Terence Collie Trio & Guests, Brecon Jazz Club, The Muse Arts Centre, Brecon, 10/12/2024.

Terence Collie – piano, Paula Gardiner – double bass, Matt Skeaping – drums

with guests;

Janet McCunn, Jenny Jones – vocals, Jodie Denniss – alto sax, Kathryn Powell – clarinet, Robert Parker, Deborah Glenister – tenor sax, Dave Favis-Mortlock – violin, vocals

Terence Collie is a pianist, composer, educator and promoter based in west London. 

In addition to his work as a musician he is also a promoter and in conjunction with vocalist Janet McCunn presents a series of regular jazz events at a variety of locations in the Greater London area under the name Mood Indigo Events (MIE). Many of these feature him leading the house band in the company of top quality visiting instrumentalists and vocalists.

MIE and Brecon Jazz have established close links since they began collaborating during the Covid period and have hosted live streams from each others’ venues as part of Brecon Jazz Festival.

In addition Collie visited Brecon Jazz Festival in 2022 and performed a superb set with his Panoply Trio featuring bassist Marianne Windham and drummer Caroline Boaden at The Castle Hotel. My review of this show can be found as part of my Festival coverage here.
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/brecon-jazz-festival-2022-main-weekend-friday-12th-august-2022

The pianist was also part of the quartet that guitarist Edison Herbert brought to the same venue at the 2023 Brecon Jazz Festival. Coverage of that event can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/brecon-jazz-festival-2023-main-weekend-friday-11th-august-2023

The Jazzmann has also favourably reviewed two of Collie’s albums, the solo piano set “Reminiscent” (released March 2023) and the quartet recording “384,400, which was issued later in the same year. The full band album features Collie alongside tenor saxophonist Roberto Manzin, bassist Nick Lenner-Webster and drummer Ted Carrasco.
  https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/terence-collie-reminiscent
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/terence-collie-384400

Collie has released two previous quartet albums with his band Prison Break, featuring saxophonist Ritchie Garrison, bassist Joe Sam and drummer John Sam. “Doing Time” appeared in 2011 with “And Again” following in 2013.

His next project was a three piece featuring clarinettist / saxophonist Matt Dibble and bassist Nick Lenner-Webster, this line up releasing the self explanatory “Trio” in 2017.

2018’s “TC3+” saw a core trio of Collie, bassist Paul Michael and drummer Rha Stranges augmented by string players Agata Kubiak (violin), Raisa Zapryanova (viola) and Andrea Derdák (cello).

Tonight’s line up was one trio brought together by Lynne Gornall and Roger Cannon of Brecon Jazz Club that featured Collie and London based drummer Matt Skeaping alongside Cardiff based bassist Paula Gardiner, former Head of Jazz at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and one of the most respected jazz musicians in South Wales and beyond.

For this last BJC events before Christmas it was decided to invite several prominent local musicians along to play with the trio and the second half of the evening was essentially a good natured jam session that saw a rotating cast of instrumentalists and vocalists taking to the stage to perform with the trio.

The first set featured a more formal performance by the trio, with just one number featuring the vocals of Collie’s MIE colleague, Janet McCunn. In the spirit of previous BJC / MIE collaborations the event was also being livestreamed.

The evening commenced with the trio’s version of the standard “Softly As In A Morning Sunrise” with Collie stating the theme and taking the first solo. He was playing an electric keyboard on an acoustic piano setting, which for the purposes of this review I will refer to as a ‘piano’. Gardiner was also featured as a soloist, and there was also a series of brushed drum breaks from Skeaping. Although I’ve seen both Collie and Gardiner performing live on numerous previous occasions this was my first sighting of Skeaping and I was very impressed by his playing, which was crisp, accurate and swinging, sensitive when required and basically ‘on the money’ at all times.

