The Weave, Hermon Chapel Arts Centre, Oswestry, Shropshire, 30/03/2018.

Tonight was my second visit to the Hermon Chapel Arts Centre, a relatively new venture curated by
guitarist Barry Edwards and ceramic artist Claudia Lis.

 I know Claudia from her one time involvement with the Shrewsbury Jazz Network where she helped to co-ordinate live events at The Hive Music & Media Centre dealing with front of house and band liaison.

She has now teamed up with Barry to bring live jazz to the good folks of Oswestry along with music from other genres, including folk, world and rock plus live theatre, comedy, poetry slams and more. Let’s hope that they can develop a loyal local following for their admirably varied activities.

As well as live performances music workshops are also very much part of the programme with saxophonists Gilad Atzmon and Alan Barnes among the musicians to have successfully led such events.

I first attended an event at the Hermon in November 2017 when a disappointingly small crowd turned out to a witness a nevertheless excellent performance from the guitar duo of Pete Oxley and Nicolas Meier who were touring their then newly released double album “The Colours Of Time”. My review of that show can be read here;
http://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/oxley-meier-guitar-project-hermon-chapel-arts-centre-oswestry-shropshire-24/

There are signs that Barry and Claudia are starting to develop something of a following at the Hermon. A recent performance by the French born, London based vocalist Gabrielle Ducomble and her band attracted seventy five paying customers while tonight’s Good Friday performance by the Liverpudlian sextet The Weave pulled in an audience numbering around fifty. The crowd was particularly enthusiastic and supportive and this helped to elicit an excellent performance from the band who played with skill, verve and conviction throughout.

There can’t be many music fans who have witnessed two performances in a week by bands with a twin trumpet front line. But following the performance by the South Walian Chop Idols quintet fronted by Gethin Liddington and Ceri Williams at Black Mountain Jazz in Abergavenny the previous Sunday here came The Weave with a similarly distinctive line up spearheaded by trumpeters Martin Smith and Anthony Peers. Smith is the leader and chief composer of a sextet that also features guitarist Anthony Ormesher, pianist Rob Stringer, bassist Hugo ‘Harry’ Harrison and drummer Tilo Pirnbaum.

Whereas Chop Idols concentrate on jazz and bebop standards written by the likes of Clark Terry and Dizzy Gillespie The Weave focus exclusively on original material, recognisably rooted in jazz but written from a contemporary and very personal perspective. The Weave’s music references pop and rock and is peppered with a quirky Liverpudlian wit.

The Weave first came to my attention in 2013 when I reviewed their eponymous début album, a release that created a bit of a stir nationally with the London based jazz media sitting up and taking notice. The album earned great reviews and attracted national airplay on Mark Radcliffe’s Radio 2 Music Box show and on Radio Three’s “Late Junction. A string of successful Festival appearances kept the pot bubbling and the buzz continued to grow with the release of 2015’s “Knowledge Porridge” which saw the core sextet augmented with guest performers. In March 2016 I saw the band play live when they gave an excellent performance at The Hive in Shrewsbury as a quintet; pianist Stringer had been taken ill on the day of the show and guitarist Ormesher was required to work overtime with the band triumphing in difficult circumstances.

For this welcome return visit to Shropshire The Weave were at full strength and although something of the initial buzz has subsided in the last couple of years a clutch of excellent new material suggested that the band’s eagerly awaited third album may not be too far round the corner.

Smith and Peers are experienced jazz and session musicians and were once members of the fondly remembered Brasshoppers outfit from around twenty years ago. Leader Smith’s list of influences is wide and includes such diverse trumpet stylists as Brits Digby Fairweather and Ian Carr and Americans Bobby Shew, Marvin Stamm, Louis Armstrong, Clark Terry,  Booker Little, Freddie Hubbard and the inevitable Miles Davis, but it’s Fairweather that he credits as his initial inspiration.  As a session musician Smith has had a long association with the Liverpool band The Wizards of Twiddly who once served as the backing group for the late Kevin Ayers. Besides the obvious jazz influences The Weave’s music also draws on Liverpool’s pop heritage with the album title “Knowledge Porridge” being sourced from a line in a La’s song. 

Of the other musicians in The Weave Ormesher was the only one that I was previously aware of thanks to his work with the Manchester based Magic Hat Ensemble, led by trumpeter Steve Chadwick and a band that once contained current GoGo Penguin members Nick Blacka (bass) and Rob Turner (drums). MHE released two albums “This Conversation Is Over” (2010) and “Made In Gorton” (2011) and also visited Shrewsbury’s Hive venue. Those records also created something of a buzz nationally, much as The Weave were to do later on.

