Ursula Harrison and Sylvie Noble Duo, Black Mountain Jazz, The Melville Centre, Abergavenny, 27/07/2025.

Ursula Harrison – double bass, backing vocals, Sylvie Noble – lead vocals

Vocal and double bass duos are something of a rarity in the jazz world, perhaps the most famous example being that of the now veteran vocalist Sheila Jordan, first with the Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen and later with the American Harvie Swartz.

Closer to home former BMJ visitor Zoe Gilby and her husband Andy Champion perform in the same format and have recorded an EP simply titled “Voice & Bass”. Their repertoire includes a stunning version of the Nick Drake song “River Man”.

Other than these two examples I can’t readily call to mind any other voice and bass duos, which makes the combination of bassist Ursula Harrison, the 2024 BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year and vocalist Sylvie Noble all the more intriguing.

Both come from a distinguished jazz lineage. Harrison is the daughter of bassist, multi-instrumentalist, composer and educator Paula Gardiner and Noble’s father is the distinguished pianist, composer and improviser Liam Noble. Both Paula and Liam have featured extensively on the Jazzmann web pages over the years – now it’s the turn of the next generation.

Harrison made her recording debut as far back as 2008.  When still a child she played recorder on one of the tracks on her mother’s “Hot Lament” album, released by Edition Records. Since then she’s studied both mathematics and music at Cardiff University, where her music tutors included bassist Yuri Goloubev and pianist Huw Warren. She’s also part of the European Jazz Master’s Programme, variously studying in Amsterdam, Berlin and Trondheim.

As a performer she has played with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO), the JM World Jazz Orchestra and the Amsterdam based CvA Jazz Collective. Her small group credits include work with Warren, guitarist Ant Law, violinist / vocalist Angharad Jenkins and pianists Rachel Starritt and Geoff Eales.

Her most notable sidewoman appearances have been with pianist and composer Eddie Gripper. She appears on Gripper’s acclaimed debut album “Home” (2023) and subsequently toured extensively with his trio.

At the 2024 Brecon Jazz Festival Harrison led her own quartet featuring mum Paula Gardiner on guitar, plus saxophonist Coren Sithers and drummer Liz Exell. I suspect that this was probably a one off festival project, but Harrison’s regular groups include her duo with Noble and the sextet Orbit Street, which blends indie folk with jazz and which features Harrison on both bass and lead vocals. The group also includes saxophonist Blyth Bennett, guitarist Dan Edgecombe, keyboard player Charlie Herbert and twin drummers Sam Green and Patrick Barrett-Donlon, the last named also a member of the Eddie Gripper Trio.

I’ve previously witnessed Sylvie Noble singing with the ensembles Funkyard and Mingus Project at different editions of Brecon Jazz Festival. She’s obviously a very versatile vocalist and both these performances were impressive enough in their own ways, but nothing could have prepared me for the sheer magnificence of her vocalising in this intimate duo setting.

I could find rather less about Noble on line. She graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) in Cardiff in 2024 and Youtube footage of her final recital can be enjoyed at;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glvmImQnsQA

The recital footage features her leading a quintet that includes Harrison on bass, saxophonist Emma Craig, drummer Bailey Love and rising star pianist Nils Kavanagh.

There’s also earlier footage from the RWCMD’s 2020 Amser Jazz Time Festival, a standards based set from a group featuring Noble plus pianist Charlie Herbert, guitarist Samuel Knight, bassist Marcus Baber and drummer Tom Williams.
https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=sylvie+noble+vocals&mid=55537ED66C075D40EC4455537ED66C075D40EC44&FORM=VIRE

The duo with Harrison would appear to be Noble’s primary creative outlet at this time. Although both are based in Cardiff they studied at different institutions in the Welsh capital and first met at a summer school at which both Paula Gardiner and Liam Noble were teaching. They subsequently began to work together in various Cardiff based bands, including a folk / country group, an experience which influenced them as songwriters.

