Jazz Workshop with the Bobby Avey Project incl. Ben Monder, Miguel Zenón, Jordan Perlson and Michael Janisch

Leeds College of Music, Leeds. Wednesday 10th December 2014

I attended an excellent workshop at Leeds College of Music yesterday led by pianist Bobby Avey with contributions from all of the band playing as part of his latest 'Authority Melts From Me' project including Ben Monder on guitar, Miguel Zenón on alto saxophone, Jordan Perlson on drums and joining them for the UK tour, Michael Janisch on double bass.

The workshop kicked off with the band playing the opening section of the 'Authority Melts From Me' suite. Avey then explained the background to the project, it being a suite for quintet inspired by the Haitian people who've persevered through a tragic history of colonialism, slavery, and foreign occupation. The suite focuses particularly on Haiti's slave revolt. You can find more on the general background outlined on his website. 

Avey then gave us an example of how Haitian Vodou drumming formed the basis of the rhythms of the suite. He played a short recording of some multi-layered rhythms he'd recorded at a Vodou Ceremony in the small village of Soukri (You can download these recordings). He explained how he transcribed the recordings to break the rhythm down, then giving some of these rhythmic parts to the piano, guitar and drums. He said that although it would be possible to accurately transcribe the time of the rhythms using complex subdivisions such as septuplets, the written parts would look a bit crazy and would be very difficult to play. To convey the essence of what he wanted, it made much more sense to pass the audio files to the players and get them to understand the vibe and learn them by ear.

Someone asked about harmony of the music. Avey noted that although standard western notation and chord descriptions are used to convey the information to the players, the music is coming from places outside of western functional harmony. An example given (if I'm recalling correctly) was a chord containing the notes F, F#, G and A. Avey noted that it's a valid and real sound, but describing it in terms of root notes, b9s, natural 9s etc. doesn't really make sense. It would have been great to have heard more on the harmony but this discussion came at the end of the first part of the workshop which rounded off with a take on 'On Green Dolphin Street'.

Following this, four of the LCM students bravely performed a version of On Green Dolphin Street after which the band gave some feedback. There was some really useful stuff here and it was interesting to hear pro musicians from other countries discussing  ways to learn and get better at jazz. It was reassuring that all of this resonated with what I've been taught, mainly by guitarist Mike Walker, but also tutors such as Les Chisnall and Iain Dixon.

Janisch emphasised the importance of practising switching between the two and walking four feel to the bassist and drummer . He got the players to play several choruses switching at the top of form from one to the other. It was noticeable how much focussing in like this improved the time and feel. I think it was Janisch that also stressed the importance of recording yourself playing and improvising as much as possible. Listening back to your own playing really highlights where your own weaknesses are and what needs addressing. For him, the listening back and learning process is almost half of his practice time. 

Avey noted that some of the improv was a bit meandering and ideas were not being developed. He suggested it can be a great idea to write a plan down for solos over a number of choruses to make sure there's some strategy and conscious development. Then see if you can play it. The plan could include all kinds of different ideas. It could be using a specific comping idea for each improviser, focussing on a scale pattern, specifically using repetition, playing quieter, louder, slower, faster and so on. Avey also emphasised the importance of transcribing solos to build your vocabulary and listening to different versions of tunes to build up reference points. He compared just using the Real Book to only reading the spark notes for Macbeth. Clearly you need to read/hear the originals to get deeply into the pieces, as only so much can be noted down on paper.  

Zenón noted that some of the players were struggling a little with technical obstacles. He stressed the importance of really working on and nailing the fundamentals, relating to the feeling players have when struggling to express themselves. There's no greater wisdom here than making sure you put in the hours of practice and don't try to be too advanced too early. 

Monder said he didn't feel the students were stating the harmony as clearly as they could in their improvisation. He mentioned that it's really important to be able to comfortably play all the chord tones of the sequence of a piece. On the guitar it's important to be able to do this in position in all the positions on the fretboard, though you may find you have to jump around the neck initially to get this down. He suggested the improvisers try playing two or three choruses based on chord tones before bringing in tension notes and other approaches.

We stuck around for the concert in the evening which was phenomenal. It's challenging stuff for sure, but really engaging if you focus in on it. Avey's approach to harmony is really intriguing and something I want to find out more about. All the playing was great, but I particularly enjoyed the gorgeous fluidity of drummer Jordan Perlson who was a delight to listen to.

Tomasz Stańko New York Quartet – London Jazz Festival 2014

Barbican Centre, London. Thursday 20th November 2014

Thursday’s Tomasz Stanko concert presents quite a challenge to review. No tracks were introduced though most were from the ‘Wislawa’ album with the New York Quartet. The music is frequently impressionistic, dense, free and constantly shifting.

The medium swing of ‘Assassins’ served as the uncompromising starting point for a challenging evening’s music requiring some serious concentration. Much was asked of the audience to stay with this, but the rewards were well worth it. Almost every piece seemed to contain many sub pieces, often with quite different harmony and rhythm. Asides of asides were pursued relentlessly resulting in a sometimes uncomfortable de-centering effect.

‘Dernier Cri’ supplied some contrast, the wistful and dreamy introduction from pianist David Virelles conveying a mood perfectly echoed by Stanko’s melancholy trumpet. The piece managed to capture a romanticism tinged with sadness and longing. The track eventually moved on up into a swing, Virelles keeping us on our toes with some angular side shot arpeggio flourishes.

Especially effective was the insistence of ‘Faces’, drummer Gerald Cleaver sounding gorgeously fluid, keeping up a captivatingly intense rhythmic layer for Stanko to shower his fast trumpet cluster splurges over. Bassist Thomas Morgan provided a clear backbone throughout, much in the vein of classic modal era Coltrane tracks. He frequently stuck to a one-note drone type layer, albeit presented within a complex rhythmic figure. The playing was nothing showy on the face of it, but he was always driving things along with maximum effect. His later solo was really quite unusual, comprising a root to fifth movement shifting across tonalities.

