Zoe Gilby with the Dave Jones Trio, Brecon Jazz Club, The Muse Arts Centre, Brecon, 15/09/2026

Zoe Gilby – vocals, Dave Jones – piano, Aidan Thorne – double bass, Kevin O’Rourke – drums

A welcome return to Brecon Jazz Club for the Newcastle based vocalist, lyricist and songwriter Zoe Gilby, accompanied by a South Wales based trio led by pianist Dave Jones and also featuring bassist Aidan Thorne. The quartet was completed by Bristol based drummer Kevin O’Rourke, a late replacement for the advertised Gethin Jones, who had been called up for a recording session elsewhere.

Gilby has been a regular presence on the Jazzmann web pages and  reviews of a number of her recordings and several of her live shows are to be found elsewhere on this site. In 2019 she was the winner of the Parliamentary Jazz Award for ‘Best Vocalist’, receiving her prize in the same year that The Jazzmann picked up the Award for ‘Best Media’. We were both delighted for each other and have since established a strong friendship, so it was great to see her visiting one of my local jazz clubs.

However Gilby is no stranger to Brecon and in April 2023 she visited BJC to perform a hugely enjoyable set with a Cardiff based trio led by pianist Jim Barber. Although Gilby had never met her bandmates before the quartet delivered an excellent, and pleasingly adventurous performance, that mixed jazz standards with material from Gilby’s solo projects. My review of that event can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/zoe-gilby-with-the-jim-barber-trio-brecon-jazz-club-the-muse-arts-centre-brecon-11-04-2023

Later in 2023 Gilby sang with a trio led by pianist Terence Collie at a Thelonious Monk themed performance that  took place at Riverside Arts in Sunbury on Thames and which was streamed to the bar area at Theatr Brycheiniog as part of that year’s Brecon Jazz Festival. Review as part of my Festival coverage here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/brecon-jazz-festival-2023-jazz-film-weekend-the-music-saturday-19th-and-sunday-20th-august-2023

The Gilby / Barber gig was one of those special Brecon  Jazz ‘one-offs’ when Club organisers Lynne Gornall and Roger Cannon bring together performers who have never played with each other before and make it work, turning the resultant collaboration into an EVENT.

Lynne and Roger seem to have an instinctive knack for knowing which  musicians will ‘hit it off’. This was certainly the case again this evening as Gilby teamed up with another trio, this time led by pianist Dave Jones. A composer and bandleader in his own right and with a number of excellent recordings under his own name Jones has also featured regularly on The Jazzmann web pages. He is a huge talent and far more than just a good ‘regional musician’.

Bassist Aidan Thorne, who leads his own group Duski and also performs in a wide variety of other musical contexts, is also a Jazzmann regular. However I have to admit to being previously unfamiliar with the playing of Kevin O’Rourke, but I was very impressed with what I saw and heard as he slotted in superbly with the rest of the musicians.

Once again Gilby had travelled down by train, this time via Tamworth, Cardiff and Neath, completing the journey to Brecon by bus. Ah, the glamour of the Jazz Life! Gilby remained quite sanguine about the whole experience, using the journey time to work on song lyrics and generally chill out and enjoy the scenery. At least today’s weather was an improvement on her 2023 visit!

Looking back at my review of the show with the Barber Trio tonight’s set list was pretty similar, chosen by the singer and again featuring a well chosen selection of standards alongside material from Gilby’s own projects.

The Jones Trio took to the stage first to open up the evening with an instrumental. I remember Dave telling us that it was a Jerome Kern tune but I forgot to note the title. I’m pretty sure it must have been “All The Things You Are”  and it provided an excellent introduction to the instrumental voices of the band with Jones soloing fluently on the venue’s acoustic upright piano, followed by Thorne on double bass, combining an impressively huge tone with an equally impressive dexterity. O’Rourke then announced himself with a series of lively drum breaks.

