Toby Hay / Aidan Thorne Duo, Bill’s Kitchen, Ludlow Assembly Rooms, Ludlow, Shropshire, 10/04/2025

Toby Hay – six and twelve string acoustic guitars, Aidan Thorne – double bass

For the past two to three years Bill’s Kitchen, part of the Ludlow Assembly Rooms complex, has been hosting food and music evenings under the generic banners “Jazz at Bill’s” and “Folk at Bill’s”. These have usually featured locally based artists and have a charge of £25.00 per head for a two course meal plus music or just £10.00 for the music only. I’ve only attended once previously as these evenings clash with another of my regular commitments but I had just had to make an exception for this duo.

My appetite had been whetted by another bass / guitar duo performance featuring Thorne that had taken place one afternoon in early March 2025 at the beautiful setting Erwood Station near Builth Wells in Mid Wales, a former railway station on a now closed line that has been  revived as a gallery,  arts centre and cafe. 

On that occasion Thorne was teamed with the electric guitarist Jason Ball as the duo played music from their new album  “Archwilio’r Traddodiad: Exploring The Tradition”, released on Cambrian Records on March 1st 2025. Taking place on March 2nd the event represented both an album launch a belated St. David’s Day celebration and saw the duo deliver a series of jazz improvisations based around the core melodies of traditional Welsh folk tunes. It was a delightfully intimate performance in an unusual and beautiful setting with the wonderful spring weather also playing its part in an unforgettable live music experience. My review of that memorable performance can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/aidan-thorne-jason-ball-duo-station-arts-erwood-builth-wells-powys-02-03-2025

The Erwood review, written less than a month ago, also forms the basis for the following biographical details regarding Aidan Thorne;

Aidan Thorne is best known as the leader of the Cardiff based quintet Duski, whose two albums “Duski” (2016) and “Make a Wish” (2020) have both been reviewed elsewhere on The Jazzmann, together with several of the group’s live performances.

Although Duski features Thorne playing electric bass he is also an accomplished jazz double bassist and is a busy and popular presence on the South Wales jazz scene. I’ve seen Thorne playing jazz double bass in a variety of contexts including performances with trombonist Gareth Roberts, saxophonists Ben Treacher and Martha Skilton, drummer Ollie Howell and as a part of the groups Burum, Coltrane Dedication and Slowly Rolling Camera. He has also accompanied the Spanish musicians Arturo Serra (vibes) and Juan Galiardo (piano) and has recorded with Burum, Slowly Rolling Camera and guitarist Dan Messore’s Lacuna group.

Thorne is also a member of saxophonist Joe Northwood’s Tuk Tuk trio and was a part of Khamira, Burum’s collaboration with the Indian musicians Aditya Balani (guitar), Suhail Yusuf Khan (sarangi, vocals) and Vishal Nagar (tabla, vocals). He has recorded with folk singer Julie Murphy and appeared on the soundtrack of the cult Welsh TV series Hinterland, a programme that was subsequently distributed to the rest of the UK.

Since moving From Cardiff to Mid Wales Thorne’s interest in folk music forms has expanded and with Duski currently on something of a hiatus he has been working in this duo with Ball and also in a different duo with another guitarist, Toby Hay, the founder of Cambrian Records, the label that is home to the first Duski album, the “Archwilio’r Traddodiad: Exploring The Tradition” recording and the Aidan Thorne / Toby Hay album “After a Pause” (2024). With the Thorne / Hay duo there is a greater focus on original material, with Hay favouring acoustic guitar rather than the electric instruments played by Ball.

Based in Rhayader in Mid Wales Toby Hay founded Cambrian Records as an outlet for his own music and has since released the EPs “Marteg” (2014), “Rhayader” (2015), “Birds” (2016) and the full length albums “The Gathering” (2017), “The Longest Day” (2018), “New Music For The Twelve String Guitar”  (2019), “Morning/Evening Raga” (2020), “Home Recordings Vol. 1” (2021) and “Live at Hyde Park Folk Festival”, also 2021, which was recorded at the Hyde Park Book Club venue in Leeds. Some of these are entirely solo recordings, others are ‘band’ albums that feature the contributions of other musicians, among them Aidan Thorne..

