Ben Partridge’s Sixways, Corn Exchange Jazz Club, The Corn Exchange, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, 10/10/2024.

Ben Partridge – tenor saxophone, Reuben-James (R.J.) Gilbert – alto saxophone, Henry Hanssen – trombone, Leo Morland – guitar, Amy Coates – double bass, Aidan Amann – drums

Founded in November 2023 Sixways is a new band led by the Cheltenham born,  Birmingham based, tenor saxophonist and composer Ben Partridge. He is a Honours Graduate of The Jazz Course at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire where, his tutors included saxophonists Mike Williams and John O’ Gallagher and composers Ed Puddick and Mike Gibbs.

Partridge’s jazz influences include saxophonists Joe Henderson, Sonny Rollins and Melissa Aldana, trumpeter / composer Kenny Wheeler, drummer / composer John Hollenbeck and composers Maria Schneider and Mike Gibbs. Other sources of inspiration include rock band Radiohead and the American indie-folk outfit Big Thief.

As a composer and arranger Partridge has written a work for big band titled “The Enigma Suite” and arranged one of Mike Gibbs’s pieces for a concert celebrating Gibbs’ 85th birthday.  In 2022 he was the winner of the  Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Mike Gibbs Award for composition and arranging.

I first saw Partridge perform in April 2023 when he was a member of one of the groups that took part in the annual Birmingham – Siena Jazz Exchange event at the Parabola Arts Centre, part of that year’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Tonight’s drummer, Aidan Amman, was part of the same group.

Meanwhile tonight’s trombonist, Henry Hanssen, and alto saxophonist R.J. Gilbert were involved in the 2024 Jazz Exchange event.

Bassist Amy Coates took part in the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Jazz Stream  of 2021, a ‘virtual’ online event that took place during the lockdown era. She was part of the all female sextet Rise Up, an ensemble led by pianist Rebecca Nash that had been assembled by the Birmingham based Jazzlines organisation. Later in 2021 I was to witness Coates playing live at that year’s Stourbridge Festival of Improvised Music. All of these performances, at both Cheltenham and Stourbridge, are reviewed elsewhere on The Jazzmann.

Tonight’s event was the latest in a series of jazz performances at the Corn Exchange featuring recent graduates of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. David Logan, who co-ordinates the jazz programme at the Corn Exchange has always been keen to support and nurture up and coming jazz talent and this is reflected in his programming.

The first event featuring RBC graduates took place in February 2024 with a quintet led by bassist and composer Thomas Marsh. This group performed music from Marsh’s excellent debut album “What’s Wrong With Rain?”.  The recording features Partridge on tenor sax but by the time of the Ross show Partridge had moved on to concentrate on his own projects, his place being taken by alto saxophonist Ben Carter. My review of Marsh’s show, which is combined with a look at the “What’s Wrong With Rain” album can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/thomas-marsh-quintet-corn-exchange-jazz-club-the-corn-exchange-ross-on-wye-herefordshire-15-02-2024

In June 2024 Ben Carter returned to Ross leading his own quintet, a group that also included Marsh. Favourable reviews of that performance and of Carter’s debut album “Pulsar” can be found elsewhere on this site.
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/ben-carter-quintet-corn-exchange-jazz-club-the-corn-exchange-ross-on-wye-herefordshire-16-05-2024
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/ben-carter-quintet-pulsar

In September 2024 it was the turn of trumpeter James Borland as part Jazz Central Mentorship Scheme series of events which is supported by Jazz Midlands, the consortium of West Midlands based promoters of which the Corn Exchange Jazz Club is a member. Borland’s quintet included saxophonist George Crowley, his mentor on the Scheme. The focus was on Borland’s original writing and this performance is reviewed here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/james-borland-quintet-featuring-george-crowley-corn-exchange-jazz-club-the-corn-exchange-ross-on-wye-herefordshire-12-09-2024

Tonight’s event featured Partridge’s original writing for the sextet,  in addition to a couple of jazz standards and an inspired interpretation of the Radiohead song “Knives Out”.

The first set began with “Shiny Rain”, a Partridge contrafact based around the chord sequence of the jazz standard “Come Rain or Come Shine”.  Initially the ensemble playing was a little tentative as this still relatively new band began to find its feet. The combination of tenor and alto saxes plus trombone made for a pleasingly full ensemble sound, even allowing for the fact that this was sometimes muddied by the venue’s rather echoey acoustic. Despite being based on a familiar standard the music was a brand of angular post bop that incorporated expansive solos from the leader on tenor and Hanssen on trombone.

The jazz standard “Invitation”, written by Bronislaw Kaper, also the composer of the more familiar “On Green Dolphin Street”, represented a feature for guitarist Morland and alto saxophonist Gilbert as Partridge ensured that the soloing opportunities were shared around equally.

