Picture of Gilad Atzmon courtesy of : Gerry Walden/gwpics.com

Lichfield Real Ale, Jazz and Blues Festival 2010
Lichfield Rugby Club
Saturday June 26th 2010

This year’s RAJB was blessed with gloriously hot, sunny weather with hardly the hint of a cloud in the sky. In reality this turned out to be something of a mixed blessing, the interior of the splendid new marquee the festival was using for the first time this year was little short of stifling. If it was hot for the fans it was even worse for the musicians up on stage under the lights. In any other field of employment they’d have probably been sent home under the health and safety laws but true troupers that they are they got up there and delivered the diverse mix of music this festival is famous for. As for the real ale it was almost too hot for beer drinking and as a dedicated CAMRA member I never thought I’d hear myself say that. In these conditions even one lunchtime pint would probably have sent me to sleep and given me a raging headache so with my journo’s hat on I disciplined myself and waited until the evening when it was cooler before having a couple of pints. On Sunday I was driving and didn’t touch the beer at all. On a personal note it was the driest beer festival I’ve ever attended.

TOMASSO STARACE QUARTET

Luckily the music more than made up for any enforced abstinence. Saturday was kicked off by Italian saxophonist Tomasso Starace and his quartet. Now based in Highgate, London Starace plays alto and soprano saxophones with a remarkable degree of fluency. His English quartet here comprised of pianist Frank Harrison, best known for his work with Gilad Atzmon who was to appear later, Loop Collective member Will Collier on bass plus Chris Nicholls at the drums. The Starace quartet played a mixture of standards and originals and were the most conventionally “jazzy” group on the entire festival programme. 

The group’s lengthy excursions included some brilliant playing from all four members of the quartet.  They opened with Starace’s urgent, boppish “The Tunnel Of Freedom”, a good introduction to the voices of the band with sparkling solos from Starace on alto and Harrison at the piano and with Nicholls enjoying a series of drum breaks.

Starace likes to base his compositions on real events and “Tunnel” was inspired by the story of expatriate Italians tunnelling under the Berlin Wall to escape to the West. He also has an interest in photography and has released an album inspired by the pictures of Elliott Erwitt. There was certainly a cinematic quality about the following piece “Soundtrack”, an episodic item featuring Starace’s serpentine soprano, the lyrical piano of Harrison and the warm, resonant bass of Collier.

Starace’s choice of outside material was interesting and avoided the most obvious old chestnuts. “Even Mice Dance” was a welcome reminder of the compositional talents of the late French pianist Michel Petrucciani.  The piece was recorded on an album that featured Petrucciani alongside another fallen star, the drummer Tony Williams plus the great Dave Holland on bass. Petrucciani took his inspiration from Chopin’s “C Minor Prelude” and Harrison began here on solo piano, his lightness of touch serving Chopin’s melody well. The infectious “Dance” itself featured Starace soloing seamlessly on alto on a tune that is a celebration of life itself. It’s ironic that its composer should have died so young.

To close the first set the quartet played “Coffee Shop”, written by another Italian alto player Rosaro Giuliani, a one time member of trumpeter Guy Barker’s band. “He solos like a pit bull” said Starace before digging in himself above Nicholls’ relentless funk groove. Harrison also dazzled at the piano and the solid Nicholls slammed out a tasty solo to finish the first set on an energetic high note.

Later in the day the quartet returned and began with a segue that paired Billy Strayhorn’s “Johnny Come Lately” with Ennio Morricone’s “Theme From Cinema Paradiso”.  The more forceful Strayhorn piece featured Starace on soprano plus Harrison and Nicholls. Morricone’s theme was more lyrical and featured some delightfully limpid piano from Harrison, a touch of arco bass from Collier plus the finely detailed but sympathetic drumming of Nicholls.

Starace switched to alto for Oscar Pettiford’s “Bohemia After Dark”, a tune made famous by Julian “Cannonball” Adderley , presumably one of Starace’s early inspirations. Played in a tricky bop inspired 7/4 the piece included rousing solos from Starace and Harrison.

