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

EFG LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL 2024

TUESDAY 19th NOVEMBER 2024

NICOLAS MEIER WORLD GROUP, CADOGAN HALL FOYER

Nicolas Meier – guitars, Richard Jones – violin, Alex Hutton – piano, Tom Mason – double bass, Demi Garcia Sabat – drums, percussion

This second event in Cadogan Hall’s popular ‘Round About Two Thirty” series featured a stellar quintet led by the Swiss born, London based guitarist and composer Nicolas Meier.

Meier has played this slot before and is a musician who has accrued a considerable following thanks to his distinctive music and his consistently excellent live performances. Today’s show was officially sold out, with the £5.00 seated tickets quickly being snapped up. I was quite happy to stand for nothing and to enjoy a superb performance from Meier and his aptly named World Group.

Meier is something of a Jazzmann favourite and has appeared on these web pages many times, usually leading his own groups but also as part of a duo with fellow guitarist Pete Oxley. He has also worked with cellist Shirley Smart, bassist Nick Kacal’s Guerilla Sound group, drummer Robert Castelli’s Boom Quartet and the genre hopping quartet Eclectica! He also played on, and produced, the 2018 album release “Across The Bridge”  by the Belgian born vocalist and songwriter Gabrielle Ducomble. Most famously he was part of the band led by the late rock guitar great Jeff Beck.

Meier has long harboured a fascination for the music of the Middle East, inspired by his Turkish wife, Songul, who acts as his muse and also provides the distinctive artwork that has graced the covers of many of Meier’s recordings. Several of these have been reviewed elsewhere on The Jazzmann in addition to a number of live performances, including Meier’s appearance in this same room as part of the 2019 EFG LJF.

As befits its name Meier’s World Group delights taking its listeners on a global musical tour. We began in Brazil with the uplifting sounds of the breezy “Manzanita Samba”, which included solos from Jones on violin, Mason on double bass, Hutton on piano and the leader on guitar. Garcia was featured on percussion and whistle, as if to emphasise the authenticity of the tune’s samba credentials.

It was notable that the Cadogan had installed a ‘proper’ grand piano in the foyer space (aka The Culford Room) and Hutton, a bandleader in his own right and a new addition to the World Group ranks, clearly relished the opportunity to play such a beautiful instrument. This was essentially a free admission gig but the Hall management had clearly gone out of their way to ensure that the music was heard at its best. Well done Cadogan Hall.

“Sessizlik Konusuyor” (translating as “Silence Talks”) was introduced by a gentle dialogue between the leader’s guitar and Sabat’s percussion. Eventually a wistful violin melody emerged, underscored by delicately brushed drums. A series of violin and guitar exchanges followed, with Jones sometimes deploying the pizzicato technique.

From the 2021 triple album “Magnificent” the fast moving, highly rhythmic “Hip” welcomed both Balkan and Oriental elements into the mix and featured a virtuoso violin solo from Jones. Meier made effective use of his range of pedals, his solo fuelled by Sabat’s increasingly dynamic drumming.

“Stories From The Garden” was inspired by a green space in Istanbul and was introduced by a passage of unaccompanied guitar and introduced further Balkan and Middle Eastern flavours. It was a richly evocative performance from Meier and the group and one could almost feel the heat simmering and shimmering, even on a winter’s afternoon in London during the week of the first snowfall of the winter. The excellent Mason was featured on both arco and pizzicato bass and delivered his solo with the bow. Meier’s guitar solo sounded authentically Middle Eastern, while Hutton’s expansive piano solo embraced a flowing lyricism. The piece concluded with an unaccompanied guitar cadenza from the leader.

“Kismet”, the final item of the first set, saw Meier switching to the eleven string glissentar in order to generate an evocative oud like sound. Following an extended unaccompanied glissentar introduction vibrant Middle Eastern rhythms were introduced, culminating in a dazzling drum and percussion feature from Sabat, which brought the first half to a spectacular conclusion.

Set two commenced with an arrangement of “Mambo Influenciado”, written by the Cuban pianist and bandleader Chucho Valdes. This featured authentic Latin rhythms and included solos from Jones on violin, again deploying both arco and pizzicato techniques. Hutton followed at the piano and then Meier on guitar, his solo incorporating a brief unaccompanied episode. There were also features for Mason and Sabat, the latter essentially the Latin American equivalent of ‘trading fours’.

The musical world tour continued with what Meier described as “a trip to the desert” with “Caravan of Anatolia”, which saw the leader conjuring an oud like sound from his six string guitar as he shared the solos with Hutton. The performance was also notable for Sabat’s playing with bare hands of drums and percussion.