Hay has also recorded duo albums with fellow guitarists Jim Ghedi and David Ian Roberts, recordings that also feature the multi-talented Hay playing harp and piano.

Other artists to be associated with the Cambrian label include multi-instrumentalists Gavin Prior and David Grubb, Hay’s wife, the singer and songwriter Holly Blackshaw, and the bands Rusulnaia and Skybarkers, the latter featuring Jazzmann favourite and former Duski member guitarist Dan Messore. David Ian Roberts has also recorded solo albums for the label.

As a guitarist Hay came to his current folk influenced finger picking style via rock and blues and subsequently a growing interest in Indian and West African music, with Hay naming the late, great Malian musician Ali Farka Toure (1939-2006) as a particularly significant influence.  During my conversation with him after Monday night’s show he also cited the American guitarist John Fahey and the UK’s own Michael Chapman, both highly distinctive guitar stylists, as being among his other sources of inspiration.

Hay also draws inspiration from the landscape and wildlife of his native Mid Wales. His guitars are custom made for him by the Lake District based luthier Roger Bucknall of Fylde guitars. Hay’s six string is adorned with a silhouette of a curlew and his twelve string with a red kite, both birds native to Mid Wales, the curlew currently in rare and in decline and danger, but with the red kite currently resurgent and increasingly common after many years on the endangered list. It is to be hoped that careful wildlife management can help to ensure that the curlew enjoys a similar revival to the red kite.

The duo were very excited by the fact that local resident Robert Plant had passed by the window of the venue while they were setting up. Unfortunately he didn’t come in to the gig, which was a shame as I’d like to think that he would have very much enjoyed it. In any case his fleeting presence seemed to inspire the duo, who delivered an excellent performance that was the equal of the Erwood show, even if the location wasn’t QUITE as memorable.

It was interesting to compare and contrast the very different guitar styles of Hay and Ball, the former purely acoustic, the other electric with the associated technology (pedals, loops, e-bow etc.), but the end products were equally fascinating.

Also, as previously mentioned, the Hay / Thorne duo performs mainly original material, albeit with three traditional Celtic folk tunes plus one jazz standard included in tonight’s set. The folk tradition certainly feeds into this duo’s work, as does Thorne’s instincts as a jazz improviser, his improvisatory influence also feeding into Hay’s own playing.

Tonight’s performance commenced with a freshly minted Hay composition, a tune written to celebrate the recent arrival of his baby daughter. This piece featured the six string ‘curlew’ guitar and commenced with a loosely structured intro, possibly improvised, before a folk influenced melody arrived that formed the basis for Thorne’s bass solo. Thorne seems to relish the freedom of the duo format, which liberates him from the purely time keeping role, with the occasional solo, of conventional jazz. In both duos he’s very much an equal partner, the bass often assuming the melodic lead, and he also gets the opportunity to show his impressive bowing skills.

Next we heard what Thorne described as ‘suite’ of tunes sourced from the “After a Pause” album, a recording documented during the summer of 2021, immediately after the Covid pandemic, hence the album title. Interesting the three tunes are NOT scheduled consecutively on the recording.

The first of these, “Bard”, also featured six string guitar with Hay’s arpeggios again underpinning Thorne’s virtuoso double bass soloing, with the use of the bow a notable element towards the close.

“Eclipse” was introduced by the sounds of six string and bowed bass and featured the beguiling dovetailing of the guitar and arco bass melodies. Thorne’s subsequent pizzicato solo incorporated both plucking and strumming techniques.

“Draw”, the final item in this sequence, saw Hay switching to the twelve string ‘red kite’ guitar for a performance of the first ever piece that he and Thorne wrote together. Again this featured the intertwining of the duo’s melodic lines, this time featuring the contrasting sounds of brightly ringing twelve string and Thorne’s deeper pizzicato double bass sonorities.

The first set concluded with a segue of the modern jazz standard “Whisper Not”, written by the late, great American tenor saxophonist Benny Golson (1939-2004) and “O’Carolan’s Dream”, a traditional Irish tune written by the blind Irish harpist and composer Turlough O’Carolan (1670 – 1738).
The Golson piece was a solo bass performance that saw Thorne improvising around Golson’s melody, this serving as the introduction to O’Carolan’s tune. This featured Hay’s statement of the melody on six string guitar and Thorne’s subsequent bass solo. The performance then ended with a short passage of unaccompanied acoustic guitar.