This was a good representation of   the trio’s capabilities and they were now joined by Gilby for an arrangement of the Thelonious Monk tune “In Walked Bud”, a vocalese version featuring Gilby’s skilful rendition of John Hendricks’s tongue twisting lyrics plus a virtuoso scat vocal episode. One of Gilby’s ongoing projects is Pannonica, her interpretation of Carmen McRae’s classic 1988 album “Carmen Sings Monk”. McRae remains something of a touchstone Gilby, alongside more familiar names such as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee and Billie Holiday.
Tonight’s performance of “In Walked Bud” also included a particularly dazzling piano solo from Jones, this complemented by Thorne’s rapid bass walk and O’ Rourke’s crisp, propulsive drumming.  The impressive Thorne was again featured as a double bass soloist.

Gilby’s latest solo album release is “Aurora”, a highly accomplished set that sees her adding her own lyrics to a series of instrumental compositions written by the American trumpeter Tom Harrell. She was introduced to Harrell’s  music by trumpeter Noel Dennis, who had appeared on Gilby’s previous album “Twelve Stories”. Gilby’s husband and bandmate, bassist  Andy Champion, later suggested that she write lyrics to accompany Harrell’s tunes.

Gilby’s album liner notes take up the tale;
“I was introduced to the music of Tom Harrell by my dear friend and  musician Noel Dennis. I was soon inspired to put lyrics to these wonderful melodies, that already felt so natural for a vocalist to get their teeth into. I went to work on writing these lyrical interpretations, my gateway to emulating the mood and sentiment of these nine tracks. It’s been a fascinating path, curating a narrative for these compositions and vocally stepping inside this enchanting music”. 

The Aurora project has won the approval of Harrell and his wife Angela and the album was actually recorded in January 2020, shortly before the pandemic began to take hold in the UK.  The album features a quintet line up with Gilby, Champion and Williams joined by drummer Russ Morgan, with Dennis on trumpet and flugelhorn, essentially filling the Tom Harrell role. Released in the summer of 2021 the album is reviewed here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/zoe-gilby-aurora

In a sense “Aurora” is Gilby’s own “McRae Sings Monk” album and as with that recording the titles of the original instrumental pieces have all had to be changed for copyright reasons. Thus in Gilby’s hands Harrell’s “Moon Alley” becomes “Shadowed in Solitude”, performed here by the singer and the trio as a contemporary  jazz ballad. Featuring one of Harrell’s most gorgeous melodies allied to Gilby’s evocative lyrics tonight’s performance was further enhanced by the melodic and lyrical soloing of Thorne on double bass and Jones at the piano.

Composed by Louis Alter the jazz standard “You Turned The Tables On Me” dates back all the way to 1936, but as Gilby stated the lovelorn lyric remains strangely timelessness. Tonight’s rendition also featured some virtuoso scat singing from the technically accomplished Gilby plus a piano solo from the similarly talented Jones.

Gilby and Champion work as a voice and double bass duo and their repertoire often incorporates material written by the extraordinarily prolific Duke Ellington, a composer with more than three thousand pieces to his credit. Tonight Ellington’s “Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me” was given an unusual rhumba treatment with instrumental solos from Jones and Thorne complementing Gilby’s vocal gymnastics.

The ballad “It Never Entered My Mind”, composed by Rodgers and Hart,  was introduced by an unaccompanied vocal passage and later saw Jones’ lyrical piano soloing augmented by O’Rourke’s deft brush work.

Gilby’s 2013 album “Twelve Stories” remains a high water mark in her back catalogue. From that recording her original song “The Midnight Bell” is inspired by the writing of the author Patrick Hamilton (1904-62) and particularly his trilogy “20,000 Streets Under The Sky”. Named for Hamilton’s fictitious 1930s London pub the song’s lyrics evoke the atmosphere of the era, while the music deploys a gorgeous and memorable melody to help generate something of an after hours feel. Tonight Gilby’s evocative performance of her own words was complemented by the piano soloing of Jones plus more sensitive brush work from O’Rourke.

The first set concluded with another visit to the Pannonica repertoire and the vocalese version of Monk’s “Rhythm-a-Ning”, ushered in by Thorne at the bass. Gilby’s vocal pyrotechnics, a combination of quick-fire lyrics and improvised scatting, were followed by an expansive piano solo from Jones and a series of bass and drum exchanges between Thorne and O’Rourke. An exciting end to an excellent first half, that elicited a rapturous response from the Brecon audience.

