SUNDAY AT BRECON JAZZ, 14/08/2011

The final day of the festival yielded a another set of very differing performances from a wide variety of artists, the line up covering a broad range of nationalities and age groups.

WORLDSERVICE PROJECT

As on the Saturday any cobwebs were quickly blown away by a young British group making their Brecon d?but. WorldService Project, a quintet led by keyboard player and composer Dave Morecroft appeared to be even more youthful than Saturday’s openers Partikel, bass guitarist Conor Chaplin looked to be about fifteen but is in fact four years older.

Joining Morecroft and Chaplin were Tim Ower on saxophones, Raphael Clarkson on trombone and Neil Blandford at the drums. I’d heard their d?but album “Relentless” and enjoyed it but even so it didn’t fully prepare me for the intensity of the group’s live performance. Once again there was the sense that this was an important gig for the band and that they were really “going for it”, “Relentless” is perhaps well named.

What impressed me most about the group was not only the standard of musicianship (despite their tender years WSP are already formidable technicians) but also the the sheer range of ideas on offer. Yes, there’s the oft quoted element of funkiness about their music but Morecroft’s compositions are also full of sudden dynamic and emotional shifts, this is music for the head as well as the feet.

The intensity of the group’s attack reminded me of other so called “punk jazz” outfits such as Acoustic Ladyland and Led Bib. It’s perhaps not entirely coincidental that WSP were winners of the 2010 Peter Whittingham Jazz Award, a title won by Led Bib back in the day (2004/5 or thereabouts) and that Morecroft also works in a trio with Led Bib’s drummer and leader Mark Holub.

I was impressed by all WSP’s members but there’s no doubt that Morecroft is the group’s driving force and jewel in the crown. He attacks his Nord keyboard in the manner of a young Django Bates delivering scorching synth and electric piano solos that challenge the rest of the band to keep up- and , like the young Bates, Morecroft is already an astonishingly mature composer with ideas to burn. Sophisticated rhythmic and harmonic ideas challenge for supremacy with the funk elements brought to the band by Chaplin and the powerful but technically precise drumming of Neil Blandford. I would imagine that Blandford often plays with more conventional rock bands too, he’s a bit of a showman with all the stick twirling techniques down pat.

Ower, switching between tenor and alto, and Clarkson on trombone are already fluent soloists and combined well together on Morecroft’s often tricky compositions. Clarkson also writes, contributing one tune “Business Transaction” to the group’s new album. It was interesting to see a trombone in this type of band and Clarkson certainly didn’t sound out of place. Both horn men acquitted themselves well.

“Relentless” came out in 2010 and it soon became clear that the band already have material for a second album waiting in the pipeline. Combining funk with more impressionistic interludes and a dazzling Morecroft electric piano solo “Relentless” itself kicked off the set. Next came the stuttering funk of “Dance Of The Clown”, built up from a hand-clapping intro possibly inspired by the Pat Metheny Group’s “First Circle”. Owers’ tenor sax solo managed to invest the tune with some of the humour suggested by the title, indeed WSP gave the sense that they were having enormous fun almost throughout.

“Small Town Girl” managed to lampoon the clich?s of rock whilst deploying a dirty funk beat with heavy synthesised bass lines before Morecroft sparred joyously with Blandford in an effective keyboard/drum duet.

“Change The ****ing Record” included some thrilling trombone and tenor exchanges, the title “Defriending” emphasised the group’s youth and the centrality of social networking to their lives and “There’s Always One” featured Ower on alto plus Clarkson on trombone.

We had just heard five new tunes on the trot, all of them suggesting that WSP’s new album is going to be something of a killer. The group switched back to the first album for the gallumphing “Hero Of The Bus” with its effervescent Morecroft piano solo and with Ower’s sax imitating police sirens. Written about a bus journey in Hackney it all seemed rather too pertinent following the events of the previous week as did the title of the following “Fire In A Pet Shop” with Ower and Clarkson now approximating animal noises.

It was back to the album for the closing “Back So Soon?”, here incorporating a lengthy drum feature for the charismatic Blandford and with the group again revealing their barbed sense of humour with a series of audience teasing false endings.

