Friday at Brecon Jazz , 09/08/2013.

Photograph of Nils Petter Molvaer sourced from http://www.breconjazz.com

I’m just back from a highly enjoyable and successful Brecon Jazz, the festival having been administered for the second time by the Cardiff based Orchard Media Group headed by Pablo Janczur. The 2013 festival built upon the successes of 2012 deploying five concert venues (Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon Cathedral, The Guildhall, the Market Hall and the Castle Hotel ) and also programming a limited amount of street music including an appearance by the popular South Wales based community band Wonderbrass.

With Sunday afternoon and evening at The Guildhall being given over entirely to events promoted by Welsh Jazz Clubs in partnership with the festival there were continuing signs that the festival was making an attempt to return to its roots. Running alongside this strand was a series of performances featuring artist in residence Huw Warren under the banner “Worldwide Wales” which saw Warren collaborating with Italian vocalist Maria Pia de Vito (“Wales meets Naples”) and with the extraordinary American drummer Jim Black (“Wales Meets Brooklyn”). The Warren/Black performance proved to be one of the stand out gigs of the festival and there will be more about that in my Sunday coverage.

During the course of the weekend I managed to visit all five concert venues and saw some absolutely terrific music. Attendances were in the main very good and the audiences attentive and enthusiastic. With the well established Fringe Festival also hosting events throughout the town that old “Brecon Buzz” was back again with music seeming to flow from every corner. Ideal weather was a big plus, no rain but not stiflingly hot either, and in these sort of conditions I found it highly pleasurable to move between concert venues soaking up something of the atmosphere along the way. The concentration of the main festival in a series of marquees on the edge of town under the previous regime had robbed Brecon of much of its soul, for me this is a now a festival that’s got its Mojo working again. 

Festival life throws up difficult choices, it’s simply not possible to attend every gig you might like to see and decisions have to be made. I opted to pass on two perennial favourites in Zoe Rahman and Gilad Atzmon, both of whom I will be seeing again in the next couple of months anyway, and instead decided to see two other musicians who consistently push at the boundaries of jazz albeit in very different ways. At one end of the scale was the introspective Nordic cool of Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer and at the other the crowd pleasing populism of British saxophonist Courtney Pine. Both are musicians who fascinate and frustrate in equal measure, Molvaer was instrumental in merging the boundaries of jazz and electronica virtually inventing the nu jazz genre with his ground-breaking 1997 ECM release “Khmer” but for me his soundscapes have too often hovered rather too close to the bland and soporific.

Pine, by way of contrast is a brilliant technician and a great populariser of the music but too often the showmanship gets in the way of the content.  Having said that I’ve seen him perform some brilliant shows, his closing set at the Mostly Jazz Festival in Birmingham in 2010 with a band including Zoe Rahman got the mix of music and showmanship spot on. Years earlier I saw him play in an orthodox quartet setting fronting a trio of Americans including pianist Geri Allen and drummer Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts and he looked a world class soloist. At the other end of the quality control scale was a dismal cod reggae performance at an earlier Brecon with virtually zero jazz content as I recall. Another Birmingham performance, this time in the more formal setting of the Town Hall with the line up that made the “Afropeans” album, one of his most satisfying recordings of recent years, didn’t quite live up to the promise of the album and was thus somewhere between these two extremes.

NILS PETTER MOLVAER WITH BIOSPHERE

At Brecon I started at the Theatr Brycheiniog with Molvaer. My only previous sightings of him in a live context have been with the Norwegian in a sideman role, the first time way back in the 80’s when the then young trumpeter was a member of bassist Arild Andersen?s Masqualero group, the second at a rather disappointing performance by British drummer Martin France’s Spin Marvel outfit at the 2011 Cheltenham Jazz Festival in a line up that also included a guest appearance from former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. 

Molvaer had originally been scheduled to appear at Brecon leading a trio but the billing was changed and he now performed alongside the electronics artist Geir Jenssen who records under the name of Biosphere. Molvaer and Jenssen have collaborated before but today’s concert was the first UK live appearance by the duo.

A dimly lit Theatr stage contained two tables laden with electronics with each performer making use of a laptop. Jenssen also had a small sample keyboard and various other electronic gizmos whilst Molvaer’s trumpet set up also incorporated an array of foot pedals.

The duo delivered an unbroken seventy five minute set which I assume consisted purely of fully improvised material, rather in the manner of Food ( drummer Thomas Stronen and saxophonist Iain Ballamy) or Molvaer’s compatriot and fellow trumpeter Arve Henriksen. Visuals were also an important part of the presentation with Molvaer thanking both the off stage sound engineer and the person responsible for the light show at the end of the concert (Norwegian names that I couldn’t quite decipher, sorry). The acknowledgement was fully justified, the visuals seemed to be “played” in time to the music and were an integral part of the whole experience, let’s face it the sight of two middle aged blokes fiddling about with computers isn’t the most exciting of spectacles. The visuals were as ambient as the music with Molvaer and Jenssen silhouetted against the consistently evolving backdrop.

