Photograph of the Julian Costello Trio sourced from;
https://www.facebook.com/breconjazzfest

BRECON JAZZ FESTIVAL 2024

‘JAZZ & FILM WEEKEND’, THE MUSE ARTS CENTRE

DAY ONE,  SATURDAY 17th AUGUST 2024

PROLOGUE

2023 saw Brecon Jazz Festival present its first ‘Jazz & Film Weekend’ with the screening of two films on consecutive days at the town’s independent cinema, The Coliseum.

Saturday commenced with the screening of the 1959 film “Jazz on a Summer’s Day”, filmed around the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival at Newport, Rhode Island.

Sunday’s film was the premiere of the British independent production “Indigo”, film maker Tom Parsons’ appreciation of the work of the British trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist and composer Byron Wallen and his long running quartet Indigo, a band also featuring saxophonist Tony Kofi, bassist Larry Bartley and drummer Tom Skinner.

The films were supplemented by a number of musical performances at other venues around the town, including Hot Club Gallois at St. Mary’s Church, and the Baires Connection Tango Trio and the Zoe Rahman Octet, both at at Theatr Brycheiniog.

There was also a livestream of vocalist Zoe Gilby performing with the Terence Collie Trio from the Riverside Arts Centre in Sunbury on Thames, a collaboration between Brecon Jazz Festival and Mood Indigo Events.

2024 saw the film screenings moved to Brecon Jazz Club’s regular home, The Muse Arts Centre. There was also a more conscious effort to match the live musical performances to the films, particularly as these also took place at The Muse, which functioned as the Festival’s base for the entire weekend.

My 2023 coverage of the ‘Jazz & Film Weekend’ reviewed the films and the live music performances in separate features, “The Films” and “The Music”,  but with this year’s more integrated approach lends itself more towards reviewing the event one day at a time, as is more customary on The Jazzmann.

FILM – THE JAZZ BARONESS

Saturday’s film was “The Jazz Baroness”, a 2009 film that explores the relationship between the celebrated jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk (1917-82) and his friend and patron Baroness Pannonica “Nica” Rothschild de Konigswarter , a member of the wealthy Rothschild banking dynasty.

The story of Monk and ‘Nica’ is well known to jazz fans and BJF’s decision to screen this film seemed to be particularly apposite in view of recent visits to Brecon Jazz Club by Zoe Gilby and by vocalist / violinist Claire Victoria Roberts, two contemporary jazz artists who have drawn inspiration from Monk’s music and particularly from fellow singer Carmen McRae’s ‘vocalese’ versions of Monk tunes on her 1988 album “Carmen Sings Monk”.

“The Jazz Baroness” is written and directed by Nica’s great niece, Hannah Rothschild (born 1962), who is variously described as an ‘author, businesswoman, philanthropist and documentary film-maker’. It was originally a television production and was screened on BBC 4 in 2009 and repeated in 2012, although it managed to slip beneath my radar on both occasions. I had never seen the film before today and I suspect that the majority in what was a pleasingly sizeable audience hadn’t seen it previously either.

Nica was largely disowned by her family and the film represents Hannah Rothschild’s search to discover more about her mysterious great aunt and more about the man whose music lured her away from a life of luxury and conformity to the streets and jazz clubs of Manhattan. It effectively tells the life stories of both Monk and Nica, two parallel but very different streams that eventually meet in 1950s New York.

Hannah and Nica did get to meet at a New York jazz club in 1984, managing to establish some sort of bond. As a creative person in her own right Hannah had wondered if she was destined to follow a similar path to Nica, but she hasn’t taken things as far and remains a member of ‘respectable society’, whilst still being a highly creative artist across a range of disciplines.

The film begins with footage of Monk at the now long defunct Five Spot jazz club in New York City playing “Pannonica”, the tune that he wrote for, and dedicated to, Nica. The opening credits also feature butterfly imagery, the name Pannonica having been coined by Nica’s father, Charles Rothschild, who had been an amateur lepidopterist, although it turns out that the ‘Pannonica’ genus is not really a butterfly but is actually a moth.

Hannah Rothschild narrates the film but Nica is voiced by Dame Helen Mirren, who reads extracts from Nica’s letters. Setting the scene Rothschild informs us that Nica was a British born heiress from a wealthy Jewish dynasty, whereas Monk was born into rural poverty in North Carolina, the son of tenant farmers and a descendant of West African slaves

The contrast between their upbringings is represented by footage of Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, just one of the many Rothschild mansions located around the world and now in the care of The National Trust.