WSP are about to tour as part of a double bill with the young Norwegian group SynKoke with dates in both Norway and the UK. This is the first in a series of planned exchanges with other young European jazz groups. WSP will also be undertaking a more extensive UK tour on their own later in the year. The dates for both these tours have already been published on our news pages and the SynKoke collaboration should also result in a limited edition CD.

It’s clear that WSP and Morecroft in particular have huge potential. With the F-ire and Loop generations now reaching full artistic maturity it seems that a new generation of musicians, among them WSP and Partikel, is coming up fast behind them. The future of British jazz appears to be in good hands. Jazz education is often derided for turning out musicians who all sound the same
but on this evidence perhaps that criticism is misplaced. Both WSP and Partikel have chops to burn and also seem to have something original to say. It’s also often said that this is something of a “golden age” for UK jazz. It looks as if that’s likely to continue for quite a while yet.

AQUARIUM

I was keen to catch something of another excellent young British band on the Roland stage. Pianist and composer Sam Leak is only twenty four but his often gently lyrical compositions for his group Aquarium suggest a greater maturity. The group’s eponymous d?but album is reviewed elsewhere on these pages and album personnel James Allsopp (tenor sax) and Joshua Blackmore (drums) joined Leak at Brecon with Jasper Hoiby of Phronesis deputising for Calum Gourlay on double bass.

I managed to see three numbers, firstly new tune “Milan” with its duo opening for tenor sax and piano plus later solos from both Allsopp and Leak.  Stately and anthemic the piece also featured impeccable brushwork from Blackmore at the drums. 

The delicately lyrical “Shy”, little more than a vignette on the album, was subtly extended but the air of fragile beauty was rather rudely punctured by the sound of rain drumming violently on the roof during a brief but particularly vicious shower.

To counteract the sound of the rain the group increased their own relatively modest volume (certainly compared with WSP) for the final item, a tricky, riffy piece that featured some full on tenor from Allsopp and a percussive piano solo from Leak. If memory serves this was “Sleek” which follows “Shy” on the album but I couldn’t be sure. 

My mate Richard, who had been at the concert throughout declared it “magnificent” and took himself off to buy a copy of the album. Praise indeed, believe me. 

MEADOW

Events took an even more lyrical turn with the music of the Anglo/Norwegian trio Meadow at Brecon Cathedral. The sound of John Taylor (piano), Tore Brunborg (tenor sax) and Thomas Stronen (drums) was perfectly suited to the church setting and acoustic. Arriving late I didn’t have the greatest view of Taylor, situated as I was a little behind the mixing desk, but the music still sounded great. Well done to the young lady responsible for the sound.

The trio concentrated on material from their d?but album “Blissful Ignorance”, released on the British label Edition Records but sounding for all the world like an ECM album. It was particularly interesting to see Stronen playing totally acoustically after only having seen him previously with the electro improvising group Food which he co-leads with British saxophonist Iain Ballamy. Stronen’s set up with its range of small cymbals, bells and gongs in addition to conventional kit drums produced an array of intriguing, faintly exotic sounds. His attention to colour, detail and accent was superb throughout and, like the rest of the group, his contribution was almost as much about what he didn’t play. Meadow make immaculate and impressive use of space in their music, notes often seeming to just hang in the air.

Brunborg often affected a Jan Garbarek like tone which was perfectly suited to the ambience of the Cathedral. However these days Brunborg is very much his own man as his work with both Meadow and the Tord Gustavsen Ensemble attests. Brunborg is Meadow’s chief composer and many of the pieces heard today were his.

Taylor’s blend of a classical musician’s lightness of touch with a jazzer’s improvisational sense make him one of the world’s great pianists, unfailingly interesting but always innately tasteful and tuneful.
In Meadow’s bass-less line-up Taylor often complements his right hand lyricism with sophisticated left hand rhythms and isn’t adverse to a little atmospheric under the lid plucking and scraping.

Material included melodic album opener “Badger”, also the first piece here, and “Tunn Is” (“Thin Ice”) with its spellbinding solo drum intro and quietly passionate tenor saxophone, combined here with a new tune “Fifteen”.

Another new piece, Taylor’s “Solution” began with a demonstration of his abilities as a solo pianist, indeed he has cut whole albums in this format. Taylor’s numerous solo excursions were always fascinating as were his duets with the empathic Stronen.

