Music / Jazz
Bristol’s week in jazz, August 5-11 2019
There’s a fine celebration of South African jazz past and present, some super tight viper blues and a clutch of saxophone-led jam sessions this week.
Mankala vocalist Sisanda Myataza has recruited a strong quartet (including saxophonist Sam Crockatt and the mighty Dave Smith on drums) to accompany her through a selection of verse and music reflecting the past and present of her native South Africa. There’ll be room for other contemporary African influences like Soukous and Sungara on Sisanda’s set list (Fringe, Wednesday 7) for what promises to be a lively and thoughtful evening. A similarly eclectic grab-bag of rhythms will inform Snazzback’s Global Groove Experiment (Gallimaufry, Thursday 8) while North African traditions meet contemporary electronic instrumentation in the Gnawa Blues All-Stars (Canteen, Saturday 10).
With the usual summer shutdown of the regular weekly jazz evenings it’s good to celebrate the many excellent jam sessions dotted around the city. These are a great encouragement to young and inexperienced players thanks to the dedicated professionals who supervise them and the inspirational guests who drop by. This week see’s the Canteen’s monthly Jazz Session (Monday 5), hosted by saxophonist Craig Crofton and the fortnightly LeftBank Jazz Jam (Tuesday 6) welcomes Milon’s fiery tenor sax player Dino Christodoulou. The weekly Sunday jam (11) at the Stag & Hounds has Martin Kern’s saxes joining the house trio. He’s a newcomer to Bristol, arriving from a European career that took him from Switzerland to Vienna via Paris and Bern.
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Craig Crofton pops up at the Gallimaufry (Sunday 11) when the very cool Phantom Ensemble combines dance beats and spiritual jazz, with Harriet Riley’s vibraphone another key ingredient in the sound. The LeftBank’s house jam band LBJBs visits the Bell (Wednesday 7) for a very funky workout. It’s unfortunate that this coincides both with the return to Canteen of the excellent contemporary post-rock quintet Sefrial and the regular weekly improvisational outing for Waldo’s Gift at the Gallimaufry. Decisions, decisions …
There are two chances to catch the old school sounds of Ireland-based American/Australian foursome Underscore Orkestra this week, firstly at The Bell (Monday 5) and then at Canteen (Thursday 8). This tightly arranged band capture pop-jazz styles like viper blues, Hot Jazz and Western swing while slipping in touches of Balkan and Manouche from time to time. More Hot Jazz features at the Dark Horse’s monthly session (Monday 5).
https://vimeo.com/340500805
Similarly sweeping in their influences, Stroud’s Albino Tarantino come to Canteen (Friday 9) with a particularly excellent percussion section underpinning a rich, Latin-flavoured sound and a set of swampy jazz-blues songs heading South from New Orleans.
The elegant and imaginative John Baggott and Pete Judge
And, finally, the elegant duo of Pete Judge’s trumpet and John Baggott’s keyboards that is Los Clandestinos shows up at The Passenger Shed (Friday 9). This new venue for jazz looks set to have regular events so it would pay to keep an eye on it, as well as The Punch Bowl pub on Old Market which this week hosts Lithuanian jazz singer Karolina Griskute in her duo with Alex Bowers (Sunday 11).
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