Music / Jazz
Bristol’s week in jazz, August 6-12 2018
Well it’s August, of course, and things are undeniably a bit thin on the ground music-wise as the general population heads off for hols or rocks up at festivals. We stayers-at-home aren’t entirely bereft, however, and this week’s jazz-related programme has a few enticingly different acts on offer, with Dakhla’s appearance at The Fringe (Wednesday 8) well worth catching. Their formerly drums’n’brass line-up now has Riaan Vosloo’s double bass, freeing up Charlotte Ostafew’s baritone sax to a more flamboyant role.
More classy brassy action precedes that gig when the Delta Saxophone Quartet appear at Gallimaufry (Tuesday 7). Straddling jazz, classical and contemporary music the DSQ are internationally recognised for projects including re-arranged King Crimson and David Bowie and it’s a great opportunity to catch them up close and for free. They’re followed at the Galli (Wednesday 8) by the regular Waldos Gift residency, this week reviving the subtle and dramatic electronic music of semi-legendary New Yorkers Explosions In The Sky. Then Thursday (9) sees Soma’s Afro-Latin jazz explosion on the Galli stage.
Walkers on the wild side should definitely check out Cafe Kino’s triple-bill of guitar explorers on Wednesday (8) topped by Rob Noyes and Jon Collin with Winter Ghost’s John ’Stereocilia’ Scott in a duo with violinist Agathe Max. Then there’s a coming together of two reliably ground-breaking evenings when Liquid Library meets Cardboard Club and all kinds of musical mayhem ensues in the imaginatively titled Liquid Cardfest (Old England, Saturday 11).
is needed now More than ever
And finally – the one-man band is far from dead and two interestingly contrasted exponents pass through Bristol’s Canteen this week. Malawian Gasper Nali (Tuesday 7) was a big hit at this year’s WOMAD with his home-made Babatoni. It’s a three-metre long one-string bass guitar he hits with a drumstick while sliding a beer bottle along the string and kicking a bass drum. It all adds up to a free-flowing proto-blues boogie accompanying his evocative singing. Then, on Sunday (12) there’s Australian Ben Catley who combines a more orthodox guitar with stomp box rhythm and a blues-hollering vocal style that can’t be ignored. Maybe not the one for any of the Canteen’s regular Sunday hangover victims, though.
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