Bristol’s month in jazz – March 2022

Whoosh! It’s another busy month, kicking straight off from the get-go, as they say. It’s great to see Zun Zun Egui alumnus Kushal Gaya back in Bristol with the powerhouse Melt Yourself Down (pic above, Jam Jar, Tues 15), also featuring bass player Ruth Goller who astonished the Wardrobe last month with her Skylla project. Also great to see Smerins Anti-Social Club celebrating 20 years of brass-bound grooving with a brace of gigs (Jam Jar, Thur 3/Sat 5). And goodness knows how long legendary psych-jazzers Gong (Thekla, Wed 23) have been floating around the planet but here they come again …

Another important face returning to the Bristol Jazz scene is veteran promoter Ian Storrer who launches a series of gigs in the Bristol Beacon Foyer with Brandon Allen’s Stanley Turrentine Project (Fri 11). Turrentine was a fine bluesy tenor sax player who featured in the 60s heyday of Blue Note jazz and Allen’s own impassioned style of playing is clearly influenced by those classic recordings. The project also features the reliably creative bass playing of Conor Chaplin. Further classic tenor sax playing can be expected from the combination of Charged Particles with Tod Dickow (Bebop Club, Thur 17/The Bell, Mon 14) with US saxman Dickow exploring the compositions of Michael Brecker alongside Particle’s sizzling pianist Murray Low. It’s a big gig for the Bebop and should be a memorable night.

Fringe Jazz also has a top booking, this time a European collaboration. Universal Connection (Wed 2) features alto sax player Martin Speake with German ex-pat pianist Hans Koller and hip Danish rhythm section Anders Christensen and Anders Morgensen. Expect a classy and cool display of contemporary post-bop jazz. Later in the month St George’s features uber-guitarist Rob Luft (Thur 24) an equally classy and cool prospect with his quintet playing tracks from his Life Is The Dancer album, with trumpeter Nick Malcolm leading the prodigious Bristol Pre-Conservatoire Jazz Band in the bar before the gig. The Fringe Jazz treat for Wednesday 30 will be the fine pianist Huw Warren paying tribute to Brazilian composer and percussion legend Hermeto Pascoal. Huw’s trio includes longtime bass partner Dudley Phillips and the super-busy Dave Smith on drums.

Anyone who caught Corto Alto’s roof-rattling gig at the Jam Jar last month will remember Graham Costello’s  brilliant drumming and should definitely catch his jazz minimalist band STRATA (Strange Brew, Wed 2) featuring  familiar faces from the Glasgow scene. Strange Brew also has Group Listening Live (Sat 12), a neo-classical ambient music duo of keyboards and clarinet, while El Rincon has their favourite electronicised drum and trumpet duo Eyebrow (Thur 10). They’re all sit-down gigs whereas it’ll be standing room only at the Jam Jar for Matt3rs Unknown (Wed 23), the trio version of Nubyan Twist tuba maestro Jonny Enser’s new project also featuring Lyle Barton (Emma Jane Thackray) on keys and Matt Davies (Noya Rao) drumming.

Improv wise it’s great to see Iceman Furniss gathering all kinds of friends to launch his quartet’s album at Strange Brew (Wed 9 – another seated show) – expect more or less anything. The month begins with a flurry of freeness, as it happens, starting with sax & drums duo Josh Ison and Mark Sanders supported by flute & drum duo Tina Hitchens and Dan Johnson at Fringe in The Round (Tue 1). Thursday 3 offers a choice between guitar explorer Eric Chenaux (The Cube) and a Bliss Archive multi-header including the splendidly unpredictable Tara Clerkin and Pat Benjamin’s processed piano (Strange Brew). The Exchange hosts a self-styled ‘incomprehensible’ evening of Liquid Library improvisation (Fri 4) but far more coherent music can be expected from Ensemble Nist-Nah (Cube, Wed 23) a remarkable avant-garde Gamelan collective who combine the traditional Indonesian gong orchestra with all kinds of random percussion and hittable junk. Finally there’s New York guitar/electronics improviser Dominic Coles heading Music to Come, a triple bill at PRSC (Wed 30).

Back in the mainstream, the Bebop Club’s Andy Hague is excited to be joining forces with hard bop tenor sax man Martin Kern for a reprise of last year’s fiery quintet gig (Bebop Club, Thur 24) while the club also welcomes leading South Wales tenor player Joe Northwood’s tribute to John Coltrane (Thur 31). More Blue Note inspirations will be apparent in trumpeter Jonny Bruce’s Organ Quartet (Bebop Club, Thur 10) with Guy Shotton’s Hammond driving numbers from Horace Silver and the like. Versatile guitarist Denny Ilett crops up in a duo with Kevin Figes at El Rincon (Thur 3) and also brings his quartet with top UK pianist Gareth Williams to Fringe Jazz (Wed 16). That gig will see drummer Ian Matthews complete a hat trick of appearances before globetrotting away with Kasabian. Guy Shotton pops into Fringe Jazz on piano with the Dan Newberry Quartet (March 23), a highly talented  young band from the Cardiff scene who impressed in their previous trip to the club. Pianist Alex Veitch’s trio is joined by Waldo’s Gift guitarist  Alun Elliot-Williams to celebrate the music of David Bowie (Greenbank Pub, Thur 24) and there’s a brace of big band nights, too, with the Bristol Community Big Band returning to Canteen (Wed 9) and the UWE Bristol Big Band joining the Kris Nock Big Band and trumpeter Louis Dowdeswell as part of the Festival of Sound at Bristol Beacon (Fri 18).

And for lovers of things groovy the month comes well packed, beginning with Herbie Hancock inspired Jingu Bang (Bebop, Thur 3/ The Bell, Mon 21) and the aforementioned Smerins (Jam Jar Thur 3, Sat 5). Deyu fuse jazz and hip-hop (Canteen, Fri 11) but they’re up against the mighty Snazzback (Old Market Assembly, Fri 11). Great to see the resurgence of jazz funkers MFI at The Bell (Wed 16) and it’s also reassuring the demise of Left Bank has not stopped the house band LBJBs (Canteen Wed 23). More jazz-hop fusions come from Dat Brass (The Exchange, Tue 22) while Rowan Porteous’ ‘dystopian soul’ project The Other Way goes via Walcot Street (The Bell, Mon 28). Londoner Yahael Camara Onono’s massive Afro-inspired Balimaya Project are likely to be a real treat (Thekla, Sun 27).

And finally The Wardrobe celebrates International Women’s Day (Tue 8) with a truly talent-stuffed line-up of female performers including Samantha Lindo and Priscilla Andersohn, a rocking all-woman house band (including Jingu Bang’s Ruth Hammond on keyboards) and headliner Lady Nade.