In addition to her work as a jazz bassist Harrison also has aspirations to make a career as a singer – songwriter, and it would appear that Noble is also moving in a similar direction.

“I think it’s maybe just the way we’re going in general in society, like it’s not so fashionable to do just one thing any more.” Harrison recently told Victoria Kingham in an interview for Jazzwise magazine.

Harrison’s songwriting finds an outlet in both Orbit Street and the duo with Noble. Tonight’s programme included a fascinating mix of jazz standards, covers of songs by such influential songwriters as Joni Mitchell and Gillian Welch, a traditional folk tune and a clutch of exceptional original songs written by the members of the duo.

As previously mentioned the voice / double bass duo is an unusual format and I was pleasantly surprised at just how many people turned out on a hot summer’s evening and with the Women’s Euros Final on TV. The Melville Centre was virtually sold out and the presence of such a large, attentive and supportive audience certainly helped the performers to give of their best.

The title of the opening “Country Song”, a Harrison original, alluded to the folk / country band with which the duo performs. A strummed bass intro led into a song with lyrics that explored both philosophy and human relationships. As the evening progressed it became clear that Harrison is not only a virtuoso bassist but also a highly talented songwriter with a particular gift for an evocative lyric. This first song demonstrated the almost telepathic understanding between the members of the duo as they shadowed each other’s lines, Noble sometimes using her voice as an instrument, but with wordless lines that never strayed into the realms of extended technique. This is a duo that is primarily about serving the songs rather than demonstrating individual virtuosity. That’s not to say that they’re not both brilliant technicians, but they deploy their ‘chops’ tastefully and in the service of the music, but that doesn’t mean that they’re lacking in adventure either. Their compositions and arrangements are often audacious and improvisation remains an essential part of their creative process.

To illustrate the point a suitably daring arrangement of the Jerome Kern song “In Love in Vain” followed,  this incorporating both an unaccompanied double bass solo and a scat vocal episode.

The American singer, songwriter and guitarist Gillian Welch is a particular touchstone for Harrison and Noble. A blues tinged version of Welch’s song “Dark Turn of Mind” was introduced by a passage of unaccompanied vocalising from Noble and later included Harrison’s off mic harmony vocals, a pleasing addition to the duo’s sound.

From one iconic songwriter to another and a cover of Joni Mitchell’s road tale “Coyote”, with Noble praising, and doing justice to, Mitchell’s evocative and often graphic lyrics. In homage to Mitchell’s love of jazz the performance also included a dazzling series of improvised scat vocal / double bass exchanges.

Next we enjoyed a Harrison arrangement of the traditional folk tune “I Once Loved A Lad”, a song that I already knew from a gender altered version by the folk rock group Oysterband. Harrison and Noble weren’t aware of that particular rendition but took their inspiration from a version by folk singer Olivia Chaney. It’s a lovely song with a timeless lyric about thwarted love, and just like Chaney and the Oysters the duo very much made it their own.

It was back to the jazz repertoire for a vocalese version of “Joy Spring”, a tune written by the late, great trumpeter Clifford Brown. The duo weren’t sure who added the later lyrics but this was still a terrific interpretation that gave the performers plenty of opportunity to demonstrate their considerable improvisational ‘chops’ via scat vocal and unaccompanied double bass episodes, in addition doing the song itself justice.

The first set concluded with two original compositions. First we heard Harrison’s song “Arizona”, a song with an evocative and bitter sweet lyric that tapped into its writers love of folk and Americana, but still with a jazz sensibility.

Noble’s “Ode”, a piece that was performed at Noble’s final RWCMD recital, was a showcase for her vocal talents, a wordless vocal performance with the voice essentially being used as an instrument alongside Harrison’s bass.

This had been a thoroughly immersive and admirably varied set, the brilliance of the performance enhanced by the intimate environment of the Melville Centre Theatre and the rapt attention of the audience.

The second set maintained the same high standards and commenced with Harrison’s “Who Knew I’d Miss The Rainfall”, another excellent piece of original writing with the kind of poetic lyrics that manage to be simultaneously evocative and elusive.

