Trish Clowes’  My Iris, Shrewsbury Jazz Network, The Hive Music & Media Centre, Shrewsbury, 08/03/2025

Trish Clowes – tenor saxophone, Chris Montague – guitar, Ross Stanley – Hammond organ, Joel Barford – drums

Tonight’s performance represented a second homecoming gig for Shrewsbury born, London based saxophonist and composer Trish Clowes and her regular working band My Iris at The Hive.

The My Iris quartet last appeared at the venue in May 2022, an exceptional performance that is reviewed here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/trish-clowes-my-iris-the-hive-music-media-centre-shrewsbury-14-05-2022

The 2022 event was part of a wider UK tour in support of the then recently released My Iris album “A View With A Room” recorded for Greenleaf Music, the label founded by the great American trumpeter and composer Dave Douglas. It represented quite a ‘feather in the cap’ for Clowes to be the first British musician to have been signed by Douglas’ imprint. To these ears “A View With A Room” represented Clowes’ strongest recording to date and she has since performed some live shows with Douglas in another significant career milestone for her.

The Greenleaf recording represented Clowes’ third studio album with the My Iris group, following “My Iris” (2017) and “Ninety Degrees Gravity” (2019), both released on Basho Records. Both of these albums are examined elsewhere on The Jazzmann, as are previous live performances by Clowes’ My Iris and Tangent groups at Gateway Arts, another venue in Shrewsbury. Meanwhile guest contributor Trevor Bannister enjoyed a livestream by My Iris from Guildford Jazz that took place in January 2021 during the course of the Covid pandemic.

In 2018 My Iris played a brief but triumphant support set to the great Israeli bassist and composer Avishai Cohen and his trio at the Barbican as part of that year’s EFG London Jazz Festival. It represented the largest audience that the group had ever played to and my account of their superb performance can be found as part of my Festival coverage here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/efg-london-jazz-festival-day-nine-saturday-24th-november-2018

The My Iris back catalogue also includes the digital recordings “My Iris Live! (2020) and “Wild Swimming” (2023), the latter representing the quartet’s first recording with current drummer Joel Barford. Both are available via Clowes’ Bandcamp page.
https://trishclowes.bandcamp.com/

Clowes has been a regular presence on The Jazzmann web pages for over fifteen years and the site also features reviews of Clowes’ earlier albums “Tangent” (2010), “and in the night-time she is there” (2012) and “Pocket Compass” (2014), all released by Basho.

A former BBC Radio 3 New Generations Artist Clowes has a foot in both the jazz and classical music traditions and has co-ordinated seven editions of the boundary crossing Emulsion New Music Festival, presenting her brainchild at events in London, Birmingham and her native Shrewsbury. During her studies on the Jazz Course at the Royal Academy of Music Clowes regularly associated and played with students on the classical courses. Her recordings have often contained elements of both genres, with Clowes collaborating with a range of musicians drawn from both the jazz and classical fields. The Jazzmann site features coverage of the sixth and seventh Emulsion festivals which both took place in 2018 in Shrewsbury and Birmingham respectively.

Also featured is a 2015 performance by Clowes’ Emulsion Sinfonietta in conjunction with the electro-improvising Food duo featuring saxophonist Iain Ballamy and drummer Thomas Stronen that took place as part of that year’s Cheltenham Music Festival. This was more of a contemporary classical performance than a jazz one and on the whole I found it more difficult to engage with than Clowes’ regular jazz output. Nevertheless I have total respect and admiration for her willingness to experiment and challenge generic boundaries.

Having said that I have to confess that of all Clowes’ creative outlets My Iris has certainly been my favourite so far. The group take it’s name from both Clowes’ late grandmother and from Iris, Goddess of the rainbow and messenger to the Greek and Roman gods.

Since the quartet’s last visit to The Hive there has been a change in the drum chair with rising star Joel Barford taking over from the long serving but phenomenally busy James Maddren. Previously heard with guitarists Nigel Price and David Preston, pianist Paul Edis and saxophonist Vasilis Xenopoulos among others Barford seems to have fitted into the My Iris quartet seamlessly. Friends who had seen a recent performance by the My Iris group in Birmingham were highly impressed both by his contribution and by the band as a whole and promised that I would witness a great performance in Shrewsbury. Clowes and the band didn’t disappoint.

I was also promised that the band would be playing all new material, something that whetted my appetite even more. I subsequently learned that just two days after tonight’s gig the band would be going into the studios to record their new album, the results of which should hopefully be heard later in the year, although label and distribution details are yet to be decided. Tonight’s show therefore represented a final run through of the new material, with the set list including only two items from earlier My Iris recordings.

Tonight’s performance commenced with the new tune “Try Me”, an a spirited introduction to the various instrumental voices of the band with fluent solos from Clowes on tenor sax, Stanley on organ and Montague on guitar, all guided by Barford’s firm, deft drumming. As on the band’s last date at The Hive Stanley was deploying one of the new generation Hammond organs, the dual manual XK5. This was perfectly acceptable, but not a patch on ‘Big Bertha’, Stanley’s classic Hammond B3 which is sadly currently in need of repair.