As a writer Smith has a way with both a good tune and a good tune title. His highly accessible melodies are frequently ear-worms, a fragment of which invariably remains in the listener’s consciousness no matter how far The Weave’s supremely fluent soloists stretch out. In this sense his pieces owe something to the classic Blue Note bebop / hard bop tradition but they also contain more contemporary influences, often from the worlds of pop, rock and psychedelia but all within a recognisable jazz template. But there’s no sense that The Weave’s pieces are just a string of solos, Smith is far too skilled and individual writer for that.

The band kicked off with “Trumpet Ear”, a tune from their second album that saw Smith and Peers combining on a theme that provided the jumping off point for solos from Smith, Stringer and Ormesher. All three proved to be fluent, highly inventive soloists and it was good to see Stringer performing live for the first time on his Nord Stage 88 keyboard, set in acoustic piano mode. His presence brought something of ragtime feel to a tune that also embraced more contemporary musical influences.

From the band’s début “Thou Spak A Mouthful” has long been a Weave live favourite with a punchy, twin trumpet theme and a muscular bass and drum groove here fuelling incisive and imaginative solos from Peers, Stringer, Smith and Ormesher, the cool elegance of the guitarist’s solo contrasting well with the more strident sounds of the two trumpets.

A new Smith tune, “Heal And Reveal” was a skewed jazz waltz that featured a twin trumpet theme followed by solos from Stringer, Smith, Ormesher and Harrison prior to a restatement of the theme by Smith and Peers. No surprises as such, but a delightful tune, very much in the Weave tradition and one that bodes well for the future.

The same could be said for the following “Adam And Eve It” - rhyming titles seem to be the way to go for The Weave of 2018. This was a deliciously effective piece with its township flavourings suggesting that Smith may have drawn inspiration from the recently departed Hugh Masekela. Peers’ fiery, exuberant solo was arguably his best of the night and he was followed by the ever inventive Ormesher on guitar. A highly imaginative soloist who adopts an orthodox jazz guitar sound Ormesher has also absorbed the influences of such contemporary New York based guitarists as Kurt Rosenwinkel , Ben Monder and Gilad Hekselman.

Bassist Harrison also writes for the band and his “Mary Waited” represented another excellent new tune. This was introduced by Pirnbaum at the drums, who latter combined with the composer to create a stop-start groove that prompted an opening solo from Smith on plunger muted trumpet, the use of the mute bringing a vocalised, wah-wah element to his sound. Further solos came from Stringer on piano, Ormesher on guitar and finally Harrison himself on bass, singing along to his own melody and adding a welcome touch of humour to the proceedings.

Indeed, good humour and a sense of fun infused the whole evening with Smith presenting the show with a sardonic Scouse wit and positively revelling in the solos of his colleagues as he exhorted them to fresh heights of fluency and invention. The title of “Cold, Wet and Sockless”, a piece from the group’s début and which closed the first set here, is pure Weave. This was the track that was picked up by Mark Radcliffe and featured an arpeggiated, hip hop inspired groove that caused me to jot down the words “like a Scouse GoGo Penguin”. This, together with the short, pithy trumpet phrases of Smith and Peers inspired subsequent solos from Ormesher, Peers, Stringer and Smith. When not soloing Smith and Peers sat watching their bandmates from the pew in front of me, sometimes lifting their trumpets to their lips to play along. Great stuff, with band and audience literally as one.

Set two began with the confident ensemble strut of “The Pogo”, the opening track from the band’s second album. Co-authored by Smith and Stringer the piece once had lyrics written by  the late Jimmy Carl Black, one time drummer with Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention , the words themselves now sadly lost. Smith’s connection with Black came about due to the trumpeter’s involvement with The Wizards of Twiddly.

From the début Smith’s “Caresser, Caress Her” introduced a Latin feel to the proceedings with the twin trumpet melody leading to an opening solo from Stringer on piano. He was followed by Peers with a surprisingly effective scat vocal episode and then by Smith with a rather more orthodox trumpet solo.

Written by Smith and Ormesher for the début the atmospheric “As Within” was introduced by a carefully constructed and highly musical solo drum feature from Pirnbaum mainly involving the use of mallets to create a kind of tympani effect. Smith and Peers then sketched the theme, this leading to concise solos from Ormesher, Stringer and Smith.

