Music / Jazz
Bristol’s week in jazz, March 11-16 2019
So – will the real Matt Brown stand up? Or at least take his place behind the drum kit? Because, confusingly, no fewer than two sticksmeisters of that ilk play this week in two top combos.
Meanwhile a local favourite band plays without any drummer at all and a couple of names emerging on the local scene continue to make their percussive mark …
First, those Matt Browns – and we’ll politely mention the guests first: Manchester’s Lieko Quintet (Future Inn, Thursday 14) are a fresh sounding contemporary outfit boasting the aforementioned drummer and a sax/guitar/piano frontline. Their clever group compositions (as heard on latest album Amethyst) are nicely varied and make excellent use of the melodic resources in the band.
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By contrast, Tony Orrell’s Big Top (Fringe, Wednesday 13) boasts our own local drum hero Matt Brown in a twin drum set-up alongside Mr Orrell himself. It’s a highly improvised project with Jake McMurchie’s ever-impressive sax very much in its element.
One of those ‘emerging names’ takes the drum stool in the York 4tet (Bebop Club). Led by Berlin-based guitarist Robert York (seen in the video above with former Bristol regular Arabella Sprott in the band Earshot) his foursome also includes young drummer Billy Weir who made a great impression playing with John Law at the recent Bath Jazz Weekend.
And while Emma Holbrook’s gaining new recognition on the Bristol jazz scene she’s been busily drumming behind an eclectic range of folk and groove projects for some time. The latest is Starling, an all female funk, jazz and Latin quartet you can catch either at The Bell (Wednesday 13) or Canteen (Thursday 14). Or both, of course.
The Bell also hosts the classy (and drummer-less) swing trio Bartoune (Monday 11) which is the same night that the only slightly enigmatically named Blessings in Disguise appear at the Old England, heading the latest Improv’s Greatest Hits evening. It’s the usual Get The Blessing lineup, minus drummer Clive Deamer (no doubt off on some mega stadium tour with one of his other rock behemoth bands), and promising a fully improvised set. Those who caught their recent free-flowing appearance as Krake, with Portuguese drummer Pedro Oliveira, will be keen to see them in unfettered mode again.
And, talking of improvised music, there’s a Bang The Bore session at Cafe Kino this week (Friday 15) offering the chance to catch Paris-based saxophonist Bertrand Denzler in a duo with bass player Dominic Lash. Though they’ve played together in larger contexts this will be their debut as a twosome. They are supported by the ‘cracked electrical devices’ and ‘cheap consumer electronics’ pairing of Matt Davis and Seth Cook.
There’s more composed electronics (and ‘processed breath’!) at Arnolfini from Olivia Block (Sunday 17) appearing as part of the touring audio graft festival of contemporary music with performances from vibraphonist Sarah Hennes and synth deconstructors Sonic Luz.
Time was when James Chance & The Contortions (The Lanes, Wednesday 13) were a byword for deconstruction, too, as an early-80s No Wave ‘avant funk’ outfit taking an Albert Ayler shaped chainsaw to disciplined dance music. Now having reformed The Contortions after a 30 year hiaitus it’s to be hoped the former ‘Teenage Jesus’ retains his anarchic attitude and paint-stripping free saxophone style.
There’ll be a similar ‘affectionate disrespect’ vibe when the Worm Disco people host lively Dutch Latin psychedelic mayhem band Fumaça Preta (Jam Jar, Saturday 16).
Another notoriously lively live act is The Destroyers (Old Market Assembly, Friday 15) but given the vast sprawl of their line-up there’s also a tight discipline to much of the music. Or at least as tight as Balkan wedding tunes and jazzed up folk can be without losing the spirit of the music. For a similar musical flavour but on a smaller scale (and with tapas!) there’s Troyka appearing as a 4-piece at El Rincon (Thursday 14).
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