Music / contemporary jazz
Bristol’s week in jazz, January 14 – 20
So, after the great success of the new Bath Jazz Weekend festival last week we continue to celebrate (as BJW promoter Nod Knowles did) the wealth of musical talent that has found its way to our neighbourhood. Whether it’s the welcoming diversity of our local music scene or the fact it’s just plain cheaper to live here than in London, there’s no doubt we benefit year-round from their migration westwards.
One remarkable talent to have found his way to Bristol is Michel Padron (Bebop Club, Friday 18), a Cuban trumpeter who first visited when touring with Havana’s excellent ‘son’ troupe Asere in the 90s. After many years with the band, including a stint helping megadrummer Billy Cobham rekindle his Panamanian roots, Michel settled in the UK and, since arriving in Bristol, his distinctively soaring trumpet style featured in many local Latin bands before he finally cherry picked his favourite sidemen for Los Abbures, his own high-energy 5-piece Latin/jazz outfit, who rocked the Bebop on their debut last year.
Another valued incomer – albeit less visible in the gig schedules – is Scottish drummer Andrew Bain, a Senior Lecturer in Jazz from the prestigious Birmingham Conservatoire, whose playing career is closely linked with New York via the transatlantic contemporary jazz quartet Confluence. He brings his UK-based Andrew Bain Quintet to the Fringe (Wednesday 16) and it’s a star-studded affair including trumpeter Nick Malcolm, saxophonist Sam Crockatt and pianist Rebecca Nash as well as bass player Riaan Vosloo.
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It’s a busy week for the Fringe as they feature an extra gig on Tuesday (15) from the Dominic Lash Quartet, an Anglo-Spanish collaboration brought together by bass player Dominic who left Oxford to settle in Bristol a couple of years ago and has proved a significant figure on the City’s ebullient improvising music scene. This band, which also includes ‘prepared guitar’ player Alex Ward, is widely known in Europe but less seen here, and this rare opportunity to catch them live comes on the back of Extremophile, their new album.
We haven’t yet persuaded French-born experimental violinist Agathe Max to move to Bristol but maybe Kuro (Cafe Kino, Wednesday 16), her duo with Bristol’s wild man of the cello Gareth Turner might prove a magnet. Their sinister mix of layered drones and acoustic shocks should provide a freethinking link to Thursday’s session by GROOT (Gallimaufry, Thursday 17), a night of collective electronic sound experimentations featuring Antelope’s appropriately named ‘synth doctor’ Dorian Childs-Prophet. And that in turn should have echoes of Mexican ambient psych veteran duo Lorelle Meets The Obsolete (Rough Trade, Tuesday 15), a wonderfully creative and uncategorisable rock-jazz anomaly. It’s a busy week for leftfield devotees and Crofter’s Rights’ combination (Saturday 19) of E.M.M.A.’s playful baroque keyboards and subverted dance music minimalist Mun Sing should also have some pull.
Starting the week with a bang, however, The Bell welcomes guitarist Cameron Pierre (Monday 14) with Anders Olinder’s Allstars. Being known for his longtime work in Courtney Pine’s very groove-centred bands doesn’t give you a sense of how steeped Cameron is in the classic jazz guitar styles of Wes Montgomery, George Benson and others and past collaborations with Anders have been a masterclass in those elegant precursors.
Saturday night (19) at The Attic offers the highly danceable pleasure of Necktr, a 9-strong soul-jazz collective from Leeds whose music gets a classy sparkle from their undeniable musicianship and the accomplished vocals of Esme Bridie. And, if you want a gentler accompaniment to your Sunday evening the all-female swing/jazz Scarlet Muses – including ace drummer Emma Holbrook – are at The Golden Lion.
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