There is also archive footage from Tring Park Mansion, another Rothschild house that had been home to the young Nica, and from the Natural History Museum at Tring, founded as a private museum by Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Nica’s uncle. Nowadays the Rothschild Natural History Museum  is open to the general public.

Nica was home educated and was later presented to affluent London society as a ‘debutante’. The film includes interviews with Dame Miriam Rothschild, Nica’s sister, and the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire (aka Deborah Mitford) who recall the society balls of the 1930s.

Meanwhile Monk was brought up in poverty, but was exposed to gospel music in church. The Monk family moved to New York City in 1922 and Monk began learning the piano. His pride in his Southern heritage was emphasised in the film by his solo piano performance of the hymn “This Is My Story, This Is My Song”. His depressive father, also Thelonious, was sent to an asylum, but his indomitable mother, Barbara lived until 1955.

The film documents Nica’s marriage to the French diplomat Baron Jules Adolphe de Konigswarter, with whom she had five children. The couple lived in France but the German invasion during World War 2 resulted in Nica moving to the US with her children. Many of her family members were killed during the Holocaust and her husband Jules fought with distinction for the Free French Forces. Nica also served with the Free French in North Africa, working as an ambulance driver.

In 1951 Nica left her husband and settled in New York City.  She had been lured to New York by the sounds of jazz, and particularly by a recording of Monk playing his composition “Round Midnight”, which was introduced to her by pianist Teddy Wilson. She is said to have played the record twenty times back to back when she first heard it and it was this experience that persuaded her to stay in New York rather than returning to her husband and the family home in Mexico. She described Monk’s playing as “the Eighth Wonder of the World”.

Still independently wealthy Nica cut an eccentric figure on the New York scene, famously living in a house with over three hundred cats and serving scotch whisky from a teapot. As a frequent habituee of New York’s jazz clubs she befriended many musicians and helped them financially and practically, helping them to buy food for their families, paying their rent and medical bills, paying hotel bills when they were on tour, getting their cabaret cards re-instated, retrieving their instruments from the pawnbrokers and driving them to gigs in her Bentley. She would regularly invite musicians to play at jam sessions in her apartment, with Monk, Bud Powell and Art Blakey among the regular visitors.

Many notable jazz musicians are interviewed during the course of the film, among them saxophonist Sonny Rollins, drummer Roy Haynes, trombonist Curtis Fuller, trumpeter Eddie Henderson, and saxophonist Archie Shepp, who describes Nica as “an early feminist” and as “an advocate for social change”.

Rollins describes the creative ‘hot house’ conditions that nurtured the bebop revolution, with Monk, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie amongst its principal architects, paving the way for Rollins and others.

Composer Robert Kraft says of Monk’s uniquely percussive piano style; “some pianists play all the white keys, some pianists play all the black keys, Monk just plays between the cracks”.

Other interviewees include the jazz writers Stanley Crouch and Dan Morgenstern, actor Clint Eastwood, promoter George Wein, jazz historians Gary Giddins and Robin Kelley and Monk’s manager Harry Columby. The latter offers insights into Monk’s marijuana and heroin addictions.

Nica was first introduced to Monk’s music in 1951 but the pair didn’t meet until 1954 when they were introduced by pianist Mary Lou Williams, another of Nica’s closest friends. Following this introduction Monk and Nica would remain friends for twenty eight years, until Monk’s passing in 1982. “Your aunt was in love with my dad” Monk’s son T.S, Monk tells Hannah Rothschild, although there has never been any evidence that their relationship was anything but platonic. Indeed Monk was married to Nellie Smith, with whom he had two children.

Nica seemed to be loved by all the jazz musicians that she befriended and over twenty jazz compositions have been written in her honour, both by Monk and other jazz musicians. Monk’s 1957 album “Brilliant Corners” includes two dedications to her, “Pannonica” and “Bolivar Blues”, the latter named for the hotel that Nica was living in at the time. Meanwhile fellow pianist Tommy Flanagan’s 1982 album “Thelonica”, released in the year of Monk’s passing, salutes both Monk and Nica. Meanwhile Nica wrote the liner notes for Monk’s 1962 album “Criss-Cross”. Drummer Chico Hamilton, a former shoe-shine boy opines that without Nica’s patronage he would probably have become a pimp rather than a musician.

