Music / Jazz
The week in Jazz Mar 19 – 25
Apologies for the late delivery of this week’s chocolate box of jazz treats: blame a slight hangover from last weekend’s overindulgence at the Bristol Jazz Fest. As it happens there’s not much on offer until Wednesday. The week’s biggest jazz draw – Kamaal Williams at The Lantern (Friday 23) is already sold out, so you might do well to get in early to the Bebop Club that night when Slowly Rolling Camera bass man Aidan Thorne’s Duski appear. The band – a collective of top exploratory players from the Cardiff scene – made a big impression at the club with their 2016 visit and their contemporary jazz is as fresh as anything in these parts.
The mysterious Remi Harris
There’s a slight air of mystery about Remi Harris’ visit to The Fringe (Thursday 22) as it seems to be listed everywhere except on the pub’s own programme. A stunning young Gypsy-jazz guitarist, Remi performed alongside Dakhla at Jamie Cullum’s 2016 Prom concert. He’ll be hot on the heels of Bristol’s own John Pearce Band at the same venue the night before (Wednesday 21). No stranger to the Hot Club style himself, jazz violinist John is a big favourite at the Fringe.
Jade Gall
There’s a couple of Jades appearing this week, too, the first being young Devon-based tenor sax player Jade Gall (Future Inn, Thursday 22). Jade is a respected classical performer as well as playing in jazz, soul and swing bands.
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Jade’s Nick Malcolm (left), Jake McMurchie (centre) and Will Harris (right)
The second Jade is trumpeter Nick Malcolm’s highly envelope-pushing quartet of seasoned improvisers – Jake McMurchie, Will Harris and Ric Yarborough – who are in the early evening slot at the Colston Hall Foyer (Saturday 24). Claiming inspiration from JDilla and English church music alike they are a hotbed of musical ideas and should make a great warm-up act for Roots drumpad virtuoso Jeremy Ellis appearing at The Lantern later.
Voronoi – still catching the math rock zeitgeist
You can go even farther out in the improsphere at Cafe Kino on Saturday 24 with the latest session of Improv’s Greatest Hits. Headliners Marcy are a ‘conceptual art trio and Cult’ who will perform The Last Supper with collaborating pals. Things will be much tighter at the Gallimaufry on Wednesday (21) when Waldo’s Gift welcome powerful Leeds trio Voronoi. Formerly known as Zeitgeist, the band’s math-prog rock will be a fine match for the residents.
Finally, there’s some interesting punctuation to be sampled on Sunday with a choice between A.N.t at the Hen & Chicken or and.not.or at The Old Malthouse. The former is Duval Project pianist Andy Nowak’s trio with ace bassist Spencer Brown and Matt Fisher on drums who play a selection of Andy’s own reflective jazz compositions. The latter is an experimental multimedia project involving sound, conceptual performances and visual projections.
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