Photo of Jasper Hoiby (Kairos 4tet and Phronesis) courtesy of Tim Dickeson

Friday at Brecon Jazz Festival ,06/08/2010

Now its second year under the custodianship of Hay Festivals Brecon took further strides towards re-establishing itself as one of the premier festivals on the UK jazz scene.

2009 was a hastily flung together affair with Hay picking up the pieces following the demise, after twenty five years, of the previous administration. Last year’s festival was far more enjoyable and successful than anyone had a right to expect and there was some excellent music to be heard. For 2010 the programming policy was more adventurous and eclectic and re-introduced some of the variety that Brecon Jazz has long been famous for. Yes, there were the big grossing names such as Hugh Masekela and Buena Vista Social Club but there was also a dazzling display of some of the brightest young stars of British jazz including the Mercury Music Prize nominated Kit Downes Trio. A word of praise here for Sarah Dennehy, the Programme Director and for Elaine Madden of Small Planet Music who was also involved in the booking of many of the festival artists.

This year the focus of the festival had moved away from Theatr Brycheiniog (although the comfortable main auditorium remained a major venue) to the grounds of Christ College and to the Cathedral. Two marquee stages were erected in the College grounds as the organisers attempted to reproduce something of the “tented village” feel of the Hay Literature Festival at Brecon. The Cathedral Close was also utilised for the first time with fringe stages and food commissions set up in the leafy Cathedral grounds. In the main these innovations worked well and kept the jazz fans away from some of the alcoholic excesses of the town centre.

Hay supremo Peter Florence has announced his intention to change the drinking culture that has grown up around the festival. With the accompanying Fringe Festival now bigger than ever before that clearly isn’t going to happen- there seemed to be a blues or covers band in every pub- and I’m not entirely convinced that the creation of a “them and us” policy is entirely healthy. I still miss the way the old festival seemed to take over the whole town and although I’ve always concentrated on the “serious jazz” I’ve always enjoyed the variety offered by the Fringe and Street events and the way you could dip into those between the heavy stuff. I was coming to Brecon as a fan long before I ever started writing and I’ve never experienced any problems although I do know some jazz fans who find walking through the town centre at night to be somewhat uncomfortable. Debate aside the most important thing is that Brecon still has a jazz festival and long may it continue. 

Another plus about Brecon in its new format is the reasonable pricing policy. Many tickets were priced at ?10.00 or less and it was possible to see a glittering array of talent for a very modest outlay. Buena Vista and Hugh Masekela were eye wateringly expensive but if these events helped to subsidise some of the other items on the programme I have no problem with that. With over fifty events to choose from there was pretty much something for everybody and virtually every concert I saw was very well attended. I’ve read that the books balanced and I’m already looking forward to seeing what the organisers have to offer next year.

On then, with the music. On Friday evening I resisted the temptation to just go and see a lot of old favourites. The Dave Stapleton Quintet, Neil Cowley Trio and Get The Blessing have all been covered extensively elsewhere on this site, so I looked for things I hadn’t seen before in an attempt to keep the writing fresh. And anyway, isn’t jazz meant to be the “sound of surprise”?  I did hear Dave Stapleton briefly as I stopped to pick up my tickets, the sound of his punchy, groove orientated quintet was clearly audible through the walls of the Christ College Stage. I made up for missing his gig by patronising his Edition Records shop in the college grounds, part of the “tented village” complex.

HAKON KORNSTAD

Instead I started my musical odyssey at the Cathedral with a solo performance by the Norwegian saxophonist Hakon Kornstad. In December last year I reviewed Kornstad’s remarkable album “Dwell Time” upon which this performance was based. The record is a “solo album” in the literal sense with Kornstad using live looping effects to create layers of sound and gentle, hypnotic rhythms. Largely improvised, the album was recorded at the Sofienberg Church in Oslo and Kornstad is obviously comfortable with performing in sacred spaces. The sounds he produced at Brecon Cathedral were truly beautiful and ideally suited to the ecclesiastical setting.

The concert was introduced by the Dean of the Cathedral who proved to be one of the weekend’s characters. He introduced the Cathedral’s series of nine concerts in a variety of decidedly non- ecclesiastical head gear including a top hat , an eyebrow raising pink Stetson and, so I’m told, a bush hat for the Australian guitar trio Chadwick/Linnik/Sond.

