Photograph of Samba Galez with the Mayor of Abergavenny by Kasia Ociepa.

WALL2WALL JAZZ FESTIVAL, ABERGAVENNY,  SUNDAY COMMUNITY AFTERNOON, 29/09/2024

Black Mountain Jazz, the organisation behind Abergavenny’s annual Wall2Wall Jazz Festival have always been keen to foster links with the local community and also to encourage young people to develop a love and understanding of jazz, thus passing the music on to the next generation.

Prior to the pandemic the Wall2Wall Festival hosted a series of free live music events in the town’s Market Hall under the generic name ‘Jazz Alley’, successfully bringing jazz to the attention of a local audience that might otherwise have been unaware of it. Today’s event embraced similar aims and judging by the number of people who could be seen enjoying the music at various venues around the town it succeeded admirably in realising its objectives.

Today’s events included street parades by a samba band and by a New Orleans style band and there were also free admission performances at different pubs and restaurant around the town, with some of these forming part of a ‘Jazz Piano Lounge Trail’.

Here is the full programme, as published by Black Mountain Jazz;

Sunday
Town Centre
FREE Community Afternoon

On the Street
1.30pm: The Samba Band takes off from the junction of Baker Street and Frogmore Street and heads towards the Angel Hotel end of town. 
2pm: A roaming troupe of New Orleans style musicians launches in the opposite direction.

Amo’s Restaurant
Frogmore Street (Opposite Tesco)
12pm-1pm: BMJazz Katz youth band
1.30pm-2.30pm: Ian Cooper’s Uskulele Orchestra
3pm to 4pm: Synergy award winning A-Capella choir

Bean and Bread
Market Street 
Jazz Piano lounge Sessions - Newman Kai on piano
12.30pm-1.30pm:  with John Close on guitar 
2pm-3pm: with Glyn Lewis on sax

Portico Lounge
Frogmore Street
Jazz Piano lounge Sessions - Ross Hicks on piano
12pm-1pm: with vocalist Debs Hancock
2pm-3pm: with John Close on guitar

Chester’s Wine Bar
Cross Street
Jazz Piano lounge Sessions - Eddie Gripper on piano
12.30pm-1.30pm: with Glyn Lewis on sax
2.30pm-3.30pm: with vocalist Debs Hancock

The Kings Head
Cross Street
12pm-1pm: Robert Parker (sax) and Ken Lewis (trumpet) Duo
1.30pm-2.30pm: The Sax Pistols
3pm-4pm: Abergavenny Sax Quartet

Little Green Refills
Market Street
12pm-4pm: For 10 years-old and younger age groups, there is a fun art workshop on the top floor of Little Green Refills.  

Despite an appalling weather forecast that included a yellow rain warning the Community Afternoon went ahead as planned and proved to be a be a major success.

BMJAZZ KATZ, AMO’S RESTAURANT

I was determined to enjoy as much of the music as possible and began my day at Amo’s Restaurant, an Italian eatery that has a large function room at the rear. This proved to be the perfect space for a performance by the members of BMJazz Katz, the youth band of Black Mountain Jazz.

As alluded to in my opening paragraph music education has always been a big part of the remit for BMJ. BMJazz Katz is the Club’s youth jazz ensemble, formed as recently as 2023, who meet on a regular basis to learn about and to play jazz with tutors Jack Mac (saxes), Nick Kacal (double bass) and Ryan Thrupp (drums), these three better known as the BMJ Collective.

The Katz made their first public performance at the Melville Centre Theatre as part of the 2023 Wall2Wall Jazz Festival. They also appeared at the same venue in March 2024, a performance that was the subject of a Jazzmann feature, titled “Work, Play, Inspire!”, named in honour of the Jazz Katz motto, that can be found here.
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/bmjazz-katz-work-play-inspire

In June 2024 the Katz were part of Abergavenny’s D-Day celebrations, so today’s show represented their fourth public outing. A large and highly supportive crowd had filled the back room at Amo’s, many of them the families of the young musicians.

The Katz appeared with their three tutors and performed an enjoyable series of jazz standards, the set list including “Summertime”, “Softly As In A Morning Sunrise”, “Misty”, “Iko Iko” and “Mac The Knife”, plus a deserved encore of “C Jam Blues”. Some of the songs featured the singing of Eloise Knight and Paola Scarpetta, the latter also playing guitar. The majority of the instrumental solos were undertaken by saxophonist Reuban Carter, who featured on both tenor and soprano. Tutor Jack Mac was also regularly featured as a saxophone soloist. A word too for nine year old drummer Gia Skilton-Breakey, who handled most of the percussive duties, with occasional assistance from tutor Ryan Thrupp.