Nica’s friendships with black musicians were frowned upon by American white society. When Charlie Parker died of pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer at Nica’s apartment in 1955 she was hounded by the newspaper columnist Walter Winchell. The brilliant but tragic Parker, whose example had tempted many other musicians into drug addiction, emerges from the film with little credit, and the vituperative Winchell with even less.

Following the Parker incident Nica was evicted from her apartment and it was at this time that her brother Victor found her the New Jersey residence that was to become “The Cat House”.  In addition to the many live cats (Cootie, named after Ellington trumpeter Cootie Williams, being a particular favourite) there was also a substantial collection of toy animals.

The “Cat House” continued to be a favourite hang out for musicians, another form of ‘cat’, a description that it was speculated had its origins in the brothels of New Orleans, the original ‘cat houses’ that featured the playing of the earliest jazz musicians.

In 1958 Nica was driving Monk and saxophonist Charlie Rous to a gig when they were stopped by police in Wilmington, Delaware, suspicious of seeing a white woman driving a Bentley containing two black men. Marijuana, probably belonging to Monk, was found in the vehicle. Such was Nica’s love for Monk that she took the rap on his behalf, pleading guilty to possession and spending a short time in jail before being released on a technicality.

Monk had enjoyed a regular residency at the Five Spot during 1957, with Roy Haynes featuring on drums. However in the wake of the Wilmington incident his cabaret card was rescinded for eighteen months.

In the 1960s Monk signed to Columbia Records, which brought him greater, if somewhat belated recognition. He even got to visit the UK and there is some wonderful footage of the Monk quartet playing the tune “Nutty” on the British jazz programme Jazz 625, with the band being introduced by Humphrey Lyttelton.

Other notable musical moments woven into the fabric of the film (there are no complete performances) include solo piano performances of “Dinah” and “Lover Man”, a quartet rendition of “Straight,  No Chaser”, and of course “Round Midnight”.

Monk’s later years were plagued by mental illness. He was always eccentric and his unusual mannerisms are discussed by various interviewees, with Columby suggesting that Monk was bi-polar. He moved to the West Coast but was hospitalised in San Francisco and diagnosed with schizophrenia. Also suffering with prostate problems he eventually returned East and moved into Nica’s ‘cat house’ where he spent the last ten years of his life as a virtual recluse, nursed by the Baroness and dying of a stroke in 1982.

Monk’s death prompted Nica to say;
“I only regret one thing in my life and that is not being able to save Thelonious Monk”.

Nica herself passed away in 1988, her final instructions being that her ashes should be “scattered on the Hudson River, around midnight”. Her wishes were fulfilled.

“The Jazz Baroness” is a remarkable story about a remarkable friendship. Despite their different backgrounds Monk and Nica were primarily united by a love of jazz music, but during the course of the film it was suggested that there were other elements that drew them together. As members of minority groups (Black, Jewish) both had been subjected to various forms of prejudice and persecution. There was also a shared history of mental illness within their families. Both of their fathers had suffered from depression with Monk’s father being institutionalised, while Nica’s father, Charles Rothschild had taken his own life. In addition to this Nica’s sister, Liberty, was diagnosed as a schizophrenic.

Although I already knew the bare bones of the story of ‘Monk and the Baroness’ this was a fascinating and absorbing film that put some real flesh on those bones. Mixing archive footage with contemporary interviews it captured the spirit of the bebop era and beyond and also included plenty of tantalising musical interludes. Jazz fans might have wished for rather more complete musical performances but you didn’t necessarily have to be a fan of the music to get caught up in the story.

Nica’s generosity to Monk and his fellow jazz musicians, all of them Black, was quite remarkable in 1950s America, and also incredibly brave. Interviewee Quincy Jones recalled the racial abuse he had suffered during his early days in the music business and Nica received similar in turn, just for helping and supporting her friends.

Monk’s genius as a musician and composer is now widely acknowledged, but was less so at the time. Nica’s practical support and her championing of his music was both courageous and perceptive.

I thoroughly enjoyed this insightful and interesting film and I think that all of my fellow audience felt the same, with everyone fully absorbing themselves in both the story and the music.

GEOFF EALES / ASHLEY JOHN LONG DUO

Geoff Eales – piano, Ashley John Long – double bass

Following the conclusion of the film we enjoyed a live musical performance from the duo of pianist Geoff Eales and bassist Ashley John Long, who presented a programme of Thelonious Monk compositions.