“Dwell Time” was sent to me directly from Kornstad’s record label, the innovative Jazzland based in the capital, Oslo. I’m not sure how widely available it is in the UK but it has been played on Radio 3’s “Late Junction”. In any event people seemed to have become aware of Kornstad’s music and most of the available seating was taken.

Kornstad began the first of his six pieces/improvisations on tenor saxophone, his tone initially breathy and making use of overblowing as he patiently began looping and layering sounds to form his trademark sonic backdrop. He deployed a variety of techniques to add rhythm to his pieces-slap tonguing, manipulation of the saxophone’s keys and pads, and simple use of the body of the instrument as percussion. Slowly his unique sound began to fill the building and once he’d established a background that was to his liking he blew some surprisingly straight-ahead phrasing above his self created backing, a reflection perhaps of his early involvement with funk and soul bands. Kornstad’s music invites comparisons with Jan Garbarek, the godfather of the fertile Norwegian jazz scene, another musician who like to play in churches. Another point of reference is Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen who also gives one man shows that make use of electronics and vocal effects. Henriksen made a successful appearance at the 2009 Hay Festival which may have contributed to the hiring of Kornstad for Brecon.

Before the second piece Kornstad introduced us to his loop machine, a very basic, early model with, as Kornstad put it, the “memory of a goldfish”, meaning that it had to be cleared after every performance. The emphasis here was that there was nothing pre-recorded, all the looping, layering and other sonic artistry was being done in real time-before our very eyes, so to speak. The second piece thus saw Kornstad creating his own bass line for “Oslo”, probably the most accessible piece on the “Dwell Time” album and one that I’ve heard played on “late Junction”.

For his third piece Kornstad eschewed the use of electronics altogether. Nevertheless this solo saxophone piece still had a surprisingly rich sound courtesy of Kornstad’s remarkable overblowing technique, his use again of the body of the instrument as a sound source plus the benefit of close miking. The tune he chose to play was “Sweden” from his previous album “Single Engine”, which seemed to be based on an old folk melody.

Next Kornstad unveiled what I took to be the mysterious “flutonette” which appears on the credits of both the “Single Engine” and “Dwell Time” albums. The instrument appears to be able to double as a soprano sax/clarinet and a flute by a simple change of mouthpiece. Here Kornstad initially deployed the instrument as a soprano, looping and layering the vaguely Middle Eastern sounds in his trademark manner. Later he detached the mouthpiece from the body of the instrument to produce high pitched, ocarina like sounds which he added to the sonic backdrop, later adding wordless vocals and concluding the piece with simple whistling.

The next piece was surprisingly straight ahead with tenor sax blown above a percussive backdrop derived from key and pad manipulation. Did I even hear a snatch of Gershwin’s “Summertime” in there? Later the piece took a darker turn as Kornstad eerily slowed down the loop and further manipulated his self generated sounds.

The final item began with flutonette, this time deployed as a flute as Kornstad coaxed Roland Kirk like vocal and percussive effects from the instrument, subsequently looping and layering these. He then picked up a type of thumb piano ( an mbira I think) to produce ethereally tinkling sounds against the breathy backwash. A switch to tenor brought some full blooded, but not confrontational, blowing over skittering looped phrases to end on a surprisingly powerful note.

The audience were hugely appreciative and Kornstad actually came back for an encore deploying tenor sax, loops and wordless vocals to produce an anthemic, almost tribal, finale. This was probably the closest he came to Henriksen’s approach and the piece was effective in it’s simplicity and surprisingly earthy power.

I was hugely impressed by Kornstad. I like the album but I wasn’t at all sure how it would translate into a live situation. As it was Kornstad’s sound seemed to fill the Cathedral, this was music that was perfectly suited to the performance space. Nevertheless it was still a considerable feat for one man to hold an audience spellbound for over an hour with little more than a saxophone and a primitive loop machine.

Kornstad’s blend of improvisation is uncommonly melodic and laid back but it does need concentration on behalf of the listener to get the best out of it. I suspect that serious free improv fans like my co-writer Tim Owen might dismiss Kornstad’s music as bland but that’s not an opinion I’d necessarily subscribe to. Kornstad’s music may have helped to provide a stepping stone for some of tonight’s listeners enabling them to venture further into choppier improvisational waters.

