Saturday at Titley Jazz, The Rodd Farm Estate, Titley, Herefordshire.  27/07/2013.

Photograph of Andy Cleyndert by Paul Bentley http://www.jazzimages.co.uk
Sourced from http://www.titleyjazz.com

ART THEMEN and STEVE WATERMAN PLAY DEXTER & SONNY

This year’s Titley Jazz jamboree offered even more concerts than ever and Saturday’s performances began bright and early at 11.00 am (unfamiliar territory for most jazz musicians) with saxophonist Art Themen and trumpeter Steve Waterman paying tribute to two giants of the tenor saxophone in a show subtitled “Plays Dexter & Sonny”

Gordon (1923-90) and Rollins (born 1930) are two of the most distinctive tenor sax stylists and both recorded prolifically. Their vast output offered plenty for Themen and Waterman to get their teeth into in the classy company of the “3 Daves”, Mr. Newton at the piano, Mr. Green on double bass and Mr. Barry at the drums.

The quintet began by tearing straight into Rollins’ “Airegin” with Themen’s tenor leading the way followed by Waterman, Newton and Green plus a series of exchanges with drummer Barry as the group set their collective stall out.

Gordon’s “Apple Jump” was playful and idiosyncratic with Barry 2dropping bombs” behind waterman’s opening trumpet solo. Themen’s tenor solo was mostly accompanied by green’s bass only, an interesting touch but for me both horn men were both upstaged by the brilliance of Newton’s sparkling solo.

John Coltrane’s “Like Sonny” was an oblique tribute that almost stretched the Dexter & Sonny concept too far. Here Themen switched to Coltrane styled soprano saxophone, sounding like a snake charmer on a suitably serpentine solo. He was followed by Waterman and Newton before Barry closed things out with that rarest of beasts (certainly in this context), a reflective drum feature. There was a real beauty about the sound of his rolling toms and filigree cymbal work.

The ballad “I Fall In Love Too Easily” was a trumpet feature for the peerless Waterman. Backed by Barry’s delicate brushwork the controlled beauty of his playing had the Titley audience hanging on every note, you could hear the proverbial pin drop. Lyrical solos by Newton and Green, both making maximum use of space maintained the rarefied mood and the temporary quartet got a marvellous ovation.

Themen returned to the stand as the band rounded off the first set with Gordon’s “For Regulars Only” with the co-leaders doubling up on the head before embarking on their solos, Themen going first. Newton’s joyous solo sandwiched in a quote from “Jeepers Creepers” and Barry rounded things off with a series of lively drum breaks. An invigorating end to an interesting and admirably varied first set.

Gordon’s catchy “Cheesecake” from the saxophonist’s classic 1962 Blue Note album “Go” opened the second set with punchy solos from Themen and Waterman and an inspired passage of solo piano from Newton before the obligatory trading of choruses with drummer Barry.

In a Dexter dominated second set the next piece was the Latin flavoured “Catalonian Nights” written by Spanish pianist Tete Montoliu (1933-97) and later appropriated by Gordon. Today’s version featured the unusual pairing of soprano saxophone and flugel horn with Themen at his most idiosyncratic on his squiggling soprano solo. Although this was a “tribute” show Themen rarely   copied Gordon or Rollins too closely, most of the time he just sounded like himself, which is how it should be.
Waterman followed next on flugel with Barry’s drums given the music that distinctive “Spanish tinge” so loved by Jelly Roll Morton. Newton, Green and Barry himself were all featured before the close.

Gordon’s rendition of the ballad “I Guess I’ll hang My Tears Out To Dry” is one of the stand out performances on “Go”.  Here his role was taken by Themen who began by duetting with the responsive Newton before embarking on a solo that saw him at his most “Dexter-ish”. Newton’s own solo brought a subtle blues inflection to the music. Like Waterman’s feature in the first half the piece was warmly received by the Titley faithful.

Gordon’s titles inevitably had a food theme and the performance finished with a romp through the tune “Fried Bananas” with the two horns again stating the theme in unison before jumping off to deliver ebullient, and in Themen’s case positively earthy solos. Newton followed the co-leaders in typically fluent fashion and Green’s bass solo was one of his best of the weekend. Barry rounded things off with the usual round of drum breaks to conclude an enjoyable morning’s music.

