BMJ Collective with Denny Ilett, Black Mountain Jazz, Melville Centre, Abergavenny, 13/04/2025.

Jack Mac (Jack McDougall) – tenor sax, Nick Kacal – double bass. Ryan Thrupp – drums
with guest   Denny Ilett – guitar

PROLOGUE

BMJ Collective is essentially the house band of Black Mountain Jazz.

Originally formed in 2021 for that year’s ‘hybrid’ Wall2Wall Jazz Festival the line-up has undergone a number of personnel changes and currently features founder member Jack Mac on reeds and occasional vocals, together with Nick Kacal on double bass and Ryan Thrupp at the drums.

Mac, Kacal and Thrupp also act as tutors at the BMJazzKatz sessions which bring young people  together for regular jazz sessions at the Melville Centre, with the intention of forming a youth big band. Mac is heading the programme and the Katz, together with their tutors, have already made three public performances, two of which have been covered elsewhere on this site.

The idea of the tutors then performing for the public in the evening following the Sunday afternoon sessions is not only for ticket sales to contribute towards the teaching costs, but also for the students to see their tutors performing at their best and embodying the JazzKatz motto of “work, play, inspire”.

As these BMJ Collective gigs have now become regular events it is intended that a different guest musician will be invited to perform with the group each time. To date the   ‘BMJ Collective With’ series has featured vocalist Sarah Meek, pianists Ross Hicks Michael Blanchfield, Tom Berge and Anders Olinder, trumpeter Gethin Liddington and guitarists Chris Cobbson and John Close  Founding member Alex Goodyear also returned for a guest appearance at the drum kit, temporarily replacing Ryan Thrupp. All of these performances have been hugely enjoyable events and each has been reviewed elsewhere on The Jazzmann.

Every performance in the series has included an interesting selection of material sourced from the jazz canon and beyond, the majority of it chosen, or written, by the guest performer. All of the gigs have exceeded my expectations, representing far more than the usual obligatory or perfunctory ‘house trio with guest soloist’ session.   As I have previously observed,  “this is a series of events that continues to punch well above its weight”.

BMJ COLLECTIVE with DENNY ILETT

The majority of BMJC’s guests have been based in South Wales or the Borders, many of them with close affiliations to the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) in Cardiff.

The March 2025 event saw them expanding their geographical horizons with a visit from the London based pianist and vocalist Hilary Cameron, a performance that is reviewed here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/bmj-collective-with-hilary-cameron-black-mountain-jazz-melville-centre-abergavenny-09-03-2025

April saw them reaching out to Bristol and guitarist Denny Ilett, a musician who has previously visited Black Mountain Jazz on more than one occasion as a member of the band Moscow Drug Club. He was also part of Bristol based vocalist Victoria Klewin’ s band at a Blossom Dearie themed show presented by BMJ at the Melville Centre in September 2019.

Other musicians with whom Ilett has worked include fellow guitarist Remi Harris, saxophonist / clarinettist Giacomo Smith and alto saxophonist James Morton’s Porkchop band.

Ilett is a highly versatile musician capable of performing across a variety of jazz guitar styles and also likes to rock out as the leader of his own Electric Lady Big Band, a sixteen piece Bristol based ensemble dedicated to the playing of jazz arrangements of Jimi Hendrix tunes. I recall experiencing a suitably electrifying performance by this group at the 2022 Cheltenham Jazz Festival which is reviewed as part of my Festival coverage here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/sunday-at-cheltenham-jazz-festival-01-05-2022

In addition to his skills as a guitarist Ilett is also an accomplished vocalist and by all accounts does a mean Frank Sinatra impersonation, but there was to be no singing tonight.

Instead this evening’s performance primarily featured Ilett in the role of jazz guitarist, playing a solid bodied arch top guitar in an orthodox jazz guitar style reminiscent of such players as Wes Mongomery, Kenny Burrell, Barney Kessell etc. However as he began to establish a rapport with the trio he branched out in the second half, bringing elements of blues and rock (Hendrix, natch) into the repertoire, but more on that later.

The quartet kicked off with an untitled Ilett composition that for the purposes of this performance the guitarist dubbed “Black Mountain Blues”. This was distinguished by its lively bebop flavoured melody lines and Ilett’s nimble guitar soloing. He favoured a clean, orthodox guitar sound and totally eschewed the use of FX pedals, even during the Hendrix number in the second set. Ilett’s solo was followed by Mac’s on tenor sax. It was the second time I’d seen Mac and Kacal in as many days. On Saturday Mac had fronted his own Full House Brass Band at Brecon Jazz Festival’s Springtime ‘Taster Day’ mini-festival, while Kacal had been part of Cardiff based alto saxophonist Glen Manby’s trio at the same event. Kacal was also featured as a double bass soloist prior to a series of exchanges between Mac and Ilett with drummer Ryan Thrupp. A lively and invigorating start.

A passage of unaccompanied guitar ushered in the jazz standard “Secret Love” in an arrangement given an agreeable Latin twist thanks to the patter of Thrupp’s hand drumming. Ilett and Mac shared the melody line on the main theme statement before diverging to deliver expansive individual solos, with Mac going first. Kacal was featured with a melodic double bass solo underscored by Ilett’s sparse guitar chording and the soft rumble of Thrupp’s mallets.

