A lot of heart : Byron Wallen at Cambridge Modern Jazz with his 'Four Corners' Band (work in progress)

A lot of heart : Byron Wallen at Cambridge Modern Jazz with his 'Four Corners' Band

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

A lot of heart : Byron Wallen at Cambridge Modern Jazz with his 'Four Corners' Band (work in progress)

It was @byronwallen* at @camjazz earlier - his 'Four Corners' band of @Rob_Luft (gtr), Paul Michael (elec. bass), Rod Youngs (drums) :#UCFF didn't hear much of the first set, but the 2nd gave engaged playing, varied moods and thoughtful use of effects-pedals.

* Tpt, pf, perc.

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 4, 2021

A second gig that, despite Cambridge International Jazz Festival's not going ahead this year, had been preserved by CMJ, clearly there had been those who took the opportunity of a Friday-night slot to come to town especially, which is a real encouragement for jazz in Cambridge.

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 4, 2021

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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Can’t wait to play for you... And it doesn’t feel weird ! : Trish Clowes with her My Iris Quartet at Cambridge Modern Jazz on Thursday 27 May at 7.30 p.m. (uncorrected proof)

Trish Clowes with her My Iris Quartet at Cambridge Modern Jazz on Thursday 27 May at 7.30 p.m.

Breathed-through sounds, blended with Style, Smooch, Swing... (review in progress)

At Cambridge Modern Jazz : Breathed-through sounds, blended with Style, Smooch, Swing...

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

30 January

Report from Cambridge Modern Jazz (at Cambridge University Centre Wine Bar)
on Thursday 30 January 2020 at 7.30 p.m. :

The Clovis Nicolas / Steve Fishwick Quartet brought breathed-through sounds,
blended with Style, Smooch, Swing...

Personnel (alphabetical order) :

* Dmitry Baevsky (tnr)

* Matt Fishwick* (drs)

* Steve Fishwick (tpt)

* Clovis Nicolas (db)


All of these things ! They are not exactly those 'Three Little Words' - 'the closer' to Clovis Nicolas / Steve Fishwick Quartet's second set - and yet they begin as a list of, or a sort of touchstone for, their funk and flair : though that would be naming but a few very desirable qualities of to-night's gig.

Inarguably, and without any notion of our feeling resistance, kept us 'in there', warmed in both heart and mind. Just as, for example, the closing nod to Satchmo and 'The Sunny Side of the Street' is something that always brings out - and across - a smile to those that love Armstrong and all that he and the best of jazzers brought.

If, also, so often to too many a benighted soul, or an endeavour in which players poured out their soul, and thereby lit a flame to the actual lives that escaped them.


End-notes :

* As CMJ's David Gower has kindly pointed out, Steve Fishwick's brther Matt was 'a dep' (as they say) for Greg Hutchinson. (Search #UCFF, and Steve has been heard before, also.)


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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Adventures with Art (work in progress)

This will review Art Themen's New Directions Quintet at Cambridge Modern Jazz

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2017 (19 to 26 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

11 May

This is a brief (accreting) account of Art Themen's gig at Cambridge Modern Jazz (in Hidden Rooms, Cambridge) with his New Directions Quintet on Thursday 11 May at 8.00 p.m.

One can rely on the medic for a bodily or blue joke, but, at @camjazz, Art Themen missed the quip that Jarrett made with the Nude Ants album

— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 11, 2017

Drawl or slur it, and it sounds like New Dance - one of the album's tracks...

Themen's Nude Erections Quintet ? :https://t.co/jjgrRFDcOo https://t.co/ugFEF1CKKj

— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 11, 2017

Personnel :

* Winston Clifford ~ drums (and voice)
* Steve Fishwick ~ trumpet
* Matt Gorman (deputizing for Gareth Williams) ~ piano
* Arnie Somogyi ~ double-bass
* Art Themen ~ saxes (tenor and alto)


Set-lists :

First set :

1. Why don’t I ~ Sonny Rollins (arr. Somogyi)
2. Ecaroh ~ Horace Silver
3. 26-2 ~ John Coltrane
4. Joe’s Blow ~ Arnie Somogyi
5. Dizzy words ~ Don Weller



Second set :

6. Peri’s scope ~ Bill Evans
7. Midnight voyage ~ Joe C.
8. Ballad medley, beginning with Thelonius Monk’s ‘Ask me now’
9. Notville ~ Horace Silver



Encores :

10. Unnannounced composition ~ Winston Clifford
11. Four in One ~ Thelonius Monk


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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Postcards to Outer Space : Sarah Gillespie Band at Cambridge Modern Jazz

A mini-review of Sarah Gillespie Band at Cambridge Modern Jazz

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2016 (20 to 27 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

27 April

A mini-review of Sarah Gillespie Band at Cambridge Modern Jazz (at Hidden Rooms¹, Cambridge) on Thursday 27 April 2017 at 8.00 p.m.