It was clear this concert wasn’t to everyone’s taste, especially coming after high energy spectacle of opening act Stefano Bollani and Hamilton de Holanda. Nonetheless, it was the sort of concert that stays with you. It’s certainly left me intrigued to seek out and understand his music more. Music shouldn’t have to be difficult and of course, often isn’t. However sometimes when it is, it can push you into places you otherwise wouldn’t go. We don’t always find the journey easy, but it can be wonderful when you get there.

Trumpeter Tomasz Stańko
Pianist David Virelles
Bassist Thomas Morgan
Drummer Gerald Cleaver

Alice Zawadzki - London Jazz Festival 2014

Elgar Room, Royal Albert Hall, London. Wednesday 19th November 2014.

We were treated to an enchanting performance last night from Alice Zawadzki at the Royal Albert Hall. The set opened with the gruff chords and swirling folk tones of ‘Indome Para Marsilia’ before singers Emine Pirhasan and Jessica Berry joined for ‘Ring of Fire’. Alice has added a new groove section to the end of the track that, perhaps surprisingly, worked really well, guitarist Alex Roth digging in with some tasty overdriven lines.

One of the many set highlights was the Arabic influenced Spanish tones of ‘Dicho Me Habian Dicho’, a track Zawadzki learnt from Roth. The dark brooding introduction slowly built up momentum to an ecstatic and powerful conclusion. Zawadzki introduced and explained the story behind most tracks, the lovely three part harmonies and Frisell style guitar of ‘Low Sun; Lovely Pink Light’ being inspired by a beautiful sunrise one morning in Denmark.

The track of the night was a genuinely moving take on ‘You As a Man’. Pianist Lee opened with a really good sweeping retro organ introduction, reminding me of some of John Paul Jones playing for Zeppelin. Zawadzki joined with some beautifully sensitive singing, the piece then twisting into its dark and intense section making way for great solos from Roth and Lee.

The set closed with some fantastic three-part harmonies on ‘Cat’. The band was nicely warmed up and relaxed at this point, so it was a shame we had to leave it there for this relatively short late night set. Short but certainly sweet.

Alice Zawadzki: voice, violin
Alex Roth: guitar
Pete Lee: piano, synth
Tom McCredie: bass
Jon Scott: drums
Emine Pirhasan: voice
Jessica Berry: voice

Trish Clowes and Guy Barker with the BBC Concert Orchestra - London Jazz Festival 2014

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. Tuesday 18th November 2014

There was quite some sense of expectation last night at the Queen Elizabeth Hall for the 'Trish Clowes and Guy Barker with the BBC Concert Orchestra' concert. Premieres of commissions can be nervy affairs at the best of times, a concert orchestra and live Radio 3 broadcast only upping the ante.

We were eased into the evening with a few pieces from the Trish Clowes Quintet. ‘Question Mark’ was a clipped angular affair followed by the gently questioning ‘Chorale’, the intro of which Clowes delivered with a sensitive lyricism. The BBC Concert Orchestra then joined for ‘Balloon’. It began nice and groovily, Clowes saxophone sounding strong and strident. I felt the orchestra could have kicked more when they came in, but they still managed to give the piece some extra depth.

Guy Barker then came on to conduct his ‘Soho Symphony’ with the orchestra, a piece based on a 24 hour boy almost meets girl story. For the most part I really enjoyed this largely classical sounding piece. I’m no expert on classical sounds, but my ears were hearing a range of elements through the piece including impressionistic Debussy, some 2001 Ligeti style floating dissonances, Psycho stabbing violins, dark growling chords with spitting muted trumpets along with some classic swing blues moments. It came together well.

Singer Norma Winstone joined the quintet and orchestra for some arrangements by Clowes and Barker of songs she's performed in the past.  ‘Peacock’ tested Winstone’s range with some very tricky wide intervals, but she pulled it off like a pro backed by a lovely lush string arrangement. My personal favourite of the night was the Clowes arrangement of John Taylor’s ‘Enjoy the Day’, a track from Winstone’s first record under her own name.  Some potent solos from Clowes and Mike Walker on guitar enhanced a really great chord sequence. It was interesting to hear an orchestra backed version of Steve Swallow’s ‘Ladies in Mercedes’ which totally worked, James Maddren’s drums sounding particularly sweet on the track’s seductive latin groove.

The evening finished with a Clowes’ composed three part commissioned piece, ‘The Fox, The Parakeet and The Chestnut’.  The first part I found a bit frustrating, being a bit jerky both rhythmically and harmonically. However this was followed by a really engaging section opened by Clowes playing some eerie sax into the sound box of Gwilym Simcock’s piano. Walker added a lovely raindrop like guitar backdrop to which the violins adding extra texture. The latter part of the piece really kicked in with Clowes sounding particularly gutsy.  There were some tentative moments for sure, but overall the piece was a genuine success.

Manchester Jazz Festival 2014 - The Story So Far

Friday 18th July 2014

An ace first night from the ‘BBC Introducing’ event at the Band on the Wall. I didn’t expect to take to Newcastle’s ‘Brassy B’, but in the live moment it was hard to resist their youthful energy and fun. Good strong big brassy New Orleans style grooves abound. The sousaphone player, who really caught the attention of the crowd, is only sixteen I believe.

Brassy B. (photo @johntravis)

The Moss Project can always be relied upon for an engaging experience. Guitarist/composer Moss definitely has his own contemporary writing style which is frequently captivating. Vocalist Alice Zawadzki was as sensuously soulful as ever, especially good on the scatty ‘The Bubble’. Bass player Ruth Goller was sounding particularly punchy too tonight.

Moss Project (photo by Peter Fay)

I wasn’t so taken with the Peter Edwards Trio myself, although they went down a storm with the audience.  It was technically sound and reminded me somewhat of Robert Mitchell's very full playing style. It just didn’t quite do it for me.