Eales was fresh from a triumphant ‘Homecoming’ performance at the Guildhall Theatre on the Main Weekend of the Festival, when he had been the leader of a trio featuring bassist Ursula Harrison and drummer Liz Exell.

Introducing the performance Eales explained that while the duo would be playing Monk’s compositions they would not be attempting to replicate Monk’s playing style. Instead they would approach the tunes in their own way – “you’ve got to be yourself, and Monk was so unique”.
Eales own style owes more to Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett than it does to Monk, and this was reflected in his playing.

The duo commenced with Monk’s composition “Well You Needn’t”, with Eales very much putting his own stamp on the tune and inserting a number of humorous musical quotes into his solo, most notably a highly unseasonal “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”. Brecon Jazz favourite Long is widely acknowledged as a virtuoso double bass soloist and made a typically brilliant contribution here. Eales subsequently informed us that his own composition “Well You Have To”, a tune that features on his 2002 album “Facing the Muse”, represents his own reply to “Well You Needn’t”. Full of allusions to Monk’s original it’s a playful and clever contrafact response.

Eales’ love of the blues was expressed via the duo’s version of Monk’s own blues composition “Blue Monk”. One of Monk’s most popular and recognisable tunes this was also approached in playful fashion with Eales sounding more obviously ‘Monk-ish’ and adding stride piano elements. Long continued to dazzle at the bass, both solo and in a series of lively exchanges with Eales.

The ballad “Ruby My Dear” then introduced a gentler, more lyrical side of the duo’s playing, with Long a featured soloist and also briefly flourishing the bow at the close.

Based around a single B-flat note “Thelonious”, presumably named for Monk’s father rather than himself, was quirky and dissonant and made effective use of space, all very Monk-ish qualities. As with all of today’s performances both musicians were featured as soloists. Meanwhile Eales told us something about Monk’s antithesis towards the playing of fellow pianist Oscar Peterson, a musician with a fundamentally different style to Monk’s.

Next Eales introduced “Ugly Beauty”, the only Monk tune to be written in ¾ or ‘waltz’ time. He felt it to be an apt title, describing the piece as “a lovely tune, but with lots of acerbic harmonic clashes”. Long was featured with the bow during the intro before reverting to the pizzicato technique to deliver a melodic solo.

Long’s vigorous, percussive bowing was featured during a dramatic joint introduction to “Round Midnight”, which closed the duo’s first set. He reverted to pizzicato as he shared the solos with Eales, before flourishing the bow again at the close.

During the interval Lynne Gornall conducted a short discussion about the film we had just seen. Local saxophonist Leslie Maynerd recalled meeting Hannah Rothschild and reading her book about Nica, “The Baroness – the search for Nica the Rebellious Rothschild”. Having enjoyed the film I’m now intending to order myself a copy of this work.

Others audience members recalled seeing some of the interviewees, notably Sonny Rollins and Roy Haynes playing at Brecon Jazz Festival. Both are still alive, Rollins is 93 and Haynes an incredible 99! It was also noted that another interviewee, Chico Hamilton, had featured in “Jazz on a Summer’s Day”, one of the films screened at BJF in 2023.

Eales and Long then returned to the stage to play us out with two more Monk numbers, beginning with “In Walked Bud”, Monk’s tribute to fellow pianist Bud Powell. The pair had been great friends, even though their piano styles were very different. Returning with renewed vigour following the discussion Eales and Long soon had ‘the joint jumpin’, to paraphrase Jon Hendricks’ vocalese lyrics. The irrepressible Eales even threw a little J.S.Bach into the equation.

Almost inevitably they ended with “Pannonica”, delivered in a different, quicker way than the Monk original. Instead the duo took their inspiration from a version recorded by Chick Cora on his 1968 album “Now He Sings, Now He Sobs”, a trio recording that features Roy Haynes at the drums. Eales’ playing was in the style of Corea as he shared the solos with Long, whose typically virtuosic offering included some astonishing playing around the bridge.

So ended a memorable afternoon of film and music at The Muse, with more live music to come later in the evening, courtesy of a trio led by saxophonist and composer Julian Costello.

JULIAN COSTELLO TRIO, THE MUSE

Julian Costello – tenor saxophone, Natalie Rozario – cello, vocals, Patrick Naylor – acoustic & electric guitars

Following a fairly substantial break, which allowed the audience members time to get fed and watered, we returned to The Muse at 7.00 pm to enjoy the second live music performance of the day.

