Photograph of Nerija sourced from the EFG London Jazz Festival website http://www.efglondonjazzfestival.org.uk

EFG LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL 2015, SECOND FRIDAY, 20/11/2015.

SOLO SEGUNDO, ST. JAMES THEATRE STUDIO

For some time now I have been publicising jazz events at St. James Theatre in the Victoria district of London. The majority of these take place in the Theatre’s Studio performance pace and this solo lunchtime show by the drummer and percussionist Pedro Segundo provided me with the opportunity to check out the venue for myself for the first time.

The Studio is a performance space in the basement of the building boasting its own bar and a very definite jazz club ambience. It’s an informal space and not merely a scaled down version of the main auditorium. Although it was lunchtime and the bar was not actually open it was still readily apparent that this was an excellent place to listen to jazz. As a venue I liked it.

Born to Portugese parents in Mozambique Pedro Segundo is now resident in London and is the house drummer at Ronnie Scott’s. I know his playing best from his brilliant contributions to trombonist Dennis Rollins’ Velocity Trio, a band that I have seen perform live on numerous occasions at club dates and festivals.

The prospect of a solo drum and percussion performance by Segundo intrigued me and I was not to be disappointed. This event was enjoyable, entertaining, educational and informative and surprisingly varied. I once witnessed Jack de Johnette hammering away at a drum kit for fifty minutes at Cheltenham Jazz Festival, a vacuous display of admittedly impressive technique that ultimately became tedious – even the greats can be boring sometimes.

By way of contrast this show by Segundo, it would probably be correct to call it a percussion recital, was of roughly the same duration but the time absolutely flew by. The stage was crowded with all manner of drums and percussion as Segundo took us on an admirably varied and stimulating tour of the percussive universe performing music derived from a wide array of cultures and musical disciplines.

Segundo began his performance seated alone at a table amongst the audience. At the table was a knife and fork with which he began, with mock theatricality, to tap out rhythms, it’s the way in which nearly every drummer starts out. There was also a jug of water and a wine glass. Segundo decanted water into the glass which he then manipulated when tapping it with a fork to vary the pitch. Still tapping out rhythms on any available surface he began whistling and took to a stage which was groaning under the weight of several hundredweight of percussion instruments.

Having commenced with what he later called “The Knife And Fork Piece” Segundo now launched into his first ‘proper’ percussive performance as he developed a pattern of increasingly complex rhythmic patterns on a combination of cajon, a cluster of five African talking drums, and the Ghanaian gyl, the xylophone like instrument that is also played by percussionist and bandleader Bex Birch in her group Vula Viel. Segundo augmented these core instruments with an array of smaller percussive devices plus a wordless vocal chant that represented an invocation of the Gods. It was exciting, spectacular and impressive in terms of both its rhythmic complexity and Segundo’s sheer enthusiasm and physical resourcefulness.

The next piece was a commission by the composer Dave Marik who was seated in the audience. “History Of The Future” commenced with Segundo blowing through his cupped bare hands to make bird calls. Using an on stage lap top Segundo looped these sounds to create increasingly complex patterns augmenting these sounds further by similarly looping the sounds of hand claps and foot stomps, the primal sources of human music making fusing with contemporary digital technology, history meeting the future indeed. Eventually kit drums were added to the equation but Segundo got so carried away that the precariously positioned lap top slipped its moorings and crashed to the floor with Dave Marik rushing to its rescue as Segundo played on. Fortunately both man and machine escaped unharmed.

Segundo expressed his sadness at the current state of the world as he moved to the vibraphone for the next piece. Of course the tragic recent events in Paris were on everybody’s minds but “The Miracle Of Freedom” was initially inspired by the ongoing refugee crisis. This was a more sombre affair with Segundo sketching out the mournful melody on vibes using the four mallet technique. The intermittent harsh scraping of a bar was intended to signify the cry of a child, something answered by the sweeter sound of the shimmer of a bell tree.

It was back to kit drums for Segundo’s “Tribute To The Swing Drummers” which saw him pastiching Max Roach, Papa Joe Jones (of Count Basie and Oscar Peterson fame) and Gene Krupa. This was great fun and saw Segundo wandering somewhat off piste as he strapped on a washboard, rattled a tambourine and whistled tunes like “When The saints Go marching In” and Dizzy Gillespie’s “Salt Peanuts” The piece climaxed in explosive Krupa style. Great stuff.

Segundo then paid homage to classical percussionists Evelyn Glennie and Colin Currie with his arrangement of Steve Reich’s “Clapping Music” which he played at the drum kit, the rhythmic patterns he generated being little short of mesmeric.

Segundo studied at the Guildhall in 2007 and his final piece was also drawn from the contemporary classical repertoire. The Greek composer Iannis Xenakis’ composition “Rebounds B” was described by Segundo as representing a battle between skin and wood and was played on a set up with bass drum, tom, congas and bongos battling for supremacy with a set of woodblocks in a fiery percussive discourse.

The “Solo Segundo” show had been a residency at St. James and hopefully many more people got to see a performance that, like Chris Montague’s guitar showcase the day before, entertained and educated in equal measure. Segundo presented his performance with wit, enthusiasm and charm and his technical virtuosity was amazing, the man just seems to exude rhythm.

