Photograph of Chris Montague by Martin Healey

EFG London Jazz Festival 2015, Thursday 19/11/2015.

CHRIS MONTAGUE -  A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE COOLEST INSTRUMENT IN THE WORLD, RICH MIX

Fancying a change from eating my way through the Pizza Express menu I elected to visit the Rich Mix on the borders of Shoreditch and Bethnal Green for the first time. I was highly impressed by this modern cinema and arts centre run by a not for profit charitable organisation. The venue has been hosting Festival events for a number of years, often featuring artists at the cutting edge of the music and this year’s programme included performances by Sons Of Kemet, Christian Scott and Kairos 4tet among others.

Festival promoters Serious have always been keen to involve local communities in the Festival while also bringing jazz education to a wide audience. Today’s performance saw Troyka guitarist Chris Montague working with children from two local schools (Marner Primary and Columbia Primary)  on a Festival commission. Around twenty children and their teachers, all of them cradling acoustic guitars, formed part of the audience for this event which was co-ordinated by Katrina Duncan and by Louise Dennison, head of learning for the Serious organisation.

The performance began with Montague and his band performing the festival commission with the schoolchildren. The personable Montague explained that he had worked extensively with the children exploring with them the role of the guitar in areas of music including jazz, blues, rock, flamenco and music for film. The tune he had written for the children to play with his group of Conor Chaplin (acoustic and electric bass), Michael L Roberts (keyboards, vocals) and James Maddren (drums) was the infectious and uplifting “Tower Hamlets Boogie” which featured a mass strum along plus brief solos from pupils Stella and Daisy. Montague soloed at greater length and Maddren tapped out a rhythm with his sticks for everyone to clap along to. This was great fun and both the band and the children got a great reception from the audience at this free lunchtime event.

The rest of the performance was given over to Montague’s personal take on “the history of the coolest instrument in the world”, the electric guitar, and its role in popular culture. It was a very professionally presented show that began with Charlie Christian, the first artist to use pick ups on a guitar and transform into an electric instrument. A black and white photograph of Christian, taken in around 1945/6 was projected onto the screen behind the musicians as they played “Seven Come Eleven”, Christian’s most famous composition written in conjunction with his boss, bandleader Benny Goodman. Christian was something of a bebop pioneer as was demonstrated by Montague’s fleet finger work as he soloed agilely above Chaplin’s propulsive double bass lines and Maddren’s brushed drum grooves. Roberts also impressed with his piano solo on an acoustic upright, sandwiching a quote from “Sweet Georgia Brown” into his feature.

Montague explained that the guitar was essentially a cheap instrument despite becoming increasingly commodified following its electrification. Hence it began as a folk instrument, giving rise to , among other genres, the Delta Blues which mutated into the now more familiar electric urban blues with the economic migration of former slaves from the American South to the industrial cities of the North such as Chicago and Detroit. Montague chose T Bone Walker as his next influential guitarist, a musician who inspired those that followed him, among them BB King, Albert King and Chuck Berry. It was Walker who developed the string bend and pioneered the one musician dialogue between voice and guitar. He was also a great showman who influenced both Berry and Jimi Hendrix, it was Walker who first soloed with the guitar held behind his head, a trick Montague replicated here to great audience acclaim as the band played “T Bone Shuffle”. This was also the first opportunity for us to hear Roberts’ soulful and highly credible vocals with the pianist also delivering a rollicking boogie woogie style piano solo. Two of the little girls who had played guitar earlier turned the area in front of the stage into their personal mosh pit as they executed sharply co-ordinated synchronised moves.

Then it was into the 1950s with Chuck Berry adding the influence of country music to his obvious debt to Walker.  This was more familiar territory for most of the audience with Montague almost inevitably selecting “Johnny B Goode” to illustrate Berry’s music. As others have observed Berry was a great story teller with every song a sharply observed vignette. It was left to pianist Roberts to sing the tale of guitar slinging Johnny.

Next up was another familiar figure, the recently departed BB King who further developed Walker’s ideas of string bending and internal guitar/voice dialogue. As Montague explained King used lighter strings, thereby giving his guitar playing an enhanced vocal quality. “Everyday I Have The Blues”was the chosen song with Roberts handling the vocals and Montague the guitar solos.

The images projected behind the band now changed to colour with the advent of Jimi Hendrix. Montague explained that he been aged nine when he first heard a Hendrix record that was part of his Dad’s record collection. I’m probably old enough to be Montague’s father so hearing him say this made me feel very ancient. In any event it was the catalyst that led to Montague taking up the guitar, something for which the UK’s music fans should be very grateful.

