BMJ Collective with Gethin Liddington,  Celebrate the Gerry Mulligan-Chet Baker Quartet, Black Mountain Jazz, Melville Centre, Abergavenny, 09/02/2025.

Jack Mac (Jack McDougall) – baritone sax, Nick Kacal – double bass. Ryan Thrupp – drums
with guest Gethin Liddington – trumpet

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 BMJazz Katz 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 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 GETHIN LIDDINGTON

Several of the BMJC’s collaborations in this series have been with musicians who are recent graduates of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (RWCMD) in Cardiff. Tonight’s guest, trumpeter Gethin Liddington, also studied at the RWCMD but is from a rather older vintage. He has been a mainstay of the Welsh jazz scene for many years and is capable of playing across all jazz genres from trad to the avant garde.

Liddington has recorded with bands led by trombonist Gareth Roberts, pianist Dave Jones and bassist Paula Gardiner. He has been a featured soloist with the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) Big Band, the Cardiff based Capital City Jazz Orchestra and the one off Slice of Jazz Orchestra that performed at the 2017 Brecon Jazz Festival. Liddington’s avant garde credentials include performances and recordings with ensembles led by pianist Keith Tippett and saxophonist Paul Dunmall.

Liddington has formed a particularly productive alliance with fellow South Walian trumpeter Ceri Williams. Liddington has played in Williams’ New Era Reborn Brass Band and the pair have also fronted Chop Idols, a supremely entertaining quintet that pays homage to trumpet greats such as Clark Terry and Dizzy Gillespie, whilst also bringing plenty of themselves to the music. Chop Idols proved to be popular visitors when they performed at BMJ in March 2018.

In July 2018 Liddington returned to Abergavenny with his group Goodkatz, a five piece ensemble dedicated to playing the music 1920s, 30s and 40s and promising “feel good, infectious, toe-tapping jazz”. Goodkatz also includes  saxophonist/clarinettist Ceri Rees, leader of the Capital City Jazz Orchestra,.  Chop Idols pianist Richard West and a rhythm section featuring double bassist Donnie Joe Sweeney and drummer Greg Evans.

For tonight’s show with the BMJC Liddington had decided to pay tribute to the famous ‘piano-less’ quartet co-led by baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and trumpeter Chet Baker in the early 1950s, one of the first of its kind and one that was to prove to be highly influential.

It was unusual to see Mac, who plays all the members of the saxophone family, specialising on baritone rather than his more usual tenor. It was his first time playing bari exclusively on a gig and it was a challenge that he rose to with considerable aplomb. Meanwhile Liddington focussed solely on trumpet, no flugel tonight, as the quartet took the repertoire of the Mulligan / Baker Quartet and beyond as the inspiration and basis for their own improvisatory explorations.

They opened up with the modern jazz standard “Bernie’s Tune”, a piece that I also recall being played by the Birmingham based jazz trumpeter Bryan Corbett. Liddington and Mac worked well together in tandem, sometimes playing unison melodies, at other diverging to explore various elements of counterpoint. There were also expansive solos from both Mac and Liddington, both players exhibiting an impressive fluency on their respective instruments. Kacal and Thrupp were also liberally featured, at one point the latter actually sketched the melody on his drums.

Counted in by Kacal a surprisingly rapid “Darn That Dream” was paced by a vigorous bass walk and briskly brushed drum, above which Liddington and Mac delivered dovetailing melody lines. Again Mac delivered the first solo, displaying an impressive agility on the sometimes lugubrious baritone sax. Liddington’s silver toned fluency on the trumpet is a given and he was at his best here. There was also a short cameo on the bass from Kacal before the close.

The Kenny Dorham composition “Blue Bossa” brought about a change in style with an extended introduction from Thrupp at the drum kit that evolved into a bossa style groove. This was a piece that the BMJC had worked on earlier in the day with the young JazzKatz and with some of the youngsters present in the audience they were understandably keen for them to see it performed for the public. Liddington’s blues inflected melody lines were shadowed by Mac’s baritone, as was his more expansive solo. Liddington then returned the compliment as Mac stretched out on bari. Kacal followed at the bass, superseded by Thrupp at the drums,  who variously deployed brushes, sticks, bare hands and mallets during varying stages of the tune. Thrupp’s drum feature evolved into an increasingly complex set of exchanges with Liddington and mac before the two horn men played us out, still exploring elements of counterpoint. It really was an excellent, and highly imaginative version of this much loved tune.