BINKER GOLDING & MOSES BOYD, RAY’S JAZZ AT FOYLE’S

There is currently a bit of a buzz about the young duo consisting of saxophonist Binker Golding and drummer Moses Boyd. Their début album “Dem Ones”, a vinyl only release on the Gearbox label has been widely acclaimed and despite the apparent starkness of the sax/drums duo format they have also gained an impressive reputation for their energetic and exciting live shows.

The two twenty something South Londoners, usually billed as simply Binker & Moses,  grew up around the Tomorrow’s Warriors scene and their combined credits include work with bassist Gary Crosby, vocalist Zara McFarlane, pianists Peter Edwards and Andrew McCormack plus the late trumpeter Abram Wilson. They have a musical relationship dating back to 2008/9 and have been working in the duo format for the past two years, something originally forced upon them when they couldn’t find a suitable bassist for a gig and decided to perform it as a two piece, something that worked so well that they decided to continue on a regular basis.

That buzz I spoke of ensured that Ray’s was absolutely heaving this early Friday evening, certainly the biggest crowd that I’d seen here this week and officially a sell out. The duo took the unusual step of playing this concert ‘in the round’ and despite the fact that I thought I’d bagged a good place I spent of the performance staring at Golding’s back! 

That may have been disappointing but the music certainly wasn’t. The pair played a one hour set straight through, which seemed to be largely improvised, and performed with remarkable stamina, imagination, power and invention. Facing each other each member spurred the other on as sparks began to fly from the off. Golding honked and fluttered on tenor and blew the first of several impassioned solos that invoked memories of the great Sonny Rollins. Meanwhile Boyd responded with imagination and conviction, negotiating complex rhythms with ease but also adding light and shade by varying his attack as he variously deployed sticks, brushes, shakers, bare hands and a variety of mallets. Both musicians delivered impressive passages of unaccompanied playing, with Golding switching briefly to soprano at one point,  but it was the sight of the pair working in tandem that provided the most exciting moments, particularly when Golding’s full blooded, declamatory tenor was answered by Boyd’s volcanic, dynamic, polyrhythmic drumming.

Despite the apparent limitations of the format the crowd were with them every step of the way, instinctively responding to the duo’s energy, enthusiasm and enormous technical skill. Yet one never got the sense that the duo were merely showing off, for all the pyrotechnics and instrumental prowess there was an innate musicality about everything they did that ensured that the audience remained onside throughout. Even Golding’s bat like squeaks and harmolodics on soprano seemed to make perfect sense in the overall context of the performance.

By the end the two musicians were dripping with perspiration and the crowd were cheering enthusiastically. Sales of the vinyl were correspondingly brisk. With their combination of youthful enthusiasm, streetwise attitude and enormous musical skill the duo of Binker & Moses appears to be in it for the long haul and the size of their following will surely increase. Impressive stuff.

KRZYSTOF URBANSKI’S URBAN JAZZ SOCIETY / NERIJA, GREEN NOTE, CAMDEN TOWN

The Green Note has become one of my favourite London venues and in recent years I’ve seen memorable performances at the intimate venue by Let Spin, the Alice Zawadzki Band and the Jeff Williams Quintet. And it’s not just me that likes the place, in 2015 the Green Note was voted Favourite Live Music Venue at the annual London Music Awards.

The Green Note hosts live music every night of the week across a variety of genres including jazz, folk, country, Americana and world. The programme for the Jazz Festival was co-ordinated by the young saxophonist Alex Hitchcock and I’m very grateful to him for asking me along to cover this double bill featuring saxophonist Krzystof Urbanski’s quintet Urban Jazz Society and the septet collectively known as Nerija.

URBAN JAZZ SOCIETY

All of the Jazz Festival events here had been sold out and in a crowded Green Note it was Urban Jazz Society who took to the stage first. The Polish born saxophonist Krzystof Urbanski studied at Leeds College of Music but has performed all over the globe. His most recent album “History Of Tomorrow” features a British band including Martin Longhawn (keyboards), Stuart McCallum (guitar), Sam Vicary (bass) and Sam Gardner (drums). Urbanski features in Gardner’s own Samadhi Quintet which released the excellent “The Dance of Venus” album on the F-ire Presents label earlier in 2015.

Tonight’s line up included album personnel Longhawn and Gardner with deps Will Harris (bass) and Hannes Riepler (guitar) coming into the band and doing excellent jobs. Urbanski plays both tenor and alto saxophones and the music of his band can best be described as a kind of ‘melodic fusion’, particularly with Longhawn playing electric keyboards exclusively this evening.

The contemporary jazz sounds of album opener “Neo Residence” opened the proceedings introduced by the chiming of Longhawn’s electric piano and featuring fluently melodic solos from Urbanski on tenor and Rirpler on guitar.

The next item was introduced by Gardner at the drums. Although the piece was unannounced I suspect it may have been “Bouncing Colours”, a tune from the latest album. Urbanski probably didn’t talk enough, although his English is more than adequate. The tune itself combined funk style grooves with more reflective episodes, the latter mainly courtesy of Longhawn’s keyboards. Urbanski soloed in muscular fashion on tenor as Gardner detonated dub inspired percussive bombs around him.