The stage was adorned with an image of Django Reinhardt which appeared on one of the panels from BMJ’s ‘Jazz Through The Ages  ‘ exhibition. The presence of the “influential and innovative” Reinhardt inspired Ilett to call an arrangement of “Nuages”, arguably Reinhardt’s most famous composition. A distinctive and imaginative treatment of the tune commenced with a passage of unaccompanied guitar, subsequently joined by brushed drums and double bass. Mac then added a soft, smoky tenor sax melody. Kacal took the first solo on bass, followed by Ilett on guitar and Mac on tenor, the saxophonist adding a touch of musical humour with a quote from “Pop Goes the Weasel”. A closing guitar cadenza was accompanied by the sounds of arco bass and cymbal shimmers.

Guitar, bass and drums introduced an arrangement of Cole Porter’s “Love For Sale” with Thrupp deploying a combination of mallet and stick.  Ilett then stated the theme, subsequently joined by Mac’s tenor. Ilett took the first solo, with Thrupp graduating to sticks as the momentum began to build, the music becoming even more powerful as Mac took over on tenor, with the group switching into saxophone trio mode. Thrupp’s extended drum feature demonstrated his shrewd command of form and dynamics, building from quiet beginnings and adding a dash of musical humour towards the close.

In an unexpected move Ilett decided to close the first set with a ballad, an arrangement of “Polka Dots and Moonbeams” inspired by a recorded version by his “favourite guitarist” Wes Montgomery. Introduced by guitar, bass and drums, with Thrupp deploying brushes, this was a ‘short but sweet’ performance that incorporated concise solos from Mac and Ilett,  plus an unaccompanied guitar cadenza at the close.

The second set started in lively fashion with an arrangement of the Antonio Carlos Jobim tune “So Danco Samba”, introduced by vigorously strummed guitar, soon joined by bass and drums. Blending the sounds of Brazil with bebop this featured solos from Ilett and Mac and a drum feature from Thrupp distinguished by the sounds of sticks on rims, plus a later series of exchanges between Thrupp and Kacal.

We remained in Brazil for a version of “Manhã de Carnaval”  (aka “Black Orpheus) by the Brazilian composer Luiz Bonfa. This popular and much loved tune had also been played at Brecon the previous day as part of a solo performance by the Cardiff based jazz harpist Ben Creighton-Griffiths. Ilett and BMJC tackled the tune in a more obviously ‘Brazilian’ way than they had “So Danco Samba” with bossa rhythms underpinning Mac’s theme statement and solo, this followed by further solo excursions from Ilett and Kacal, with the bassist also briefly flourishing the bow at the close following Mac’s restatement of the theme.

The jazz standard “Softly As In A Morning Sunrise” was tackled in an up-tempo, bebop style with Ilett and Mac exchanging melody lines prior to a nimble Ilett solo fuelled by Kacal’s propulsive bass lines and Thrupp’s crisp drumming. Mac’s tenor solo saw the ensemble temporarily back in sax trio mode, his playing powerful, fluent and increasingly ecstatic. Thrupp rounded things off with an extended solo drum feature that was again artfully constructed.

An increasingly confident Ilett suggested that the group improvise around a blues form in the key of G, declaring “let’s make it up and see what happens”. This was a slow blues introduced in guitar trio format but with a smoky, blues tinged tenor sax solo following, with Mac’s playing becoming increasingly raucous as he really started getting into it. Kacal’s bass solo cooled the temperature a little before Ilett took over on guitar, underscored by Mac’s tenor.

The positive audience reaction to this overtly bluesy piece then prompted Ilett to call a Hendrix tune in a nod to one of his other projects. I suspect that this had not been pre-planned but the BMJC were more than up for it and together the quartet delivered a blistering performance of “Cross Town Traffic”, with Ilett’s strummed introduction directing the way to go as Mac blasted out the familiar melodic hook on tenor and undertook the first solo. Ilett then took over on guitar as the group switched to guitar trio mode, albeit with the occasional sax interjection. The lack of FX pedals didn’t detract from the intensity of Ilett’s playing and the performance also included a solo from Kacal plus Thrupp’s imaginative use of a drum stick adorned with jingles, allowing him to maintain the beat in addition to affecting a tambourine sound – a “jingle stick”, if you will.

The audience absolutely loved this and there was no denying that even in the light of the fine bebop style guitar playing that we had heard that this was still definitely a set highlight, and for most people probably the standout moment of the entire evening.

Nevertheless the deserved encore marked a return to the bebop repertoire and a breezy run through the Dizzy Gillespie composition “Ow!”, which included solo features for all four participants.

Ilett’s announcements carried just the right amount of information and were presented with a dry and ready wit. His playing was exceptional throughout, dexterous and fluent and also inherently tasteful, although capable of generating an admirable degree of raunch when required, as on the blues and Hendrix numbers, but without recourse to a battery of effects.

As ever the core BMJ trio responded well to their guest and made some excellent contributions of their own, both individually and collectively. This represented yet another excellent ‘BMJC with…’ event. As the Collective spread their net wider this is a series that still continues to deliver.

 

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