An arrangement of Duke Ellington’s “Take The A Train” was introduced by a passage of unaccompanied piano that simulated the rumble of engine wheels. Collie’s subsequent solo was fuelled by Gardiner’s propulsive bass lines and Skeaping’s swinging rhythms, with the drummer this time deploying sticks. The always impressive Gardiner was again featured as a soloist before Skeaping reverted to brushes for a further series of drum breaks.

Following two frequently heard standards Collie now surprised us by announcing that the next tune would be an arrangement of the Sting song “Practical Arrangement” from the 2013 concept album / musical “The Last Ship”. Furthermore it was played in a bossa nova style arrangement that included solos from Gardiner and Collie, with Skeaping deploying brushes throughout.

The Jimmy van Heusen song “It Could Happen To You” saw Collie taking the first solo as Skeaping alternated between brushes and sticks in accordance with the momentum of the music. Gardiner was again featured as a soloist and Collie injected an element of humour by quoting from Christmas songs during a series of exchanges with Skeaping’s brushed drums. In truth most of the tunes followed the same head- solos-head format but with playing of this quality that hardly seemed to matter.
The next tune to be called by Collie was the Thelonious Monk blues “Straight No Chaser”, introduced by the rhythm team of Gardiner and Skeaping. This was the vehicle for some more excellent individual soloing with Skeaping generating a remarkable amount of power with brushes alone during the course of his drum feature.

Guest vocalist Janet McCunn, who has been a long time friend of Brecon Jazz Club and Festival, joined the trio to sing the Rogers and Hart song “Falling In Love With Love”, which also included instrumental solos from Collie and Gardiner.

Collie is a skilled composer and likes to write tunes specifically for the venues that he plays at. “Brecon Blues” was originally written for an MIE / BJF online collaboration but was later played live by the Panoply Trio at the 2022 Brecon Jazz Festival and rightfully received another airing tonight. A genuine blues the piece was ushered in by a passage of unaccompanied piano, with Collie establishing a rolling piano vamp that eventually encouraged the addition of bass and drums. Solos came from Collie and Gardiner with Skeaping again gravitating between sticks and brushes, choosing the latter for the closing series of exchanges with Collie, and again generating an impressive amount of power.

Tonight was the first time that this particular trio had performed together as a unit but this first set had delivered some excellent playing from all three participants. Collie is a fluent and imaginative piano soloist who was also happy to add a little humour to the music via his inventive use of quotes, both during his own solos and in his exchanges with Skeaping. Gardiner is no stranger to Brecon jazz audiences and her playing was up to her usual high standard, with the bonus that she was afforded plenty of solo space. She formed an excellent rapport with Skeaping, whose qualities have previously been discussed. He’s a musician whose playing I will continue to look out for in the future.

The less formal second set commenced with the first guest of the evening coming to the stage to join the core trio. Alto saxophonist Jodie Denniss plays with the Swansea based Constellation Big Band and performs solo under the name Jazzabella. In July 2024 she and vocalist Bonita hosted a ‘Jazz Friends’ event at Brecon Jazz Club featuring a variety of guests playing with a house trio led by locally based pianist Mike Chappell. That event is the subject of a Jazzmann feature, which can be found here.

Tonight Denniss’ chosen tune was the standard “All The Things You Are”, which saw her sharing the solos with pianist Collie.  Denniss is a fluent solo who more than held her own with this exceptional trio.

Next to take to the stage was vocalist Jenny Jones, who has established a strong reputation on the South Wales jazz circuit, performing in small groups with many of the area’s leading instrumentalists and also singing in big bands. Her song choice was Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Dindi”, which saw her singing convincingly in both English and Portuguese alongside featured instrumental soloist Gardiner.

Clarinettist Kathryn Powell and tenor saxophonist Robert Parker, who had both been part of July’s ‘Jazz Friends’ event, joined the trio for the Duke Ellington tune “Satin Doll”. This was taken at a medium swing tempo and included solos from both reeds, plus a series of piano and drum exchanges between Collie and Skeaping.