The sextet rally began to hit their stride with the Partridge original “No Half Measures”, a riff based piece punctuated by collective improvised free jazz episodes and expansive individual solos. The ensemble sections, featuring the exuberant braying of the horns, were performed with a Mingus like swagger while in the solo sections both Morland and Partridge took the opportunity to stretch out at length. Bassist Coates was featured as a soloist, sometimes in dialogue with Amann’s drums, as Morland provided a sonic backdrop that made subtle and judicious use of guitar effects. Infused with a genuine energy this was easily the most convincing performance thus far, with the audience responding accordingly.

The first set concluded with an arrangement of the Sam Rivers composition “Beatrice”, a tune that has become something of a modern jazz standard. It was the second time that I’d heard this piece in three days, on Tuesday a quartet co-led by tenor saxophonist Greg Sterland and pianist Sabina Turvey had played their version at Brecon Jazz Club as part of a performance that is also reviewed on this site. With its arresting melodic hook “Beatrice” represents an excellent vehicle for improvisers and was ushered in here by Amann at the drums. With the three horns combining to state the theme it sounded very different to Tuesday’s interpretation with substantial individual solos coming from Morland on guitar, Gilbert on alto, Partridge on tenor and Hanssen on trombone.

Set two commenced with the Partridge original “Shadowchaser”, ushered in by an atmospheric intro featuring alto sax, guitar, bass and drums.  Morland took the first solo on guitar with Partridge providing tenor sax countermelodies. Partridge took the next solo, his tone becoming increasingly forthright as the music gathered momentum, culminating in a drum feature from Amann, supported by guitar and bass. And yes, for anybody who was wondering, Aidan is indeed the son of pianist and composer Tim Amann, a long time stalwart of the jazz scene in Birmingham and the wider Midlands area.

“Contrafacts are fun!” Partridge told me as we spoke during the interval. Next up was a case in point, the saxophonist’s transformation of the jazz standard “Alone Together” into his own “Condone The Weather”. This was introduced by the trio of guitar, bass and drums with Partridge subsequently stating the new melody before handing over to Gilbert for the first full length solo, which at one juncture featured alto saxophone with guitar accompaniment only. The three horns then combined to restate the theme before further solos followed from Partridge and Morland. This was an imaginative transformation that indeed deserved to be considered as a fresh composition.

As in the first set it was the third item in the running order that really grabbed the listener’s attention. Tricks You Play” was a piece that Partridge had initially written for Cheltenham Jazz Festival and I suspect that I may have heard a different version of this composition at the Jazz Exchange event back in 2023!
An atmospheric intro featuring the intertwining melody lines of tenor sax, trombone and guitar mutated into a full on band sound with the addition of alto sax,  bass and drums. The two saxes worked in tandem, sometimes joined by Hanssen on trombone, and it was Hanssen that took the first solo, followed by Coates on double bass. The leader then established his authority with a powerful tenor sax solo,  flanked by the other two horns and powered by increasingly propulsive rhythms as Partridge’s solo and the piece as a whole built towards a rousing crescendo.

The final item must have come as something of a surprise to many, an arrangement of the Radiohead song “Knives Out”, from the Oxford band’s 2001 album “Amnesiac”. It’s a piece that has previously been covered by the jazz pianist Brad Mehldau and it’s true that Radiohead are a highly influential band for contemporary jazz musicians. Indeed Partridge’s decision to choose a Radiohead tune was inspired both by his own love of the band and by the 2020 album “Everything All Of The Time: Kid A Revisited” by the British pianist Rick Simpson and his quintet. This re-imagining of the “Kid A” album in an all instrumental acoustic jazz format is an excellent album in its own right and is favourably reviewed elsewhere on this site.
Sixways’ version of “Knives Out” made for compelling listening and was introduced by a dialogue between Partridge’s tenor sax and Morland’s guitar, with these two returning to solo in more orthodox fashion as the rest of the band joined in, with the piece gradually acquiring an almost unstoppable momentum. This was powerful stuff and represented a good point to round off the evening’s performance. An audience of around fifty, which included a couple of my mates (Hi Jim & Kevin), and which had exceeded David Logan’s initial expectations, gave the young band an excellent reception, but no encore was to be forthcoming.

My thanks to Ben Partridge for speaking with me during the interval and after the gig and for confirming set list and personnel details.

Despite the tentative start this was a good performance overall with the members of this still young band visibly growing in confidence as the show progressed. Set highlights were the Partridge originals “No Half Measures” and “Tricks You Play”, which featured the band’s most uninhibited playing. I also enjoyed, and was impressed by, the Radiohead arrangement, and of course you can’t go wrong with Sam Rivers and “Beatrice”.

In addition to being a powerful and fluent tenor sax soloist Partridge also exhibits considerable ability as a composer and arranger. Truth to tell this was probably the most inconsistent of the four RBC gigs seen at the Corn Exchange thus far, although in mitigation this was possibly the least experienced of the four bands. Nevertheless there was much to enjoy here and in Partridge the Sixways group has a leader who demonstrated considerable potential as both a player and writer.

Finally, my thanks to David Logan for inviting me to cover this event.