Set two commenced with a second song from the Aurora project and “Leap to the Limelight”, the opening song from the album. Based on Tom Harrell’s composition “Little Dancer” this featured Gilby’s singing of her own lyrics alongside instrumental solos from Jones and Thorne.

Gilby’s version of the ballad “Angel Eyes” took inspiration from a recording by Nancy Wilson with arrangements by Oliver Nelson. Introduced by a voice and piano duet, to which were added double bass and brushed drums, Gilby delivered a subtly blues tinged vocal, complemented by Jones’ piano solo and Thorne’s bass counter melodies.

Gilby has a fondness for the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim and the first of two songs from the Brazilian composer’s canon was a vivacious rendition of “One Note Samba” with Gilby singing the English language lyric.
She also added some audacious scat vocalising alongside a piano solo from Jones and an extended drum feature from the increasingly impressive O’Rourke.

A lightly swinging version of “I Only Have Eyes For You” was followed by a second Jobim song, “No More Blues”, with Gilby again delivering the lyrics in English. Jones was the featured instrumental soloist in both instances.

Cole Porter is another of Gilby’s favourite composers and his song “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To” saw her singing of the verses augmented by a further scat vocal episode. With O’Rourke gravitating between brushes and sticks as the music required the performance was also notable for the soloing of Jones and Thorne.

The ever adaptable Juan Tizol / Duke Ellington composition “Caravan” was delivered in its vocalese version with Gilby singing the lyrics of Irving Mills. The performance was also notable for her bravado scat vocalising allied to an expansive and highly percussive piano solo from Jones, who names McCoy Tyner among his primary influences. A vigorous bass and drum workout then evolved into a full on drum feature for O’Rourke. I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve seen “Caravan” performed, both instrumentally and vocally, but it’s different every time and remains the one jazz standard that I never get tired of.

The quartet concluded with a final visit to the Pannonica repertoire and the vocalese version of Monk’s “Straight No Chaser”, distinguished by yet another adventurous vocal performance, allied to instrumental solos from Jones, Thorne and finally O’Rourke.

Little encouragement was needed for this one off band, drawn from all parts of the UK, to deliver a deserved encore, a joyous version of George Shearing’s “Lullaby of Birdland”.

Nearly three and a half years on from her last visit Gilby had again delighted the audience at The Muse with a performance that combined the technical excellence of her singing, she’s a supremely talented vocalist, with the wit and warmth of her personality. Gilby is a great story teller, both within and between the songs and a refreshingly down to earth character who communicates well with audiences, but without playing down to them. As a writer her songs are intelligent and perceptive, but without sounding in any way pretentious. Above all it’s the sheer joy that she takes in performing some often complex material that communicates itself to her listeners.

As in 2023 she was superbly supported by a terrific band of local heroes. I’ve known about the brilliance of both Jones and Thorne for a long time and also consider them personal friends. O’Rourke was a new discovery, but I was hugely impressed with his playing and will look out for his name again.

Once again Gilby struck up a remarkable rapport with her bandmates very quickly. She had only met her colleagues on the day of the gig and some of the material that she threw at them was pretty demanding, but they responded to the challenge magnificently and delivered some highly impressive ensemble playing allied to some inspired soloing. There was a lot of mutual admiration and musical friendships were made that will hopefully some day continue.

My thanks to Zoe, Dave and Aidan for speaking with me at length both during the interval and after the show.

I’m now looking forward to seeing Zoe perform twice in a week when she brings her jazz-prog project Living In Shadows to the Marr’s Bar in Worcester for a Music Spoken Here event on Sunday September 20th 2026.

Perhaps another reason for that extraordinary rapport is that Jones has also his own jazz prog project Stratospheric while Thorne has led the quintet Duski, another project that borrows from both jazz and rock.

But tonight’s show was pure jazz,  and jazz of a very adventurous kind, and it got Brecon Jazz Club’s 2026/27 season off to a terrific start.

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