Brecon Jazz Festival 2015

Kenny Barron / Dave Holland Duo, Theatr Brycheiniog, 07/08/2015.

A hugely successful 2015 Brecon Jazz Festival commenced with a wonderful performance from two living legends of the genre, American pianist Kenny Barron and the great bassist Dave Holland, born in Wolverhampton in 1946 but long resident in the US after famously being “headhunted” by no less a jazz luminary than Miles Davis in the late 1960s.

Following his stint with the Davis band, during which time he appeared on classic albums such as “In A Silent Way” and “Bitches Brew”, Holland worked with saxophonists Stan Getz and Sam Rivers and has also led many groups of his own building up an impressive catalogue of recordings including many for the prestigious ECM label.  He is now the proprietor of his own Dare2 record label and is still a phenomenally productive musician and composer whose credits as both leader and sideman have seen him collaborating with a veritable who’s who of jazz and appearing on a total of nearly two hundred albums.

One of Holland’s most productive partnerships of recent years has been with the veteran pianist Kenny Barron (born 1943). Barron also played with Getz as well as with saxophonist Yusef Lateef, bassist Ron Carter and trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Freddie Hubbard. He has been a prolific sideman but has also accumulated an impressive back catalogue of recordings as a leader. I’ll admit to knowing rather less about Barron than about Holland, the pianist has been described as “the perfect sideman” and as a leader his profile has perhaps not been quite synonymous with the enormity of his talent.

In 2014 these two comparative elder statesmen came together to record what is still Holland’s latest release, a beautiful duo album called “The Art Of Conversation”. On the evidence of tonight’s performance the title is particularly apt. In the superb acoustic environment of Brecon’s Theatr Brycheiniog Barron and Holland produced a veritable masterclass in the art of duo playing, their rapport relaxed, intelligent, intimate and conversational with no one musician dominating and with the spirit of true musical dialogue at the heart of the performances. Some, but by no means all, of the material was sourced from the recent album with the duo playing an interesting and entertaining mix of original and outside material. The announcements were shared by the duo, Holland speaking with a curious but warm Mid Atlantic accent and Barron revealing a dry, wry wit. The performance was almost entirely acoustic with only minimum miking and amplification. It has to be said that the grand piano at the venue, a Yamaha, sounded absolutely wonderful as did Holland’s distinctive, truncated , cello like acoustic bass. 

The pair began with Holland’s original “The Oracle”, sourced from the recent album. Introduced by Holland’s unaccompanied bass the piece developed slowly and unhurriedly with Barron subsequently joining the conversation but with both musicians producing further passages of entirely solo playing as the piece unfolded. Mutual respect and allowing each other room for self expression were central to this ethos of the duo, qualities that should be mirrored in all human conversation but which so frequently are not.

Also from the album came “Segment”, a Charlie Parker tune that Holland said the duo “just loved to play”. Explaining their fondness for the piece Holland remarked that it was now sixty five years old yet still sounded thoroughly modern. Here the conversation became more animated as the duo tackled the complexities of Parker’s tricky, boppish theme with aplomb, generating a commendable amount of swing and drive from just two instruments. Their shared joy of playing this tune was evident in Holland’s “yeah!” of approbation during Barron’s sparkling solo and in the dazzling series of exchanges that ended the piece.

Holland dedicated his tune “Waltz For Wheeler” (it appears on the album under the title “Waltz For K.W.”) to his old friend and musical colleague the late trumpeter and composer Kenny Wheeler (1930 -2014).  He also paid tribute to the recently deceased British pianist John Taylor who died suddenly and tragically aged seventy two. The tune itself was a delightfully lyrical and melodic tribute/lament honouring two of the greatest musicians to have emerged from the UK jazz scene during the last half century.

Barron took over the mic to announce his own tune “Calypso” explaining that when he first moved to New York City from his hometown of Philadelphia in 1961 he immediately fell in love with the music of the large Caribbean community that was living in Brooklyn at that time. With its self explanatory title Barron’s piece was playful and cheerful with an infectious Caribbean styled melody that provided the jumping off point for an exuberant solo from the composer followed by a virtuoso solo bass excursion from Holland. It seemed to me that this hugely enjoyable piece could be viewed as a close companion to Sonny Rollins’ celebrated modern standard “St. Thomas”.

The duo undertook a brief whispered conversation before deciding on Irving Berlin’s “How Deep Is The Ocean?” as the next item in the programme. Barron introduced the piece with a lengthy passage of solo piano before allowing Holland a similar amount of space for his own solo, the pianist occasionally offering sparse but sympathetic comping but more often sitting out entirely. After each member had made his own individual statement the two musicians came together to close the piece with a delightful series of exchanges, the conversation this time entirely musical.

Returning to the album repertoire after a two song break Barron introduced his tune “Rain Rain”, a piece written following his experience at a retreat in the Catskills in upper New York State where the weather did just that for an entire week. That can happen in Brecon too - but not this weekend! The tune itself was just lovely with a delicate melody that expressed a sense of sweet melancholy and which saw the pianist making maximum use of the spaces between the notes. It actually sounded very European and would have been totally at home on an ECM album. Holland’s delightfully melodic bass solo retained the mood and for many of the audience members that I spoke to this was one of the highlights of the entire set.

Barron retained the compositional reins for the final number of the set, a piece entitled “What If?”.
A lengthy solo piano introduction made allusions to the writing and playing of Thelonious Monk, something that continued with the statement of the main theme and Barron’s subsequent explorations within the duo format. Holland’s unaccompanied bass feature was another tour de force from one of the most fluent and imaginative bass soloists around, he almost makes it all look TOO easy. 

The duo got a terrific reception from a knowledgeable early evening crowd and even though the house lights came up they returned for a totally unexpected encore, Barron adding an element of playfulness to Victor Young’s tune “Beautiful Love”. In the spirit of true democracy both musicians took succinct solos before they coalesced one last time for a final statement of the theme.

Although I’ve seen Holland perform live before, notably with Pat Metheny and Roy Haynes in Brecon in 1992 and more recently with flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela at Cheltenham Jazz Festival in 2012 it was the first time I’d seen Barron. I have to say that I was hugely impressed with the pianist individually, as I was with Holland, but as a team the sum was even greater than that of the parts. Despite there being just two instruments the time just seemed to fly by and the audience were totally engrossed by the spellbinding musicianship that was exhibited in a very well chosen and balanced programme. It was the most compelling duo performance I’ve seen since 2007 when I was lucky enough to witness vibraphonist Gary Burton and pianist Chick Corea delight a capacity audience at The Barbican. 

Barron and Holland got Brecon Jazz 2015 off to a great start and set a very high standard for the rest of the festival. I have to say that although few of the events that I saw could quite match this there was still some superb music to come and I wasn’t disappointed with anything that I saw over the course of the weekend. Reviews of a further nine performances by musicians from a variety of nationalities will follow.

Finally an aside - shortly afterwards as I stood on a street corner eating a bag of chips - a quick feeding stop prior to attending the next event - Dave Holland and his lady walked past looking very relaxed. I’m used to seeing off duty musicians wandering around the streets of Brecon but rarely quite such a big jazz name as this. Nobody bothered him. The revellers who pack Brecon for a weekend on the piss probably didn’t know who he was, the jazz aficionados nodded their heads sagely saying “there goes old Dave” and respected his privacy. It was a salutary reminder of what makes jazz so special and what sets it apart from modern celebrity culture.