Bristol’s month in jazz – May 2023

Whoosh! That’s the sound of the festival season taking off in a big way for jazz lovers. If you’re very quick there’s the last day of Cheltenham Jazz Festival on May 1, after which you can just about get your breath back in time for the Bristol Jazz Festival weekend (Friday 19- Sun 21), hastily followed by Jazz Stroud (Thur 25-Sun 28) and the start of Bath Fringe Festival (Fri 26- Sun 11 Jun). Lost Horizon are hosting the exhibition Acid Jazz & Other Illicit Moves (Wed 10 – Sun 14) with concerts from Omar (Thur 11) and the Delvon Lamar Organ Trio (Fri 12) and, apparently, there’s some kind of Royal Wedding as well – but regrettably there doesn’t seem to be a local jazz angle for that one.

The Bristol Jazz Festival (Fri 19 – Sun 21) will be the first ‘proper’ one for four years and it’s a takeover of all levels of the Beacon Foyer with a whole host of local jazz treasures and some great guests from farther afield. A fabulous all-star band fronted by his great friends Gareth Williams and Ian Shaw (see picture abovewill be paying tribute to the late Pee Wee Ellis. A founding patron and tireless supporter of the festival Pee Wee will be sadly missed. Mighty Afrobeat collective No Go Stop and soulful belter Hannah Williams will provide big party grooves. Other highlights include pianist Rebecca Nash and drummer Matt Brown both unveiling radical new projects, and awesome South African vocalist Sisanda Myataza. Among the treats on offer in Jazz Stroud, Glasgow behemoth TC & The Groove Family and Indo-futurist drummer Sarathy Korwar sit alongside Neo-soul divas Yasmin Lacey and Sola as well as new solo work from avant-vocalist China Bowls, formerly of this parish. Bath Fringe kicks off with warm up gigs including the uncategorisable Ted Milton’s Blurt (Sat 20, Bell) and the full-throated blues of Ma Bessie & her Pig Foot Band (Chapel Arts, Sat 27). Check the festival websites for their full programme.

Hopefully they’ll have cleared up the Foyer in time for the Dave O’Higgins-Rob Luft Quintet (Beacon, Sun 28) – a classy sax and guitar led outfit playing ‘straight-ahead modern jazz’. In a similar vein, the month offers a couple of tributes to the late Wayne Shorter, firstly from Jake McMurchie (St George’s, Wed 3) and then the Sound Of Blue Note quintet (Bebop Club, Thur 25). The Bebop programme also includes the return of trumpeter Damon Brown’s Quartet (Thur 11) and the club debut of award-winning sax player Matt Anderson (Thur 18). They start the month off with Turning Corners (Thur 4), a new quartet project from saxophonist Kevin Figes revisiting a selection of the pop, rock and Latin tunes he first loved as a youngster. You can also catch them at The Bell (Mon 8). Jake McMurchie figures in Uphill Game who feature at Fringe In The Round (Tue 2) – alongside excellent piano trio Yetii (named on the cover of this month’s Jazzwise mag: great work lads!) – and then at Canteen (Wed 24).

Following what should be a great session from the Martin Kern & Jim Blomfield Quartet (Bristol Music Club, Wed 10) there’s a nice celebration at Fringe Jazz (Bristol Music Club, Wed 24) when free-blowing saxophonist (and Fringe Fave) Paul Dunmall’s 70th birthday tour brings his quartet into town. The Fringe dust will have barely settled from the previous week’s twin drum assault of Tony Orrell’s Big Top (Fringe Jazz, Wed 17) but things will get nicely groovy with guitarist Jerry Crozier Cole’s organ quartet (Fringe Jazz, Wed 31). And there’s another guitar fest at El Rincon in the shape of Longshadows (Thur 11), an intriguing new trio of Kevin Byrne, Neil Smith and Paul Bradley playing all manner of guitars and all manner of guitar music from flamenco to punk-jazz. More predictable – and definitely swinging – the 30-strong Down For The Count Orchestra (St George’s, Tue 2) offer the classic 50s sound of  the Great American Songbook with guest vocalists. Other old-school pleasures this month would be The Old Malt House Jazz Band (Hare on the Hill, Sun 7), Vipertime (Canteen, Thur 18) and the Harlem Rhythm Cats (Seamus O’Donnell’s, Sat 27). And, of course, always check the Old Duke website for their regular quality trad and swing programme.

It’s a big month for the ever-popular Snazzback who launch their new Worm Disc album – Ruins Everything – with a tour, kicking off at Strange Brew (Wed 17). Soulful vocalist Victoria Klewin also has a new record pending – EP Loverboy is due for release and she’ll be previewing it with her band at the JFS session at Mr Wolf’s (Tue 23). The JFS is also reviving their Soul Divas celebration of women in jazz (Tue 9) with a 19-person Soul Divas Band plus open jam session. There will surely be an overlap of JFS alumni between the Divas and the Bristol Hornstars who play Canteen (Sat 13) and no doubt many of them will be heading for the Hot 8 Brass Band’s Bossman Tour gig (SWX, Fri 26).