Themen and Waterman are both popular figures at Titley and with the aid of a Rolls Royce rhythm section it’s no wonder that they went down so well with the festival crowd. Yes, much of the material was familiar but the quintet put a fresh slant on some of it courtesy of Themen’s occasional soprano and the playing was as impeccable as you’d expect from this bunch of seasoned professionals. A good start.

STEVE MELLING QUINTET

Popular pianist Steve Melling has been a Titley linch pin from the very beginning, a versatile musician who has appeared in many different festival line ups. This year festival organiser David Masters was keen for Melling to lead his own band and the pianist duly enlisted old mucker Andy Cleyndert on bass while bringing in newer faces in the form of Miles Levin at the drums, alto saxophonist Nigel Hitchcock and tenor saxophonist Josephine Davies.

It was Davies who was probably the unfamiliar figure to the Titley crowd. The young saxophonist studied with Stan Sulzmann at London’s Guildhall School of Music and is an in demand figure on the capital’s music scene. I’d previously seen her perform as part of flautist Gareth Lockrane’s band at the Spice Of Life in Soho as part of the 2012 London Jazz Festival and was impressed by her fluency and incisive tone.

Davies made her presence felt on the unannounced opening number rising to the unenviable task of following the brilliant Hitchcock who had undertaken the opening solo. Melling, Cleyndert and Levin followed her as the newly assembled quintet established themselves.

The Wayne Shorter tune “Chief Crazy Horse” saw Davies going first followed by leader Melling at the piano . Then it was the turn of Hitchcock’s slightly sour alto before Levin, who had so impressed the previous evening as part of Peter King and Alan Skidmore’s Elvin Jones/Martin Drew tribute , gave another reminder of his abilities with a closing drum feature.

Thelonious Monk’s “Eronel”  gave Melling the opportunity to pay homage to one of his pianistic heroes taking the first solo before giving way to Hitchcock, Davies and Cleyndert.

The impressive Davies must have made many new friends with her performance on Sam Rivers’ modern day jazz standard “Beatrice”, a beautiful ballad written for the composer’s wife that also lends itself to other treatments. This was exemplified by the way in which Davies’ solo grew in intensity before she eventually handed over to Melling and Cleyndert, the bassist soloing above the gentle patter of Levin’s hand drums.

It was Levin who ushered in “United”, a second Wayne Shorter tune which also saw solos from Hitchcock and Melling before a series of fiery exchanges between Davies and Levin. The drummer eventually took over for an extended feature prior to a series of delightful horn exchanges on a whimsical coda.

Once again this had been an enjoyable first set with some notable solos and with another new discovery for the Titley crowd to enjoy.

The second half began with a Melling original written for his young grand daughter (you hardly look old enough to be a granddad Steve). “Shimmy For Immy” proved to be a suitably charming piece with solos from Davies, Hitchcock and Levin but the pick of the features was appropriately Melling’s own, a coruscating solo that was one of his best of the set.

Cole Porter’s “Let’s Face The Music And Dance”, heavily re-harmonised by Melling proved to be a feature for Hitchcock on alto. Melling’s ingenious arrangement compelled this often most mercurial of soloists to adopt a more thoughtful, reflective approach, superbly supported by Melling and Cleyndert.

One expects jokes a plenty from Alan Barnes, maybe not so many from the dry, laconic Melling. However he came out with one of the funniest remarks of the festival. Introducing the piano trio tune “Don’t Look Back” by Johnny Mandel he revealed that he always got the composer of the piece mixed up with the more familiar Johnny Mercer. “It always pays to have the right Johnny at your fingertips” he remarked drily, the joke all the more hilarious for being delivered from an unexpected source. The Titley audience convulsed with laughter.
Once everybody had regathered their composure the trio gave a superb rendition of the ballad with Melling’s flowing piano augmented by Cleyndert’s bass counter melodies and Levin’s brushed cymbal shimmers.

Hitchcock and Davies returned to the stage for a final Wayne Shorter tune, “Black Nile”. Melling delivered another stand out solo his dazzling right hand soloing augmented by his left hand rhythmic sophistication. We also heard from Davies on tenor and Hitchcock at his most garrulous on alto. Levin’s dynamic drum feature preceded the coalescence of the two horns on a final stirring statement of Shorter’s anthemic theme.

David Masters’ decision to give festival stalwart Melling his time in the sun had paid off handsomely. But even this highly enjoyable performance was to be trumped as another unsung here as bassist Andy Cleyndert took on the mantle of leader at the helm of his own quartet. 

