, pianist Ross Hicks and saxophonist Dan Newberry are among those musicians to have appeared at BMJ who are now going on to establish impressive reputations on the wider UK jazz scene.

Tonight’s event saw BMJ paying tribute to four musicians who are tutors at the RWCMD. professional jazz musicians who also pass on the benefit of their experience to the generations of musicians coming up behind them.

Multi-instrumentalist Tori Freestone, pianist Huw Warren, bassist Yuri Goloubev and drummer Liz Exell are all either resident or visiting professors at the RWCMD. They first performed together in 2024 under Warren’s leadership playing the music of his Choro Choro Choro project, about which more later.

Rather than continuing to focus exclusively on the Choro project it was decided that for this visit to BMJ the quartet would also play music written and arranged by Freestone, thus adding some welcome variety to the group’s repertoire. For the purposes of tonight’s performance Freestone was also rightly credited as the co-leader of the quartet.

The programme consisted of original material by both Freestone and Warren, largely sourced from their most recent album recordings, plus arrangements of a jazz standards, a traditional folk song and a Joni Mitchell tune.

Warren is no stranger to Black Mountain Jazz, having visited the Club and its related festival on numerous occasions, but this was Freestone’s first visit. Exell had brought her own band for the Club’s April 2025 event. Goloubev had visited back in 2011 as part of a trio led by pianist and composer John Law.

Tori Freestone has been a regular presence on the Jazzmann web pages both as a band leader and as a prolific sidewoman. She leads her own chordless trio featuring Dave Manington on double bass and Tim Giles at the drums, with whom she has recorded the albums “In The Chop House” (2014), “El Barranco” (2016) and “El Mar de Nubes” (2019), all of which have been reviewed elsewhere on this site.

Freestone has also recorded with trumpeter Rory Simmons’ Fringe Magnetic, pianist Ivo Neame’s quintet and octet, saxophonist Pete Hurt’s Jazz Orchestra, bassist Riaan Vosloo’s Examples of Twelves, pianist Rick Simpson’s quintet and with the co-operative sextet Solstice. She co-led the quartet Compassionate Dictatorship with guitarist Jez Franks and has also been part of trumpeter Andre Canniere’s Darkening Blue ensemble.

Her versatility as a saxophonist and flautist has also led to regular large ensemble work with notable engagements including the London Jazz Orchestra, the Julian Siegel Jazz Orchestra, the E17 Jazz Ensemble, Neil Yates’ N Circle Orchestra, Orquestra Timbala and Hermeto Pascoal’s All Star UK Big Band.  In 2023 she appeared at Brecon Jazz Festival as a member of pianist Zoe Rahman’s octet.

Huw  Warren has also been a regular presence on the Jazzmann web pages, both as the leader of his own groups and as a member of the celebrated Perfect Houseplants quartet, alongside saxophonist Mark Lockheart, bassist Dudley Phillips and drummer Martin France.

He is also a member of the folk / jazz trio Quercus in which he performs alongside singer June Tabor and saxophonist Iain Ballamy.

A recent collaboration saw him teaming up with vocalist / violinist Angharad Jenkins  on the album “Calennig”, a collection of songs centred around the Welsh tradition of celebrating and welcoming the New Year.

Warren is a musician with an international reputation and has collaborated with artists such as the American drummer Jim Black, French trumpeter Eric Truffaz, Gambian kora player Sura Susso, Austrian bassist Peter Herbert,  Brazilian vocalist / percussionist Seu Gaio, Italian vocalist Maria Pia de Vito and Irish vocalist Christine Tobin. Wales Meets Brooklyn, a collaboration between Warren, Black and bassist Huw V Williams, was one of THE highlights of the 2013 Brecon Jazz Festival.

He is also an in demand sideman who has worked with many of the UK’s leading jazz musicians, and particularly those from his native Wales. Among those with whom he has appeared are trumpeters Tomos Williams, Gethin Liddington and Bryan Corbett, trombonist Raph Clarkson, saxophonist Dan Newberry, bassist Paula Gardiner and drummer Corrie Dick.