Johnny Hunter (photo by Peter Fay)

The highlight of the night was the Johnny Hunter Quartet. The music is largely chord-less, giving space for the saxophone and trumpet to fully utilise the harmonic space. Tons of energy and top playing came from all four musicians: Johnny on drums/compositions, Kyran Matthews on tenor saxophone, Aaron Diaz on trumpet and Seth Bennett on double bass. Johnny’s tunes are excellent and the improv was of the finest. One to check out for sure.

Saturday 19th July 2014

For the first few minutes of the opening New Orleans classic in thirteen time, I thought Pigfoot might drive me slightly nuts. It calmed after that and ended up being a really cool gig. They take classic old New Orleans and Chicago tunes such as Basin Street Blues and give them a quirky angular twist. Think trad jazz meets Alice in Wonderland. Wonderful stuff.

Pigfoot

Chris Batchelor / trumpet

Oren Marshall / tuba

Liam Noble / piano

Paul Clarvis / drums

The Arun Ghosh Sextet was one not to be missed, whipping up a storm in the Festival Pavilion. The recent writing from the South Asian Suite is as good as anything Arun’s composed, showing a thoughtful and maturing musician and composer.  The band was really on it tonight too, creating a phenomenal buzz in the tent. I loved way that Arun wrapped up inspirations from his Asian and North of England roots in his compositions. For example, 'Mountain Song' was inspired by the Himalayas and by the hills of the Lake District. In the second half the band were joined by Jason Singh who added some incredible vocalised scratching and textural effects, not to mention the odd ambulance.... (check out Longsight Lagoon). Mind blowing and ecstatic music. A magical night.

Arun Ghosh Sextet (photo by Benji Reid)

Arun Ghosh / clarinet

Chris Williams / alto saxophone

John Ellis / piano

Liran Donin / double bass

Dave Walsh / drums

Nilesh Gulhane / tabla

Jason Singh / Vocal effects

Sunday 20th July 2014

John Etheridge

I'm a big fan of John Etheridge’s guitar playing and I’ve been lucky enough to study with him on a jazz workshop. However, this was my first chance to catch him playing with the Soft Machine Legacy, accompanied tonight by the legendary Keith Tippett. King Crimsonesque mighty muscular grooves and 1960s avant garde classical are just a couple of the many bases that these players can masterfully cover. They manage to combine quite unusual sequences and time signatures in a really accessible and energetic way. The liberal use of echoes and textural effects added to a very enjoyable gig, and made me a happy man on Sunday night.

John Etheridge / guitar
Keith Tippett / piano
Theo Travis / tenor saxophone
Roy Babbington / bass
John Marshall / drums

The Manchester Jazz Festival continues through to the 27th July. More info on the above and stuff still to come at http://www.manchesterjazzfestival.com

Back From The Dead(ish)

Anyone who’s caught this blog in the past may have noticed that things have been exceedingly quiet around here for a while now, such that this blog is really just covering the Manchester Jazz Festival. There's no other good reason than that of the pressure of the day job in these challenging times. I had figured I wouldn’t review anything this year, but I’ve decided to at least note a few thoughts as the festival has been so damn good so far. If interested, read on above …..

The Impossible Gentlemen, Royal Northern College of Music

RNCM, Manchester. 15th October 2013

It was another historic night on 15th October 2013 at the Royal Northern College of Music; the best Impossible Gentlemen concert so far and a night to match the intensity of guitarist Mike Walker’s Ropes suite from 2008. Being home to Salford born Walker and closely associated with pianist and ex-Chets student Gwilym Simcock, Manchester always has the potential to be memorable, both players being well known and well loved locally. On this night there really seemed to be a sense that something special was about to occur.

Drummer Adam Nussbaum began the proceedings with a sharp snare drum crack into an exciting and powerful take on the Birdland like figures of new track ‘Modern Day Heroes’.  Walker started as he meant to go on with an attention-grabbing overdriven solo that set the scene for much to follow. Another new track, ‘Just To See You’, opened with a delicate and introspective octavided guitar introduction backed by a psychedelic Hammond organ drone part from Simcock. The opening segued into a graceful statement of the tune leading to some beautiful latin playing from Simcock. The energy was then upped for ‘You Won’t be Around to See It’, making way for an incredible frenzied octave guitar solo that moved grinning bass player Steve Rodby to give Walker the international ‘we're not worthy’ sign.  The old favourite, ‘Wallenda’s Last Stand’ followed, on this particular evening taking on the strange twist of a slightly deranged fairground style ending.

Some gorgeous fast flowing drumming from Nussbaum on a sweet and homely ‘Clockmaker’ set our ears up nicely for a lovely and quite mystical extended solo introduction to ‘The Sliver of Other Lovers’ from Simcock. The track’s complex decentering rhythm created an unusual counter to its richly romantic melody and harmony. Walker’s chest-punching abrasive stutter start to the gritty funk groove of ‘Heute Loiter’ shifted the gear upwards once again, with Simcock’s dirty swirling Hammond soloing meeting Walker’s biting guitar grunt at the pass. Walker really went for high register angst bent notes on a solo of fearsome intensity. We were eased down gently, if somewhat disturbingly, by some detuned guitar and atonal piano. Curiously brilliant stuff.

Simcock risked going up in flames by setting a blistering tempo for a jaw-dropping ‘Barber Blues’, gaining playfully knowing smiles from Nussbaum and Rodby. Nussbaum met the challenge with bring-it-on gusto, Rodby also stepping up to the mark and delivering a phenomenally articulate and high paced solo. Walker matched this with a crisp, clear and forceful reply, leaving Simcock to play out the tune at a break-neck speed, bringing to an end a brilliant concert and a magical evening. All of this came with the extra treat of some fantastically funny inter-song banter from Walker (with a little help from Nussbaum) that wouldn't have disgraced a respectable comedy club. Impossibly brilliant and magical even.