It all represented a very enjoyable and uplifting start to the day.

STREET MUSIC – SAMBA GALEZ,
                      ROBERT PARKER / KEN LEWIS DUO.

The first of the street parades featured the Cardiff based band Samba Galez, a long running ensemble that has appeared at multiple events throughout South Wales over the years, including Brecon Jazz Festival.

En route to joining the parade I passed by the Kings Head pub, where the duo of Robert Parker (sax) and Ken Lewis (trumpet) were playing outside the building rather than in the bar, thus also representing part of the street music programme. I only heard a couple of numbers from a standards based repertoire, but they sounded pretty good.

Led by Simon Preston the musicians of Samba Galez in their bright and colourful band uniforms attracted a considerable following as they made their way through the town. The twenty strong band deployed a veritable battery of drums and other percussion instruments and in addition to the visual spectacle it was also interesting to immerse oneself in the variety of rhythms generated by the band. I’ve seen Samba Galez on numerous previous occasions but had never listened quite as intently as I did today. There was a lot going on rhythmically, and it made for fascinating listening.

Samba Galez are very much about the carnival spirit and the musicians are augmented by a troupe of colourfully clad dancers led by Catherine McShane-Kouyate. They strutted their stuff as the parade progressed through the town, encouraging spectators and passers-by to join the party.

The ‘second line’ (yes, I know that’s a New Orleans expression but it still seemed to apply to Rio out of Cardiff) was comprised of frolicking children, some of them members of the BMJazz Katz, and more restrained strolling adults such as myself. It was loud, brash, colourful and great fun.

The Sunday Community Afternoon was supported by Abergavenny Town Council and it was good to see the Mayor of Abergavenny following the band and clapping along enthusiastically. He became even more closely involved when a band member gave him a cowbell to play and he was later seen trying his hand at the snare drum. Well done that man for entering into the spirit of things

Again, the Samba Galez street parade was a hugely enjoyable event that was well received by the townspeople of Abergavenny.

At the conclusion of the parade I again passed by the Kings Head where the marvellously named Sax Pistols were playing outside. A line up three tenors and two altos included Martha Skilton.

ROSS HICKS / JOHN CLOSE DUO (AND GUESTS!),  PORTICO LOUNGE

My next port of call was the Portico Lounge where I relaxed over a coffee and enjoyed the playing of pianist Ross Hicks and guitarist John Close, two alumni of the Royal Welsh College of Music and both still based in Cardiff.

Both have featured on the Jazzmann web pages on previous occasions with Hicks having appeared at BMJ in a more formal concert context with saxophonist Simon Spillett, with the BMJ Collective and with the jazz-soul-funk-blues outfit Freshly Cut Grass. Earlier in the day he had performed at Portico Lounge with vocalist Debs Hancock.

Meanwhile Close made a big impression at the 2024 Brecon Jazz Festival when he was part of an unusual quartet led by drummer Zach Breskal that featured the twin guitars of Close and the visiting American Steve Kirby, the latter a Professor at the famous Berklee College of Music. Close also appeared at Brecon as a member of the Siglo Section Big Band.

The Portico Lounge was packed with diners and essentially the jazz represented background music as the duo performed a standards based repertoire, I think they may even have played “Autumn Leaves” twice!

However I wasn’t the only one that was trying to listen. One lady who had been enjoying a meal at another table was so impressed with Hicks’ playing that she purchased a copy of his debut album “Three Elms”, which the young pianist had had the presence of mind to bring along to the gig. Also featuring BMJ favourites Nick Kacal (bass) and Alex Goodyear (drums) it really is an excellent album that features Hicks’ original writing. Selling an album at was essentially a function gig must have been pleasing for Hicks and I do hope that the purchaser enjoys her new acquisition. Meanwhile my review of “Three Elms” can be found here.
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/ross-hicks-three-elms

Conscious of the fact that there was so much going on I was about to leave when we were treated to an unexpected bonus. The New Orleans band, in reality just a trio featuring Jack Mac on saxes and vocals, Ryan Huxtable on sousaphone and Alex Birch were passing by and spotted their mates Hicks and Close through the window.