Starace’s own “Intercolare” proved to be an enjoyable blues with Starace’s soprano solos bookending and framing outings from Harrison and Collier. The quartet rounded off an excellent afternoon’s work with the standard “Days Of Wine And Roses” with Starace and Harrison again outstanding. Harrison is one of Britain’s best and most versatile young pianists and Starace with his fluent, effortless sound proved to be one of the outstanding instrumentalists of the whole festival. It was the first time I’d seen him perform and I was highly impressed. Whether on his own tunes or those of others he’s just full of good ideas and articulates them superbly.

The quartet had certainly earned their money in the unforgiving heat. Even the cool Italian, who if my wife was anything to go by certainly set female hearts a-fluttering, was looking ruffled. Nevertheless a great start to the day and Starace sold a gratifying number of albums to a pretty lengthy queue. They went down a storm.

CHICAGO RED
It took me rather longer to warm to Chicago Red a guitarist/vocalist who genuinely does hail from Chicago has lived in New Orleans but is now based in Los Angeles. Performing solo he’s something of an acquired taste, singing folk blues with a voice that sounds as if it’s always choking back a tear. His, hoarse slightly slurred vocal delivery comes over like a cross between an old time Delta bluesman and John Martyn.

Red obviously has a deep seated love of the blues and his two sets covered songs by some of the masters of the genre, among them Big Bill Broonzy and Otis Rush. He has a particular fondness for the music Texas Alexander and included a couple of his tunes in his first set including the song “Sabine River”.

Red is conscious of the need to entertain and rambles freely, and largely entertainingly, between songs. Some of his material is very well known with the first set including “Little Red Rooster” Elizabeth Cotton’s “Freight Train” and Merle Travis’ “Sixteen Tons”, later made famous by Tennessee Ernie Ford. In a concession to the “jazz” part of the festival’s title we also heard Louis Armstrong’s “Wonderful World” and more interestingly the jazz standard “Body And Soul”, a real rarity to hear the words of a song that is almost always performed as an instrumental.

All in all I wasn’t overly impressed by the first half.  I’ve heard guys down my local pub doing the country blues repertoire as well as this but I did find myself enjoying Red rather more in the second set. “Is That A Monkey You Got” encouraged some audience participation and the closing numbers “Stormy Monday” and “The Cause Of It All” were very strong. Best of all though was a jaw dropping version of “Brother Can You Spare A Dime”, sung with great feeling and hitting a bit too close to home in the current recession. Red’s own songs, mainly a call for solidarity, tolerance and brotherhood came as a welcome antidote. 

SARAH GILLESPIE with GILAD ATZMON
Singer/songwriter Sarah Gillespie’s d?but CD “Stalking Juliet” was one of the best releases of 2009.
Her strong melodies and poetic, sometimes disturbing, sometimes sexy lyrics were given an extra sheen by the extraordinary playing/arranging/production skills of multi instrumentalist Gilad Atzmon.  Festival organiser Brian Pretty rated the album as his favourite of 2009 and I wouldn’t disagree with him. My own thoughts on the record can be found elsewhere on this site.

For this Lichfield performance Gillespie brought along a quartet (she uses a larger ensemble on the album) featuring herself on vocals and acoustic guitar, Atzmon on reeds, accordion and harmonica plus album personnel Ben Bastin on double bass and Asaf Sirkis at the drums. Most of the material played over the course of their two sets came from the “Stalking Juliet” album along with one or two newer tunes, a new album is due out In January 2011, and a couple of standards given the unique Gillespie/Atzmon treatment.

Tall and willowy and with an extraordinary voice Gillespie is a charismatic performer. She has to be when teamed with the irrepressibly extrovert Atzmon. They bicker like an old married couple throughout (yes, I know it’s only an act but the feisty Miss Gillespie ensures that Gilad doesn’t always get the last word).

