Monday at Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2011.
02/05/2011

The final day of the festival was less frenetic but still eminently enjoyable with some intriguing performances from a broad spectrum of artists including Denys Baptiste, Sam Crockatt, Portico Quartet and festival closer Hugh Laurie.

DENYS BAPTISTE

I started at the Pillar Room with a performance by tenor saxophonist and composer Denys Baptiste and his quartet.  Baptiste first came to public attention as a member of the Jazz Warriors (thus fitting in with the festival’s 1980’s theme) and Gary Crosby’s Nu Troop. He later established himself as a successful solo artist with albums such as “Be Where You Are” (1999), “Alternating Currents” (2000) and the ambitious and award winning “Let Freedom Ring” (2003), a suite that was premi?red at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival of that year.

Since then Baptiste has rather dropped off everybody’s radar, including mine, as he took time out to raise a young family, taking a part time administrative post with the Arts Council to make ends meet. Now Baptiste is back with an excellent new album “Identity By Subtraction” and this inspired concert, with Baptiste and his colleagues clearly “up for it”, was one of the highlights of the weekend. I’d kind of forgotten just how good a musician Baptiste is and the quality of this enjoyable, well programmed set came as a most pleasant surprise. Despite the fact that Baptiste had already impressed on the Saturday evening as a member of Django Bates’ TDE’s group today’s performance still exceeded expectations.

Drawing exclusively from the new record Baptist’s quartet included album personnel Andrew McCormack (piano), Rod Youngs (drums) and his former boss Gary Crosby on the bass. McCormack was in particularly fine form, tearing into his solos with relish, he more than held his own in comparison with some of the other illustrious piano players seen at the festival. At the drums Rod Youngs was supple and propulsive, looking and sounding more than a little like the great Eric Harland. The experienced Crosby was rock steady at the bass, a model of dependability and consistency.

The quartet kicked off with the bustling “Identity By Subtraction” itself, the title a reflection of Baptiste’s experiences as “a black man of Caribbean descent playing jazz music in the UK in 2011”.
This sturdy, bop inspired piece featured marathon solos from McCormack and Baptiste, the pianist immediately demonstrating what a monster player he is. Baptiste was fiery and fluent on tenor, playing with an easy confidence. They were given great support from Crosby and Youngs, the drummer’s driving rhythms spurring the soloists on to great heights before he enjoyed something of a feature himself.

“Apprehension” proved to be a soulful ballad with a strong narrative arc, taking on an anthemic quality as the playing slowly grew in intensity. Once again both Baptiste and McCormack impressed with authoritative, well constructed solos.

Dedicated to Baptiste’s family, who were present in the audience, “Special Times” was a lovely duet played with real feeling by Baptiste and McCormack. It was also good to see Jason Moran and Larry Grenadier from the Overtone Quartet checking Baptiste out. Denys later told me that he’d worked previously with Moran and that that the two are good friends.

“Harriott’s Charriott” (great title) was dedicated not only to the late, great Jamaican born saxophonist Joe Harriott but also to Harriott’s one time bass player Coleridge Goode. Goode, now aged ninety six and still going strong adds a narration to the recorded version. Here the tune was played with the kind of energy and exuberance that the title suggests with the emphasis on Baptiste’s saxophone pyrotechnics.

“Evolution From Revolution” with its subverted reggae rhythms (“in six not four” as Baptiste explained) depicted the challenges faced by Baptiste’s parent’s generation. The tune featured some great exchanges between Baptiste and McCormack with drummer Youngs looking as if he was having a ball grappling with the rhythmic foibles of the piece.

In the early 90’s Baptiste toured with the late South African pianist, saxophonist and composer Bheki Mseleku (I once saw Mseleku at Brecon Jazz Festival but it’s nearly twenty years ago and my memory is somewhat hazy. I remember Eddie Parker was on flute but I can’t be categoric that Denys was there as well).  “A Song For You” was performed at around about that time but never recorded. Baptiste puts the record straight by including a version on his new CD by way of tribute to his former colleague. By all accounts Mseluku was something of a troubled figure but “Song For You” is a lovely tune, performed here in ballad mode with thoughtful solos from Baptiste and McCormack plus a tender solo saxophone cadenza.