If there’s a jazz-funk bossman playing this month it surely has to be Roy Ayers (O2 Academy, Wed 17). With over 60 years of his career behind him the cool vibraphone and keyboard player has decided to call it a day and this (allegedly) is his farewell tour. It’s a milestone probably noted by Bristol alto sax tyro (and Pee Wee Ellis protogé) James Morton (Old Duke, Thur 11), hard-nosed funksters Stone Cold Hustle (Canteen, Tue 16) and soul-funk guitarist Jonah Hitchens who headlines The Canteen’s Bank Holiday Special (Sun 14). Could it also resonate with hip-hop improvisers Slapdash (Canteen, Tue 9) or the beat-driven Bristol Street Music collective (Canteen, Tue 23)? It might also register with Belgian space jazz quartet Echt (Jam Jar, Thur 11), though they take their music off in a more Warp-ish direction. Similarly the bustling electronica of Submotion Orchestra (St George’s, Thur 11) now goes interestingly ‘unplugged’ with the addition of the Prism String Ensemble.  And someone of whom Mr Ayers himself would definitely approve is Neue Grafik Ensemble, a powerhouse producer and bandleader from London coming to Strange Brew (Wed 3) with a smoothly complex Afro-jazzy sound.

Totally rooted in their South African homeland, the explosive percussion, voice and bass ensemble BCUC hit the Jam Jar with two shows, thanks to public demand ((Tue 31, Wed 31). Second-generation Malian desert guitarist Vieux Farka Touré comes to Trinity (Thur 18) and Afrobeat dynamo Dele Sosimi features in the Jam Jar’s Jam On The Horizon all-layer (Sat 6). More Afrobeat – and a slice of Highlife – comes to the same venue via Nigerian 10-piece Etuk Ubong & The Etuk Philosophy (Fri 26). It’s a very busy month for Bristol-based South African singer Sisanda Myataza: not only is she performing at the Bristol Jazz Festival but she has another solo gig at Trinity (Wed 31) as well as bringing her exciting new Afro-European groove machine Songø to the Jam Jar (Sat 13). You can catch Afro-Brazilian fusions at the Boiling Wells Amphitheatre (Fri 19) courtesy of London-based collective Baque Luar.

There’s another two-night run at the Jam Jar, this time from Colombian neo-Tropicalistas Meridian Brothers (Fri 19, Sat 20). Their frenzied mash-up of cumbia with electronica and psychedelia is an exhilarating slice of contemporary Latin craziness. Only slightly more restrained, Mestizo’s Colombian-infused jazz and street beat hip-hop (Beacon, Fri 5) is an equally cutting-edge fusion featuring Steam Down’s ebullient sax man Ahnansé, while the imposing BLOCO B bring the authentic tradition of carnival samba to Attic Bar (Fri 12) and Tango Calor (Thur 4) will turn El Rincon into a milonga for the night. There’s Guadeloupian and Martiniquan roots to the upbeat Afro-futurism of French collective Dowdelin (Jam Jar, Thur 25), just after Italian Afro-Latinistas Rumba de Bodas hit Jam Jar (Wed 24) on their way back from a South American Tour. Heading back to the Balkans, accordionist Pete Watson’s Marama Cafe Band (Bell, Sun 7) covers the territory nicely, with some Hot Club jazz thrown in, while Ladino singer Michal Nahman joins the Eastern String Ensemble (Cotham Club, Fri 26) for a soulful exploration of his Jewish-Turkish cultural traditions.

St George’s bright acoustic should showcase two extraordinary and talented female vocalists in Alice Zawadzki and Hatis Noit (Fri 26). Both are highly original and spellbinding performers, Alice having been active across jazz, opera and contemporary classical worlds while Hatis’ unique vocal performance draws on ancient and modern inspirations from Eastern Europe, Nepal, Japan and beyond. Locally-based Tryani Collective bring their contemporary vocal and percussion sound to the Bath Fringe (The Bell, Mon 29) and Strange Brew welcome spoken-word experimentalist Richie Culver supporting electronics producer Pavel Milyakov (Tue 16) for a ‘one-shot evening’. There will be the predictable melange of malarkey when those Schwet people host a festival celebrating their tenth anniversary: Schwet X (Mickey Zoggs/Strange Brew, Thur 4-Sat 6). Anything can happen, sonically speaking, at Dareshack (Wed 3) in an evening of tape manipulation featuring French auteur Jérôme Noetinger and Robin The Fog’s Howlround project.

If you fancy things a bit more restive why not try Friendly Records’ Ambient Cafe (Sat 6), or maybe the gentle sounds of hand percussionists Hang Massive (Thekla, Tue 9)? Proto-minimalism classic Tubular Bells comes live to St George’s (Wed 17) courtesy of the Bristol Ensemble and ambient experimental duo A soothe El Rincon (Thur 25).

And of course we have jam aplenty, with weekly sessions at Mr Wolf’s (JFS Jam, Tue/Donut Filler, Wed), the Old England (Jam & Toast, Thur), Gallimaufry (Family Business, Sun) and the Stag & Hounds (Sun, with guest musicians). One-offs include: Hot Club Jam (Fringe, Mon 1), Eat Up! (Exchange, Tue 2), Stone Cold Funk Jam (Canteen, Tue 2), Canteen Jazz Session (Wed 3), Hot Jazz Jam (Hare on Hill, Wed 10), Canteen Latin Session (Wed 17), VooKoo Jam (Southbank Centre, Thur 18), The Door Is Ajar (Jam Jar, Sat 27)