De JONG’S CLEYNDERTS

Cleyndert’s group took its title from the bassist’s middle name. The leader had convened an unusual drummer-less group anchored by his double bass and featuring Martin Shaw on trumpet and flugelhorn plus Titley newcomers Colin Oxley and Ross Stanley on guitar and piano respectively.

The seed for the project came from the album “Out Of This World” recorded by the trio of Cleyndert, Oxley and David Newton, itself a successor to the earlier “My Ideal” featuring Cleyndert, Oxley and the late Colin Purbrook at the piano. David Masters was insistent that he wanted Cleyndert to lead a group that wasn’t in effect the David Newton trio and hence de Jong’s Cleynderts was born.

I must confess that I wasn’t quite sure whether such a “chamber jazz” approach would work at Titley but this concert proved to be one of the best, and most popular, gigs of the entire festival.

The drum-less line up placed a good deal of the rhythmic responsibility on Cleyndert, a challenge he seemed to relish, but it also freed him up to act as a convincing soloist, sometimes making expansive and effective use of the bow. Oxley and Stanley also provided much from the rhythmic aspect as well as shining as fluent and imaginative soloists. Shaw, on both trumpet and flugel , was in imperious form, his flawless playing in a variety of contexts was one of the chief pleasures of the festival.

Much of the material was drawn from familiar standards territory but this group’s approach to it was very different to anything else seen over the course of the weekend. Stanley’s solo piano introduced “After The Masquerade Is Over”. He was followed by Oxley whose pure, unadorned tone was a constant throughout the set, fluent, cleanly picked “orthodox"jazz guitar with no resort to effects other than basic, unobtrusive, amplification. Oxley’s versatility and good taste has led to a long musical association with the singer Stacey Kent. Shaw’s velvety flugel, a further contribution from Stanley, and finally the leader’s bass rounded off a convincing opening statement from this distinctive quartet.

Stanley’s piano also ushered in “It Never Entered My Mind” in an arrangement by the Israeli born pianist Tamir Hendelman. Here Cleyndert moved seamlessly between pizzicato and arco alongside Shaw’s rounded flugel tones and Oxley’s precise guitar soloing.

Shaw switched to trumpet for “Lester Left Town”, Wayne Shorter’s tribute to the great Lester Young soloing alongside Stanley and Oxley with the tune paced by Cleyndert’s implacable bass walk.

Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Louisa” again commenced with Stanley at the piano with subsequent solos coming from Cleyndert, Stanley again and Shaw on flugel.

The trumpeter picked up the mute to offer another variation of timbre on the Gordon Jenkins’ song “Goodbye” with Shaw featuring alongside Oxley. 

Cleyndert included a tune by one of his favourite bassists, the boppish “Bohemia After Dark” written by Oscar Pettiford. Shaw’s playing on muted trumpet echoed that of Miles Davis with further solos coming from Oxley and Stanley. With no drummer to trade fours with Shaw, Stanley and Oxley indulged in a few exquisite exchanges of their their own to conclude a very interesting first set.

Harold Arlen’s “Out Of This World” began the second half, the title track of the recent Cleyndert/Oxley/Newton CD. Oxley featured extensively alongside Shaw’s warm toned flugel and the excellent Stanley at the piano. a versatile and accomplished piano soloist the modest Stanley is also one of the UK’s first call Hammond organists.

Cleyndert worked with Tamir Hendelman as part of Barbra Streisand’s band and at this point the bassist regaled the audience with tales of Streisand’s legendary diva-ishness. All this was a prelude to a Hendelman arrangement of “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You” with Stanley in particularly fine lyrical form alongside Cleyndert , Oxley and Shaw on flugel.

A Jobim bossa sourced from the “Out Of This World” featured delicate interplay between flugel and piano plus solos from all four musicians.

Monty Alexander’s arrangement of Tommy Tucker’s much covered “Hi Heel Sneakers” was an unexpected diversion and tremendous fun. Cleyndert introduced the piece at the bass with further solos coming from Shaw on vocalised, wah wah wah trumpet, Oxley on guitar and Stanley in particularly dazzling form at the piano.

Cleyndert then changed the mood by playing one chorus of another Jobim piece entirely with the bow, accompanied only by Oxley’s sparse and understated chording. The bassist created a profound sense of melancholy that, perhaps paradoxically, was also highly beautiful. It’s a shame that this extract was so brief, the audience was ready for more of this.