The ballad “The Pond” was notable for the melodic soloing of Jones on violin and Mason on double bass. In its latter stages the tune became increasingly anthemic, borne aloft by the sounds of soaring violin. Jones’ contribution throughout the afternoon was exceptional and his tone sublime.

The second set concluded with “Adiguzel”, a tune that Meier described as his “greatest hit”. Dating back to his 2006 album “Orient” it’s been a staple of his set lists ever since, “It starts slow, then gets exciting”, he promised. It was another piece with a strong Middle Eastern influence and incorporated the sound of oud / saz like guitar, and yes the piece did proceed as Meier described.  There were thrilling solos here from Meier, Hutton, Jones and finally Mason on arco bass. A terrific was to conclude today’s ‘musical world tour’ with Meier returning to his spiritual home of Turkey.

A magnificent group performance saw the crowd clamouring for more and the band remained on stage to deliver a version of the song “Mona Lisa”, originally recorded by Meier as a solo guitar piece. An unaccompanied guitar intro alluded to the previous incarnation and was followed by more orthodox jazz solos from Meier, Hutton and Jones.

This really did bring a magnificent afternoon of music making to a close. The Meier Group is consistently reliable live attraction and today’s incarnation delivered an excellent musical performance that sent its audience home happy. My thanks to Nic for speaking with me briefly at the close. Here’s to the next time.

ILL CONSIDERED, THE LOWER THIRD

Idris Rahman – tenor saxophone, flute, Liran Donin – electric bass, Emre Ramazanoglu – drums, percussion
with guest Pete Wareham – tenor saxophone

After a degree of procrastination (EFG LJF throws up too many difficult choices) my selection for the evening event was this performance by the London based trio Ill Considered at The Lower Third, a cocktail bar on Denmark Street, a thoroughfare most famous for its array of musical instrument shops.

The performance was in a basement below the cocktail bar, a venue with a rock club ambience that was well suited to Ill Considered’s blend of high energy, in yer face improvised jazz skronk.

Rahman and Ramazanoglu founded the group with bassist Leon Brichard in 2018 and the regular line up has also included percussionist Satin Singh. Other musicians to have featured on Ill Considered recordings include guitarist Steve Ashmore, percussionist Yahael Camara-Onono and saxophonist Tamar Osborn.
Since its formation Ill Considered has released more than a dozen digital albums (some of which have also been made available on vinyl or cassette),  the majority of these being recorded at their wholly improvised live shows. The energy and intensity of these performances has earned Ill Considered something of a cult following and tonight’s show was pretty much sold out.

Former Led Bib bassist Liran Donin, also the leader of his own 1000 Boats project, joined the band in 2020 and featured on the 2022 release “Liminal Space”, Ill Considered’s first studio album.  He also appears on the more recent studio release “Precipice”, which emerged earlier on in 2024. Both albums appear on the New Soil record label and both are favourably reviewed elsewhere on The Jazzmann.

However the “Liminal Space” album wasn’t my first exposure to Ill Considered’s music. In May 2021 I enjoyed an intense and exciting online performance by the core trio of Rahman, Donin and Ramazanoglu that was streamed as part of the second of Cheltenham Jazz Festival’s all day ‘Jazz Streams’. This featured Donin playing the Japanese instrument  the taishogoto (or Nagoya harp) rather than his usual electric bass. My account of that performance can be found as part of my Festival coverage here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/cheltenham-jazz-festival-jazz-stream-2021-day-two-sunday-may-2nd-2021

Seeing the Cheltenham performance on line certainly whetted my appetite for seeing the band live and helped to tip the balance in their favour. I arrived at the advertised time of 7.30 but had to wait around for an hour or so until the trio finally hit the stage around half past eight. However I was able to secure an excellent vantage point near the merch table that still allowed me to take notes comfortably, despite being in a tightly packed all standing crowd.

By show time there was an air of palpable excitement and it’s fair to say that the members of the trio, plus their illustrious guest, who was to make an appearance later on, didn’t disappoint the expectant crowd.

As mentioned previously Ill Considered’s music is primarily improvised, although it rarely sounds like it, based as it is around spontaneous riffs and grooves. It’s surprisingly accessible and has won the trio a dedicated following, the fans also being drawn in by the band’s uncompromising stance. This is raw, visceral music that packs a considerable punch, jazz improvisation with a punk rock attitude. It’s music that is likely to appeal to fans of such ‘punk jazz’ acts as Led Bib, Sons of Kemet, Acoustic Ladyland and Melt Yourself Down  and tonight’s was a performance that celebrated those links.