April 27 can't wait 2 play Cambridge Modern Jazz @KitDownes @ruthgoller @jamesmaddren @CambJazzFest @Jazzwise @JazzUK_org #Cambridge #jazz pic.twitter.com/lAPOLwQVpD

— Sarah Gillespie (@Stalkingjuliet) February 28, 2017

This was a compelling evening of songs by Sarah Gillespie and her band (a quartet, in all), which had mainly been written by Sarah Gillespie herself (@Stalkingjuliet / sarahgillespie.com), and which she performed with energy and sincerity.

Often bluesy in style (she identified Bessie Smith as someone to whom she looks), her vocal-quality was always full and emotive, e.g. a heartfelt 'St James Infirmary', which, in introducing it, she located for us as partly her version (it is on the Glory Days album - please see below), partly Armstrong's.

She also does not choose to stick to one register within a song : it is clear that, if it fits better to place sections in her higher range, but contrast them with the effect of using the lower part of her voice, she will do so. (However, she does it so naturally and well that one may easily not realize, which is real thought and care.)

Although Sarah Gillespie has a new album, her third, the Glory Days was most representative of what we heard across two sets, songs relating to losing her mother (there were at least six numbers from it – sitting at the front meant that one could also read the set-list on the piano...).


Personnel :

* Tom Cawley² ~ piano
* Sarah Gillespie ~ vocals and guitar
* Ruth Goller ~ double-bass
* James Maddren ~ drums

Critically acclaimed songstress Sarah Gillespie is bringing her fusion of #jazz #blues and #folk to Terry O'Toole Theatre this month. https://t.co/nps0y5AF62

— artsNK (@artsNK1) November 8, 2016

.@camjazz @jamesmaddren @ruthgoller @tomcawley There were a couple of Bessie Smith tributes, St James Infirmary, but mainly Sarah's excellent and sincere songs (even a lonely-hearts poem)

— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) April 27, 2017

NB Regarding the poem (referred to in the Tweet above), this was in a comedic vein, and presented by Gillespie as inspired by surveying what people say about themselves to the world at large, but without seeming to realize what it tells others about them, her favourite being that 'a pink, round, bald man' was seeking the opposite of himself : in the songs generally, there is much that is observational and / or wry (as well as lyrical), but this was a chance to be openly amused by her words.


Maybe Gillespie's roots are really in country (?), but, although two numbers certainly started off in that idiom (and she readily employs its characteristic tremolos and extended vowel-sounds, or a drawled type delivery), jazz and country are, of course, broad terms – not inflexible categories.

Certainly, her fondness for the blues means that we do hear the jazz vibe and its tropes overlaid on the more open and uncomplicated sound-world of country (i.e. that often hallmarks it), and with a nice band of instrumentalists who can exploit that jazzy / bluesy territory and spin off very germane accompaniment and solos.

Nice review of last week's gig at the @606club! Thursday we will be hitting the mean streets of Cambridge @camjazz w @ruthgoller on bass. https://t.co/3ypcDthgVD

— Sarah Gillespie (@Stalkingjuliet) April 25, 2017

Another demonstration that (with the support of the regular team at Hidden Rooms¹ and John, as usual, on sound), Cambridge Modern Jazz (cambridgejazz.org / @camjazz) can be looked to for the programming of a variety of performers who will make an evening’s jazz as stimulating and of such quality as this one !

End-notes :

¹ The venue of Hidden Rooms is located on Jesus Lane in Cambridge, underneath Pizza Express (the stairs down to it are to the right of the stairs up to the pizzeria).

² The line-up originally included the Hammond supremo Kit Downes (on piano), but Cawley deputized to cover Downes’ injury to a tendon.


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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Solstice¹ at Cambridge Modern Jazz : set-lists and a few comments

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2016 (20 to 27 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

30 March

Set-lists from, and a few comments about, the gig by Solstice¹ at Cambridge Modern Jazz (Hidden Rooms, Jesus Lane, Cambridge) on Thursday 30 March at 8.00 p.m.