The band’s new album and details of the tour are available from The Impossible Gentlemen website at http://www.impossiblegentlemen.com/

The Felonious Monks - Manchester Jazz Festival 2013

The Felonious Monks, St. Ann's Church. Saturday 3rd July 2013

Six o’clock in St Ann’s Church was time for some stepping around in time as part of this year’s world premiere Manchester Jazz Festival commission. Our time travel guides were 'The Felonious Monks’ led by Mike Hall on tenor sax plus various other horns, and Debbie Rogers on alto sax, vocals plus various other horns.  The Felonious Monks explored the fusion of early Renaissance music with contemporary jazz, using a mixture of modern and replica C16th instruments. Compositional devices of the period were employed to structure the compositions, introducing vintage timbres to the existing jazz palette. This concept could easily not have worked, but Hall and Rogers pulled it off with aplomb, clearly having given a great deal of thought to the involved arrangements, as well as putting a lot of time into rehearsal. Many musician’s comfort zones were stretched to include playing crumhorns, shawms, cornamuses, cornetts, sackbuts, and gemshorns to name a few.



The first 16th century sounds we heard came trumpeting out from the church balcony, these players then joining the main band at the front of the stage. Second track ‘Ballo Francese’ bluntly juxtaposed short sections of early music interspersed with short sections of full on bebop. It shouldn’t have worked, but did so gloriously. ‘Robyn’s Lament’ started with some vulnerable period singing from Rogers, Simon Lodge (otherwise on trombone) and double bass player Steve Berry, the latter reaching impressive falsetto heights. I’ve never heard this style of period singing in person before and really enjoyed it. Probably my favourite was the blues based ‘Of The Night’. The track shifted into a classic Coltrane style vamp, the modal chords fitting the sounds of the period instruments really well. This perhaps shouldn’t be so surprising given the crossover of the modal approach between these distant musical relatives. George King on piano vamped out some tasty McCoy Tyner style voicings, Steve Waterman then giving one of a number of blistering solos, this one on the flugel horn.

Berry delivered a touching solo double bass intro to the melancholic horns and vocals of ‘Three Part Intention’. The set closer, ‘Time Trip’ sounded very 1960s US detective movie to me, taking the tones of the evening in yet another unexpected direction.  Players of horns old and new: Helena Summerfield, Jim Fieldhouse, Carl Raven, Russell Gilmour, along with Paul Hartley on guitar and Eryl Roberts on drums, all added to the delivery of these quite tricky but wonderfully unusual arrangements. The evening was a true privilege to experience.

Cloudmakers Trio & Paradox Ensemble - Manchester Jazz Festival 2013

Cloudmakers Trio, Festival Pavilion Teepee. Saturday 3rd July 2013

First up on Saturday were the ‘Cloudmakers Trio’ featuring Jim Hart on vibes, Michael Janisch on double bass and Dave Smith on drums.  I wasn’t feeling at my most jazz-ready, but the Cloudmakers did a great job of bringing me round with a set that gathered more and more intensity as it went along. Things really started to hot up with ‘Conversation Killer’, a fast swing track of quite complex rhythmic trickery and dense harmony. It’s the sort of thing that could wear you down, but Smith’s intense drumming kept the excitement levels high, Janisch delivering an awesome solo towards the end.

‘Post Stone’ was a searching piece with abstract drums and a questioning free section, all enhanced by ghostly bowed vibes from Hart, giving the track a disturbing surreality. ‘Angular Momentum’s suitably circular overlapping motifs provided a platform for some great interactive improvising, subtle melodic and rhythmic motifs being traded between the band. A high bar was set early in the day.

Paradox Ensemble, Festival Pavilion Teepee. Saturday 3rd July 2013

I was immediately attracted to the spacey swing sounds of the Paradox Ensemble headed up by Nick Walters on trumpet and electronics. Big dense lush harmonies were mashed together with disjoint grooves and lots of intertwining lines, expertly played by the alto, tenor, trombone and sousaphone of Tom Harrison, Ed Cawthorne, Tim Cox and Ben Kelly respectively. Some really juicy flowing drumming from Yussef Dayes bedded the sound down sweetly along with the warm bass of Paul Michael. Ben Cottrell on keys and Anton Hunter on guitar added to the pot with some fine Fender Rhodes grooves and guitar echo atmospherics coming in at astutely chosen moments.  Swing became groove became swing groove, all amounting to a joyful noise unto the teepee. Positive vibes for sure.

The Moss Project: What Do You See When You Close Your Eyes? - Manchester Jazz Festival 2013

The Moss Project, Festival Pavilion Teepee. Tuesday 30th July 2013

Having already checked out the Moss Project's excellent new album, I was really looking forward to this one. Moss also reminded me that I wrote his first ever gig review here on the Ring Modulator back in 2007, but somehow it’s taken me this long to catch another one of his gigs. Things have changed in lots of ways since then it appears.

Freed cooked up some groovy-wah guitar in the set opener, uplifted by the soaring long note vocal lines from the ever-amazing Alice Zawadzki. We were then introduced to author Lawrence Norfolk who read one of a number of writings inspired by the Moss Project music. ‘Anniversary’ opened with some spiky tremolo guitar and sparse violin over the beaten rumbles of Marek Dorcik’s drums. This was soon followed by the repeating Reich’ish figure of ‘What Do You See When You Close Your Eyes’. Zawadzki treated us to some even more soaring violin doubled vocal lines pitched over the bands disjoint groove. ‘Freud and Jung Ride The Tunnel of Love’ proffered some enticing abstract echo reverb guitar and dark violin tones. Once it got going it, perhaps oddly, reminded me of Pink Floyd’s ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ before fully transforming into a rough and dangerous tempest.

The band finished with the precise and pushy angular phrases of ‘The Bubble’, Zawadzki and Freed lining up the lines admirably. The song’s strong chorus style hook whipped up some serious momentum, launching Freed into a bitingly angsty solo, followed apace with a Metheny-esque high register bass solo from Kevin Glasgow. This was a fine and refreshingly original set. The project’s writing is great and the band delivered with energy and passion.

You can listen to the new Moss Project album in full at the Babel Label Bandcamp page.

