WALL2WALL JAZZ FESTIVAL, ABERGAVENNY, 27-29 SEPTEMBER 2024

PROLOGUE;

The 2024 Wall2Wall Jazz Festival, organised by Black Mountain Jazz Club in the town of Abergavenny has just concluded and was a huge success.

The Festival featured three ticketed concerts held on consecutive evenings at BMJ’s regular base, the Theatre at the Melville Centre. The concert programme featured saxophonist and composer Hannah Horton and her quartet, trumpeter Jay Phelps and his quintet with a Miles Davis themed performance and pianist / vocalist Jeremy Sassoon and his band with their Ray Charles Project. All three ticketed events played to large and supportive audiences with two of the performances completely selling out.

In addition there were two workshop events, “Gospel and Blues” with vocalist Tanya Walker and “The Foundations of Playing and Improvising Jazz”, hosted by trombonist Gareth Roberts.

Sunday afternoon (29th September) was a free ‘Community Afternoon’ with street parades featuring samba and New Orleans bands in addition to other street music. There was also a public performance by the BMJazz Katz, BMJ’s youth jazz section and their tutors. Several pub and restaurant venues around the town also hosted live music events, a number of these being duo performances that formed part of a ‘Jazz Piano Lounge Trail’.

All three concert performances will be reviewed separately, beginning with Hannah Horton, and a feature on the Community Afternoon will follow.

HANNAH HORTON QUARTET, MELVILLE CENTRE THEATRE, 27/9/2024

Hannah Horton – tenor & baritone saxes, Sam Leak- piano, Mirko Scarcia – electric bass, Jay Davis – drums

This year’s Festival got off to an excellent start with a hugely enjoyable performance from this quartet led by saxophonist and composer Hannah Horton.

This was an event that I was particularly looking forward to after having written favourable reviews for both of Horton’s two latest albums, the studio set “Inside Out” (2021) and the concert recording “Live In Soho” (2024) which was documented at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in Dean Street. Album reviews here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/hannah-horton-inside-out
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/hannah-horton-live-in-soho

Horton’s discography also includes the earlier studio album “Forget Me Not” (2012).

All three of Horton’s albums feature the rhythm section of Rob Statham on electric bass and Nic France at the drums. John Crawford plays piano on the two studio sets with Tim Lapthorn taking over for “Live n Soho”.

Horton has a pool of musicians that she draws on for live work and tonight’s quartet featured pianist Sam Leak, a composer and bandleader in his own right, bassist Mirko Scarcia and drummer Jay Davis, all of whom acquitted themselves superbly.

Horton is a multi-instrumentalist who plays various saxophones in addition to flute, clarinet and bassoon. She studied at the Junior Guildhall School of Music and later at Trinity Laban, where her saxophone tutors included Mark Lockheart and Tim Garland.

In addition to leading her own projects she has also worked prolifically as a sidewoman with vocalists Georgia Mancio, Irene Serra, Tina May, Natalie Williams, Polly Gibbons, Esther Bennett, Fiona Ross and Ian Shaw, plus guitarists John Etheridge and Louis Thorne. As this list suggests Horton has a particular affinity with singers and her CV also includes performing alongside the late, great Amy Winehouse. Ian Shaw appears as a guest vocalist on two of the nine tracks on Horton’s “Inside Out” album.

In addition to writing and performing Horton also runs J Steps, an organisation designed to nurture the talent of musicians who identify as female or non-binary, it’s main aim being to redress the historic lack of representation of women in jazz. Based in Saffron Walden, Essex, J Steps was the winner of the Parliamentary Jazz Award for Jazz Education in 2023.

Horton describes herself as a “Melodic Maverick” and her original compositions are both accessible and adventurous, combining strong melodic themes with sophisticated rhythmic and harmonic ideas. Her albums feature a mix of original tunes and arrangements of jazz standards and other outside material, but tonight the focus was very much on Horton’s own writing and included performances of a number of new, as yet unrecorded compositions.

Typically her compositions are based on personal experiences and many of her pieces have an interesting story behind them. Horton is an extrovert personality and a good audience communicator and her frank and often humorous presenting style combined with her music to really bring those tunes to life, with the Abergavenny audience fully buying into her musical vision.

Horton’s first ever Welsh gig began with “Surfing Thermals”, a composition that appears on both the “Inside Out” and “Live in Soho” recordings. Horton says of her creation;
“Living in the country I love to lay on the grass looking skywards, watching birds of prey gliding in the air – surfing on their thermal winds. When I first moved to my thatched cottage over 10 years ago there were hardly any birds of prey in the air, now there are lots of buzzards and kites which is lovely to hear and see”.
We were invited to imagine Horton’s tenor sax as the bird soaring on the rhythmic winds generated by drummer Jay Davis. Introduced by the trio of sax, drums and electric bass Horton was quick to take flight as she delivered the first solo. Leak, who had entered late into the fray, followed at the piano. An exciting group performance then concluded with a thrilling set piece as Horton and Davis entered into a scintillating dialogue with her tenor soaring above his colourful drum pattens.