But it’s the music that counts. Gillespie’s part poet, part cockney sparrer voice and lyrics and Atzmon’s Middle Eastern influenced arrangements make for a combustible mix. It’s not jazz in any orthodox sense and Sirkis frequently deploys rock rhythms but it is hugely exciting, if perhaps a little too literary and exotic to appeal to the masses. Nevertheless there are some killer riffs and tunes here and if Gillespie gets nominated for the Mercury Music Prize as she surely deserves to be you never know what might happen. You saw her here first.

The Gillespie band kicked off with Atzmon on accordion for “Ahmed And Dangerous”, culled from the album and a rousing opener here. Gillespie then smouldered her way through “Don’t Be Sorry” with Atzmon switching between harmonica and accordion.

“How The Mighty Fall” packs a huge chorus and would make an excellent potential single. “Big Mistake” contains some of Gillespie’s most lascivious lyrics and here it was also a vehicle for Atzmon’s astonishing clarinet playing.

Sound problems were something of a constant problem throughout the quartet’s set. Indeed difficulties persisted throughout the weekend. The regular turn rounds can cause difficulties but this time glitches and feedback appeared to be more persistent than in previous years.

In any event Gillespie and Atzmon decided to move away from the album material and end the first set with a couple of standards. Gillespie opened the jazz standard “All Of Me” solo, her guitar is more than just a prop, it’s an integral part of the group sound and in addition to her extraordinary vocal abilities she’s also a very competent instrumentalist. Atzmon’s clarinet, Bastin’s bass solo and Gillespie’s scat vocal brought an enjoyable and unusual theatrical element to this most hackneyed/venerated of standards (delete as appropriate).

Gillespie introduced Bessie Smith’s “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down Out” as a “recession song”, making it the second one of the day. The Gillespie/Atzmon double act sprinkled their magic on this too with Atzmon soloing on clarinet. These last two pieces may have been a bit throw away but they earned the band a great reception and ensured that the audience were well primed for the second set later in the day.

Gillespie and Atzmon took the opportunity to perform some newer tunes in the second set. They began as a duo adding musicians “Talking Heads” style with Bastin joining first for a couple of trio numbers in which he demonstrated his abilities with the bow. Sirkis came in for the fourth piece as the band finished off the set in quartet mode. With Atzmon remaining on reeds throughout the second set it’s likely that the new album will have a higher jazz content than the d?but.

“Current Climate”, yet another recession song was the last of the new material, maybe it’ll be the new album title. Gilad, ever the prankster was unable to resist the temptation to quote from “Flight Of The Bumblebee” in his clarinet solo.

Two pieces from “Stalking Juliet” closed out the set, the sultry, bluesy “Malicious Simone” and the barnstorming title track.

The quartet got a great reception and the ?15.00 deal for Sarah’s album plus Gilad’s latest ensured that they did good business. For myself I was slightly disappointed mainly due to the technical difficulties in the first set. It’s made me revisit the “Stalking Juliet” album though and it’s still stunning and highly recommended.

In the meantime I shall look forward to hearing the new album and to seeing Gillespie in a more sympathetic venue on her January tour. 

KINGSIZE 5
Lichfield certainly offers a wide range of music. Kingsize 5 certainly divided opinion among Saturday’s festival goers. Arriving late they played a truncated first set but still repeated several of the tunes in the second, something nobody else did, which didn’t exactly go down well with some.

The more serious jazzers defected to the beer in any case, less than enamoured with the band’s blend of jump jive, funk, blues and rock ‘n’roll. Led by tenor saxophonist Michael Brown who formed a twin sax frontline with a baritone/flautist the band also featured piano, bass and drums plus energetic vocalist Sarah Peterson.

Clad in sequinned hot pants and showing even more leg than the luscious Ms. Gillespie, Peterson was irritatingly chirpy and never stood still. She was more like an aerobics instructor than a singer and in the 100 degree heat you had to admire her stamina if nothing else.