Montague explained that Hendrix was the sum of all the influences we had heard to date plus those of 60s pop, soul and psychedelia. Due to Hendrix’s enormous influence upon him and also due in part to the quality of Hendrix’s ballad writing, an underrated aspect of his talent in Montague’s opinion, we were treated to two illustrations of Hendrix’s talents as “Purple Haze” was fused with “Little Wing”.
Chaplin switched to electric bass and really slammed out the frequencies as Roberts moved to Nord electric keyboard and also demonstrated his fine blues voice. A beaming Maddren (he’d had a grin on his face almost throughout) rattled the tubs with an obvious relish as Montague shredded his axe on “Purple Haze”, only throttling back as the music entered the second half of the segue. Montague had worried that the high decibel sound of Hendrix might frighten some of his young charges but they all seemed to love it. The two little girls danced on.

It was time to up the wattage even further with a brief foray into the world of heavy metal with Eddie Van Halen getting the nod over Page, Iommi, Blackmore etc. It was Van Halen’s innovative tapping method that excited Montague who chose the Van Halen tune “Ain’t Talking About Love” to illustrate Eddie’s methodology. It was left to Roberts to emulate lead yelper David van Roth but he stayed resolutely behind his keyboard and resisted the temptation to perform any centre stage histrionics.

This being a jazz festival Montague decided to finish by paying tribute to a man who is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading contemporary jazz guitarists. John Scofield narrowly got the nod over John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell, largely because with his obvious blues influences Sco’s music is more of a direct descendant of the artists already featured and puts all of their influences into a jazz context. “Green Tea” featured electric bass with Chaplin turning in a melodic Steve Swallow style bass solo while Roberts deployed an organ sound on his Nord. Montague’s own fluent, blues tinged guitar solo was a fine interpretation of the Scofield sound. Still dancing joyfully the two mini moshers mimed pouring and drinking cups of tea throughout. Sweet.

I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed all of this. After some of the heavy duty jazz I’d heard in the previous few days it was good to get a shot of good, honest, old fashioned blues and rock ‘n’ roll. Some of these might have been songs that are routinely played by bands at the local pub but it would be unusual for you to hear them played by musicians of this quality.

I suspect that the band loved it too, I spoke briefly to James Maddren afterwards who explained that he’s always played jazz (Maddren was something of a child prodigy) and never served an apprenticeship in a blues or rock band and that he’d really enjoyed having a bit of a bash on these tunes. For Montague I suspect that many of these songs are wired into his musical DNA but that after wrestling with the complexities of Troyka’s music it was probably highly invigorating to play them again.

This had all been a highly worthwhile exercise with children, parents, musicians and audience members alike all enjoying and learning from the musical experience presented by Montague and his colleagues.

In 2013 The Jazzmann was possibly the only journalist to report on percussionist Adriano Adewale’s family show “Catapluf’s Musical Journey”, a lunchtime performance that also featured an audience of children from local primary schools. Adewale’s child and family friendly show has since been presented at the Cheltenham and Brecon Jazz Festivals as well as returning to EFG LJF again this year. I’d like to think my review may have contributed something to its success and I can envisage much the same happening for Montague with this show, should he decide to take the project further.

Rich Mix has its own Indian restaurant, Indi-go attached to the venue and after the performance my wife and I enjoyed a meal there. It made a nice change from pizza.

DAVID VIRELLES’ MBOKO, HALL ONE, KINGS PLACE

I first became aware of the playing of the young Cuban born pianist David Virelles at the 2012 London Jazz Festival when he was part of saxophonist Ravi Coltrane’s Quartet that played at Ronnie Scott’s. Virelles also appeared with Coltrane at the 2013 Cheltenham Jazz Festival and I also enjoyed his contribution on record, playing prepared piano and harmonium, to saxophonist Chris Potter’s ECM album “The Sirens”, also from 2013. Virelles has also worked with saxophonist Steve Coleman and trumpeter Tomasz Stanko and has studied composition with Henry Threadgill.

Virelles’ superb contributions to the two Coltrane concerts ensured that I was keen to see him leading his own band at this performance at Kings Place, an event being recorded by BBC Radio for future transmission on the programme Jazz on 3.

My appetite had also been whetted by the release in late 2014 of Virelles’ leadership début for ECM Records, the album “Mboko” which formed the basis for tonight’s performance. Virelles is now based in Brooklyn and the album featured a stellar cast of American musicians including twin bassists Thomas Morgan and Robert Hurst plus kit drummer Marcus Gilmore. However the album is based around Cuban ritual music and the record also features Roman Diaz on vocals and biankomeko, a four drum percussive ensemble also incorporating the ekon (metal bell), erikundi (shakers) and itones (wooden sticks). The only reason the album didn’t get a full and positive review on these web pages is due to the site’s largely British focus.