“Escape” also appears on both the “Inside Out and “Live in Soho” albums. Written as a paean to the delights of going on holiday to warmer climes this piece saw Horton moving to baritone sax and delivering a solo that exhibited her remarkable agility and fluency on the instrument. Leak followed on a lively,  upbeat tune with something of a jazz calypso feel about it. There was also an electric bass feature from the impressive Scarcia, the only member of the quartet whose playing I wasn’t previously familiar with.

Inspired by memories of childhood holidays “Star Gazing” is a tune dating back to the “Forget Me Not” album. It was introduced by an extended passage of unaccompanied piano from the excellent Leak, a hypnotic keyboard excursion incorporating arpeggios and ringing overtones. A Keith Jarrett like melodic theme eventually emerged with Davis deploying brushes for the first time and transitioning between these and sticks as the music required. Horton took the first solo on tenor sax, followed by a more orthodox excursion from Leak on piano. Horton subsequently returned to restate the theme.

Horton is a Selmer Saxophones sponsored artist and was invited to visit the company’s factory in Paris. Here she acquired a magnificent new baritone sax that she christened “Belle”. Such is the projective power of the instrument that she plays it with a deflector in front of the bell, designed to deflect the sound back to Horton so that she can hear her own playing.
Horton has written a new, as yet unrecorded tune for this magnificent beast named “Belle’s Blues”. Described by its composer as a “dirty boogie shuffle” this was a piece that gave Horton the chance to demonstrate the instrument’s capabilities as she deployed the kind of raunchy, earthy sound that is perhaps most associated with the baritone. But as she demonstrated later in the evening the instrument is also capable of considerable finesse, especially in the hands of such a skilled practitioner as Horton. Here “Belle” shared the solos with Leak at the piano, with Scarcia providing a brief high register electric bass cameo that provided the link into Davis’ drum feature. Horton later informed us that the piece had also been inspired by the work of organist and composer Shirley Scott, a bandleader in her own right and also the wife of the celebrated saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, the latter also a source of inspiration for Horton.

“Keep Walking” is a tune that appears on both the “Inside Out” and “Live in Soho” albums. Despite being inspired by the breakdown of Horton’s marriage it’s a confident, upbeat tune of which she has said;
“This is about moving on, not looking back, and knowing it is the right move for your freedom, independence, soul and resilience. It was inspired by my divorce and learning to navigate a new path and trust my own judgement in my own skin. The track has a kind of strutting groove, a forward motion and a bit of fun too.”
Those qualities were inherent in tonight’s performance, not just of this piece but overall. Here Horton reverted to tenor, sharing the solos with pianist Leak as Scarcia and the consistently excellent Davis supplied the necessary grooves.

The first set concluded with another as yet unrecorded original. Variously inspired by English folk and Indian musics this was a piece that saw Horton moving back to baritone to solo with an astonishing fluency above a complex 5/4 rhythmic groove. Her tone was softer than on the earlier “Belle’s Blues” and this was a piece that truly demonstrated her mastery of the instrument. It was only fitting that she should be playing directly in front of an image of the late, great Gerry Mulligan, an undisputed doyen of the baritone saxophone, whose photograph adorns one of the pop up posters forming part of BMJ’s “Jazz Through The Ages” exhibition. Elsewhere we heard a piano solo from Leak and a drummer-less trio episode featuring sax, piano and bass that was inspired by the type of ‘round’ found in traditional English folk music. The piece then ended with an extended sax and drum battle inspired by Indian music. In a way this represented something of a reprise of the sax and drum dialogue on the opening “Surfing Thermals”. It certainly represented a highly exciting way to conclude an excellent first set.

Set two commenced with Horton’s highly effective jazz arrangement of the song “Feed The Birds” from the film “Mary Poppins”. The saxophonist has said of her adaptation;
“I love the musical Mary Poppins, but this song always a made me feel sad. When we went into the first Covid 19 lockdown I experimented with different vibes and grooves and came up with this, the band liked it, so we kept it! The track opens with a sax cadenza, inspired by birds flying up and down. I hope it makes you feel happy!”
Again the piece appears on both “Inside Out” and “Live in Soho” and tonight began with the promised unaccompanied tenor sax cadenza, followed by more conventional jazz solos from both Horton and Leak, these two then entering into an animated series of sax and piano exchanges towards the close.