Instead Cleyndert chose to round off a brilliant afternoon’s work with a rousing “I Want To Be Happy” with Oxley’s crisply strummed rhythms and Cleyndert’s underpinning bass fuelling effervescent solos from Shaw on trumpet and Stanley at the piano with Oxley himself finally coming to the fore.

Like Chris Biscoe the previous day Cleyndert had dared to do something different and had succeeded brilliantly. This unlikely quartet was accorded a terrific reception and their performance was comfortably my “gig of the day”. 

GARY POTTER’S “TRIBUTE TO DJANGO” -60 YEARS

Guitarist Gary Potter’s tribute marked the 60th anniversary of the death of Django Reinhardt (1910-53), the Romany born guitar innovator who inspired a whole jazz genre. Self taught guitarist Potter is one of the most respected exponents of gypsy jazz but is versatile enough to have a parallel career in the world of country music.

With his jazz hat firmly on his head Potter led a distinctive quintet featuring the combined talents of Mike Piggott on violin, Alan Barnes on reeds, Andy Crowdy on double bass and young Jez Cook on second guitar (replacing the advertised Ducato Piotrowski). Although Reinhardt worked at various times with both violinists (most famously Stephane Grappelli) and clarinettists it’s unusual to see them together in the same band and this ensured Potter’s group offered both distinctiveness and variety.

An arrangement of the familiar jazz standard “All Of Me” kicked things off with introductory solos from Potter, Piggott, Barnes on alto sax and Crowdy at the bass. Crowdy is one of the most accomplished bassists in the gypsy jazz genre and he was afforded a good deal of solo space throughout the set.

Crowdy was featured again on Reinhardt’s own “Swing ‘39” which saw Barnes switching to clarinet and soloing alongside Piggott and Potter.

The next piece was unannounced but featured Piggott switching easily between Pizzicato and arco techniques. He was featured alongside Potter on guitar, Barnes on clarinet and Crowdy at the bass. Potter is a democratic musician who usually allows the second guitarist to take some the limelight. In 2011 I saw him play with young local tyro Remi Harris at The Hatch in rural Worcestershire. Once Potter had sussed the extent of Harris’ abilities he cut the younger man a lot of slack in an informal but often brilliant second set. Here he allowed the impressive Cook the opportunity to make his own solo statement, his prot?g? responding with aplomb.

Violin and clarinet together introduced an unusual and effective arrangement of Reinhardt’s best known composition “Nuages” with Barnes and Piggott going on to feature alongside the leader.

Potter led off a lively “Exactly Like You” before handing over to Barnes on alto sax, the perennial mischief maker stuffing his solo full of quotes. Not to be outdone Piggott climbed to his feet for his solo and Cook also weighed in with another impressive solo contribution.

As the quintet completed their first set rain began to drum on the marquee roof marking the end of the July heatwave. After being extremely lucky with the weather in its first three years (yes even in dismal 2012) I suppose Titley was bound to cop it sooner or later. A prolonged bout of rain set in for the rest of the day but the good news was that it didn’t effect the performances at all. The marquee (big up here for the long established local firm Burgoyne’s of Lyonshall) remained resolutely waterproof and the ground of the Rodd farm site remained firm. In other words the rain caused no logistical problems at all and in some ways can be considered something of a blessing in disguise by proving that this festival can cope very well with wet weather.

Meanwhile Potter’s second set contained more of the same and included the favourite Reinhardt “Douce Ambience”, “Swing ‘42” plus gypsy jazz arrangements of popular songs such as “Has Anybody Seen My Gal” and The Sheikh Of Araby”. Bravura solos came from all quarters including a Piggott pizzicato solo on “Has Anybody…” that owed as much to George Formby as Stephane Grapelli, silly but clever and, of course, terrific fun.     

Barnes dropped out of a couple of numbers leaving the core quartet to adopt more of a “Hot Club” feel but returned refreshed for the scintillating quote filled exchanges of “Swing ‘42”.

This was Titley’s second foray into gypsy jazz following the appearance of guitarist John Etheridge’s Sweet Chorus group in 2011. Once again the music got a terrific reception from the Titley crowd. This is a branch of jazz that remains eternally popular and in Potter and his colleagues we had some of its premier exponents, among the best in the business.

ZOE GILBY / A J BROWN with ROBERT FOWLER and 3 DAVES

Besides its successful experiments with gypsy jazz Titley has also introduced vocals into the programming. An electrifying performance by Lianne Carroll in 2011 and a classy set from Anita Wardell had both been very well received.