Tonight’s performance kicked off with a twenty minute improvisation that saw the trio generating an impressive wall of sound, fronted by the banshee like wail of Rahman’s electrically hooked tenor sax, accompanied by the rumble of bass and drums and doused with a smattering of echo and electronics. Set up onstage in a kind of semi-circle Ill Considered came across like an all conquering triumvirate, the crouching Rahman bellowing ferocious foghorn like blast from his sax to the accompaniment of almost impossibly deep bass and drum grooves. This was music that it was almost impossible not to respond to physically. All around the venue heads were nodding in time to the heavy grooves or responding to the wail of Rahman’s sax. There’s something primal about the sound of a saxophone being used as some kind of weapon, think of David Jackson with Van der Graaf Generator, Ian McDonald with the first edition of King Crimson, the twin altos of Donin’s former band Led Bib,  or the band’s guest Pete Wareham with Acoustic Ladyland and Melt Yourself Down.  Interestingly I’d jotted Wareham’s name down as an influence even before I knew that he was in the house.
Rahman wandered across stage to face Ramazonoglu’s drum kit, his belligerent sax blasting demanding, and receiving a suitably thunderous response from the drummer. Having reached a peak of intensity the music then resolved itself with a gentler fade, with Ramazanoglu temporarily sitting out as Rahman and Donin entered into a tenor sax and electric bass dialogue, then returning to add the sounds of cymbal shimmers and scrapes as this first section eventually ended quietly and atmospherically, with the tension that had been built up in the audience being released in a collective roar of affirmation for what had just been heard.

The next item commenced with an animated tenor sax and drum battle that initially reminded me of Binker and Moses and later of Pete Wareham and Seb Rochford with Acoustic Ladyland. Once Donin’s mighty bass had been added to the equation the music reached the kind of levels of intensity that we used to expect from Led Bib. Even more ferocious than the trio’s opening salvo this was a shorter punk jazz blast, but one that reached blistering levels of intensity.

The third piece was introduced by the combination of bass and drums and featured Rahman on flute, who soloed above a slowly developing groove before switching back to tenor sax, his sound echoed as the music again built to a powerful intensity.

There was to be no let up with the next item, which featured the angry churning of Donin’s fuzz bass, the rumble of Ramazonoglu’s drums and the siren like wail of Rahman’s sax.

The crowd loved it and cheered even more when Rahman announced that there was a guest in the house and that he had brought his horn with him. When he asked ‘Pete’ to come to the stage I just knew it had to be Wareham and sure enough his familiar figure made it’s way through the crowd, tenor in hand. This was a true punk jazz summit as Rahman and Wareham joined forces in a brief twin sax attack, with Donin and Ramazanoglu briefly sitting out.

The final item featured the whole quartet, with Donin establishing a monstrous bass groove that the audience could clap along to as Rahman and Wareham again went toe to toe, although Idris’ bug mic did give him a bit of an unfair advantage in the volume stakes. Nevertheless it was great to see Rahman and Wareham on stage together, blasting out unison riffs, intertwining with a combined punch and trading solos, all the while bolstered by the propulsive grooves laid down by bass and drums. There wasn’t quite the full on pogoing that I’d seen at some Acoustic Ladyland and Melt Yourself gigs back in the day but there was definitely a lot of movement going on in the crowd. Apparently Wareham had stated his intention to come along and see the band and Rahman said to him “bring your horn”. It was a guest appearance that wasn’t advertised and, in the true spirit of Ill Considered, seemed to be pretty much spontaneous.

There was to be no topping this, and given the levels of intensity with which the core trio had played throughout the evening it came as no surprise to find that there was to be no encore. Nevertheless everybody went home happy and business at the merch stall was brisk, always the sign of a successful gig.

After the show I spoke with my long-time friend Liran Donin. The Jazzmann has always been very supportive of Liran’s music with Led Bib, 1000 Boats and now Ill Considered and it’s always good to meet up with him and to see him play. I was also introduced to Fred from New Soil Records who is doing a great service for the UK jazz scene.

I also enjoyed a lengthy conversation with Pete Wareham, who I have spoken with before but never for so long and in such detail. I’ve been following Pete’s music for nearly twenty years, since the glory days of Acoustic Ladyland and Polar Bear and more recently with Melt Yourself Down and consider him to be a bit of a musical hero, so this was the icing on the cake for me. Cheers, Pete and thanks for adding a bit of extra sparkle to what was already a hugely enjoyable gig.

 

 

 

 

 

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