In any case this was a marvellous event in itself, absorbing and engrossing and a delightful way to start the festival weekend.

TRIO OF OZ

A change of location and a total change of emphasis as I walked down to the Market Hall for Trio Of Oz, a heavyweight piano trio featuring pianist Rachel Z, former Weather Report drummer Omar Hakim and Maeve Royce on upright electric bass.

Kornstad had been about subtlety, slowly unfolding development and general understatement, Trio Of Oz were just the opposite. There was plenty of smoke and mirrors and a high degree of technical skill but whereas Kornstad’s quiet music evoked an emotional response borne of meditative stillness this dazzling, showy display left me totally unmoved. Sure, there was much to admire from a technical point of view but a lack of real light and shade denied precluded any genuine emotional involvement.

This was disappointing as Hakim was a player I’d been particularly keen to see. I’ve always admired his work with Weather Report but never did get to see the band back in the day. From a technical point of view he was every bit as good as I was expecting and this applied to Rachel Z too, but something fundamental was still missing.

The real problem was the Trio’s choice of material. Trio Of Oz is a project that involves the use of rock and pop songs as source material. However the Trio don’t go for the cerebral deconstruction approach of a Brad Mehldau, they’re more into the hammer and tongs MO of the Bad Plus. And thereby lies much of the problem, The Bad Plus have pretty much done all this already and at least have the grace to bring some of their own tunes to the party.

Hakim describes the Trio Of Oz project as taking rock songs and turning them into “little jazz excursions”,  which I guess sums up their approach quite well. Several of the melodies are quite heavily disguised and the playing, particularly by Z and Hakim is frequently dazzling. “Angry Chair” by Alice In Chains featured Hakim’s fluid, polyrhythmic drumming and a solo from Z full of agile right hand runs and thunderous left hand block chords. She even threw in a quote from Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme”.

“Sour Girl” by Stone Temple Pilots was driven by Z’s vicious piano hook and Hakim’s rock rhythms.  The Trio added jazz harmonies to these core components as they stretched out, culminating in a thunderous drum feature from Hakim which proved to be just a warm up for some even more dazzling pyrotechnics later on.

“King Of Pain” by Hakim’s former boss Sting slowed things down a little with Z’s solo piano intro particularly pretty and beguiling. Essentially this was the only ballad performance of the set and the playing was frequently beautiful. The set needed at least one other piece of this nature to give it some kind of balance and to be fair New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle”, heard later did come close.

Z once worked with saxophonist Wayne Shorter and his “E.S.P.” represented the only orthodox “jazz” number of the set with Z soloing in sparkling fashion above genuine jazz rhythms. Following a feature from Royce on electric four string stand up bass the way was clear for Hakim to embark on an epic drum solo that had jaws all around the hall dropping with amazement. It was well structured, technically brilliant, physically draining and very exciting. I’m not a lover of drum solos these days but there’s no denying that this alone was worth the price admission for many. It was certainly the most memorable moment of the set.

Elsewhere we heard “Det Tar Tid” by the Norwegian group Dungen, Coldplay’s “Lost”, Depeche Mode’s “In Your Room” and most bizarrely a jazz version of The Smith’s “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” introduced by Z as being by “a dude called Morrissey”. The Smiths tune was anchored by Z’s statement of the melody but also featured extensive improvisation. It was radically different to the “folk” version of the tune I’d seen by Ade Edmondson’s Bad Shepherds group in Hereford a couple of weeks before, which in it’s turn was radically different again to The Smiths’ original. Interesting.

The Trio’s showbiz tendencies, apparent throughout, came to a head when they had the crowd clapping along to Stevie Wonder’s “Ain’t No Sunshine”. I guess in somewhere as big as The Market Hall you have to project and get the audience involved. The video screens, which were being used for the second year were also a big help in this regard. If you were sitting a long way back they were enormously beneficial, helping to give a feeling of inclusiveness and highlighting a lot of musical detail that might otherwise be missed. They’re a relatively new and very welcome innovation and the Hay team are to be congratulated upon their introduction.

