Music / Jazz
The week in Jazz January 29 – February 4
Two likeminded evenings of improvisational jazz vie for attention this week and fortunately they are on different nights so you could catch them both. The first is at Crofters Rights (Tuesday 30) when Portishead’s Ade Utley promotes the pairing of trumpeter Nick Malcolm’s new, freethinking quartet Jade with bass player Riaan Vosloo’s foursome The Uphill Game (also including Jake McMurchie and Pete Judge from Get The Blessing). Sounds great and even tastier when you learn that Mr Utley will be guesting on guitar and so will prodigious young Tomorrow’s Warrior Sam Barnett on sax.
Paul Dunmall
And you’ll have barely had time to cool your heels after that when the mighty saxophone combination of Paul Dunmall and John O’Gallagher kicks things off at The Fringe (Wednesday 31). Given the (musically) heavyweight status of both players and the addition of improv music veterans John Edwards and Mark Sanders on bass and drums respectively it seems hard to imagine how the Fringe’s small backroom stage will stand the strain.
Slowest Lift duo Sophie Cooper and Julian Bradley
Fellow freethinkers of a later generation come to Salt Cafe (Friday 2) when guitar loopster Andrew ‘Saltings’ Cooke is joined by cellist Sophie Jackson to headline a triple bill of improvisatory performance, while electronicist Herron brings ‘darker and experimental sound’ to Crofters Rights on the same night. Saturday (3) at The Cube welcomes Yorkshire’s psychedelic drone duo Slowest Lift (featuring Sophie Cooper’s processed trombone) at the top of their three-acter.
is needed now More than ever
James Beckwith (centre) with pals
If you like your jazz cool and groovy there’s a couple or three gigs this week to catch your ear, starting with the James Beckwith Trio (Gallimaufry, Wednesday 31). This London-based threesome have a contemporary sound with echoes of the likes of Robert Glasper and GoGo Penguin and a definite leaning towards dance music structures. Things lean even further in that direction when Bristol’s Jackson hit the stage (Canteen, Friday 2), with old-school jazz funk values and keyboards (and Talkbox vocals) from Jack Baldus, while over in Bath’s Burdall’s Yard soul-jazz keyboards and vocals come from well-respected session player Xantone Blacq on the same night.
Rafa Dornelles (centre) and trio-mates
Equally upbeat but more firmly in the Latin camp Brazilian guitarist Rafa Dornelles brings his trio to Gallimaufry on Tuesday (30). Now resident in Bristol, Rafa’s music builds on underlying rhythmic foundations with touches of psychedelia and some serious show-offery on guitar, something that you can also expect from Blues Mercenaries fretworker Jon Amor (Leftbank, Friday 2). Jon’s colleagues include Hammond guru John paul Gard and No Go Stop sax hero John Pratt and have promised to be loud.
Mustard Brass Band in sunnier times
And finally … a couple of those new-style brass bands will be blowing through town in the shape of Horning Glory (Steam Crane Friday 2) and Mustard Brass Band (No 1 Harbourside, Saturday 3). Both take an upbeat look at the classic ‘second line’ style of New Orleans marching bands, with plenty of soul and funk energy thrown in.
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