Following on from this the second set also began with a traditional folk tune, this time from Wales. “Dod dy Law”, translating as “Give Me Your Hand”, was also played at Erwood by the duo of Thorne and Ball. Once again this version saw Thorne playing the melody with the bow before switching to the pizzicato technique, his virtuoso soling underpinned by Hay’s gentle six string chording.

If the first item of the second half had been a feature for Thorne guitarist Hay now came into his own with “Another Song For Bear”, Hay’s second tune dedicated to his sheepdog, named Bear. This solo guitar piece, performed on six string, is scheduled to appear on Hay’s new solo album which is due to be released in June 2025. Its companion piece, “Bear’s Dance”, appears on his 2018 album “The Longest Day” and is a charming duo performance featuring Hay’s twelve string guitar and David Grubb’s country tinged violin.

Hay then moved to twelve string for “The Summer The Earth Cried For Rain”, a tune written in response to the long, hot, dry summer of 2018 and the wild fires that broke out near his home in the Cambrian Mountains. It was subsequently released on the 2019 recording “New Music For The Twelve String Guitar”. This was a virtuoso performance from Hay, his playing sharp and urgent and not afraid to embrace an element of wilful dissonance. The ringing sounds of the twelve string sometimes reminded me of Ralph Towner, with Thorne in the Glen Moore role on bass and briefly flourishing the guitar at the close.

Hay continued on twelve string for another of his original tunes, “Starlings”, from his 2017 album “The Gathering”. Intended to represent a musical depiction of a murmuration this was another virtuoso performance that succeeded brilliantly in its objectives with Hay’s playing embracing furious strumming allied to extended guitar techniques as Thorne provided pizzicato bass commentary. This was an intense and evocative performance that captured its subject matter perfectly.

Hay’s love of Indian music found expression in the duo’s final number, “She Who Causes Auspicious Things”, a track from the duo’s album “After A Pause”. Based on an Indian raga and its “elastic timing” this piece is a vehicle for improvisation and every live performance is different. “It’s the Indian equivalent of jazz musicians jamming in c”, we were informed. This saw Hay reverting to six string and there was a discernible Indian influence in his playing. Meanwhile Thorne moved freely between pizzicato and arco bass, soloing above Hay’s hypnotic guitar patterns, these often chordless, with the focus wholly on rhythm. Mesmerising stuff.

There had been a pretty decent turn out for this event (even if Robert Plant didn’t make it) and the audience had been attentive, supportive and appreciative – not always my experience at Bill’s, where customers have sometimes talked noisily over the music. This was emphatically not the case tonight, so well done to all who were there.

The good behaviour of the crowd was also a testament to the quality of the music and the duo sent their audience home happy with a delightful encore, an exquisite version of the beautiful and much loved Scottish traditional song “Wild Mountain Thyme” with Hay on six string guitar.

As at Erwood this was an exquisitely beautiful and intimate performance from Thorne and his guitarist partner. Although each duo was very different in terms of sound and approach the overall effect was the same and I really couldn’t choose a favourite combination.

Simultaneously challenging and liberating the duo format seems to bring out the best in Thorne and enables him to demonstrate the full range of his capabilities as a virtuoso bass player, both with and without the bow. But there’s nothing flash about Thorne’s playing, that impeccable technique is all about serving the music, which he does faithfully at all times.

These qualities also apply to Hay, a highly creative musician who has delivered an impressive and varied series of recordings on his own record label. Hay’s music may be rooted in the folk tradition but it also embraces a contemporary sensibility and pushes gently but decisively at musical boundaries. His collaborations with Thorne and Roberts have also fostered a growing interest in the art of improvisation. I’ve dipped into his back catalogue via Bandcamp and all of his recordings represent interesting and immersive listening, with his love of landscape and nature representing a key part of his musical personality.

This was the second of two magical performances from Cambrian Records artists in a little over a month. Another wonderful musical experience.

My thanks to Aidan and Toby for speaking with me after the show and for the gift of the “After A Pause” CD, a beautiful and immersive album that is playing as I write.

The full Cambrian Records catalogue can be be found here;
https://cambrianrecords.bandcamp.com/

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