Bristol’s festive jazz year-ending, December 16 – January 5

So, inevitably, there’s a thinner spread of jazz-related live entertainment as December grinds down. But there’s always the promise of another musical year on the horizon, and one positive of 2019 was seeing local bands develop and spread their fanbase ever wider. You can catch a few of them over the festive period, but keep your eyes peeled next year for even bigger and better stuff. Something to look forward to, at any rate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UQDPMqKLhc

One band that has particularly made national waves in 2019 was the free-flowing and multi-rhythmic Snazzback (Gallimaufry, Thursday 19).Both with and without vocalist China Bowls they seem to have been tirelessly wowing them across the festival scene (both jazz and otherwise) while reliably turning up in Bristol. Their regular sessions at the Galli have been a fine combination of trying out new and even more diverse material and introducing special guest bands, no doubt picked up on their travels. With frequent appearances at the cooler London venues there’s no doubt that they, along with others like Ishmael Ensemble and Waldo’s Gift, are fast becoming recognised as part of the UK’s current hip young jazz resurgence. The band’s intriguingly named (and no doubt fun-filled) Snazzback Party Bag is also on offer at Canteen (Monday 30).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUiXq12mM38&feature=emb_logo

Another local combo that developed over the year, Peanut Shuffle Club (Canteen, Friday 20) grew from the original swing duo of Ellie Hopkins’ vocals and Jay Singh’s guitar to a quartet including ace violinist John Pearce and bass player Federico Leonori. The new line-up allows them to extend their original set of quirky pre-war pop-jazz and swing and stretch out into broader jazz territory. You can also catch Ellie and John with guitarist Stuart Oliver as Hopkins, Pearce & Oliver in an afternoon gig at The Fringe (Thursday 19), while the violinist’s regular jazz piano duo of John Pearce & David Newton is at El Rincon (Sunday 22).

That early jazz scene remains fruitful inspiration for bands like the The Gin Bowlers (The Bell, Monday 23 & Brown’s, Bristol Tuesday 31), purveyors of ‘swing and vulgar beats’ across the South West and, increasingly, in London. The Old Malt House Jazz Band (Hare on the Hill, Saturday 22) similarly plunder the Prohibition era for their ‘hot, swinging stomp’ repertoire, while the obscurely named Trip For Biscuits (Rising Sun, Friday 20) adapt that sound to arrangements of modern pop music. El Rincon, meanwhile, will (ambitiously, spacewise) host the energetic Ministry of Swing quartet on the same night. The Stroud-based band add their Eastern European roots to the classic Manouche style. Don’t expect to squeeze into the Moscow Drug Club gig at Fringe on Wednesday 18, however, as it sold out almost instantly.

The Old Bones Collective (No 1 Harbourside) began 2019 as a quartet – The Play – before also emerging as the Old Bones Duo and then morphing into this new looser collective identity. Driven along by Bartoune’s guitarist Seb Gutiez and bass man Tom Allen the band explores an ambitious post-jazz agenda that ranges from rocky Santana-esque Latin-jazz to moody David Lynch ambience and powerful Afrobeat. The eclecticism comes from the strength of the band’s personnel, with composer Jools Scott on piano and the ubiquitously impressive Matt Brown on drums. Equally wide-ranging in influence – to the point of uncategorisability – Bethany Stenning’s Stanlæy project releases her EP Rif (Jam Jar, Friday 19), a snapshot of her creative experiences in a small Icelandic village last winter.

The year’s last session at the Bebop Club is traditionally a stonker and you’ll need to get your foot in the door early for Miles Behind 2 (Friday 20). It’s a return visit to last year’s 30th anniversary special gig, with Andy Hague leading a top notch sextet to recreate the 80s Miles Davis electric band sound from Star People, Tutu and other albums. With Greg Sterling on sax and Matt Hopkins on guitar nonetheless it’ll be on Andy’s trumpet that the spotlight will mostly fall but the past success of this and his Kind of Blue project has earned him the right to be absolutely confident in that role. Frequent Hague collaborator bass player Riaan Vosloo brings his excellent original contemporary jazz quartet Uphill Game back to Canteen (Sunday 22) and in the new year the same venue has the classy, guitar-led Dan Waldman Hammond Quartet (Thur 2).

A year in which the free and experimental side of music has continued to flourish across Bristol ends with a clutch of typically untypical gigs. Yoke (Exchange Basement, Monday 16) are a familiar quartet of young improvisers previously known as Griggs, Sneddon, Kelly & Foster and they headline a triple bill of ‘basement damage’. Then the Greenbank hosts Konik and H4 (Tuesday 17), two freely improvising jazz collectives of highly skilled players, while Wednesday 18 sees The Old England offer audiovisual collaboration Electronic Ecosystem on the same night as the Crofters’ Rights regular Sound Cupboard , this time featuring The Walkie Talkestra project from Avon Terror Corps. Another clash comes on Friday 20 when Crofters features Ossia & EP/64 at the same time as the Cube’s QWAK club #6 offers a four-header topped by electro-acoustic minimalist Kelly Jayne Jones. You’ll need to check those links to make a proper choice but rest assured – it’s all nicely weird stuff in prospect.

But, allegedly, we’re informed that t’is the season to be jolly, so a final rundown of relentless party-friendly grooves must be in order. Not forgetting the aforementioned Snazzback gigs, of course, it starts at The Bell with Bristol’s street style Mustard Brass (Monday 16), then the Golden Lion host Latin funksters Malavita (Friday 20), the same night as jazz-funk 9-piece Wasabi hit the Old Market Assembly. The next night (Saturday 21) sees Ghanaian percussionist Ben Baddoo head his Afro-groovy Dance Camp Band, also at the Assembly, then it’s an inevitable pause until New Year’s Eve, when the Bell has the powerhouse double bill of LBJBs & Immigrant Swing, a great combination of pure funk and global swing. And, finally, it’s certain to get funky when James Morton & Friends return to the Fringe (Thursday 2) since this quartet boasts not only James’ scorching alto sax but also the all-too-rarely glimpsed guitar alerts of Alex Hutchings, Jonny Henderson’s mighty Hammond Organ and Kasabian’s uberdrummer Ian Matthews.