Bristol’s week in jazz, November 4-10 2019

You’d better have some pocket money saved up because it’s one of those weeks…

There’s about ten really tasty gigs in the next seven days, with five happening on Thursday alone. Hard choices need to be made, obviously, and you’ll just have to take your pick.

Easiest on the pocket (as long as you’re quick enough to book a free ticket) the Bristol Jazz & Blues Festival launch party features uber-funky trombonist  Dennis “Badbone’ Rollins (Bambalan, Thursday 7) with an all-star local band including James Morton and festival Director Denny Ilett. It’ll be your first chance to hear about the line-up for next year’s programme, too.

It’s an unfortunate clash with the jazz night at St George’s keyboard festival, however. The hall hosts two excellent gigs during Thursday evening, the first being Dinosaur’s livewire keyboard exponent  Elliot Galvin’s Trio.

A great exploiter of electronics, he has been increasingly developing himself as an acoustic pianist as evidenced by latest vinyl release Modern Times. He’s followed by the mighty Phronesis (pictured at top) with pianist Ivo Neame’s flamboyance as composer and improviser locked into Jasper Høiby’s bass and Anton Eger’s madcap drumming. After nearly 15 years together these three craftsmen have an empathy that is often jaw-dropping in its intensity.

Further keyboard-centred jazz will also be happening on Thursday at The Greenbank when the Alex Veitch Trio plays Kenny Wheeler and also at the Beer Emporium courtesy of the Tim Funnel Trio.

Meanwhile, over at Trinity, the re-renamed Portico Quartet (they were simply Portico for a while) will unveil Memory Streams, their latest release on Matthew Halsall’s Gondwana label. Though interwoven with more electronics than their early music there’s a definite sense of them refreshing the minimal ambient sound that established them a decade ago.

And alongside all this midweek action, highly promising Cardiff newcomer Norman Willmore brings his Quartet to Future Inn with a strong reputation for integrating folk themes, hymns and old pop songs through a free jazz approach.

That’s just one of the next seven days and it’s preceded by the ever-popular return of free-blowing saxophone (and bagpipe) tyro Paul Dunmall rocking up at the Fringe (Wednesday 6) with a dazzling quintet that includes noted alto player Mike Fletcher and long-time Keith Tippett associate trumpeter Jim Dvorak.

That same night Milon’s tenor player Dino Christodoulou brings his new jazz project The ChiffChaff Trio to the Canteen, only to be followed there by another avian outfit namely Starlings (Canteen, Thursday 7).

You know when a jazz outfit has got into the Premier League when the tour dates are all places like the O2 Academy – which is exactly where you’ll find US heavyweights Snarky Puppy (Friday 8) and their ever-impressive contemporary big band sound. This mega collective has been garlanded with Grammys and any amount of other awards across their 15 years and naturally enough the gig is sold out.

Which might encourage you to go for something a little smaller but equally perfectly formed (and also visiting from the States) in the shape of the Ben Clatworthy Quartet (Bebop Club, Friday 8). Actually a British player who’s lived in California for nearly 40 years, tenor player Ben was something of a protege of the great Horace Silver. His almost annual visits to the old country always includes a spot at the Bebop and it’s always one of the club’s highlights. Or you might opt for goat-themed Balkan mayhem at Leftbank courtesy of Capra Mamei.

Spare a thought for astonishingly versatile percussionist Harriet Riley next weekend. She will be appearing at St George’s Glass Studio listening space on Saturday afternoon (9) in Spider Music, a new 5-piece improvising outfit drawn from jazz, folk and classical backgrounds.

The same band are due to appear at Canteen the following afternoon (Sunday 10) and then Harriet reappears in the evening in beats-driven jazz project Phantom Ensemble at Gallimaufry. That’s a lot of work assembling and dis-assembling her vibraphone and marimba set-up, let alone getting behind all the music involved.

But what of the left field, you ask, and of course there’s another wide ranging choice to be had, including Argentinian piano minimalist Sebastian Plano (Colston Hall Foyer, Saturday 9) and looping electronicists Rainbow Slicer (Old England, Saturday 9) the latter appearing with Christelle Atenstaedt’s dreamy layered soundscapes aka Orryx. Math-dance jazz trio Hexcut will appear alongside folk-proggers Jakabol at Crofters (Thursday 7).