Bristol’s week in jazz, April 1-7 2019

Yes, he’s coming back and he’s bringing some fine European friends with him. But while we celebrate our formerly local hero it’s also good to recognise new talent that’s joined the scene in recent times.

Looking farther afield, however, there’s a bunch of African-rooted treats and a couple of uncategorisable acoustic experiences including an improvising contrabassoon. Now that’s something you won’t see every day.

Swiss jazz trio Vein have made a thing of inviting prestigious players to join them for temporary projects, with past guests including saxophonists Dave Liebman and Greg Osby. Andy Sheppard’s renowned enthusiasm for collaboration has seen him work with an eclectic roster from Pee Wee Ellis to Joanna McGregor via Ginger Baker.

It was somehow inevitable, therefore, that Andy and Vein would come together at some time and now here they are at St Georges (Thursday 4). It will undoubtedly be an evening of highly-crafted chamber jazz as well as a fine reunion with our prodigal son, now a Doctor of Music from Bristol University.

Since Andy’s departure for the Portuguese sunshine, however, another tenor saxophonist Sam Crockatt (Fringe, Wednesday 3) has emerged as a fine contemporary player with local connections. One of the founders of London’s Loop Collective, Sam relocated to Somerset thus giving us more chance to catch his fluent and expressive playing in bands like John Law’s ReCreations.

Sam was particularly distinguished in Andy Hague’s brilliant Kind of Blue project at the jazz festival playing alongside Canadian alto player Terry Quinney and Andy and Terry return to the Bebop Club this week with the excellent Sound of Blue Note (Friday 6). The band – in which Andy plays drums – play a great selection from that label’s back catalogue while largely bypassing the obvious ‘classics’.

As the tireless Awesome Tapes From Africa organisation trawl through the back catalogues of the last 50 years of music made and recoded across the continent many musicians have been ‘discovered’ and reappreciated. Ethiopian keyboard player Haliu Mergia (Colston Hall Foyer) is one such, whose self-recorded music from the 80s came their way and led to him forming a new jazz band and releasing a brand new album Lala Belu.

Bristol’s own Improv’s Greatest Hits (aka Harry Iceman Furniss) casts a wide net, too, and this week sees them bring Nigerian Afro-jazz trumpeter Etuk Ubong to The Lanes (Friday 5) with his tight and driving band. Local bass player Edd Bateman appears with his HiLife and Afrobeat inspired West African Love Affair at Canteen (Sunday 7) while Afro-Latinistas Soma Soma bring their brassbound high energy dance music to Old Market Assembly (Friday 5).

Rounding off the global beat choices are the new Bristol-based funk and Latin quartet Starling (No 1 Harbourside, Saturday 6) boasting the excellent percussion section of Emma Holbrook and Lisa Cherian, formidable beat makers both.

Those uncategorisable pieces? Well, electro-acoustic composer Sara Angliss presents her new album Air Loom at The Cube (Sunday 7). Her spacious and delicate music combines baroque textures with ‘augmented’ vocal techniques, theremin, and her self-devised robot carillon bell-based instrument.

The Spindle Ensemble (St George’s, Saturday 6) use more conventional acoustic instruments in their highly distinctive contemporary classical and cinematic music which will sound especially impressive in the St George’s ambience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjXOv441UCc

There’s a couple of stylish contemporary jazz numbers, with pianist Jacky Naylor’s trio Meraki (Future Inn, Thursday 4) also featuring powerhouse bass player Nick Jurd, last seen here closing off the jazz festival with Soweto Kinch. Three graduates of the Birmingham Conservatoire, they are en route to making a debut recording at Real World studios.

Popular post jazzers Milon return to the Canteen (Wednesday 3) with their fiery jazz-rock driven by Dino Christodoulou’s sax with Neil Smith (happily recovered from recent injury) on guitar. Meanwhile multimedia left field rockers Seven Colour Drive offer an improvised ‘audio-visual immersive journey’ at Crofter’s Rights (Monday 1).

So let us celebrate the more tranquil surroundings of El Rincon, the minuscule tapas bar that specialises in small but perfectly formed musical experiences. This week sees the venue hosting the Los Clandestinos (Thursday 4) keyboard/trumpet duo of John Baggott and Pete Judge with their light touch arrangements of surprisingly well-known tunes and then Carmina (Friday 5).

Alternating between Bristol and Ireland over the last thirty years, Carmina’s core duo of Pippa Marland and Rob King developed an original Celtic folk-jazz based on traditional and self-penned tunes and a band that can grow from two to six players as required. It will be just Pippa and Rob tucking into the Rincon corner, however.

And, finally, lets send some good thoughts to trumpeter Nick Malcolm as he recovers from surgery undergone almost immediately after his hard work at the jazz festival both playing with Atlas and running the successful late night jam sessions at Bambalan.