There was no clear link to Monk this time, although this particular trio does feature more material from the jazz tradition than some of Costello’s other projects, which place a greater premium on the saxophonist’s original writing.

Costello is something of a Jazzmann favourite, a genuinely nice guy and a skilled saxophonist and composer who is the leader of a number of different projects.

He has released three albums as the leader of a comparatively orthodox jazz quartet, all of which have been favourably reviewed on the Jazzmann. Transitions” (2017) and “Connections; without borders”  (2020) feature a quartet including guitarist Maciek Pysz and drummer / percussionist Adam Teixeira. Yuri Goloubev plays bass on the first release, with Jakub Cywinski taking over for the second. Both appear on 33 Jazz and both albums feature Costello’s original compositions exclusively.

For 2024’s “And All The Birds Were Set Free” (33Jazz) Costello introduced a new quartet line up featuring John Turville on piano, Andy Hamill on bass and harmonica and Tom Hooper at the drums. The recording also featured a guest appearance from vocalist Georgia Mancio. Review here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/julian-costello-quartet-and-all-the-birds-were-set-free

Prior to the album release the Costello / Turville / Hamill / Hooper quartet had been out on the road and I enjoyed a live performance by this line up at Kidderminster Jazz Club in July 2023.
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/julian-costello-quartet-kidderminster-jazz-club-45-live-venue-kidderminster-06-07-2023

Vertigo represents Costello’s ‘world jazz’ project and features cellist Natalie Rozario alongside guitarist and oud player Stefanos Tsourelis and drummer Sophie Alloway. The quartet’s recently released debut album also includes guest appearances from bassist David Beebee and tabla player Iqbal Pathan. Review here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/julian-costello-vertigo

The Vertigo quartet was recently featured on BBC Radio 3’s “In Tune” programme, performing live in the studio and with Costello also being interviewed by presenter Sean Rafferty.

Sometimes known as the Perhaps Trio tonight’s ensemble is  a more song orientated project featuring Natalie Rozario on both cello and vocals.  Guitarist Patrick Naylor is a long time Costello collaborator. This line up has gigged widely, but is yet to record.

Tonight’s performance saw Costello concentrating solely on tenor sax (he also plays soprano) and included original compositions from all three group members in addition to an eclectic selection of outside material, including a number of jazz standards.

The trio commenced with “La Rosita”, a tune made famous in a jazz context courtesy of a recording by twin saxophonists Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster. Introduced by the sounds of tenor sax, plucked cello and acoustic guitar the trio’s arrangement saw Costello stating the theme and taking the first solo.
He was followed by Rozario on cello, and I was immediately captivated by the gorgeous tone that she achieved on her instrument. I have seen her play on numerous previous occasions with trumpeter Rory Simmons’ large ensemble Fringe Magnetic and more recently in small groups led by guitarist Vitor Pereira and by saxophonist Duncan Eagles. Unfortunately her playing has sometimes been rather drowned out by the other instruments, but in this ‘chamber jazz’ setting I could really hear her properly for perhaps the first time.
Hitherto Naylor had occupied a primarily rhythmic role, but he too was to feature as a soloist, adopting a classical / Spanish guitar sound as Rozario’s plucked cello now provided the underlying rhythm. Naylor and Rozario were to share rhythmic duties throughout the set, both helping to ensure that the music felt bright and vibrant despite the apparent limitations of the chamber jazz instrumentation.

Rozario’s vocals were heard for the first time on the standard “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps”, presumably the song that gave this trio its name – although BJF decided to bill the band as just the Julian Costello Trio. It quickly became apparent the Rozario is a highly accomplished singer who could easily find work solely as a vocalist, if she were so inclined. But for her the cello comes first and the vocals second, but she is supremely talented in both roles. The song was introduced by the sounds of cello and guitar, with Costello encouraging the audience to clap and stomp along with Naylor’s flamenco style flourishes. Rozario’s vocals and plucked cello were punctuated by instrumental solos from Costello and Naylor.

The first original of the evening was Naylor’s composition “Sitting On The Fence”. A strummed acoustic guitar intro developed into a folkish melody featuring the sounds of bowed cello, shadowed by Costello’s tenor sax. Costello and Rozario continued to mirror each other’s melodic lines, even during their individual solos. Elsewhere Rozario switched to the pizzicato technique when underpinning Naylor’s guitar solo.