After the tightly controlled, almost glacial atmospherics of much of the set Stronen’s gospel tinged “Will” closed the concert on an uplifting note with Brunborg adopting a particularly warm tone on the tenor.

Having reviewed the album I knew that I would enjoy Meadow and the trio didn’t disappoint. One of the largest audiences of the festival gave them a great reception. The majority listened attentively throughout but there was rather too much coming and going and the cries of a small child were particularly distracting. Brecon may pride itself on being a family friendly festival but surely there should be some limits, especially at this venue, either that or parents should exercise a greater sense of responsibility and self discipline.
Returning to the music some commentators found Meadow rather too measured and simply not “jazzy” or swinging enough. Perhaps some listeners were genuinely surprised but surely most should have known what they were going to get from these three. This an ECM band to all intents and purposes and sounded like it. I guess it’s a case of “horses for courses” and on the whole I thought they were excellent.

NOSTALGIA 77

I took a very quick peek at guitarist Ben Lamdin’s song based project at the Roland Stage. Joining Lamdin were most of the musicians who had backed Sara Mitra the previous day at the Market Hall with the busy James Allsopp (reeds) lining up alongside Fulvio Sigurta (trumpet), Ross Stanley (keyboards), Riaan Vosloo (bass) and Tim Giles (drums).

I saw one instrumental which featured more classy tenor work from Allsopp and one song featuring the soulful vocals of German vocalist Josa Peit. Propelled by Giles’ drums the band looked a good live proposition, more soul/blues influenced than when backing Mitra the previous day. Richard again saw all of this and enjoyed it and was impressed by Peit’s singing but rated it lower than Aquarium overall.

LED BIB

Tim Owen and I have been long term champions of Led Bib here at The Jazzmann. For pretty much the first time this weekend I stuck with the tried and tested and taking in Led Bib’s set represented something of a personal indulgence on my behalf. I was also curious to see if the band had altered much in the twelve months since I last saw them at the 2010 Lichfield and Mostly festivals.

The answer is not a lot, Chris Williams and Pete Grogan’s twin alto saxes still coil and writhe, often operating in tandem as they blast out the hooks and riffs written in the main by drummer and band leader Mark Holub. Holub’s pieces allow plenty of room for interpretation and often Williams and Grogan will go it alone, especially mid tune, but their flights of fancy still don’t sound anything like conventional jazz solos.

Keyboard player Toby McLaren is an increasingly influential part of the band conjuring ominous, lowering effects from his keyboards or else evil sounding whooshes and glitches. Here he occasionally deployed the resident acoustic piano at the Christ College Stage but mostly he seemed content to wring out weird and wonderful sounds from his much abused Fender Rhodes, or else to solo demoniacally.

Bassist Liran Donin seems to have given up completely on the upright instrument, concentrating here exclusively on the bass guitar. He gives the band tremendous rhythmic drive and these days exploits a floor mounted effects unit which he uses to spar gleefully with the similarly equipped McLaren.

Leading from the drums Mark Holub, an expatriate American, exudes kinetic energy and his fluid, powerful, polyrhythmic drumming is the engine room of the band. His excitable announcing style is big on enthusiasm but in this case short on detail and as I didn’t have time to acquire a set list I’m not going to bother with tune titles. Most of the material was recognisable as coming from the group’s latest album “Bring Your Own” (2010) and featured all the staccato sax blasting, thunderous rhythms and bubbling keyboard textures we’ve come to expect from Led Bib. Yet the killer riffs and grooves are tempered by surprising moments of subtlety and an advanced improvising instinct. They remain one of the most exciting and interesting bands around and are always good value live but the members increasingly seem to be involved in side projects. As former Mercury Music Prize nominees Led Bib’s profile remains high and they drew a near capacity audience to the Christ College Stage. Interestingly I saw WorldService Project’s Conor Chaplin and Neil Blandford seated a few rows in front checking them out.

There may have been nothing new here but I still enjoyed it immensely. Led Bib remain personal favourites, let’s hope that there’s still plenty of mileage in their collective tank.