Baptiste and his colleagues closed with the joyous “Dance Of The Maquiritari”, a celebration of Baptiste’s South American and Caribbean heritage. Exuberant, jaunty and genuinely danceable with an irresistible Latin/Caribbean flavour this sent a large and appreciative crowd away happy and included a dazzling drum feature from the excellent Youngs.

This show had been a triumph for Baptiste and his colleagues and was a great way to start the final day of the festival. I even bought a CD-these days I usually just listen to what I get sent-but I made an exception for this. I later bumped into Denys in the Cafeteria and got him to sign it. He’s a top man, as so many of our jazz musicians are, and I can see that I may have to do some serious investigation of his back catalogue.

SAM CROCKATT QUARTET

The second Pillar room gig of the day featured the same tenor/piano/bass/drums configuration. I’d seen the young tenor saxophonist Sam Crockatt before, playing a standards set at The Hive in Shrewsbury with a local rhythm section, and enjoyable though that set was I was still looking forward to hearing him playing his own material. Crockatt is a member of the Loop Collective and his quartet here included pianist Kit Downes (playing his fourth gig of the festival), experienced bassist Oli Hayhurst and fellow Looper Ben Reynolds at the drums.

Crockatt’s 2008 Loop label d?but “Howeird” recorded with Hayhurst and Reynolds and with Gwilym Simcock in the piano chair was remarkably mature d?but and garnered a good deal of critical acclaim. Crockatt is one of the more “straightahead” artists of the Loop Collective with an often lyrical saxophone style inspired by Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, John Coltrane and Julian Arguelles. He’s also a highly accomplished composer as the music on “Howeird” plus the newer material heard today amply demonstrates.

However the quartet kicked off their festival set with the headlong rush of Downes’ “Sun And Moon” with powerful opening statements from both Crockatt and the composer. It was obvious from the start that Crockatt was not in the best of health, suffering from a heavy cold and visibly wilting in the warmth of the lights. He did well to get through the gig in these circumstances and remained remarkably affable throughout. It was unfortunate that this illness should afflict him at such a high profile engagement and I have the utmost respect for his fortitude. Even if he couldn’t quite match the quality of Baptiste’s earlier set this was still a performance with much to commend it.

Much of the material played today is set to appear on the Crockatt Quartet’s new album “Flood Tide”, due for release later in 2011. On this evidence it should be a worthy successor to the excellent “Howeird”. Crockatt’s own “Theodore’s Spring Song” featured drummer Ben Reynolds in engaging dialogues with both Crockatt and Downes.

“Trilogy” featured Oli Hayhurst, one of the UK’s most dependable bassists who has worked with Gilad Atzmon, Tim Whitehead, Zoe Rahman and many others. Hayhurst recently made a significant contribution to the splendid new Julian Siegel album “Urban Theme Park”. Besides Hayhurst’s contribution “Trilogy” was also notable for the interplay between Crockatt and Downes in an engaging saxophone/piano interlude.

“King Apple” saw Downes sitting out as Crockatt plus the rhythm team entered Sonny Rollins style sax trio mode. After Crockatt’s solo sax opening Hayhurst hit a deep bass groove and also turned in another excellent solo. Downes then returned to the fold for the hard bop inspired “The Ridgeway”, sharing the soloing honours with Crockatt.

A change of pace and emphasis came with the richly textured ensemble piece “The Prophet”, the music gently rising and falling and featuring Hayhurst making effective use of the bow.

“Dark March” was a feature for both Downes and Crockatt, opening with a piano/saxophone duet before both undertook expansive solos as the band kicked in.

The set closed with the good natured “Happy”, the only tune in the set to be drawn from “Howeird”. The sunny, almost Latin groove saw Reynolds playing maracas in addition to kit drums and featured a mercurial solo from Downes and and a lively sax/bass duet between Crockatt and Hayhurst.

Although this had been a difficult gig for Crockatt it had nevertheless been an enjoyable one for the audience. “Flood Tide” is due for an Autumn release on the Babel label and should be well worth hearing.