On a whim they came in, still playing, and the newly formed quintet gleefully romped their way through “I’m Goin’ To New Orleans”, with Mac singing and Hicks relishing the opportunity to play some rollicking New Orleans style piano.

It may have been an impromptu performance but the diners at the Portico Lounge absolutely loved it and it has to be said that it represented one of the defining moments of the day, a spontaneous collaboration that embodied the very spirit of jazz.

ABERGAVENNY SAX QUARTET, THE KINGS HEAD

As Mac, Huxtable and Birch returned to their peregrinations I finally made my leave, after a brief word with Ross, and again made my way towards the Kings Head. Although the weather was beginning to turn by now the musicians continued to play outside, buffeted by the wind and with rain squalls beginning to fill the air.

Featuring BMJ stalwart Rod Cunningham on baritone sax, plus Simon Birch on tenor,  Penny Turnbull on alto and soprano and Sharon Phillips on alto the ASQ had played in the rather more comfortable environs of the Melville Theatre as part of the 2023 Wall2Wall Community Sunday event. I saw that very enjoyable performance in full and it is reviewed as part of my Festival coverage here;

Today, especially in view of the increasingly unpleasant weather conditions, I didn’t hang around for so long. However I was there as an elderly couple waltzed in the street to the strains of “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps”, another contender for ‘moment of the day’.

SYNERGY ACAPELLA CHOIR, AMO’S RESTAURANT

Even I couldn’t take in all of the music that was on offer during this Community Afternoon. I did attempt to visit the Bean and Bread in an attempt to hear something of the duo of pianist Newman Kae and saxophonist Glyn Lewis but the place was so rammed I couldn’t get through the door. This was a shame as I’d never seen Kae play before but had heard good things about him. Another product of the RWCMD he looks set to follow in the footsteps of Ross Hicks and Eddie Gripper.

Things were no quieter at Chester’s Wine Bar where Debs Hancock was singing with pianist Eddie Gripper. I did manage to get in but there was so much hubbub that I couldn’t actually hear the music. As Debs said to me later it wasn’t as if I hadn’t heard her or Eddie before, both are frequent presences on the Jazzmann web pages, so I cut my losses and headed back past the Kings Head and a still persevering Abergavenny Sax Quartet to Amo’s Restaurant, where my day had begun.

The function room was again packed out for a performance by Synergy, a male voice choir with a difference that is based in Abergavenny but which includes members from other parts of South Wales.

More than ‘just’ a community choir Synergy performs to an astonishingly high standard, a ‘professional’ standard if you will. I’m usually fairly indifferent to amateur choirs but this was different, with sophisticated and complex vocal arrangements that owed more to barbershop singing and doo-wop than to the Welsh male voice choir (MVC) tradition.

Not that the high standard of the vocalising prevented the members of Synergy from having fun, as they proved in a series of clever and imaginative vocal arrangements on pop songs such a the Ink Spots’ “Java Jive”, the Turtles’ “Happy Together” and Toto’s “Africa”.

Their version of “To Make You Feel My Love” was inspired by both Bob Dylan and Adele and they also tackled some of the verses of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”. The deserved encore was a fun version of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”.

I was pleasantly surprised at just how much I had enjoyed Synergy’s performance, even though it wasn’t strictly speaking jazz.

After the show BMJ’s Mike Skilton kindly introduced me to choir leader Grant Barlow who confirmed their collective love of barbershop and doo-wop and explained that they were trying to move away from “the MVC tradition”, although they could still sing things like “Myfanwy” or “Calon Lan” if required. There is also a smaller offshoot of the choir, a barbershop quartet that goes out under the name Howley’s Howlers. My thanks to Grant for his time following a very successful hometown gig for Synergy.

This unexpected highlight ended the afternoon on a highly satisfying note.

With the worsening weather I opted not to stick around for the evening concert at the Melville Theatre by pianist / vocalist Jeremy Sassoon and his Ray Charles Project. Instead I decided hat discretion was the better part of valour, with Nigel Jarrett kindly agreeing to cover the performance in my absence. I’m very grateful to Nigel for his efforts and his review can be found here;

Although I was disappointed to miss what sounds like an excellent evening show I had still thoroughly enjoyed the Community Afternoon, which had avoided the worst of the weather with both of the parades and most of the rest of the street music taking place in the dry. My thanks to all those involved in organising the day for making it such a popular, successful and enjoyable event.

The Black Mountain Jazz Facebook page includes photographs and videos from the day and is well worth a look.
https://www.facebook.com/BlackMountainJazz/

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