This year’s vocal showcase offered something different again with two singers, one female, one male but the outcome seemed to divide opinion.

I’d seen Newcastle based vocalist Zoe Gilby before and enjoyed her set in the company of bassist Andy Champion (also her husband) and guitarist Mark Williams at the 2010 Lichfield Real Ale,Jazz & Blues Festival. The young male singer A J Brown I was less familiar with. A product of the Wigan Youth Jazz Orchestra he’s an accomplished alto saxophonist and we heard a little of his abilities in that regard here. However he seems to have chosen to concentrate on a singing career concentrating on jazz standards and songs made popular by the “Rat Pack”. I’ll readily admit that it’s all a bit too “show biz” for me and I really didn’t enjoy his contribution very much at all.

Turning to the rest of the ensemble saxophonist Robert Fowler was on site prior to leading his big band the following day and the “3 Daves”, Messrs Newton, Green and Barry hardly need any introduction.

The performance began with Gilby who got things moving with an effective version A C Jobim’s “No More Blues” with Fowler turning in a blues inflected tenor solo in the song’s instrumental section.

Next Gilby slowed things down with an intimate and emotional rendition of Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight” in a duet with pianist Dave Newton. 

“Do Nothing Till You Here From Me” boasted an unusual rhumba arrangement and provided solo space for Fowler, Newton and Green.

“Squeeze Me” demonstrated Gilby’s scatting abilities, again in conjunction with solos from Fowler, Newton and Green, the pianist unable to escape the temptation to slide in a few quotes.

Gilby also writes her own material, collaborating with bassist and composer Andy Champion. Their ” Midnight Bell”, based on a book by Richard Hamilton was poetic and moving with Gilby’s subtly blues tinged voice augmented by solos from Newton at the piano and Fowler on smoky sounding tenor.

Several of these songs have been in Gilby’s repertoire since 2010 including Cole Porter’s “You’d be So Nice To Come Home To”, here with a scat vocal episode,solos from Newton and Fowler and a splendidly swinging bass feature from Green.

Another tune still around from those days was the flirtatious and lascivious “Halfway To Heaven”, a cheeky blues with highly suggestive lyrics.

So far, so good, I’d enjoyed what I’d heard so far although I’d concede that Gilby had probably sounded better with her regular working trio.

At this juncture Brown entered the fray to duet with Gilby on the hackneyed “The Girl From Ipanema”. This was just horrible, cheesy and showbizzy, with Brown bringing out the worst in Gilby. Her scatting became too theatrical, she began to strain for the high notes and the subtleties that defined her solo performance rapidly dissipated. “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” concluded the first half and was scarcely any better.

The second set was dominated by Brown singing in the kind of sub Robbie Williams retro style that I just can’t be doing with. First up was “My Romance” with Fowler and Newton managing to inject a little class into the proceedings.

Brown doubled on alto for ” I Got Rhythm” soloing alongside Fowler. Personally I’d have liked to have heard more saxophone and less voice and just for once I wasn’t alone in this thinking.

Brown’s duet with Newton, “I’m A Fool To Love You”, offered evidence that he is actually a pretty good singer if you like this kind of thing. A solo vocal version of “Mr Bojangles” (a hit for Robbie Williams as I seem to recall) was genuinely moving and impressive.

However Jobim’s “Sway” marked a return to cabaret land despite the best efforts of the instrumentalists including Brown himself on alto. 

Brown revealed the interesting nugget that “Wonderful World” had been turned down by Tony Bennett before Louis Armstrong made it his own. It’s a song that’s become far too familiar and hence did nothing for me.

A shouty blues duet with Gilby concluded a show that was applauded politely but overall seemed to have met with the disapproval of many of the Titley regulars.  Most of the people that I spoke to around the festival site hadn’t enjoyed this at all and were no more complimentary about Gilby than they were about Brown. Personally I was quite happy with most of her set and could quite happily have enjoyed a second half from her but Brown effectively hi-jacked the show and his style of vocalising is right off my radar, too “showbiz”, trying too hard to be “mainstream entertainment”,  and by my definition hardly jazz at all. 

As the rain continued to fall the second day of the festival ended on a disappointing note. But let’s not forget the real stuff provided by Themen and Waterman, by Steve Melling and by Gary Potter and most of all that marvellous set led by Andy Cleyndert. Hell, four and a half out of five isn’t bad.   

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