Music / Jazz
The week in jazz – October 3-9
One great thing about having world-class musicians living in your neighbourhood is that every now and then they bring a few of their great mates round to play. Thus Bristol-born composer and improvising piano meister Keith Tippett still lives in the South Gloucestershire countryside and is making a rare appearance at The Lantern (Wednesday 5) with the awesome Paul Dunmall Quintet. Fiery tenor sax player Paul has himself long been associated with the Bristol jazz scene, not least as part of Keith’s Mujician quartet, and this new outfit features phenomenal US drummer Hamid Drake (pictured) as well as free-thinking bass player Dave Kane, pianist Steve Tromans and Percy Pursglove (in trumpet playing mode). That’s an immense amount of improvisational talent for one stage and promises to make for a truly memorable evening.
It could be the first of three great jazz nights for the dedicated hepcat, too, the next being at The Bebop club (Friday 7) when the Tori Freestone Trio visit. These three young hipsters are established stars of the contemporary London scene and their lively collaboration has a spacious and intelligent sound with real character. Ms Freestone’s tenor sax weaves insistently around Dave Mannington’s bass and the mesmerising drumming of Tim Giles and the range and quality of ideas in latest album El Barranco reflects what The Guardian’s John Fordham has called ‘an imposingly original sound’.
A gloriously retro sound will be on offer at the third eye-catcher in this week’s jazz listings: bass player Alison Rayner’s ARQ quintet arrival at the Hen & Chicken (Sunday 9) will evoke inevitable memories of The Guest Stars, the all-female jazz collective from the 80s that featured Alison and ARQ guitarist Dierdre Cartwright. Like Loose Tubes, Working Week and other bands of the time Guest Stars threw jazz, Latin and Afrobeat inspirations into a funk-fuelled melting pot with energy and wit and their live performances were a joy. Alison’s Quintet also includes lyrical saxophone player Diane McLoughlin, drummer Buster Birch and pianist Steve Lodder.
And finally the great hard-bopping trumpeter Freddie Hubbard is remembered in Brother Hubbard, a new 6-piece band from ever-busy horn man Jonny Bruce. Prolific in the 60s and 70s, Freddie Hubbard played with pretty much everyone that mattered, adding hard-edged explosions and lyrical sweeps in equal measure. It’s an influence clearly heard in Jonny’s own impressive playing and with Tom Gorst (sax) Denny Ilett (guitar) Andy Nowak (keyboards), Jeff Spencer (bass) and Danny Cox (drums) completing the line-up some high-octane Jazz Messenger style workouts can be expected.
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