Naylor switched to a solid bodied ‘arch top’  Gibson guitar for the standard “You and the Night and the Music”, the second item to feature Rozario’s well enunciated vocals. Naylor’s solo featured a more orthodox jazz guitar sound as he shared the instrumental features with the leader’s tenor.

Costello’s compositions are always highly melodic, as typified by his original composition “Sunflowers”, a piece dedicated t his late father that appears on his latest quartet album “And All The Birds Were Set Free”. There was a warm sense of nostalgia about the music, embodied in the composer’s burnished tenor sound, his fluent melody lines again dovetailing with those of Rozario’s cello. This piece is very much a favourite of Costello’s as it also appears on his “Connections” album from 2020. The more recent version features lyrics by Rebecca Morse, these given voice by singer Georgia Mancio. Tonight however the tune appeared in an instrumental arrangement, as it did on the “Connections” album.

Rozario’s original song “Breathe” featured her singing her own sensual lyrics and accompanying herself on plucked cello, with Naylor’s acoustic guitar providing additional support. This represented a move into folkish singer-songwriter territory and suggested yet another avenue that the talented and versatile Rozario might choose to explore. It was left to the leader’s tenor to introduce more of a jazz flavour to the proceedings as Costello shared the instrumental solos with Rozario’s bowed cello.

The trio’s arrangement of “Whatever Lola Wants” was inspired by a recorded version by Sarah Vaughan. Rozario’s playful vocals were shadowed by Costello’s tenor, with the saxophonist later sharing the instrumental solos with Naylor’s acoustic guitar.

Naylor moved to electric guitar for a performance of his original composition “The Lost Cause”, only the second time that the piece had been played in public. The piece was ushered in by the composer’s guitar arpeggios, these subsequently underpinning the intertwining melody lines of sax and cello, with Rozario and Costello both moving on to deliver individual solos, before converging once more towards the close. This was a notably unselfish performance from Naylor, who was content to play a largely supportive role on his own composition.

The trio’s shared love of Brazilian music found expression in a performance of the Antonio Carlos Jobim song “If You Never Come To Me”, introduced by Rozario solo, singing and playing plucked cello. Naylor joined on electric guitar for a duo episode, with Costello biding his time before making his entrance and delivering a melodic tenor sax solo. Rozario later took up her bow and was the second featured instrumental soloist.

The jazz standard “Come Rain or Come Shine” featured vocals and plucked cello, plus instrumental solos from tenor sax and electric guitar.

Effectively a deserved encore the Jimi Hendrix inspired version of “Let The Good Times Roll” seemed like an unusual choice for what was ostensibly a ‘chamber jazz trio’.  But with Rozario delivering her most powerful vocal of the night and Costello responding in kind on the tenor it succeeded admirably. The sound of Naylor’s acoustic guitar was distorted via an FX pedal during the course of an echo drenched solo, with Rozario fashioning an appropriately raunchy response on bowed cello and vocals.

This was an excellent way to conclude a performance that had clearly delighted the audience and which had featured some excellent singing and playing. Despite the ‘chamber jazz’ instrumentation the music had been lively and vibrant and surprisingly rhythmic, courtesy of Naylor’s guitar and Rozario’s plucked cello. Costello’s love of melody was apparent throughout and his dry and witty presenting style also endeared the trio to the audience, with plenty of banter being exchanged between the trio members and the crowd.

This was a great way to end an exceptional day of film and music with the Costello Trio’s performance representing one of the stand out gigs of the entire Festival.

Costello has recorded with his regular quartet and with the Vertigo group and it would be good if the music of the Perhaps Trio could be captured on disc too. It has to be said that the quality of Rozario’s singing was a real revelation, and her cello playing was superb too. It was also good to see Naylor perform live for the first time. He is a skilled and versatile guitarist who is thoroughly accomplished on both the acoustic and electric versions of his chosen instrument.

As for Costello he is the kind of musician who always delivers the goods, a fluent and imaginative saxophonist and a talented and intelligent composer with a real gift for melody. He’s also a genuinely nice guy and it was good to be able to speak with Julian, Natalie and Patrick after the show.

Now that Brecon Jazz has established a relationship with Costello it is to be hoped that he will be able to return to the town with one of his other projects. I’d love to see a performance from the Vertigo quartet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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