The duo’s interpretation of the Jimmy Rowles song “The Peacocks” featured lyrics later added by the great British vocalist Norma Winstone. One suspects that Winstone is a profound influence on the duo, both vocally and lyrically. That said I never felt at any point that Noble was trying to be a Winstone clone like so many other young vocalists. She was very much herself, technically excellent but relaxed and confident in her own abilities. Her singing was about more than mere technique.

A playful and swinging rendition of the standard “I’m Putting All My Eggs In One Basket” lightened the mood a little, introduced by Noble solo, with Harrison’s bass subsequently added.  The performance included a virtuoso passage of unaccompanied double bass that drew a rare bout of spontaneous applause from the audience,  a rarity, but only because nobody wanted to break the intimate atmosphere. Yet even here there was a touch of sadness, during Noble’s superb scat vocal feature one couldn’t help reflecting on the recent passing of Dame Cleo Laine.

While announcing her next original song Harrison revealed that she writes at the piano. “Distant Haze” was just as arresting as her earlier creations with its “sometimes I just let it happen, I’m tired of facing new distractions” refrain. Harrison brings a lot of herself to her lyrics, but her words retain that all important sense of mystery.

Noble’s original song “New Eve” combined her own lyrics with some adventurous wordless vocalising, the words seemingly an expression of feminine rebirth – “New skin, new soul, new Eve”.

The duo paid further homage to Norma Winstone with “Just Sometimes”, a track from Winstone’s ECM album “Stories Yet To Tell”. Written by Armando Manzanero the song features vocalese lyrics written by Winstone. This was another piece to feature a virtuoso double bass solo from Harrison, who sang along quietly to her improvised melodic inventions.

There was also a second nod to Gillian Welch with an arrangement of her song “My First Lover”, with its lyrical references to the Steve Miller song “Quicksilver Girl”. Tonight’s jazz version with its voice and bass dialogue was very different to the banjo driven Welch performance that I managed to find on Youtube.

To finish we enjoyed a final Harrison original, “I Was Alone”, a final example of the combination of Noble’s flexible,  well enunciated vocals and Harrison’s brilliant bass playing and songwriting.

I’ll be honest – even though I’d seen and heard both of these artists before I had no real idea what to expect from this unusual voice and double bass collaboration. To say that the performance exceeded my expectations would be a gross understatement. Harrison and Noble totally blew everybody away with the quality of their singing and playing, the intimacy and maturity of the performance, their almost telepathic rapport – and perhaps most significantly the quality of the original songs in a very well chosen set.

They totally vindicated the decision of Debs Hancock, who knows a thing or two about jazz singing herself, to bring them to the Club. The reaction of the audience spoke volumes, as did the compliments that individual members of the audience paid to the musicians as they made their way out of the hall.

The good news is that Harrison and Noble will be playing at Brecon Jazz Festival in a couple of weeks time. They’ll be at The Muse venue at 12.00 noon on Saturday 9th August 2025. Tickets from
https://breconjazzfestival2025.co.uk/brecon-jazz-festival-2025-the-muse/

Even better news is that they are due to record an album this summer. A record deal is yet to be finalised, but during the course of my conversation with Ursula and Sylvie I suggested that they aim straight for the top and send the finished tapes to Manfred Eicher at ECM. This kind of intimate musical performance would represent a perfect fit for a label that prides itself on its high audio standards and which is the recorded home for an increasing number of British musicians, among them Norma Winstone, Kit Downes, Sebastian Rochford and Alice Zawadzki.

It would also be perfect for the British label Edition Records, founded by pianist, composer and RWCMD alumnus Dave Stapleton. It’s the label that released Paula Gardiner’s “Hot Lament”, the album that represents Harrison’s recording debut, so there’s a neat symmetry there, and as somebody pointed out it maintains the Cardiff connection.

Wherever it appears the release of the album will represent a major event in British jazz. And you heard them at Black Mountain Jazz first.

 

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