Locus & Moonlight Saving Time - Manchester Jazz Festival 2013

Locus & Moonlight Saving Time, Festival Pavilion Teepee. Monday 29th July 2013

Monday began late in the afternoon for me with the sweet but mournful tones of Kim Macari’s trumpet at the beginning of the first track from ‘Locus’. There were some great intricate compositions here, most of which were written by Leah Gough-Cooper on alto sax. It was modern / contemporary stuff, and nicely done.  Sometimes the involved harmonies perhaps got a bit lost in the teepee, but on the whole this came across as a strong set.

In the evening I caught the latin grooves of Bristol’s ‘Moonlight Saving Time’. The festival program had indicated Cinematic Orchestra and Massive Attack influences, but for me it seemed to come much more from early Return to Forever Chick Corea, especially with Emily Wright’s vocal style having a strong nod to the great Flora Purim. Easy and quite gentle, but also always seductive.

Music for Life Big Band & Benoit Martiny Band - Manchester Jazz Festival 2013

Music for Life Big Band featuring Mike Walker, Festival Pavilion Teepee. Sunday 28th July 2013

The expansive sounds of the Music for Life Big Band opened proceedings on Sunday, ably directed by Jo McCallum and Alastair McWilliam. Twelve contemporary composers including Mike Gibbs, Stan Sulzmann, Gwilym Simcock and Dennis Rollins were drafted in to write for this 25-piece ensemble of young musicians from Cheshire. As if this wasn’t enough, local guitar hero Mike Walker was enlisted for the live gigs. This one turned out to be a real kicker of a gig, going down a storm with the full teepee audience. Rightly so I say, as it was a fantastic set with great compositions and arrangements played really well by the Big Band, with excellent improvising added for good measure. The deep groove set opener written by ex-local sax player Andy Schofield gave Walker one of many opportunities to show that he knows how to dig in and rock out, much to the vocal appreciation of the teepee crowd.

Part of the aim of this project was to give lesser-experienced composer-arrangers an opportunity to try out their pieces with a big band. One such track was the tuneful latin piece, ‘Binson’s Lilt’ written by sax player Sam Rapley. Some fine close harmony opening chords set the scene for a gripping solo from ace guitarist Charles McDonald. Dennis Rollins’ ‘Full Fat Funk’ was duly deep and fulsome giving McDonald a chance to raise the stakes further with a ballsy overdriven solo.

A thoughtful take on Richard Iles’ ‘Sunday Soul’ supplied some mood variation. As with the Rollins track, the track echoed its title perfectly, inspiring some gorgeous soulful playing from Brad Everett on alto sax. The James Brown style ‘No Matter What’ from Mike Gibbs was the perfect funky set closer, some strident trombone playing sending us off with big smiles on our faces. Top stuff. I hope Jo McCallum gets a chance to put this outfit together again.

Benoit Martiny Band, Festival Pavilion Teepee. Sunday 28th July 2013
 
Having already checked out the Benoit Martiny Band in advance as part of mine and Jane’s jazz festival preview radio show, I was intrigued to see how they would go down, reason being that they’re ‘full-on’ to say the least. I’m happy to report they went down phenomenally well. It was in your face stuff for sure, but at the same time it was so strong, powerful, well rehearsed and well written that it grabbed the audience right from the off. It was hard not to be taken with the sheer energy and enthusiasm of it all.

The set started with some mystical almost tribal drumming from Martiny on drums, soon making way for generous amounts of fuzz bass from Sandor Kem and big power chords from guitarist Frank Jonas. The first few tracks reminded me of early era King Crimson and Soft Machine with a little Black Sabbath thrown in for good measure. ‘Carousel’ from their new album was more of a groover, topped off with a really strong duo sax hookline played crisply by Joao Driessen on tenor and Jasper Van Damme on alto. Both horns players were real ear-grabbing improvisers too, assisted by the rock solid grounding of the fantastically tight combination of Martiny and Kem. The sense of expert dynamic variation and control was handled especially well on this track.

The fast swing of ‘Don’t Leave a Message’ showed the band weren’t only about heavy jazz rock, Kem switching from electric to acoustic double bass to woodify the sound. ‘My Favourite Painkiller’ came complete with some fab echo scratchy guitar atmospherics and a free jazz section leading to a punctuated deep blues riff. Van Damme made good use of the latter to burn us up with some fiery alto playing. Manchester's Town Hall bells sounded over the decaying chords of final track ‘Funeral’ to complete this brilliant set perfectly.

Yazz Ahmed Quartet & Trish Clowes Tangent - Manchester Jazz Festival 2013

Yazz Ahmed Quartet, Festival Pavilion Teepee. Saturday 27th July 2013

My Manchester Jazz Festival 2013 kicked off with the multifarious sounds and rhythms of the Yazz Ahmed Quartet on an appropriately hot and humid afternoon in the festival teepee.  The quartet comprised Ahmed on  trumpet and flugelhorn, the excellent Lewis Wright on vibes, Asaf Sirkis on drums and Dave Mannington on electric bass. 

 It’s a funny thing about the vibes. I love them for the gorgeous atmospherics you can get, especially when the overall sound is reasonably sparse. However, I’m never too sure how well they work for improv when there’s a fuller sound and more going on. I find that the richness of the harmonics and the relative lack of attack leads to an all too indistinct sound. Nevertheless, Wright sounded great when he cut through and is undoubtedly an impressive player. Not having seen Ahmed before, it did seem like her playing was a little tentative on the whole, although her flugel sound did open up sweetly later in the set, perhaps inevitably then reminding me of the great Kenny Wheeler. Sirkis drove things along handsomely in his characteristic fluid way. All good.

Trish Clowes Tangent,  Festival Pavilion Teepee. Saturday 27th July 2013
 
A song title reference to the great surreal novel ‘Master and Margueriata’ is no bad way to capture my attention, and the fast groove from James Maddren on drums, the open voiced sparse chord fragments from Chris Montague on guitar and the aggro-burst improv shots from Trish Clowes on tenor sax didn’t disappoint. Despite the sweltering afternoon heat, the band had real fire in their bellies, this translating through to a bitingly forceful and edgy set. I especially liked ‘On-Off’, Montague looping a choppy clipped phrase, then over-coating with tasty fade-in guitar textures.  Clowes’ raw howls and squeaks enhanced the ominousness perfectly. 