Diaz was the only member of the album line up to appear at Kings Place but it was still an impressive line up with Vicente Archer on double bass and the always impressive Gerald Cleaver at the drums. The performance was introduced by Jazz on 3 presenter Jez Nelson and the concert is due to be broadcast at 11.00 pm on Monday December 14th 2015.

Virelles himself was to say little until the end of a single set performance in which the quartet appeared to play their way through the entire album, which is, in any case, presented almost like a suite. 

Central to the music on the album is the constantly evolving dialogue between Virelles on piano and Diaz on biankomeko, particularly the largest drum of the ensemble, the bonko enchemiya drum.  It is this more than other instrument that tells the story of the Abakua, the Cuban magic/religious male initiation society based on a West African ethno-linguistic identity and famed for its emblematic masked dance performances. “Mboko”, a word meaning “The Divine Voice” in the Abakua culture, is Virelles’ second recording based on explorations of Cuban ritual music following the acclaimed “Continuum” which was released on Pi Records in 2012.

While the interplay between Virelles and Diaz on the album is thoroughly absorbing I found it more difficult to become so fully involved here. In live performance the focus of the conversation moved away from the biankomeko and placed more of an emphasis on Diaz’s singing , not a move that was geared to appeal to somebody who openly admits to preferring instrumental jazz to the vocal variety. The music was substantially different to the album and to my mind didn’t work anywhere near as well.  Archer seemed somewhat distant from the rest of the performers and didn’t seem to get involved too much, perhaps not so surprising considering the role of the two basses on the album where they are used to create a musical drone similar to that produced by a variety of string instruments in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. However I was very impressed by the bright and imaginative kit drumming of Cleaver who complemented Diaz very well while simultaneously bringing plenty of himself to the table.

Virelles himself played with a quiet intensity introducing the performance with a passage of solo piano before he was joined by Archer’s economic bass and Cleaver’s cymbal filigree. The music continued to evolve organically with the addition of Diaz’s shakers and Spanish language vocals. A percussive passage underscored by droning arco bass seemed to represent some kind of invocation and a subsequent solo percussion feature drew a smattering of spontaneous applause from the audience. Virelles’ own solo was highly percussive and led to a closing passage for voice, percussion and kit drums that seemed to signal the end of the first movement.

Archer put down the double bass and picked up a ukulele like instrument for the second phase of the performance, its four low tuned strings still fulfilling the bass role. Virelles’ opening solo was this time initially more reflective and was subtly underpinned by the undulating rhythms of biankomeko and kit drums before becoming more expansive and building to a climax. Archer moved back to double bass as lyrical piano passages were punctuated by the voice and percussion of Diaz before the music began to build again with Virelle’s feverish, highly rhythmic and percussive piano locking in with bass, drums and percussion to create a matrix of hypnotic rhythms invoking images of deep seated primal rituals and perhaps those masked dance performances.

Virelles now acknowledged the applause and name-checked the band before the ensemble played a brief but lyrical encore with the focus still very much on Virelles’ piano playing and Diaz’s percussion and vocals.

John Fordham was clearly impressed with the performance and gave it a four star review in the Guardian. For myself I found it ultimately underwhelming despite the obvious technical prowess of Virelles and for me the live experience was ultimately less satisfying than the album. Yes, there were fireworks at times, particularly towards the end of the second segment but I still felt that a vital spark was somehow missing. I suspect that this was a view that others might have shared. The queue for CD sales after the performance was somewhat sparse in comparison to some of the other Festival events that I had attended. It will be interesting to hear what the music sounds like when it is broadcast on Radio 3 and whether I may be forced to revise my opinion.

It could be that the venue itself was part of the problem, it was far from sold out and the audience atmosphere was somewhat muted in much the same way as it had been when Henri Texier’s group played the same room a few years back. There’s something austere about Hall One at Kings Place and overall I find I prefer the more intimate atmosphere of Hall Two, despite the lack of raked seating. I’ve seen some great gigs at Hall Two over the years including the recent performance by Daniel Herskedal at this year’s Festival.

To be honest if I’d had my time again I would have opted for the duo featuring Czech musicians Emile Viklicky (piano) and ex Weather Report bassist Miroslav Vitous at Milton Court. Interestingly Hall One and Milton Court are very similar in design but its probably fair to say that during this Festival I felt much more at home at the latter. 

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