And so to the music, the lonely cry or breathy whisper of Molvaer’s trumpet a vital human element in the swirls and sheets of electronic sounds.  Jenssen and Molvaer began with the electronically generated sounds of surf, rushing winds and synthesised strings above which Molvaer blew long, slow, atmospheric trumpet lines making effective use of breath and space like a 21st Century sci fi descendant of Miles Davis.

Glitchy passages of solo electronics invoked the sound of dripping water as the light show began to evolve, progressing from unpromising early images of musical staves to embrace Doric columns, vague, shadowy human figures and nebulous orange swirls reminiscent first of fire and then the convolutions of a lava lamp. 

Meanwhile Molvaer sang into the bell of his trumpet, looping the sound to create a kind of surreal choral effect before blowing more forcefully above the sound of Jenssen’s electronically generated seagull shrieks as the music gathered momentum, Molvaer’s trumpet sound becoming increasingly distorted. However in this constantly evolving aural landscape the rough edges were gradually planed off with Molvaer subsequently returning to the archetypal clear and frosty sound that distinguishes so much contemporary Nordic music.

Jenssen’s triggering of a more orthodox electronic pulse more commonly associated with rock or dance music drew a a visual response in the form of lightning flashes. As Molvaer blew above electronically generated rhythms and soundscapes, sometimes mimicking the doppler effect it seemed as if we’d entered a world where Kind Of Blue had somehow melded into the music of Kraftwerk.

Meanwhile the visuals now incorporated amorphous real time images of the musicians themselves interspersed with moving lines variously evoking ice cracks or city lights as Molvaer adopted a flute like tone sometimes reminiscent of his compatriot and sometime label mate Henriksen. His lines were electronically answered by Jenssen in a series of exchanges that eventually led to the sound artist generating an evil electronic pulse that drew a response of powerful multi tracked trumpet lines as Molvaer looped and layered himself as the music built to a climax, the projected images of the musicians gradually becoming a little clearer as both the aural and visual aspects of the performance resolved themselves.

At the end Molvaer succinctly thanked his collaborators and the duo exited to the sound of appreciative if not exactly rapturous applause from a less than capacity audience. The stalls were reasonably full but there was hardly anybody upstairs. Thankfully this was the only relatively poorly attended event I witnessed over the weekend. The early start (6.00 pm ) was probably a factor as many fans had yet to reach town. The line up change may also have been significant and the ticket price of ?22.50 also ensured that this was one of the more expensive events of the weekend.

As for the music it was the familiar Molvaer mix of being intriguing one minute but frankly rather dull the next. There were certainly longueurs here but the light show helped to retain the interest albeit to the extent that the musicians themselves were such shadowy figures that it was difficult to see what they were doing or to study their techniques. However this seems to be how Molvaer likes to present his performances, shades of Kraftwerk again here. Photographer Tim Dickeson later told me that every shot he’s ever taken of Molvaer has been in silhouette!

So for me the jury is still out. This was certainly an interesting performance but ultimately it was eclipsed by others over the course of the weekend. As an example of electro jazz soundscaping/improvising I didn’t find it as convincing as Food’s performances at the 2010 Cheltenham and 2011 Harmonic (Birmingham) Festivals or indeed Henriksen’s collaboration with Midlands based sound artists Dreams Of Tall Buildings, also at Harmonic.   

COURTNEY PINE PRESENTS HOUSE OF LEGENDS

I’ve discussed my troubled personal history with Courtney above and although his approach is totally different to that of Molvaer I came away from this gig with very similar reservations. What united these two very different shows in my mind was the feeling that in each case I’d witnessed an event that was a triumph of style over substance. 

Pine’s s 2012 album “House Of Legends” was celebration of the music of the Caribbean taking in Latin and Cuban music as well as calypso, ska and reggae. Pine has been touring the album for a while and tonight’s band featured several members of his regular quintet, among them Samuel Dubois on steel pans, Robert Fordjour on drums and Vidal Montgomery on electric stand up stick bass. Regular guitarist Cameron Pierre was replaced by Chris Cobbson (although I believe some gigs have featured the pair working in tandem) and the group was augmented by Cuban born percussionist Oscar Martinez.

Last time I saw Pine at Moseley in 2010 his preferred mode of expression was bass clarinet but for this project his instrument of choice is the soprano saxophone augmented on occasions by a remarkably versatile new generation EWI. In total contrast to the brooding introspection of Molvaer this was a high energy show that most in a packed Market Hall seemed to enjoy, at least initially. Pine wasted no time in demonstrating his technical abilities with some dazzling high speed soloing that juxtaposed playful quotes (“Whistle While You Work”, “Pop Goes The Weasel”), high register bat like squeaks and virtuoso but ultimately empty displays of his circular breathing technique. It was loud and brash with the group playing at rock band volume, drummer Robert Fordjour seemed particularly unhappy with the muddiness of the sound.

