Music / Jazz
Bristol’s week in jazz, October 14-20 2019
In a week that sees some great multi-media stuff and tasty world music coming to town, three local heroes should remind us just how spoiled we are for great jazz in Bristol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2nAuYbZO5o
Bath-dwelling bass player Greg Cordez firmly established a reputation as composer and band leader with his first two albums. With influences from contemporary rock and Americana to the fore, his lyrical tunes have always benefitted from a judicious choice of bandmates and the Greg Cordez Sextet (Fringe, Wednesday 16) is another great combo.
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With Rebecca Nash on piano and both Nick Dover and Sam Crockatt playing tenor sax as well as Steve Banks’ guitar and the incomparable Matt Brown on drums their Fringe set will showcase the new material Greg is developing for his third recording.
Another local jazz musician who has increasingly unleashed rock influences in his composition, pianist Jim Blomfield’s nods to prog and Krautrock have evolved into a riveting fusion. His long-established Jim Blomfield Trio come to The Forge (Tuesday 15) for what should be a splendidly intimate performance in a very welcoming venue.
And let’s hear it for Run Logan Run (Mr Wolf’s, Friday 18) who came back from the 2019 Montreux Jazz festival with the Montreux Jazz Talent Award.
The duo’s powerful combination of saxophonist Andrew Neil Hayes and the aforementioned drummer Matt Brown makes for an excitingly experimental fusion of spiritual jazz with ambient electronica and improvisational playing. The similarly unbounded Hexcut complete the bill at Mr Wolf’s.
Even more experimental electronica comes to The Cube who welcome longtime Japanese innovator Coppé (Thursday 17) headlining a triple bill of conceptual electronic acts.
Then, for an afternoon of feminist multi-media improvisation, St George’s Listening Room programme hosts Viridian (Saturday 19). Described as ‘an ethereal amalgam of image, voice, cello, percussion and double bass’ the event includes a discussion about the aesthetic politics of feminist improvisation.
That may or may not interest freethinking flute and violin duo Tina Hitchens and Yvonne Magda who appear at Cafe Kino (Thursday 17) as part of an improvisatory triple-bill that also features new trio Beck/Hession/Lash.
Over at the Arnolfini Debashish Bhattacharya (Tuesday 15) brings classical Indian improvisatory music via his self-designed ‘Hindustani slide guitar’. His trio also includes his daughter Anandi, whose vocal performance was a particular treat at this year’s WOMAD festival.
World music fans will also be pleased to hear that the London Afrobeat Collective will be raising the roof at Old Market Assembly (Friday 18) while Leftbank offers Cuban trumpeter Michel Padron’s Salsa Duro project Saoco Collective (Saturday 19). The latter also features pianist Jim Blomfield in Montuno mode.
Vocalist Brigitte Beraha has made a few visits to the Bebop Club in the past, sometimes alongside Andy Hague’s bands. Her poised and honest style (as featured above in the Andre Canniere video) brings a fresh strength to the music.
This time she comes as part of the Toby Boalch Quartet (Bebop Club, Friday 18), bringing the voice to pianist Toby’s settings of a wide range of classic poetry. It’s good to see him acknowledging the influence of jazz-folk pioneers Pentangle in his musical thinking, too.
And there’s plenty of bang for your buck to be had at Future Inn (Thursday 17) who this week offer a double bill of guitar-led contemporary jazz bands. London-based Italian quartet Dugong cite the counterpoint of Bach and Chopin as influences, while the Royal Academy proved the starting point for guitarist Michael De Souza’s trio. They claim more rock influences, including Radiohead and Deerhoof.
And, finally, something enigmatic from the ever-quirky El Rincon programme: the mysterious Newt & Toad (Thursday 17) claim to be ‘quite possibly the only guitar and melodica duo in the South West’. They promise Django, Joe Henderson and Argentinian tango, naturally.
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