“History Of Tomorrow” began with a solo sax introduction with Gardner manipulating Urbanski’s sound with echo and other effects. This was hard driving, but attractively melodic, contemporary jazz enlivened by solos from Urbanski and Austrian born, London based Riepler. The guitarist and Bristol based Harris were the only two musicians to be reading, the three regular group members trusting to memory and intuition.

The next tune was again unannounced but I suspect that it may have been an arrangement of the the third chapter of Urbanski’s “Yorkshire Tales” suite from the CD. I seem to remember Riepler’s phased guitar part being similar to that by McCallum on the album. Tonight’s version also included solos from Riepler and from Longhawn on electric piano plus a funk outro featuring Urbanski’s sax.

The set concluded with a tune simply titled “Groove” which began with a sax and drum dialogue that was briefly reminiscent of Binker & Moses as Urbanski played short, pecked phrases above Gardner’s drum groove, the latter also fuelling an electric piano solo from Longhawn.

Overall this had been an enjoyable set featuring some strong melodic themes and some excellent playing although it could have been presented with a little more conviction and professionalism. I was impressed enough to acquire a copy of the album and the tunes stand up very well in the home listening environment while revealing fresh secrets along the way.

NERIJA

Like Binker & Moses Nerija also developed out of the Tomorrow’s Warriors scene and I remember seeing some members of the predominately female septet at the Front Room at the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the 2013 EFG LJF as part of a Tomorrow’s Warriors showcase.

However the band have really kicked on in the last couple of years as evidenced by a live broadcast of them playing at Manchester Jazz Festival earlier in the year. They sounded excellent and it was that Jazz on 3 broadcast that had much to do with me wishing to cover tonight’s event. Nerija delivered a similarly exciting performance and I was not to be disappointed.

Tonight’s line up featured a four horn front line featuring Nubya Garcia (tenor sax), Cassie Kinoshi (alto sax), Rosie Turton (trombone) and Sheila Maurice-Grey (trumpet, flugelhorn) augmented by Shirley Tetteh (guitar), Inga Eichler ( double bass) and Jason Long (drums), the latter depping for regular incumbent Lizy Exell.  Garcia and Turton had been part of Mak Murtic’s Mimika Ensemble that had played the previous Sunday at The Spice of Life in Soho as part of the EFG LJF.

Most of the members of Nerija are also composers and a dynamic and entertaining set commenced with Tetteh’s “Pinkham V” which featured the African style cadences of Tetteh’s guitar plus the punchy sounds of the four horns. Maurice-Grey took the first solo on trumpet, a little tentatively at first but soon becoming increasingly assured and powerful. Kinoshi followed on alto before entering into an absorbing dialogue with Tetteh’s guitar. Tetteh is probably the best known member of Nerija to the wider jazz public thanks to her work with bassist Gary Crosby’s Groundation band.

The guitarist also featured prominently on Eichler’s “Valleys” with its township inspired horn chorales and rousing solos by Kinoshi on alto and Turton on trombone. It seemed as if the spirit of Loose Tubes was somehow stalking the room. Eichler’s solo bass interlude then provided a segue into the next piece, “Redamancy” composed by Kinoshi and featuring solos from the composer plus Maurice-Grey on flugel. That said the most impressive aspect was the way in which the horns worked together, a veritable ‘Sisterhood of Breath’.

Garcia’s stirring “For You” then showcased her own powerful tenor playing plus some more fine collective work from the ‘sisterhood’.

Finally Turton’s “The Fisherman” brought back something of that Township feel via it’s rousing unison horn lines plus solos from Maurice-Grey on flugel, Tetteh on guitar, Garcia on tenor and Turton herself on trombone, the composer also adding an element of humour to the music. The piece ended with a four horn chorale, which seemed wholly appropriate.

The Green Note crowd loved the spirited and energetic performance which included some invigorating tunes and some excellent playing,both individually and collectively. The deserved encore was “Hypnosis”, a composition written by trombonist Grachan Moncur III, a band-leader himself but probably best known for his Blue Note collaborations with alto saxophonist Jackie McLean. This gave the band a chance to feature the rhythm section with Eichler opening the tune on the bass and Long closing it with a drum feature with Kinoshi taking a solo on alto in the middle. Although the horn players tend to take the plaudits the contributions of Eichler and Long, the latter cast here in the role of ‘token bloke’, were both highly impressive - as was Tetteh, the fulcrum around which much of the music revolved.

My thanks to Nubya Garcia (and her mum) for chatting with me afterwards and providing me with a set list. It really was a hometown gig for Nubya who actually lives in Camden. Thanks to Hannes Riepler and Sam Gardner from Urban Jazz Society, and organiser Alex Hitchcock for finding time to say hello too.

I was very impressed by this Nerija performance. As with Binker & Moses something of a buzz is starting to form around this band. It’s high time they found their way into the studios to document this music on what is sure to be a very eagerly awaited début album. 

 

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