PORTICO QUARTET

Having covered Portico Quartet’s show at Warwick Arts Centre only recently (part of a double header during a tour with Penguin Caf?) I was wondering if I could find anything new to say about them. I needn’t have worried, radical changes have occurred in the PQ camp in the space of just a couple of months.

Since the group began working with John Leckie, the producer of their second album “Isla”(2009), they have become more and more interested in sound treatment and the use of electronics. Their first album “Knee Deep In The North Sea” (2007) was characterised by the use of the hang drum, played mainly by the group’s unofficial leader Nick Mulvey.  Recently (as at Warwick) the hang has come to play a less dominant role as saxophonist Jack Wyllie and drummer Duncan Bellamy have acquired more and more electronic equipment. Live looping and sampling has become an increasingly important part of the group’s sound, with the complex layers of interlocking rhythms thus generated evoking comparisons with the music of Steve Reich and Philip Glass.

It was only February when I last saw PQ but I was certainly taken by surprise when only Wyllie, Bellamy and bassist Milo Fitzpatrick came out to face the crowd in the Jazz Arena. Portico Trio anyone?
It would seem that Mulvey is set to leave the group to concentrate on his parallel career as a singer and songwriter and that this was to be his last gig with the band. He appeared mid way through the set to great acclaim and took up his position behind his flight of hang drums, but the hang no longer dominates the group sound as it once did and Mulvey sometimes struggled to make himself heard in the surrounding maelstrom of electronics.

If “Isla” represented a darker, more experimental side of the band then the new trio material that we heard tonight takes it a stage further. The first four numbers, all still untitled, featured Bellamy, Wyllie and Fitzpatrick only and featured a harsher electronic edge. Wyllie deployed variously tenor and curved soprano saxes, treating both with loops, echoes and sundry other electronic embellishments. Bellamy now sits behind a set up that is part drum kit, part electronic console, it’s superficially similar to the kind of set up deployed by Thomas Stronen of the Anglo/Norwegian electro improvising group Food. Fitzpatrick remains a hugely powerful figure behind the double bass but he has now added bass guitar to his arsenal. In another further development he has also added Eberhard Weber style looping and layering to his already impressive arco work. Playing in front of projected images of Bellamy’s abstract art work there’s no denying the effectiveness of Portico’s complex interlocking rhythms, at times they come across like a more cerebral, jazzy version of a rave band. Leckie, most famous for his work with the Stone Roses has clearly had an enormous effect on their musical thinking. When Mulvey finally appeared the group played new, harder edged arrangements of some their “hits” notably “Isla” and the closing “Life Mask”. Mulvey got a great reception from the fans and there seems to still be a genuine affection between himself and the rest of the group.

So what now for Portico Quartet? The group’s website is curiously reticent about Mulvey’s departure but they have a full summer programme of events including an appearance at Hay Festival on June 4th so I may have to check out future developments there. Will they, could they, replace Mulvey with another hang player? Will they change their name to “Portico Trio” or will the fourth member now be their electronic “friends” in a nod to Echo And The Bunnymen. Have Bellamy and Wyllie effectively hi-jacked what appeared to be Mulvey’s band (Bellamy now handles the announcements). Is Mulvey’s departure really as amicable as it appears? All this is open to speculation but the band’s new approach is certainly intriguing and I still consider myself a fan. So, too, do many others if the reaction they received here was anything to go by.

Like all the best bands Portico continue to change and develop and in the main I welcome their new direction, they couldn’t continue to knock out versions of their first album for ever. Their innate tunefulness ensures that their more experimental ideas remain accessible and I predict that they’ll hold on to the majority of their fan base. I’m sure the live shows will get slicker too, here the time Bellamy and Wyllie spent punching data into their electronic gizmos rather detracted from the performance but this was a minor quibble in a show that turned out to be anything but predictable.

HUGH LAURIE

The festival organisers seemed to regard getting Hugh Laurie to close the festival something of a major coup. Initially I wasn’t so sure but his performance won me round in the end.

Laurie is best known as an actor and comedian with roles ranging from various posh ninnies in “Blackadder” to the frankly disturbing Dr. Gregory House. He’s versatile and convincing. And that versatility extends to music. Laurie did various musical skits in the sketch show “A Bit Of Fry And Laurie” but this is his first really serious foray into music. Laurie learnt piano as a child and has a deep seated love of the music of New Orleans, particularly the blues.