For all his volubility Pine wasn’t big on actual tune announcements and although some of the pieces were naggingly familiar I’m not going to make a fool of myself by guessing at them. It hardly seemed to matter anyway as this was music for the feet as much as for the head.

Mixing jazz, reggae, calypso and numerous other styles there were also inspired solos from Dubois and Cobbson with the guitarist’s spiralling melodic inventions encompassing African as well as Caribbean elements. It was noticeable how similar his timbre sometimes was to that of Dubois’ pans. Most solos were presaged by a series of exchanges with Pine before the featured soloist took off. Pines’ habit of fist punching his prot?g?s at the conclusion of their solos looked contrived and ultimately became irritating.
 
Pine brought out the EWI for a version of “Body And Soul” as you’ve never heard it before. The new generation of EWIs seem to be far more versatile than their 70’s and 80’s counterparts, capable of sounding vaguely like a tenor sax or clarinet as well as the more familiar synthetic sound of yore. Pine also uses his to indulge in a spot of beat boxing, to blow overtones, and to produce stunning low register notes with a set of foot pedals extending the sound still further. I still can’t decide whether this take on “Body And Soul” was a brilliant transformation/updating or a grotesque novelty. It’s quite possible that it may even have been both.

Fordjour and Martinez distinguished themselves with their solo contributions. The Cuban is a mean conganista who also plays a number of other percussive instruments and Fordjour is a prodigiously precise and powerful kit drummer. They provided commendable rhythmic drive all night causing a small knot of dancers to congregate at the back of the all seater hall (maybe they should have taken some of the chairs out, it was that kind of gig).

But for all the excellence of his well drilled sidemen this was essentially Pine’s show. For me he talked rather too much, bigging up the festival but in a way that sounded less spontaneous than similar comments from other performers over the course of the weekend. Then there was the call and response thing with the audience singing back his melody lines, the hands in the air, and the “jumping for joy”,  the same showman shtick that he’s been peddling for several years now and far too close to the worlds of showbiz and arena rock for my tastes. By the end he’d pursued this line too far, talking too much and ultimately alienating the audience. At one point he had them all eating out of his hand, but by the end of an overly long show many had left.

As for the musical content there were inspired moments from all the musicians and some brilliant soloing. The most cogent statements came from Cobbson and Dubois, Pine’s own set pieces too often descended into novelty with more daft quotes on the soprano and adopting the sound of bagpipes on the EWI (he even played “Amazing Grace” for goodness sake!).

So in summation a bit of a curate’s egg, typical Pine in other words. His shows are bright and flashy and superficially pleasing and his technical prowess is never in question. For me he doesn’t always apply his prodigious gifts to their best advantage, for all the surface glitter there’s very little variation of pace or emotional depth in his music. Even the show’s only ballad “Body And Soul” was a curiosity rather than an emotional experience.  Tonight’s show was ultimately rather empty and although he’s habitually run foul of the Jazz Police there were signs tonight that the broader audience were showing signs of disillusionment too. For all this performance’s early successes it went on far too long with too much verbiage and too much vacuous virtuosity.

Pine remains a frustrating, sometimes perplexing artist. Like Peter Bacon of The Jazz Breakfast I can’t help feeling that there’s a shallowness about him that sometimes detracts from his very real achievements. The guy is the only contemporary jazz musician that the man in the street has heard of and he’s got a CBE and an OBE so he must be doing something right. Tonight I felt he underestimated his audience and was merely going through the motions -  Brecon’s discerning fan base demands rather more than this.

Don’t get me wrong , there was plenty to enjoy about both these events but their shortcomings were to be thrown into sharp relief by some of the other music I saw over the course of the weekend, some of it quite brilliant.

If Pine and Molvaer sometimes find themselves on the Jazz Police wanted list then perhaps the couple of numbers I heard by the Dominic Norcross Quartet in the tent in the grounds of the Castle Hotel would have appealed more to the purists. I’ve reviewed Dominic at a show at Black Mountain Jazz in Abergavenny and thoroughly enjoy his playing. The West Walian tenor saxophonist was leading his group (guitar, bass, drums) in a free performance as part of the Brecon Fringe.  I caught the standards “Beautiful Love” and “Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me”, the latter given an enjoyable bluesy treatment, Norcross also works extensively in the worlds of blues and rock. Things appeared to be about to take a Latin turn when I had to leave to head off to the Market Hall. Nevertheless this little reminder of Norcross’ talent came as a welcome bonus addition to the official concert programme. 

Overall then an enjoyable (it’s always good to be back at Brecon) if flawed first evening. There was so much better stuff to come. Watch this space. 

Ian’s Star Ratings;

Nils Petter Molvaer 3 stars

Courtney Pine 3 Stars

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