A new Smith tune, “A Study In Fog”, juxtaposed lithe, boppish melodies with contemporary,  angular grooves, Smith stating the theme on trumpet as Peers sat out. Ormesher relished the chance to cut loose with a dazzling, fleet fingered solo that saw Smith roaring his encouragement. The trumpeter then took over with a strident, ebullient solo that was sometimes reminiscent of the late, great Lee Morgan at his best.. On piano Stringer proved to be just as inspired as his colleagues as he delivered an audaciously inventive solo, the whole piece climaxed by a powerful feature from Pirnbaum at the drums.

Another new Smith composition, “Night Time Now” cooled things down with Pirnbaum switching to brushes and Smith switching to flugel for the first time. Solos came from a thoughtful Ormesher on guitar,  a lyrical Stringer on piano and a melodic Harrison at the bass.

From the second album “Our Day On The Mountain” featured the combination of Smith on flugel and Peers on trumpet with the soloing honours going to Harrison, again fluent and melodic on the bass, and Stringer with a more expansive excursion at the piano.

The title track of “Knowledge Porridge” combined some rumbustious playing from the band with an improvised monologue from Peers that suggests an affinity for the spoken word that perhaps has its origins with the 1960s pop/poetry collective The Liverpool Scene ( Roger McGough, Adrian Henri,  Andy Roberts et al). Quirky grooves combined with equally quirky words as the audience roared Peers on. “I was thinking of going up into the pulpit at one point” he later told me, “but my mic lead wouldn’t reach”. Shame, that really would have been something.

The more mainstream jazz sounds of “Apart From That Mrs Lincoln” brought an excellent second set to a close with Ormesher leading off the solos on guitar prior to a twin trumpet set piece that saw Smith and Peers jousting joyously with each other as the rest of the band sat out. Peers then undertook a more orthodox trumpet solo followed by Stringer, Harrison and Tirnbaum, the latter involved in a thrilling series of exchanges with all the other musicians in the band.

The audience loved this and The Weave were persuaded to remain on stage to deliver an encore of Harrison’s tune “Para Parrot”, a tune from the group’s second album. This quirky, contemporary updating of the New Orleans sound also provided the encore at Shrewsbury and once again it proved to be great fun with the vocalised sounds of the two plunger muted trumpets harking right back to the days of Louis Armstrong and Bubber Miley. Stringer, Ormesher and composer Harrison also weighed in with impressive solos of their own as The Weave’s unique blend of accessible compositions, superb playing and Liverpudlian wit and wisdom sent the crowd home happy.

The Weave may have been quiet for a while but tonight proved that they have lost none of their verve and enthusiasm and are still capable of generating an impressive noise. The quality of the new material suggests that the keenly awaited third album is still a possibility although there are no firm plans to record just yet. Nevertheless it’s good to reveal that The Weave are still in rude health, playing just as well as ever and clearly enjoying it too. They play with a very North Western swagger, they know they’re good but don’t take themselves too seriously.

The audience reaction here made this a very good gig for them and it was equally heartening to see that Barry and Claudia are beginning to build an audience at the Hermon. Things are definitely growing and beginning to take off for them and long may it continue. The 2018 jazz programme at the Hermon continues as follows;

7th April - PSYCHOYOGI - Punk Jazz

27th April -  TALINKA QUARTET - Baroque meets Jazz & Tango; line-up: Tali Atzmon – vocals; Jenny Bliss Bennett - viola de gamba, violin, flute, vocals; Gilad Atzmon - bass clarinet, accordion and soprano sax; Yaron Stavi – double bass

28th April -  ‘FINDING YOUR OWN VOICE’ - Music Workshop for Singers with the TALINKA QUARTET

25th May - MACIEK PYSZ & GIANLUCA CORONA - Polish/Italian Guitar Duo; concert followed by a Q&A-session

29th June - JULIAN COSTELLO’S VERTIGO TRIO - Jazz with World Music Edge Julian Costello - soprano sax; Stefanos Tsourelis - oud, guitar; Adam Teixeira - tabla, percussion

30th June - JAZZ IMPROVISATION WORKSHOP with JULIAN COSTELLO’S VERTIGO TRIO

July – TBC

August - TBC

28th September – JEAN TOUSSAINT & THE YOUNG LIONS

26th October – TBC

30th November – SARAH GILLESPIE QUARTET

December – TBC

Further information at http://www.hermonchapel.com

 

blog comments powered by Disqus