Go Solstice! @HiddenRooms 8pm This Thu 8pm. @ToriFreestone @Jtjazzman @brigitteberaha Tix https://t.co/Pm1Y77m8Jm 07827 012875 JOYOUS JAZZ! pic.twitter.com/BMfcqHL9O1

— camjazz (@camjazz) March 27, 2017

Solstice¹ : time at which the sun is furthest from the equator
and appears to stand still before returning.

Personnel :

* Brigitte Beraha ~ vocals
* Tori Freestone ~ flute / saxes
* Jez Franks ~ guitar
* George Hart ~ drums
* Dave Mannington ~ double-bass
* John Turville ~ piano


First set (maybe missing an item after no. 4) :

1. Ultimate big cheese (Dave Mannington)
2. Mourning porridge (John Turville)
3. The Anchor Song (Björk, arr. JT)
4. Tilt (Jez Franks)
5. Solstice (Brigitte Beraha ??)
6. Random acts of kindness (JM)


We were told that 'Mourning porridge', a Latin-infused number with wordless vocals, had been written with saxophonist Tori Freestone's oat intolerance in mind.

'Solstice' was a disquieting melody, which 'undeveloped' into primal and alarming rawness - shrieks, laughter and bellowing from Beraha, which may not have caused some to relate it to what the name of the sextet or that of the piece means (please see above), as an evocation of how unsettling, in terms of not knowing what was happening to the Sun at these times of year, they might have seemed to our ancestors.

The first set was worth hearing for @ToriFreestone's beautiful alto solo alone, in Jez Franks' 'Tilt', plus two on tenor in the second set ! https://t.co/Tx3YHHcDL5

— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 31, 2017

Second set (assuming seven numbers in the first set) :

8. Quetzalcoatlus (JM)
9. Hear words like butterflies (sic ?) (BB)
10. Avocado deficit (Tori Freestone)
11. Unspoken (BB)
12. The universal fall (TF)


The band had titled its album 'Alimentation', but (as with intolerance) 'Avocado deficit' appeared predicated on someone who had not eaten one in a very long time (and was in funeral-march time ?). In 'Unspoken', singing words now seemed to fit Beraha's voice better than earlier². After a rocking solo from Jez Franks, and as with her tenor solo on 'Quetzalcoatlus', Freestone showed her expressive versatility and accomplishment, this time in rumba rhythm.

Good to have a chance to hear sextet @solsticejazz to-night at @camjazz - their fifth gig, with another fourteen to go, incl. @StablesMK...

— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) March 31, 2017

Encore :

13. All the things you are (Jerome Kern)


The choice of encore seemed an impromptu choice. As well as singing a capella, Beraha brought out and exploited the interpretative possibilities of pausing slightly between 'You' and 'are' (in lines such as 'You are the promised kiss of springtime'³), and Freestone and Franks took solos that showed adventurousness, playing with the song's metre, and reinterpreting its theme.


End-notes :

¹ The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology edited by C. T. Onions. Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1966.

² In the first set, Beraha had seemed better at blending and melding when singing wordlessly : probably through lacking in a proper feedback monitor (rather trying to bring off Jacqui Dankworth’s singing-style, but without the necessary voice).

³ In the more subtle music and language, that uncertainty is there about whether springtime will come...


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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Cats are people (Kit Downes)

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2014
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

17 March

This is a review of a gig, given at Cambridge's Hidden Rooms for Cambridge Modern Jazz (@camjazz), by the Kit Downes Quintet


As we must have been told, in various ways, more than half-a-dozen times, this was / had been an acoustic gig – perhaps that truly is a rarity, or for Kit Downes at any rate, but it did feel like pushing a unique selling point (USP) to those who, by virtue of being there, had already bought. (Maybe the USP was being hit home for the benefit of those who might hear, from us, what they had missed… ?)

@THEAGENTAPSLEY thanks for this - i think completely acoustic gigs nowadays (in jazz) are something of a rarity - sorry to go on about it!
— Kit Downes (@KitDownes) March 18, 2014

Personnel :

Kit Downes – upright piano

James Allsopp – B Flat and bass clarinets, tenor sax

Calum Gourlay – bass

James Maddren – drums

Lucy Railton – cello


Unlike some of Kit Downes’ other work, what he had written for the quintet* felt relatively composed – not in the sense of being tranquil (although some pieces definitely were), but less improvisatory (although not necessarily in the texture of his own contribution on piano). What it had was the familiar juxtaposition of moods within a piece that we know from Troyka (@Troykaband), where, as if in a set of Irish or Scottish tunes, there is a sudden, planned transition to the next section.

