BMJ Collective with John Close, Black Mountain Jazz, Melville Centre, Abergavenny, 12/01/2025

Jack Mac (Jack McDougall) – tenor saxophone, Nick Kacal – double bass,  Ryan Thrupp – drums
with John Close – 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 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 guitarist Chris Cobbson.  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 JOHN CLOSE

Several of the BMJC’s collaborations in this series have been with musicians who are graduates of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (RWCMD) in Cardiff.

One such is tonight’s guest, guitarist John Close, originally from the North of England but now settled in Cardiff following his graduation from the RWCMD. In addition to performing on the South Wales jazz circuit Close also teaches guitar and co-ordinates the free Saturday morning jazz programme at the Coaltrain coffee shop and gallery in Barry.

Close had impressed the BMJ organisers when he had played in a duo with pianist Ross Hicks at the Portico Lounge bar and restaurant in September 2024 as part of the annual Wall2Wall Jazz Festival’s Sunday Community Day. The duo had performed a standards based set that had essentially functioned as background music, but the quality of Close’s playing ensured that he was invited back to play a more formal Club event in the company of the BMJ Collective. Of course Mac, Kacal and Thrupp were already familiar with Close’s playing and the Portico Lounge performance had also featured an impromptu quintet performance when Mac and two other musicians from the New Orleans style street parade band spotted Close and Hicks playing in the Lounge and dropped in for an impromptu jam session!

Close also 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 Steven Kirby, the latter a Professor at the famous Berklee College of Music. Close also appeared at Brecon as a member of the Cardiff Siglo Section Big Band, co-led by drummer Matt Lush and trumpeter Loz Collier.  The Siglo Section performance at The Guildhall was superb and represented one of the Festival highlights.

Tonight’s performance featured a selection of both well known and less familiar jazz standards chosen by Close. There was also one original tune from the pen of the aforementioned Steven Kirby.

With Mac focussing exclusively on tenor saxophone throught the evening the quartet kicked off with the standard “Out of Nowhere”, with Mac stating the theme before handing over to Close for the first solo. The young guitarist favours a clean, orthodox jazz guitar sound, and although he did have a pedalboard with him his playing was essentially effects free, which made for a refreshing change. Close is a fluent, imaginative and tasteful soloist who articulates his ideas well. His quiet, thoughtful approach contrasted well with Mac’s more direct and forceful style as they traded solos. Kacal was also featured as a soloist while Thrupp switched between brushes and sticks as the music demanded.

Next up was the Tadd Dameron composition “On A Misty Night”, a tune that was also recorded by John Coltrane. Close temporarily dropped out as the Collective briefly went into saxophone trio mode during the course of Mac’s powerful solo. Close and Kacal followed and there was also a neatly constructed drum feature from the excellent Thrupp.

Unison guitar and tenor sax melody lines introduced the Ornette Coleman tune “When Will The Blues Leave?”, these punctuated by Thrupp at the drums. Taken from Coleman’s 1958 debut album “Something Else!!!!” this was music that explored the legacy of bebop and here included imaginative solos from Close, Mac and Kacal, with Thrupp subsequently entering into a dialogue with the bassist that contained an element of musical humour, the rhythm duo’s playful approach stemming from their many years of playing together. Close later revealed that his arrangement had been inspired by a recording of the tune by the great Israeli born, New York based guitarist Gilad Hekselman, a sometime visiting tutor at RWCMD.

A passage of unaccompanied guitar introduced the ballad “The Shadow of Your Smile”, which was performed in a gentle bossa style arrangement with Mac adopting a warmer and softer sound on tenor sax as he shared the solos with Close.

The energy levels increased as the first set concluded with a performance of the Cedar Walton composition “Bolivia”, a tune that has become something of a modern jazz standard. Introduced by a passage of unaccompanied double bass the performance included more orthodox jazz solos from Close and Mac plus a drum feature from Thrupp that was played out over a recurring guitar and bass vamp. This feature served as evidence that Thrupp is an inherently musical drummer, this second carefully constructed feature incorporating the use of sticks, brushes and also bare hands.

Set two commenced with a playful and jaunty rendition of the standard “If I Were A Bell”, a song from the “Guys & Dolls” film / musical and a piece famously recorded by Miles Davis. Mac stated the theme and took the first solo, followed by Close and Kacal, with Thrupp also featuring at the drum kit.

Next up another song from a musical, “Nobody Else but Me”, written by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein for the 1946 Broadway revival of “Showboat”. Mac’s theme statement was followed by solos from guitar, tenor sax and double bass. Mac’s solo was variously exuberant, effusive and expansive. Although he plays other types of saxophone and also sings his decision to concentrate solely on tenor tonight was more than justified by some quite exceptional solos. He really was on top form this evening, as fellow writer and sometime Jazzmann contributor Nigel Jarrett observed.

So too was Close, who again shared the solos with Mac on “Without A Song”, which again saw Thrupp gravitating between brushes and sticks.

Kacal and Thrupp temporarily departed the stage as Close and Mac treated us to a delightfully beautiful and intimate duo performance of the ballad “Body and Soul”, with solo episodes from each.

The performance concluded with “On The Trail”, a piece that Close described as “a lovely little tune”. A brushed drum intro was followed by Mac’s statement of the jaunty theme, this followed by solos from Close, Mac and the always impressive Kacal. Thrupp’s brushed drum feature evolved into a dialogue with his partner in rhythm, Kacal. Mac then reprised the theme.

The enthusiastic response from an audience of around forty, a pretty decent turnout for the first gig of the year at an early evening show on a very cold night ensured that the quartet were more than happy to deliver an encore.

This proved to be the only original of the night, a ‘Rhythm Changes’ contrafact written by Steven Kirby and titled “Webop”. Close had performed the tune with Kirby at Brecon Jazz Festival when both were part of Zach Breskal’s band and the young guitarist described the piece as being “very hard to play”. Nevertheless he rose to the challenge of navigating the tricky, bebop style head, as did Mac on tenor. Both signed off with a flourish as they delivered their final solos of the night. So too did Thrupp, with a closing drum feature that combined the sounds of rolling toms and chattering snare.

This latest event in the ‘BMJ With…’ series continued to deliver the goods and compared well with previous performances. Sure, there was nothing really new here but Close and the Collective approached their chosen material with skill and flare and the standard of the playing was excellent throughout, with all four musicians also delivering some excellent individual moments in addition to functioning admirably as a unit.

Close and Mac shared the announcing duties, with Kacal also prompting the rather reticent Close to expand on his tune announcements. Close is a technically accomplished musician and a fluent and tasteful guitar soloist, but he maybe needs to work on his verbal communication skills if he is going to continue to work regularly as a bandleader. This is a minor observation that is intended to represent positive criticism. As a player there’s absolutely no doubt as to his abilities.

On the whole this was an excellent evening all round. The next ‘BMJ Collective With…’ gig will be eagerly anticipated, whoever their guest might happen to be.

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