Janet McCunn rejoined the trio to sing “Falling In Love Again”, a song that first appeared in the Marlene Dietrich film “The Blue Angel”. Like Jones McCunn sang in two languages, in this case English and German, as part of a jazz arrangement of the song that also included a piano solo from Collie and Gardiner’s use of the bow at the close.

Violinist / vocalist Dave Favis-Mortlock both played and sang on the Prohibition era tune “Crazy Rhythm”, sharing the solos with Collie and Gardiner and entering into a series of playful musical exchanges with Skeaping. The irrepressible Favis-Mortlock is part of the Hot Club style quartet Fiddlebop, who subsequently played a special Christmas set for Brecon Jazz Club at The Muse on the afternoon of 15th December 2024. (I wasn’t there for that one).

Like Jenny Jones tenor saxophonist (and sometime pianist) Deborah Glenister another leading light on the South Wales jazz scene and a regular visitor to BJC / BJF. She joined the trio for “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love”, soloing more expansively than the other guests and also entering into a series of prolonged musical exchanges with her colleagues.

The core trio performed Collie’s composition “Ephemeral”, a tune that appeared on his solo piano album “Reminiscent”. A reflective and somewhat melancholy piece it was also highly effective in this trio arrangement, with Collie’s lyrical piano soloing and Gardiner’s melodic bass feature augmented by Skeaping’s sensitive brush work. It was gratifying to see this excellent piece of original writing being so well received by the Brecon audience.

It was also left to the trio to perform a New Orleans style arrangement of the ever adaptable Juan Tizol / Duke Ellington composition “Caravan”, a tune that was also played by the Panoply Trio back in 2022. This was introduced by a passage of unaccompanied drumming from Skeaping, largely featuring bare hands and brushes. Collie subsequently delivered one of his most expansive solos of the night, followed by Gardiner at the bass. Meanwhile Skeaping was further featured with a brushed drum solo.

The evening closed with an ensemble piece featuring the trio and all their guests, plus additional vocalist Ros, who had previously handled the evening’s Welsh language announcements. The chosen song was Ray Henderson’s “Bye Bye Blackbird” which included concise instrumental solos from all the guest instrumentalists, Glenister on tenor, Denniss on alto, Powell on clarinet and Parker on tenor, plus Favis-Mortlock on violin and vocals. This good natured collective performance brought a very successful and enjoyable evening to a close.

All of the guests acquitted themselves well but the majority of the praise must go to Collie and the trio for their superb performance in the first set and also for their willing participation in the subsequent ‘jam session’. The trio treated their guests with respect and offered them every encouragement, whilst also providing a musical environment in which the guest musicians could shine. Collie led this section of the performance with great intelligence, understanding and sensitivity and the presence on the stand of an acclaimed educator like Gardiner was also a huge plus in this respect.

This was an event that fully achieved its objectives and rounded off Brecon Jazz Club’s 2024 programme on a joyous note in front of a large and very supportive audience.

Personally I’d still like to see a Terence Collie live performance that places the main emphasis on his own writing but this wasn’t the time or the place for that. Nevertheless it’s still something to look forward to in the future, as is the release of his forthcoming album “Elements”, a jazz and poetry suite that will feature Collie’s words and music. The line up will feature Collie’s trio with bassist Nick Lenner-Webster and drummer Ted Carrasco plus string players Clare Kennington  (violin) n Samuel Kennedy (viola) and Jocasta Mudge  (cello), together with poetry reader Jim Trimmer. It’s an intriguing project that will be eagerly anticipated. The album will be officially launched at the Pizza Express Jazz Club, Soho, London at a lunchtime show on 16th February 2025. Tickets here;
https://www.pizzaexpresslive.com/whats-on/terence-collie-elements

Terence Collie’s recordings can be purchased via his website here;
https://www.tcollie.co.uk/

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