Kingsize are unashamedly a party band but with Wonderbrass already booked for the party slot I’m not quite sure what they were doing there. They put on a show, there’s no doubt about that and it’s slick and well co-ordinated and I’m sure there’s a high degree of musical skill behind the comic fa?ade of jokes, funny hats and the hyperactive gyrations of blonde bombshell Peterson.

Maybe it was the heat but I just found them grossly irritating. They stormed their way through a half hour first set including the tunes “I Am A Missile”, “Bathos Pathos” and “One For My Daddy”, all of which also turned up in their second set. They closed the first half with a jump jive rendition of AC/DC’s “Whole Lotta Rosie”. 

I didn’t make any notes in the second set, if Kingsize don’t take themselves seriously I don’t see why I should. Some audience members clearly enjoyed them a lot, others were totally dismissive. Still it’s all part of the festival experience but with one party band already on the roster I’d rather have seen something that was a bit less of a novelty act.

WONDERBRASS
I’ll be the first to admit that I take music far too seriously. If I didn’t I wouldn’t be writing this stuff.
If Kingsize ever read this they’ll probably think I’m a po faced wanker with no sense of fun. But I never have a problem enjoying myself when Wonderbrass are playing. The Welsh big band (all twenty five or so) are irrepressible party animals with an infectious sense of fun. I’ve seen the band many times at the Brecon, Pontypool and Lichfield festivals and always enjoyed them. Their high spirits and joyousness seems totally natural, it doesn’t all seem an act like Kingsize. The fact that they made a band visit to the Snowdome in Tamworth on the way up sums up their spirit pretty nicely

Wonderbrass also have a huge asset in the shape of musical director, composer and principal soloist Rob Smith who combines his work with Wonderbrass with membership of cult South Wales band Heavy Quartet. Smith’s arrangements are colourful and imaginative and take in jazz, funk, world music, dub reggae, modern pop and more. For a “community band” the level of musicianship in Wonderbrass is extraordinarily high with drummer Mark O’ Connor, bassist Derek Howells and baritone saxophonist Jenny Bradley major players within their ranks. 

Here the band kicked off with “Buddy Bolden” dedicating it to Gilad Atzmon and seguing it into “Nigun Atik”, Smith’s infectious arrangement of a klezmer wedding song. Solos came from Bradley on baritone and Smith on curved soprano plus features for bass trombone (shades of Loose Tubes’  Ashley Slater) and rock guitar.

Smith’s “Aticudos” combined funk’ hi life and township jive with trumpet, clarinet and bass sax featuring as solo instruments.

Wonderbrass’ squad of dancers then abandoned the stage and hit the dance floor at the front of the tent and encouraged the audience to get up and join them. The extreme temperatures meant that not quite so many took up the offer as last year when the band played the same slot. They were late additions this year when illness forced the band Big Easy to drop out.

“Petite Fleur” and “Bore Sul” (its Welsh for Sunday morning) found plenty of takers and the syncopations of “The Liquidator”, with Smith on melodica had everybody skanking.

The band got right up to date with tunes by Kanye West ((“Love Lock Down”) and Calvin Harris (“I’m Not Alone”) and followed these with “Buddy’s Stomp”, another feature for Bradley on baritone and “Buccaneer Bay” by long term Wonderbrass associate King Django.

A sturdy slice of dub reggae, heavy on trombone and melodica was followed by the Spice Girls hit “Stop” as the band’s own “Wonder Spices” hit the floor again.

Encores of The Specials “A Message To You Rudy” and Madness’ “It Must Be Love” kept the dance floor packed and ended the day on a high note.

All in all it had been another great day at Lichfield RAJB, incredibly the twenty first, with Starace and Gillespie/Atzmon the musical highlights. With Wonderbrass ending it all on a happy but innately musical note and with a healthy attendance throughout the day I’m sure the organisers were very pleased.

Unfortunately numbers on the Sunday were well down due to the ineptitude of the England football team who ended up playing Germany on the second afternoon of the festival. Those of us who stuck with the music had the right idea, especially as Sunday’s line up was even stronger. More on that to follow…

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