There were softer moments, such as the lyrical ‘For Pete’ inspired by tutor Pete Churchill, Clowes steering the medium swing changes with a strong tone full of the right sort of panache.  The impassive manner of Calum Gourlay on double bass signaled a grounded and true path to keep the players safe in the sometimes dangerous harmonic waters.  Yes indeed it was good. I’ll be looking forward to catching Tangent again for sure.
 

The Sound of Silence

Alice Zawadzki + Silence Blossoms, Freedom Principle at the Sand Bar, Manchester. Tuesday 20th November 2012

A milk frother is not generally known for its rhythmic properties. Nor have walkie-talkies established themselves as a means to simultaneously bow and amplify a double bass as far as I'm aware. Nevertheless, these were just two of the many innovative approaches to sound generation brought forth by Sweden and Macclesfield's 'Silence Blossoms'. Comprising Gus Loxbo on double bass, guitar, voice, frother and walkie-talkies; Hanna Olivegren on voice and synthesiser, and a repatriated (at least for now) Sam Andreae on tenor sax, voice and electronics, this curious trio take poetry as the basis of most of their pieces. The words are under-layered with various blends of folksy harmony, lo-fi white noise, environment textures and a little free jazz abstraction.

Silence Blossoms (photo by Angela Guyton)

There's a danger of novelty leading to boredom with this kind of approach, but Silence Blossoms steered well clear of this territory, delivering a more or less perfect blend of sweet harmony and art noise. The stuttering echoes and earthy folk tones of first track 'Lady White' led into 'Not Waving But Drowning', probably the most conventional piece of the set. There was some lovely soulful playing from Andreae on sax here, accompanied by Loxbo's warm rounded double bass and Olivegren's deep sparse vocal. Some wonderfully vulnerable vocal harmonies from Olivegren and Andreae on final track 'King of Everything' rounded things off perfectly. This really worked.

Silence Blossoms rehearsing (photo by Angela Guyton)

Now based in London but no stranger to Manchester's music scene, Alice Zawadzki once again delivered an engaging set in the city last night, this time in trio formation with Stuart McCallum on guitar and Rosie Toll on Cello. Zawadzki rarely fails to impress, not only with her extensive range of vocal styles and strong technique, but also the way she manages to convey an authenticity and intimacy through the styles that make her performances consistently captivating. Whether it's a sephardic song, a portuguese tune, a rootsy blues number or some folk whimsy, she puts everything over convincingly and with real passion.

Alice Zawadzki with Stuart McCallum and Rosie Toll

A highlight was the self-penned 'Ring of Fire'. The track begins with a really strong tune sung by Zawadzki that opens out to an instrumental section allowing McCallum's modulated echo reverbs plenty of sonic space to breath, all backed by Toll's strong and unfussy cello parts. It's not all that often I can hear the harmonic subtleties of McCallum's expansive layering, so many thanks to Zawadzki's relatively sparse line-up choice, the sound man and an attentive Sand Bar.  Another very memorable gig. Hat's off to Freedom-Principle @ Sandbar.

Zawadzki is playing again at the Manchester Jazz Festival Re-Live MJF 2012 this Friday at Matt and Phreds. Take your opportunites when you can.

Follow Your Spine

Sheryl Bailey jazz guitar workshop sessions, North Wales International Jazz Guitar Weekend, Wrexham. Friday 19th to Sunday 21st October 2012

I'm just back from a really excellent weekend workshop co-tutored by New York based jazz guitarist Sheryl Bailey as part of the North Wales Jazz Guitar Weekend held at the Glyndwr University in Wrexham. Sheryl teaches at Berklee amongst many other places, and it was clear from the off that (not surprisingly) she really knows her stuff both about jazz theory and jazz history. I picked up some really useful things that I'll try to explain here. I should probably give a muso warning at this point that the post does get quite technical and assumes some knowledge of jazz theory and harmony.

First off I was really pleased to find that I'm not the only one puzzled why so many jazz guitarists roll their tone right back, in some cases completely off. Sheryl said many students at Berklee do this, but she doesn't think it sounds at all good and mutes all the higher end harmonics that give richness to guitar tone. I wholeheartedly agree! She also suggested that because the subtlety of tone is removed, mistakes are more easily covered up, so it's not a good way to go technique wise either.

Bop Improvising

The Saturday session was about approaches to bop playing. Sheryl emphasised that she isn't thinking about scales at all for this style of playing. It's all about knowing and being able to follow the chord changes or the "spine of the tune" as she referred to it many times. Improvised lines are based on using the arpeggio chord tones along with diatonic and chromatic approach notes. She outlined a good step-by-step way to get into this, which is first to play through the changes using voice led arpeggio notes, next bringing in approach notes to the arpeggio notes.  Voice leading here simply means playing the nearest note of the next arpeggio when the chords change rather than going back to the root note each time.

This principles were explained in application to a Bb blues. I wish I'd taken a photo of the board here, but as I didn't I've typed it out. The formatting was fiddly on the blog, so I ended up taking the photo below.  She said that when she sees a dominant chord she will think of its II minor chord as well as the dominant chord itself, and will use the arpeggio notes for both as the basis for the improvised lines. These would be the F-7 and Bb7 arpeggios over the first Bb7 chord of a blues. She also mentioned that it's good to set up the Eb7 IV chord in bar 5 with an altered sound over the previous bar 4, the same idea being used on the G7 in bar 8. There's also the possibility of using the arpeggios of the sub V chord and its associated II chord in all cases, such as shown in bars 6, 9 (not labelled), 10 and 12 (also not labelled). In the first instance, it's important for the chord tones to be played on the downbeat to give strength to the sound of the chord and the changes, but when you start to have a good handle on what you're doing, you can relax and play around with this to a certain extent.

