Review: Bristol Jazz Festival (Sunday)

After a long Saturday there was a definite lethargy in the air on Sunday, for which there can only be two responses: take it nice and easy or hit the double espresso. I managed a bit of both, with the laid back bit coming, surprisingly, from Pee Wee Ellis and Fred Wesley.

Soberly suited (apart from Fred’s cosmic silver trainers) and backed by an extended version of the Bruce Ilett Big Band the two funkateers went back to their jazz roots, taking turns to feature on classics like My One and Only Love, Moanin’ and Song For My Father. There was plenty of love for the two veterans in the room and if there was the occasional wobble it was overlooked in favour of the sincerity of the playing.

Things got even more laid-back with the ambient subtlety of Eyebrow’s weaving of Pete Judge’s processed trumpet and Paul Wigens’ subtle drumming achieving a rare moment of calm in the Foyer’s usual hectic bustle (calm, in fact, to the point where a bloke in the front row fell soundly asleep). It was more smooth business in the main hall, too, with ex-Crusaders guitarist Larry Carlton’s impeccably delivered hit parade from his stellar back catalogue getting that applause of recognition for each number.

But the espresso? Ah yes – I got a double hit in the Lantern, both coming from guitar/sax/bass/drum quartets. The afternoon’s delight was Soft Machine, or a version thereof, led by ebullient guitarist John Etheridge whose demented spider fingers scrabbled around his fretboard through a set of the band’s later prog-jazz archive. With ‘youngster’ Theo Travis blowing tenor sax back at him and the amazing Roy Babbington on electric bass they showed how the band were Post-Rock before rock had even got going. 

Soft Machine’s was a satisfying show for a packed room but it had been an even better gig in a less well-attended Lantern earlier that had provided my wake-up call (and the weekend’s jazz highlight). Gary Crosby’s Groundation is the seasoned bass player’s new quartet, as ever reflecting the latest young generation of black British talent, and it’s a corker. For all their youth the players’ musical maturity was perfectly demonstrated on Ode to O.C., a five-part suite dedicated to Ornette Coleman that provided guitarist Shirley Tetteh with a bluesy showcase and hung together around the supplety of Moses Boyd’s rolling drums. Above all, though, it was the astounding alto sax of Nathaniel Facey that lifted this music into another dimension: if you’re going to invoke Ornette you’d better have the chops and Facey blew them away in a central Coleman-style outpouring that never slackened or lost the plot. 

You have to end a festival weekend with a party, however, and Courtney Pine’s closing show in the main hall was certainly that. His House of Legends band celebrates African and Caribbean culture in the dance rhythms of merengue, calypso and rumba, with the steel pans of Samuel Dubois adding flavour to an already spicy mix. As ever with Mr Pine CBE it’s as much about the man as the music and his performance was an ongoing dialogue with an enthusiastic audience that eventually was on its feet and crowding the stage for his final numbers. 

Always the showman, his combination of personality and virtuosity and c of rounding off what was a splendidly successful weekend. Now in its fourth year the Bristol International Jazz & Blues Festival has established itself as a celebration of accessible jazz-related music that brings a significant audience to throng the Colston Hall, bringing the building alive in an unrivalled way and, in the Foyer programme, providing a showcase for many of the city’s finest jazz musicians.