The ballad “Moonlight in Vermont” featured Liddington at his most Baker-esque and included a trumpet solo accompanied only by the double bass of the consistently impressive Kacal. This intimacy was also reflected in the contributions of Mac and Kacal, the former also featuring as a soloist, the latter sensitively deploying brushes almost throughout.

The first set concluded with a version of the much loved standard “All The Things You Are”, an extended and surprisingly powerful rendition that included individual features for all four musicians.

Set two commenced with the trio of Mac, Kacal and Thrupp introducing “Lullaby Of The Leaves”, with Liddington then joining to add a complementary trumpet melody line. Liddington then took the first solo followed by Mac on baritone, at one juncture accompanied by Thrupp’s drums only. The rhythm team were also granted individual features, with Thrupp’s drum solo particularly neat in its construction.

The Charlie Parker composition “Au Privave”, with its complex, blues derived ‘head’ provided the opportunity for the two horns to duck and dive as they dovetailed above a combination of Kacal’s rapid bass walk and Thrupp’s crisp drumming. At one point bass and drums dropped out as trumpet and bari continued to intertwine, only to return with a renewed momentum. Individual solos came from Mac, Liddington and Kacal, followed by a brushed drum feature from Thrupp before the horns continued their musical jousting towards the close.

A suitably playful, uptempo version of “Makin’ Whoopee” was introduced by baritone sax and slap bass, with drums and trumpet subsequently added. The horns then continued their musical jousting, whilst injecting a little welcome bluesiness into the proceedings. Liddington, Mac and Kacal were all featured individually, with the horns renewing their sparring on the outro.

A stunning rendition of “My Funny Valentine” saw Mac and Kacal skilfully exploring the deep,  low register sonorities made possible by the combination of baritone saxophone and bowed double bass. In conjunction with Thrupp’s mallet rumbles these formed an effective contrast with Liddington’s plaintive trumpet melodies on this most of loved of ballads. Although this piece incorporated a solo trumpet cadenza and was essentially a feature for Liddington’s exceptional ballad playing the skill displayed by his colleagues in the provision of such an effective backdrop should not be underestimated.

The second set concluded with the quartet upping the tempo again on “Love For Sale”, introduced by Thrupp at the drums, who subsequently combined with Kacal to create a buoyant, rolling groove, this becoming the vehicle for Liddington’s theme statement and subsequent variations, these underscored by Mac’s baritone. However it was the saxophonist who took the first solo, followed by Liddington and then by Kacal, whose solo evolved into a dialogue with Thrupp. Liddington and Mac then ‘traded fours’ with the drummer before guest Liddington rounded things off with a final trumpet cadenza.

A supportive, enthusiastic and pleasingly sizeable audience gave the quartet an excellent reception and the deserved encore was “Jersey Bounce”, which featured more scintillating horn interplay above a strutting bass and drum groove. Individual solos came from Liddington and Mac, followed by a further episode that saw the horns ‘chasing’ each other. Kacal took an unaccompanied bass solo before the horns returned for the ‘head’. A great, high energy way to round off a very enjoyable evening of music.

Tonight’s gig was the latest success in the ‘BMJC With’ series with an excellent audience turn out complementing some excellent music. That it took place at all was a credit to Liddington, who was obviously unwell, a chest infection or similar, but still played admirably, although understandably a little short of his best. With this in mind he left the announcing duties to Mac, a role in which the saxophonist and educator is always confident. As ever at these events the standard of the playing was uniformly excellent, but for me the head-standards-head format did get a little too predictable at times. That said this was the music of more than seventy years ago and the business of tonight’s band wasn’t radical re-invention. Nevertheless the quality of the playing, including the features for bass and drums helped to keep things interesting. Kacal and Thrupp are highly intelligent and imaginative soloists and their bass and drum features are highly musical and never dull, there’s always something for the listener to focus on.

Well done to the BMJC (and Gethin Liddington) for another successful collaboration. We look forward to the visit of their next guest.

 

 

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