Click photo to enlarge

Sheryl then outlined some next steps to add boppy melodic embellishments:

1) Add the chromatic note below each chord tone
2) Add the diatonic note above the chord tone
3) Combine (1) and (3)
4) 3 note chromaticism: 1 chromatic below and 2 above
5) 3 note chromaticism: 2 chromatic below and 1 above
6) 4 note chromaticism: 2 chromatic below and 2 above
7) 4 note chromaticism: 2 chromatic above and 2 below

By doing this you're not only adding more colour to a standard blues scale approach, but you're outlining the changes very clearly and sounding much more authentically boppy. Improvising in this manner can be done more or less unaccompanied when done effectively, the changes being clearly outlined. She mentioned that this approach was heavily used by people like John Coltrane and Sonny Stitt.

Additional to the II and V7 arpeggios, the VII and IV arpeggios can also be used. On the Bb7 for example, these would be D-7b5 and AbMaj7. This gives what she called the "family of four" substitution possibilities.

A further possible step is to bring in some melodic minor harmony, using for example FmMaj7, Bb7#11 and AbMaj7#5 arpeggios on the Bb7 chord of the blues progression. Another fairly out idea used by Pat Martino is to play the whole blues sequence a tritone above. She mentioned you may be pushing your luck to do this for more than a chorus though :).

We also got into the idea of playing dotted quarter notes over a 4:4 rhythm to give anticipation to chord movement. Sheryl mentioned that Berklee tutor Ben Wilmott teaches this stuff, his 'Time for the Future: Polyrythm in Harmony' book being a good reference for further study.

Drop Voicings

On Sunday we covered 'drop 2' and 'drop 3' voicings, much used by players like Wes Montgomery. A good exemplar of the use of drop 2 voicings is Wes Montgomery's 'Cariba' where the opening is played on a drop 2 F-7 and its inversions.

Drop voicings are where you drop the 2nd or 3rd note (voice) from the top of a voicing down one octave.  The left part of the photo below shows an example using a G minor chord and its inversions. You can (hopefully) see the first chord on the left is a standard R 3 5 7 voicing. Next to it is the drop 2 voicing where the second voice down from the top, i.e. the D note is dropped an octave down to the bottom of the voicing.

Click photo to enlarge

The high, middle and low string tab chord shapes are given below the voicings on the photo along with all the three inversions.  These should be learnt for maj 7, minor 7, dominant 7 and minor 7b5 chords at first, then extending the principle to chords with added tensions later. This should be practiced on all three string groups.

She then explained how these voicings can be used to harmonise a melody line or solo (if you've got the chops ;) on the top string, with diminished chords being used to fill in any passing notes of the line. This isn't easy to do live in the moment of improvising, Sheryl reminding us how Wes was a monster player to be able to do this so well. This took us into a little work on melody notes over diminished chords whilst moving them up the fretboard in minor thirds (on the right of the photo).

Someone asked a question about tasty final chords for tunes, which got us into the idea of using the open strings of the guitar for tension notes to get some striking and strong sounds. Wayne Shorter's 'JuJu' is in a useful key for voicings using open strings, as well as being a good tune for practising whole tone scales.

Pluralities

The final part of the workshop covered what Sheryl referred to as 'Pluralities'. This is the idea that you have families of 'like chords' varied by the use of different notes in the bass. For example if you take a standard Cmaj7 chord and place an A in the bass you get an Amin7 add 9 chord. If you take the same Cmaj7 chord and add a D in the bass you get a D7sus9 13 chord. To get into the sounds of modes such as melodic minor, the same principle can be applied to Cmaj7b5 and Cmaj7#5 chords, a notable example being when an F bass note is added to a Cmaj7#5 chord to give the strange sounding F diminished major 7 chord (dimMaj7).  This sound is coming from the harmonic major scale and its modes.  I was interested to hear Sheryl say that the dimMaj7 chord is very popular with contemporary players in New York such as Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ben Monder and Adam Rogers. These players will typically use the dimMaj7 chord as a default I chord in both major and minor tonalities, it having an ambiguity that allows for its use in both situations.

So that was about it for Sheryl's sessions. Course leader Trefor Owen covered many useful pragmatic tips for the working jazz guitarist in his sessions, including things like bass line comping and Maj7 arpeggio lines for getting through the fast changes on tunes like 'Cherokee'. It was also great to hear Sheryl in concert on the Saturday evening. The jams as ever, were very useful, giving us the chance to play with the legendary Bill Coleman on bass along with Andy on drums.

A big thanks from me to Trefor, Maureen, Joe and everybody else involved in organising the weekend. They've been running for an amazing 12 years now. This one was the 18th weekend so far. Jack Wilkins is the plan for the next weekend, so all being well I'll pop along to that too. For now, there's plenty been added to the practice list.

Tea for Two

Mike Walker & Stuart McCallum, Freedom Principle at the Sand Bar, Manchester. Tuesday 16th October 2012

I finally made it down to one of the Freedom Principle jazz sessions at the Sandbar a few days ago for the first time in too long. The focus of this return was the unusual duo pairing of two local guitar aces, Mike Walker and Stuart McCallum.  Both players using only acoustic guitars added to the unusualness, albeit amplified and through various effects units. Walker generally played 'uneffected' but for a bit of reverb, McCallum taking on the job of producing soundscape echo loop backdrops for most pieces.

The first track set the tone, a Frisell interpretation that immediately reminded me of lush Nick Drake textures.  Dreamy open sounding chord arpeggios were the order of the day for many pieces, the players generally swapping arpeggio duties whilst the other improvised. There were a few more or less set pieces such as Walker's 'Wallenda's Last Stand', McCallum taking on the melody line here. An in-context take on 'All the Things You Are' late on in the set was one of the highlights, the familiar swung melody played straight over some idiosyncratic harmonic twists and turns.

Many elements worked really well here, and there were not a few quite beautiful moments. Overall the folky drone approach did feel a little mono-thematic however, and at times the interplay between the players seemed a little confused and out of sync to my ear. I noticed some people's attention re-focussing when Walker played snippets of funk groove here and there to check his sound. Perhaps the addition of a few pieces like this would help diversify the set.