Trio Of Oz went down a storm and had lengthy queues lining up to by the album afterwards. As far as I’m concerned the jury’s still out . I found them skilful and clever but ultimately unconvincing and a bit too “in your face” for real jazz. I don’t usually like to comment on performers’ appearances but if Z and Royce want to be taken seriously as musicians maybe they should stop wearing clothes that make them look as if they’re about to go out on the lash in the streets of Brecon after the show. Our own Zoe Rahman always looks far more elegant. So much for New Yorkers having style.

Having said that I’d like to hear the album, there was certainly plenty of interesting stuff going on up there and it may well turn out to be a grower.  As it is I was dazzled, but generally unmoved.

KAIROS 4TET

Finally to the Theatr for the late night performance by the Kairos 4tet. The group’s lyrical but subtly adventurous album “Kairos Moment” is one of my favourites of 2010. I had caught the group once before, at a successful “Rush Hour Blues” performance in the foyer of Birmingham’s Symphony Hall.

Since then there has been a change in the piano chair with Rob Barron being replaced by the increasingly ubiquitous Ivo Neame. I’m a great admirer of Neame’s playing and was surprised to find that his arrival has, as yet, had little discernible impact on the Kairos group sound.

This is still very much saxophonist/composer Adam Waldmann’s band and the group’s gentle, laid back, but always thoughtful approach seems to be very much a reflection of Waldmann’s musical personality. Neame and bassist Jasper Hoiby, sparring partners in Hoiby’s free wheeling trio Phronesis (of whom more tomorrow) are more than happy to undertake sideman roles when they play Waldmann’s more reflective music. Young drummer Jon Scott completes the group, his fluid, delicately detailed yet subtly propulsive drumming seeming to derive its inspiration from the work of figures such as Paul Motian and Jon Christensen.

In turn Waldmann, who is something of a soprano specialist, takes much of his inspiration from the great Julian Arguelles. Like Arguelles Waldmann is a writer of memorable melodies, there are some absolutely gorgeous tunes on “Kairos Moment”. Tonight we heard some of these along with a selection of new material. First impressions are that the new tunes are well up to the standard that we have come to expect and the group’s inevitable second album should be well worth hearing.

The group opened with Waldmann on unaccompanied soprano, subsequently taking the first solo after the band came in. Hoiby’s bass link provided the bridge into the first solo by Neame and there was also a feature for talented young drummer Jon Scott. The tune was unannounced but if memory serves it was “Hymn For Her”, one of the stand out tracks on the “Kairos Moment” album. 

A new tune, “The Calling” was an attractive, characteristically melodic piece featuring Waldmann on warm, soulful tenor. Introduced by Neame’s unaccompanied piano the tune also featured him more extensively as a soloist as well as including a feature for the consistently excellent Hoiby.

Also new “The Passenger” saw Waldmann switching back to soprano to state the theme before handing things over to his colleagues. Hoiby soled first, accompanied by Scott’s gently atmospheric hand drumming and Neame’s sparse piano chording. Neame then soloed expansively on arguably his strongest statement of the evening before Waldmann’s gently probing soprano solo brought the piece to a close.

The three tracks under the collective “Kairos Moment” title on the album are brief cameos drawing on group improvisations. Waldmann has now picked up on elements of these and merged them into a single composition which he introduced on solo tenor saxophone, subsequently switching to soprano as the rest of the group entered the proceedings. Neame again featured strongly as a soloist and Scott’s drum solo maintained a melodic sense that placed it happily within the character and aesthetic of Kairos’ music.

Another new tune “Maybe Next Year” was distinguished by it’s wisps of melody, the framework for gently exploratory solo excursions by Neame and Waldmann.

Finally came “V.C.” the catchy opener to the “Kairos Moment” album. Waldmann, on soprano, played with greater intensity than he had all evening and there were also features for Neame and Scott.

Kairos had delivered a hugely enjoyable set that contained moments of real beauty. The only question marks regarded the sound quality, Waldmann’s saxophones were just a little too low in the mix, and the sheer diffidence of the leader. I love Waldmann’s music but in a live situation he perhaps needs to project himself a little more, much as Hoiby does when leading Phronesis. All in all though a delightful way to round off my first visit to this year’s festival.

Ian’s star ratings;

Hakon Kornstad 4 Stars

Trio Of Oz 3 Stars

Kairos 4tet 3.5 Stars

Overall 4 Stars          

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