Warren’s love of Brazilian music is well known and was first documented on his 2009 album “Hermeto +”, a celebration of the music of the great Brazilian multi-instrumentalist and composer Hermeto Pascoal (born 1936). Recorded with a trio featuring bassist Peter Herbert and drummer Martin France the material is split pretty much equally between Pascoal‘s compositions and Warren’s own pieces, with the trio casting fresh light on Hermeto’s tunes. Warren has described this recording as a “celebration, tribute and a musical thank you”.

In 2024 Warren released the album “Choro Choro Choro”, which celebrated the Choro style of Brazilian music, a style with many of the same formative influences as early jazz. The album was a solo piano recording, but for the subsequent tour Warren assembled a quartet featuring Freestone on flute, Goloubev on bass and Exell at the drums. A performance by the quartet at Brecon Jazz Club in May 2024 is reviewed here;

Freestone has recorded two duo albums with pianist Alcyona Mick, the acclaimed “Criss Cross” (2018) and the more recent “Make One Little Room An Everywhere” (2023). Both albums are favourably reviewed elsewhere on The Jazzmann. It was the second of these albums that provided the source of much of Freestone’s material tonight.

Freestone and Warren took it in turns to announce their own tunes and the evening began with a performance of the title track from “Make One Little Room An Everywhere”, the title inspired by a line in the John Donne poem “The Good Morrow”. Like much of the material on that release the tune was written during the lockdown period and Freestone’s unaccompanied tenor sax introduction was a musical depiction of the isolation of that time. Eventually a folk like melody began to emerge, with Freestone’s sax accompanied by Warren’s piano and Exell’s mallet rumbles and cymbal shimmers. Goloubev, a truly virtuoso bassist, took the first solo, followed by Warren at the piano.

From the same recording came Freestone’s arrangement of the Gershwin tune “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”, a humorous and quirky take on the tune based around Ira Gershwin’s lyrics. Despite some wilfully dissonant ‘off key’ moments this was an arrangement that still managed to swing and included fluent and inventive solos from Freestone on tenor, Warren on piano and Goloubev at the bass. The performance concluded with a series of exchanges between Exell at the drums and the three other members of the quartet.

Warren spoke for the first time to introduce his composition “Desequilibriado”, the title the Portuguese word for “Unbalanced”. The tune appears on the “Choro Choro Choro” album and is described by its composer as “Brazilian Ragtime Music”. This piece saw Freestone moving to flute as she shared the solos with Goloubev and Warren. Exell gave a colourful performance behind the kit, bouncing ideas off Warren during the course of the pianist’s expansive solo as well as enjoying a feature of her own. This was particularly well received by the Abergavenny audience, Exell is a musician with a strong local following.

Freestone comes from a musical family and was raised in the folk music tradition before switching to jazz. Folk remains an important influence and she picked up the violin and also sang on an arrangement of the traditional American folk song “Shenandoah”. The vocal section of the performance featured the bowing of both Freestone on violin and Goloubev on double bass. The addition of piano and drums led into a piano trio episode with Warren soloing and Goloubev putting down the bow. This allowed Freestone to move back to tenor sax and to solo on this instrument during the second half of the song.
For me this piece wasn’t a total success, Freestone has featured on voice and violin on record, there’s a version of the folk song “The Press Gang” on “El Barranco” and of “Shenandoah” on “El Mar De Nubes”. On both of these recordings she presents both ‘jazz’ and ‘folk’ versions of these traditional songs.  But with respect Freestone’s not really a singer and the violin is very much her second instrument. We had heard a version of this same tune in the same room exactly a week before, performed by the BMJ Collective and Guest pianist Alex Hutton, and I have to admit to preferring their instrumental interpretation. That said Freestone’s version did add variety and exhibited a sense of musical adventure.