MICHAEL JANISCH’S PURPOSE BUILT

Bassist, composer and all round mover and shaker Michael Janisch is another regular on the Jazzmann pages. Another ex pat American Janisch has brought a tremendous amount to the UK jazz scene and has brought many gifted American and European musicians to these shores to play -and happily not just in London. All of Janisch’s projects are interesting and none more so than “Purpose Built”, his magnificent 2009 solo album featuring superb musicians from both sides of the Atlantic including the UK’s Jim Hart (vibes), Paul Booth (reeds) and Phil Robson (guitar). The American contingent included Jason Palmer (trumpet), Patrick Cornelius (alto sax) Walter Smith III (tenor sax), Mike Moreno (guitar), Aaron Goldberg (piano) and Johnathan Blake (drums).

I saw a version of the Purpose built Band featuring Hart, Booth, Palmer and guest drummer Clarence Penn give a magnificent performance of the album at the 2009 Aber Jazz festival in Fishguard. Various other quintet line-ups have performed the album since with today’s line up featuring Booth, Hart, drummer Andrew Bain and flautist Gareth Lockrane, the latter a late replacement for trumpeter Jay Phelps with Hart coming in for the advertised Phil Robson.

Janisch dedicated the entire concert to the memory of Richard Turner , a young British trumpeter who had died just a few days previously as the result of a sudden and totally unexpected seizure. Apparently Sam Leak made a similar dedication at the Aquarium performance and we at The Jazzmann would also like to extend our condolences to Richard’s family and friends.

I saw about half an hour of this performance as I wished to check out pianist Robert Glasper at the Market Hall but I thoroughly enjoyed what I saw beginning with “Precisely Now”, inspired by the writing methods one of Janisch’s bass heroes, the great Dave Holland. The dialogue between flute and vibes immediately impressed as did Booth’s tenor sax solo.

“Adelante” incorporated a naggingly catchy phrase inspired by Malian music and here featured a typically brilliant four mallet vibes solo from Hart. “Lost Creek” saw solos from Lockrane on flute and Janisch on the bass, a timely reminder of what a fluent and powerful soloist he is. I left as Janisch was announcing “Serenade Of The Seas”,  a feature for Booth on tenor sax. The supremely gifted Booth has appeared as a sideman for Steely Dan and Steve Winwood, which I guess is where the real money is, but he deserves a higher profile as one of the UK’s leading jazz saxophonists.

In retrospect I wished I’d stuck with this. My wife did, and was hugely impressed, and of course I’m well familiar with the “Purpose Built” material and would undoubtedly have enjoyed hearing the rest of it. Nonetheless the lure of a rare chance to see Glasper outside London proved too strong and I reluctantly dragged myself off to the Market Hall.

ROBERT GLASPER’S EXPERIMENT

American pianist Robert Glasper straddles the world of jazz and hip hop with two distinct units. He runs a more or less conventional piano trio with bassist Derrick Hodge (or sometimes Vincente Archer) and drummer Chris “Daddy” Dave. Then there’s his “Experiment”, a quartet featuring Dave on drums, Hodge on electric bass and Casey Benjamin on saxophones and vocoder. Glasper’s 2009 Blue Note album “Double Booked” is an interesting affair that splits itself roughly equally between these two manifestations of Glasper’s output.

It’s a truism that not all experiments work and I have to say I wasn’t at all sure about this one. The Market Hall was less than a third full (probably 100 people tops) and it seemed even more boomy and echoing than usual, made worse by amplified bass and boxy drums. Glasper, alternating between electric and acoustic keyboards wandered freely through the jazz and pop/rock canon featuring John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme”, Herbie Hancock’s “I Have A Dream” and Miles Davis’ “Blue In Green”  plus an unnamed Kenny Kirkland piece alongside pop tunes by Nirvana (“Smells Like Teen Spirit”) and Stevie Wonder with Roy Ayers’ “Tears To A Smile” somewhere in the middle.

There was plenty of good playing from Glasper but I found Casey Benjamin’s vocoder filtered singing too much of an annoyance. It’s my least favourite aspect of the admittedly impressive “Double Booked” but in this environment it was simply too much. I enjoyed his punchy saxophone interjections on both alto and soprano, one blistering alto solo was particularly impressive, but the vocals were a big no no as far as I was concerned.