Another new piece, “Whisky”, was counted in by Barford at the drums with Montague adding arpeggiated guitar as Clowes sketched out folk like melodies, subtly shadowed by Stanley’s Hammond. As the rhythms became more complicated Clowes stretched out with an expansive tenor sax solo. She was followed by Montague, a supremely imaginative guitar soloist who added a discernible prog rock element to the music, with Stanley subsequently taking over at the keyboard.

Now resident in London Clowes regularly walks along the south bank of the Thames from Rotherhithe to the Tate Modern making field recordings. The new composition “St. Saviour’s Dock” was inspired by these perambulations and the atmospheric introduction included foghorn like blasts of tenor sax reflecting the area’s maritime and commercial past, these allied to organ drones, cymbal shimmers and guitar FX mimicking the sounds of bird song. A slightly lugubrious sax led theme featuring Clowes’ use of multiphonics led into more conventional jazz solos from tenor, organ and guitar on an episodic work that demonstrated Clowes’ ambition and skill as a composer.

As suggested by its title “Quiet Time” was a less frenetic, more thoughtful piece that built from an unaccompanied guitar introduction, to which were added drums and cymbals, guitar, and finally the leader’s tenor. The sax led theme expressed a sense of yearning that was sustained through solos for guitar, tenor and organ, plus a long, slow atmospheric fade featuring Montague’s guitar effects, manipulated via a floor mounted unit.

In 2024 Clowes and Stanley released the album “Journey to Where” on the Birmingham based Stoney Lane record label. This was an intimate tenor sax / piano duo recording documented at the famous London classical music venue the Wigmore Hall. In addition to his skills as an organist Stanley is also a hugely accomplished acoustic pianist and is in great demand in both capacities. From that recording came a band arrangement of his composition “Ashford Days”, a tune that has been in the My Iris repertoire for some time. It represents Stanley’s homage to his late mentor, the great jazz pianist and composer John Taylor (1942 – 2015), the title a reference both to “Ambleside Days”, one of Taylor’s most celebrated compositions, and to Ashford in Kent, where Taylor resided for a while. Introduced by Stanley at the organ and with Clowes stating the attractive melodic theme on tenor the performance also included solos for guitar, sax and Hammond. An excellent way to conclude a consistently rewarding first set.

The second set got off to a lively start with Clowes’ composition “Walking”, the title perhaps another reference to Clowes’ Thames side ramblings. With the composer taking something of a back seat this included solos from Stanley and Montague plus a first drum feature from impressive new incumbent Barford.

Clowes promised that the quartet would “take it down” with their performance of the ballad “For You”, which commenced with a sax / organ duet as Stanley’s Hammond again shadowed the leader’s tenor. Drums and guitar were added as Clowes stated the main melodic theme, this leading to subsequent solos for organ, tenor and Montague’s Bill Frisell like guitar.

Sax and drums introduced “Sharp Corner”, perhaps the first piece to adopt something approaching a traditional bebop feel as tenor, guitar and organ combined on the tricky unison melody lines. Subsequent solos from sax, guitar and organ were followed by a dynamic drum feature from the eager Barford.

Clowes announced that “For The Darklings” would be one of eight new tunes that the quartet were planning to record for the forthcoming album. Ushered in by organ and drums this piece had a more nocturnal feel with guitar and tenor alternating on the lilting melodic theme, followed by solos from organ, sax and guitar.

The set concluded with “Free To Fall”, a tune sourced from the  “Ninety Degrees Gravity” album. This was an episodic piece that was introduced by tenor sax and guitar and which combined folk like melodies with complex rhythms. Beginning with brushes before graduating to sticks Barford’s polyrhythmic flow fuelled Clowes’ and Stanley’s sax and organ exchanges, these augmented by Montague’s rich guitar texturing. A freely structured section featuring Montague’s ethereal guitar effects was followed by a harder edged guitar solo underpinned by Barford’s rock rhythms before Clowes’ tenor sax gradually resumed the lead for her own solo, this followed by a long slow fade.

The quartet enjoyed a great reception from Clowes’ home-town crowd and delivered a deserved encore with Clowes’ composition “Shirley”, a tune sourced from the digital only release “My Iris Live”. The title derives from the name that Clowes has given her saxophone (Shirley Horn, geddit?) and proved to be tender ballad, introduced by Montague at the guitar and featuring the sounds of brushed drums and warm toned tenor sax with Clowes stating the main theme and delivering the first solo, followed by Montague on guitar and Stanley on Hammond.

Thus ended an excellent evening of music making from four hugely accomplished musicians who all shone individually as well as collectively. Clowes continues to mature as both a composer and an instrumentalist and in Montague, Stanley and Barford she has the musicians with the ability to do justice to her ambitions. The standard of the soloing tonight was exceptional, fluent and restlessly imaginative and inventive, with Montague, a bandleader in his own right particularly impressive.

The quartet’s new album will be very keenly anticipated and it is to be hoped that Clowes will be able to get the fruits of her labours out there sooner rather than later.

My thanks to all four musicians for speaking with me after the show and to Trish for verifying the details of the set list. I’d got most of the titles already thanks to her concise and informative announcements, which struck just the right balance, illuminating but never unnecessarily verbose.

I was also excited and intrigued to hear about Montague’s new two guitar project with fellow axe slinger Ant Law, the pair accompanied by bassist Conor Chaplin and drummer Jamie Murray. That’s another venture that’s going to be well worth hearing.