Another new tune, “Peace Speak” was inspired by the need for greater tolerance and understanding, both on the personal and broader political levels. Horton left it to bassist Scarcia to set up the tune, his unaccompanied electric bass intro gradually evolving into a subtly funky groove to which Davis’ drums added a Latin-esque flourish. This provided the platform for powerful and expansive solos from Horton on baritone and Leak at the piano, their excursions followed by a Davis drum feature.

Another new tune, “Remembering Mr. Gone” was written by Horton following the passing of the great saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter (1933-2023), “Mr. Gone” also being the title of a 1978 Weather Report album featuring the late Shorter. Featuring the composer on baritone sax this was a wistful, appropriately elegiac piece with a subtle gospel tinge. Horton stated the theme before soloing more expansively, eventually handing over to Leak before taking up the reins once more.

Following two recently written compositions the next, “Forget Me Not”, dates back to 2012 and was the title track of Horton’s debut album. It also appears on “Live in Soho” with Horton commenting in her album notes;

“I wrote this piece in dedication to my gran after she died. She was an amazing lady and I loved going to stay with her when I was a child. She was very green-fingered and loved her greenhouse and garden. I always remember the smell of her greenhouse with tomatoes growing inside. But…’tomatoes’ isn’t a great name for a tune! So her other love was forget me nots. I love to grow these in my garden in her memory. I’m not too sure she would’ve liked a funk tune, but I do know she would’ve loved having a tune written for her.”
Tonight we also learned that Horton’s gran had been a Land Army girl and that this was probably where she learned her gardening skills! As promised the tune was suitably funky with Scarcia both laying down the groove and sharing the solos with the leader’s baritone sax.

The next piece was also a dedication, the new tune “Whisper”, which was written for Horton’s new partner, Nick, who acts as the group’s driver and who was present in tonight’s audience. This began as a jazz ballad, beautifully played on baritone sax and with Davis again wielding the brushes with great sensitivity. As the music gradually gathered momentum Leak took over to solo at the piano.

In addition to her obvious love of jazz Horton is also a fan of traditional English folk music. “Horn Dance” closes the “Live in Soho” album and also appears on the “Inside Out” recording. It was also scheduled to conclude the show here. In her notes for “Live in Soho” Horton says of her arrangement;

“This is an arrangement of my favourite morris dance melodies, danced by the Thaxted Morris Men. This dance is always the final dance of the Morris Men weekend in Thaxted where many troops from all round the UK come together and dance all weekend. The village is plunged into darkness and you can hear the melody played on the violin before you see the dancers. It is a very magical and eerie experience.”
This “slow horn dance with a twist” is delivered in a speeded up arrangement  that Horton tonight described as “Morris Men on Acid”. It was introduced by the duo of Horton on baritone and Davis at the drums, a sparkling combination throughout the evening. Featuring frantic folk melodies and hyperactive rhythms tonight’s performance also included an electric bass solo from Scarcia and a final baritone sax solo from the leader, a last powerful outing on the ‘big horn’.

Such was the quality of the performance that an encore was inevitable. Horton was justifiably disappointed that one member of the audience had asked during the break “why don’t you play more standards?”. Everybody else, including your correspondent, was more than happy with the original material that had been presented but the personable Horton isn’t the kind of musician that likes to disappoint anybody. So, in order to appease any doubters she reached into her back catalogue with an arrangement of the ever versatile Juan Tizol / Duke Ellington composition “Caravan”, a tune that Horton recorded for her “Forget Me Not” album. Ushered in by Davis at the drums this was piece that featured Horton on tenor and which included another extended drum feature from Davis. This was another high energy group performance that ensured that EVERYBODY went home happy.

This was an excellent gig that featured intelligent and varied original writing, with each tune telling a story. The standard of the playing from all four musicians was exceptional throughout and Horton’s vivacious personality and often humorous presenting style endeared her to the audience and her stories about the various sources of inspiration behind the tunes helped to put the music into context. Everybody in a supportive and enthusiastic audience of around fifty or so was hugely impressed by Horton’s playing, particularly of the baritone sax. It really was the complete package and a performance that fully vindicated Debs Hancock’s decision to invite Horton to Wall2Wall and which certainly got the 2024 Festival off to a great start.

My thanks to Hannah for speaking with me during the interval and after the show, for signing my copy of “Live in Soho” and for gifting me a copy of “Forget Me Not” the only item in her catalogue that I hadn’t previously heard. Thanks again Hannah.

Also to Sam Leak, a hugely versatile pianist and all round keyboard player and a musician that I have enjoyed seeing perform in a variety of different jazz contexts over the years. He represents one of the great unsung heroes of British jazz.

 

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