The first set opened with such a tranquil feel, as a way into the evening, and the ensemble was perfect, the notes of James Allsopp’s bass clarinet fitting perfectly within the scale of the harmony. The next, we were told (Downes gave the introductions, in his confident, avuncular way), had been inspired by Bill Frisell, and was a blues that built, with Allsopp, on B Flat clarinet, wailing, winding up the song**, but ultimately resolving in a quiet way, with plucked notes from Lucy Railton on cello. The third piece had an experimental feel, by now unlike the safety of the opener, with Allsopp giving us occasional blasts on his tenor sax, and with very loud unexpected knocks from James Maddren on drums.

The penultimate piece in the first set was a reflective number, in which Maddren had to keep up a complicated rhythm. Under the apparent calm of the surface, something was happening, and the piece imperceptibly built up, and then as quietly slipped away again. Ivan Hewitt’s description of Downes’ work seems apt : an engagingly slow-burn energy (The Sunday Telegraph). From B Flat, Allsopp returned to bass clarinet in a piece by bassist Gourlay called ‘Smoke’ (which he said, when Downes asked, had nothing to do with smoking), a somewhat sombre, syncopated melody, which was laced with sunnier intervals, and had a complicated theme in the upper voices.

In all of this, less mention than one might imagine of Downes himself, but he was there in all of it, setting the tempo / counting in, giving clear cues (for which Allsopp, in particular, looked expectantly), and keeping the currents under the progression at work, such that there was no doubting who was leading.

This group is an expanded form of the Kit Downes Trio, with Gourlay and Maddren (who, at the time of the release of their CD Quiet Tiger three years ago, had been playing together for six years). They are fellow graduates of the Royal Academy of Music (and Allsopp, another Academician (so is Lucy Railton), guested on the album). In fact, sometimes, what we heard did fall back on those three original players, with Railton and Allsopp patiently silent (but one would not necessarily have thought any more than we had the jazz standard of piano, bass and drums).

After the interval, the second set opened with a pair of pieces, ‘Boreal’ (from Tiger) and ‘Clowns After Dark’, the latter of which Downes explained, humorously at Allsopp’s expense, related to their early acquaintance, when Allsopp had arrived very late to a party (the other guests had gone) as a clown with a smudged appearance, whose efforts at making up might have been better performed at some other time. Another quiet opening, with Allsopp on bass clarinet, and then a jaunty number – as of a clown on the tiles ? – with a raucous solo from Allsopp.

Another pair of tunes followed, ‘Two Ones’ and ‘Bleydays’ (both from Downes’ album Light from Old Stars), the latter said to be a combined tribute to pianist Paul Bley and to t.v.’s Playdays… In the first, Railton’s cello had a keening quality to it, and as a whole the number felt like an air. Changing from Allsopp on clarinet to sax, Downes’ theme had the impression that we know from Thelonius Monk – which led some to the false interpretation that Monk did not know how to play – of music almost falling over itself in its rhythmic diversification. Rare for the gig, Downes had a solo, and then, when the others re-entered, the number ended softly with sax and drums.

The set closed with ‘Skip James’ (also from Tiger), which had the atmospheric mood of a blues, and in which Allsopp’s lower-register notes on bass clarinet fitted in beautifully with the gorgeous ensemble. Altogether, a very fine example of instrumentalists producing a sonorous whole, and some very varied effects.

When called up for an encore, Downes said that they did not often expect one, but decided, after hesitation, on ‘Owls’ – bite sized, he stressed. This is from Stars, and he said that it was in the spirit of David Lynch (the second film reference of the night). It may have been, but, with its nocturnal timbre (complete with owl calls from Maddren !), it also reminded a little of The Addams Family – although Downes predicted, regarding his choice, that it would send everyone off on a low, it was a very suitable end to the session.


End-notes

* Afterwards, Downes said that – which is the only place for him to start with a piece – everything had been with the quintet, and the skills of its players, in mind, e.g. James Allsopp’s great capacity to play in a free style, and Lucy Railton’s classical training : he is doing some gigs as a duo with her, and will be at Cheltenham (#cheltjazzfest).

** To quote the lyrics of a song on a solo album by Procol Harum’s Gary Brooker.


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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)