A lengthy first set then concluded with Warren’s arrangement of the Hermeto Pascoal composition “Chorinho Por Ele” (English translation “A Little Cry For Him”), a piece written for Pascoal’s brother. This was a light and airy tune introduced by a passage of unaccompanied piano that featured the sound of Freestone on flute. She’s a superb flautist and took the first solo here, followed by Goloubev at the bass and Warren at the piano. Exell gave a finely nuanced performance behind the kit, variously deploying brushes, bare hands and sticks.

The second set was to feature a similarly eclectic mix of original tunes and inspired covers. To start we remained in Brazil for Warren’s “Chorinho for Hermeto”, an original tune from the “Choro Choro Choro” album that again featured Freestone on flute, sharing the solos with Goloubev and Warren and adding an unaccompanied flute cadenza at the close.

As a composer Pascoal was often inspired by birdsong, something that also inspired Freestone to write “Birds of Paradise”, a composition that appears on the “Make Every Little Room An Everywhere” recording.  Freestone spent the first lockdown period on Tenerife, where she has family connections, and this tune was partly inspired by the avian sights and sounds of the island. It was performed here as a duet with Warren and featured the birdlike trilling of Freestone’s flute, this contrasting effectively with the complex melody lines and rhythms generated by Warren at the piano. The recorded version also features a stunning wordless vocal contribution from guest singer Brigitte Beraha. “Birds of Paradise” saw Freestone win the 2022 Ivor Novello Award for Best Composition for Jazz Ensemble.

The birdsong theme continued with a quirky and inventive Warren arrangement of the jazz standard “I’ll Remember April”,  which initially arose from Warren improvising to the sounds of birdsong filtering through an open window. Tonight’s performance was ushered in by a passage of unaccompanied double bass from Goloubev, subsequently joined in a loosely structured improvised section by the glacial, high register sounds of piano, Exell’s cymbal ticks and the birdlike fluttering of Freestone’s flute. The melodic line eventually emerged, played by the flute, this leading into a Warren piano solo and then a gentle flute solo accompanied by the soft patter of Exell’s hand drumming.

An example of Freestone’s work as an arranger followed. The Joni Mitchell song “Both Sides Now” is a piece that Freestone has returned to on multiple occasions. A version appears in the saxophone trio format on the “In The Chop House” album and a more recent arrangement on “In Every Little Room An Everywhere”. It was the latter that formed the basis for tonight’s performance, with Freestone giving instrumental voice to Freestone’s lyrics on warm toned tenor saxophone (Beraha sings on “In Every Little Room”) , joined first by double bass and piano and then by Exell’s mallet rumbles. Freestone and Warren then stretched out more expansively before handing over to Goloubev for a melodic double bass solo.

The evening concluded with a performance of the Freestone composition “Los Indianos” , a piece named for the annual carnival held on the Canary Island of La Palma and featured on the “El Mar De Nubes” album. When introducing the song she spoke of the strong links between La Palma and Cuba and this was an exuberant and highly rhythmic that exhibited a distinct Cuban influence.    A spirited rendition ended the evening on an energetic note and included a tenor solo from Freestone followed by a highly rhythmic excursion from Warren at the piano. There was also a feature from Exell at the drum kit.

There was much to enjoy here from two co-leaders who were first drawn together through their shared love of the music of Hermeto Pascoal. We heard a broad range of music including both originals and covers that embraced a number of musical traditions, ensuring that things were never less than interesting. The standard of the playing, as one would expect from musicians of this calibre, was largely excellent throughout.

That said this isn’t a REGULAR working band, even though its members have all played together before under Warren’s leadership, and things did get a little ragged at times and the music didn’t always seem to lift off quite as well as it might have done. This was very much a one off performance in the co-leader format but given the band members’ association with the RWCMD it’s something that could easily be repeated and it will be interesting to see if it continues.

But it was good to see Freestone performing her own music live for the first time after only having previously seen her in the bands of others. My thanks to her for finding the time have an interesting conversation with me after the show, which I very much enjoyed.

 

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