Cashing in on his fame as “House” (allegedly he’s the highest paid actor in America) Laurie has signed a record deal with Warner?s and come up with a blues album “Let Them Talk” featuring his piano, vocals and occasional guitar alongside a team of crack sessioneers he calls the Copper Bottom Band.

I missed the start of the gig in a sold out Main Hall as events at the Jazz Arena had overrun but I soon got into the spirit of things. Laurie’s album and stage show consist of a number of well known tunes associated with New Orleans, crossing the boundaries of jazz, blues , gospel and r’n'b. A sort of “The Big Easy’s Greatest Hits” if you will. So far, so predictable but the arrangements are imaginative and the playing relaxed and right in the pocket. Laurie is a more than competent pianist and a pretty decent singer. By his own admission he’s a white, middle class Englishman and he doesn’t pretend to be anything else. Nevertheless his love of his material comes out in the care of the arrangements and in his knowledge of the songs, these tunes are second nature to him, part of the fabric of his life.

Of course having a good band helps and Laurie can afford the best. On keyboards and accordion Patrick Warren is a veteran of the Tom Waits touring band, David Piltch and Michael Blair (also ex Tom Waits) on double bass and drums respectively form a solid and dependable rhythm section but the real fireworks come from Vincent Henry on reeds and harmonica and from an inspired Kevin Breit on a dizzying array of guitars and other stringed instruments. I’d also hazard a guess that the Canadian born Breit also acts as the ensemble’s musical director. Laurie’s piano is an integral part of the band sound, his rudimentary guitar less so, and his vocals were pretty damn good, albeit in a very English sort of way. If the music wasn’t enough Laurie’s easy going stage persona quickly charmed the audience, and overall the gig, broadcast live on Radio 2 was a triumph.

Material included the traditional jazz/blues standard “St. James Infirmary” and Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell’s harrowing “Six Cold Feet” . Some of the greatest names in American music were covered in this set with Leadbelly’s “You Don’t Know My Mind” rubbing shoulders with Jelly Roll Morton’s “Winin’ Boy Blues” and “Buddy Bolden’s Blues”. The traditional “Battle Of Jericho” became an audience singalong with Henry blasting away in apocalyptic fashion on double horns a la Roland Kirk.

Laurie’s announcements expressed a real knowledge of his source material and were full of interesting and entertaining anecdotes, such as how Champion Jack Dupree of “Careless Love” fame ended up living in Yorkshire. Hopefully Laurie’s versions of some these tunes will turn people on to the originals.

Elsewhere we heard J.B. Lenoir’s “The Whale Has Swallowed Me”, Stephen Foster’s “Swanee River”, done in boogie woogie piano style (as featured on “Later With Jools Holland) and best of all a piano/soprano sax duo version of Gershwin’s “Summertime”, the closest the show came to orthodox jazz.

The show was ecstatically received by what seemed to me to be pretty much a non jazz audience (some of the women were dressed to the nines). But if Laurie’s music turns them on to jazz and blues that’s great, he obviously views this project as something of a crusade for the music he loves and if he uses his fame to spread the word that’s only to be encouraged. Called back for an encore the band finished with a version of Professor Longhair’s “Tipitina” , the good Professor being one of Laurie’s all time musical heroes.

Whether Laurie would have been so well received without his fame elsewhere is open to debate. But there’s no doubt that this was a highly accomplished performance and a more authentic one than I’d envisaged. The album’s a pretty decent listen too, will probably sell by the truckload and hopefully attract some fresh worshippers to the jazz and blues shrine.“Let Them Talk” is far more than just another celebrity vanity project. I left the Town Hall very pleasantly surprised. 

Ian’s Star Ratings

Denys Baptiste-4 Stars
Sam Crockatt-3.5 Stars
Portico Quartet-4 Stars
Hugh Laurie-3.5 Stars

Overall 4 Stars

COMMENTS

Ian, Thank you for your always thoughtful and insightful reviews.
Seb.

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