Overall I found this gig something of a disappointment. It didn’t compare well with either the studio album or with a radio broadcast that, ironically, was transmitted on Radio 3 the following night. This featured the acoustic trio of Glasper, Dave and Hodge at the 2010 London Jazz Festival and sounded very impressive. Here “Teen Spirit” became a tender, slowed down lament rather than a tawdry novelty item courtesy of that wretched vocoder. Let’s face it, this is what I’d have preferred to have heard more of at Brecon. 

It’s unfortunate that my festival ended on such a disappointing note. There were some good moments here but Glasper can clearly do much better than this. The poor attendance and acoustics didn’t help but overall this was still below my expectations although others seemed to enjoy it. A number of musicians from other bands-WSP, Phronesis and Led Bib were checking this out but I didn’t get the impression that they were overly impressed either. Thanks to Pete Grogan of Led Bib for coming over and having a chat but that was largely focussed on his own group’s performance.

Whilst I was at Glasper and Pam was at Janisch Richard was watching saxophonist Larry Stabbins’ Stonephace Project and was impressed, particularly by Stabbins on reeds and Zoe Rahman on piano, the latter in particularly sparkling form. He reported that the music was far more accessible than he’d perhaps been expecting with a percussion battle between Crispin “Spry” Robinson and kit drummer Pat Illingworth proving to be a crowd pleasing set piece.

I caught a couple of numbers by French/Beninese singer Mina Agossi, an extrovert performer with an extraordinarily flexible voice. She had the crowd at the Christ’s College Stage eating out of her hand and I could quite gladly have heard a lot more of this. Her sense of fun was infectious, she seems to be one of the music’s great eccentrics, and she was well supported by an empathic band featuring bassist Eric Jacot, Japanese drummer Ichiro Onoe and a guest female trumpeter.

OVERVIEW

I was well impressed with most of the music I saw and thought that the programming was both varied and imaginative with a good balance in terms of age, nationality and genre and between the familiar and the experimental. As always there were some exciting new discoveries and with young bands like Partikel and WorldService Project exploding onto the scene the future of British jazz looks highly exciting.

That said not everything in the garden was rosy. Attendances seemed to be down on previous years with many of the events I saw poorly attended in comparison with 2009 and 2010. The weather was good overall so the main reason for this is likely to be given as the recession. One steward I spoke to suggested that the riots elsewhere in the country may have deterred last minute visitors in view of Brecon’s lairy, beery reputation. Mind you, I’ve been coming since 1985 and never experienced any problems.

I’d like to think it wasn’t the programming, that was certainly up my street, but maybe it was a little too innovative. There are some very conservative jazz fans out there who like to stick with what they know. The old Stroller programme is much missed, by myself included, although I’m sure the burgeoning Fringe has absorbed some of these listeners. Nevertheless although individual concerts are reasonably priced enjoying a whole day at the jazz is now becoming an expensive proposition

Also I’m not convinced that centralising the festival in a series of tents is the best way forward. The problem of sound leaching from one venue to another was dealt with in my Friday coverage but I also have to say that I didn’t find the Christ College Stage or Pemberton Stage particularly satisfactory venues, the lack of banked seating meant sight lines were poor and it was particularly difficult to see what pianists or drummers were doing. Higher stages, such as at The Roland Stage may have helped here. I didn’t go in the Big Tent but The Market Hall and The Cathedral, despite the wonderful acoustic of the latter, both present the same problem in visual terms. Some of the acts I saw deserved to be seen in the more comfortable confines of the Guildhall or Theatr Brycheiniog, both of which had been snapped up by the organisers of Jazz 4 Jed and the Fringe respectively. I particularly missed the Theatr where I’ve seen so many memorable gigs over the years. I’d like to think that both the Theatr and the Guildhall may become festival venues again next year. It may sound like heresy but it’s not inconceivable that numbers are down because people don’t like the new format. The festival has lost some of its distinctive Welshness too.

Not that I wish to bite the hand that feeds. I’m very grateful that Hay Festivals have saved the great institution that is Brecon Jazz and I’m also suitably thankful for my press pass which has allowed me to see and report on so much great music. Any criticism is intended to be constructive and it may be that imposing the format of a literary festival on an already established jazz festival is not quite what jazz fans want. I want Brecon Jazz Festival to survive and prosper but this year certainly seems to have generated plenty of food for thought. 
 

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