The Ones That Got Away - Manchester Jazz Festival 2012

It was tricky getting to as many festival gigs as possible, writing these blog reviews and managing to do my day job as well, so inevitably I didn't quite manage to review all the acts I'd like to have done while the festival was on.  I thought rather than pass them by, I'd get a few sentences down.

Avalon Trio, St Ann's Church, Friday 20th July 2012.

I really enjoyed this trio paying homage to some early 20th Century English composers, in particular Delius and Finzi. It was a real ear opener to hear the minor chord repeating arpeggio introduction to their first piece, Delius' 'Summer Night on the Water' that could have graced any John Coltrane modal tune. Pianist Pete Churchill's song introductions were really informative too, making this gig as much a music lesson.  He mentioned that the great Bill Evans was influenced by Delius, this making a lot of sense on hearing the gorgeous harmonies. Some indian flute from Tony Woods, and tabla percussion from Rob Millett were used to great effect, introducing additional colours and textures, especially on another Delius piece, 'Brigg Fair'.

Pete Moser: Sound Games. MJF Originals. Festival Pavilion, Friday 20th July 2012.

This was a curious one for sure, but great fun. Moser introduced the concert as the Manchester Decathlon, each of the pieces being one of the races, and with all band members coming on wearing some sort of sports kit and a number on their back. The material was composed to reflect the character of each race, along with accompanying images and video. The compositions embraced a wide range of sounds from modal sequences, Africa township sounds, 'Cucumber Slumber'esque Weather Report vibes, Steve Reich rhythms, to funk grooves and beyond.  Certainly an oddity, but the band connected well with the audience, and a happy time was had.

Spoonful, Matt and Phreds, Friday 20th July 2012

Keys player John Ellis was treated to the use of a genuine piece of Hammond organ furniture hired in for this stomp through classic Blue Note/Lou Donaldson tunes at a busy Matt and Phreds. Great stuff it was too, being a masterclass on how to do boppy funky blues from tutors Ellis, Neil Yates on trumpet/flugel, Andy Ross on sax and Eryl Roberts on drums. Ellis and Ross tended to stay within the genre sounds for the most part, but I really liked the way Yates' managed go a little further, riding the edge of the harmony with some really spicy notes, but without resorting to brutal outside playing, which can so easily be to the detriment of the track and the group vibe. A rocking gig.

Prestwich Deluxe, Festival Pavilion, Saturday 21st July 2012

Prestwich Deluxe comprised trumpet maestro Richard Iles and his band of excellent musicians playing classic straight ahead stuff to a pleasingly packed festival tent on Saturday afternoon. It was great to see such a big audience for a jazz gig, something Richard noted too.  The written horn parts from Richard and Tim France on sax were all played with masterful precision, the solos from both also reaching a consistently high watermark. Most of the tunes were standards from the likes of Charles Mingus, Horace Silver and Eddie Harris, with Jamie Sheriff on piano, Pete Turner on double bass and Eryl Roberts on drums all honouring the spirit of the pieces admirably.

Eventually Iles enlightened us as to the meaning of their evocative band name, it being a mythical jazz club set in the small country village of Prestwich, north Manchester, as seen through the imagination of the players. The Iles penned 'Prestwich Deluxe' track was also one of the best, displaying a compositional subtlety that's his very own.  No great surprises here you might say, but it was classic stuff delivered with genuine panache.

Hackney Colliery Band, Festival Pavilion, Saturday 21st July 2012

The Hackney Colliery Band have quite a unique take for a brass band, proffering an eclectic repertoire including funk, hip-hop and rock, Balkan brass, ska and just a little contemporary jazz.  They were the perfect choice for the festival closer, being a self confessed 'feet friendly band' who sure enough, got the audience dancing within a short space of time. It's hard not to like this kind of thing, even if it was a little scrappy at the edges, but this seemed to suit their style and ethic. The band closed the set by continuing to play while exiting the stage and then walking through the audience up to the bar, the crowd then following Pied Piper style. A good time was had by all.

So that's about it for this year's Manchester Jazz Festival gig reviews. I had a fanatastic time as always. Hats off to Steve, Mick, Sunny, Rachel on the MJF team, the volunteers and everyone else involved in putting on this year's event. Roll on next year!

Breach - Manchester Jazz Festival 2012

Breach, Festival Pavilion, Saturday 21st July 2012.

I've been a fan of the Scottish guitarist Graeme Stephen since his appearance at the MJF a good few years ago now, so I was keen to hear what Breach were all about. There was a suite of interesting sounds in here, ranging from electronica, rock and folk, all delivered with a distinct jazz nous.  Stephen went for a looping angular motif on 'Roon Toon', then layering over some long echoed twangy textures that reminded me of the best of Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd.  He then picked up speed with some fretful fast improvising that made for really exciting listening.  The live electronica style drumming from Chris Wallace worked really well on this too, ensuring the track didn't stray too far into retro territory.

'The City From The Window' opened with more of Stephen's trademark echoed psychedelic tones, these following through into a raw and, to this blogger's delight, ring modulated guitar improvisation. Paul Harrison laid some rich reverbed long swirling Hammond organ chords below in support. Both restful and restlessly evocative stuff this was, veering in the direction of classic prog rock, but with a 5/4 time signature sequence coming in to keep things on the jazz end of the scale.  Announced as an 'Aberdonian Macedonian folk song', the final track topped a fabulous afternoon set off with a cooking swing groover, both Wallace and Harrison getting in fine punchy solos. I bought the CD, so I guess that says it all.

George King: Songs of the Caged Bird - Manchester Jazz Festival 2012

George King, Doreen Edwards and the Manchester Camerata Chamber Strings, Royal Northern College of Music. MJF Originals Commission. Thursday 19th July 2012.

Thursday was the airing of the first of this years MJF Originals commissions, 'Songs of the Caged Bird', a song-cycle by Manchester composer/pianist George King written for Manchester diva Doreen Edwards and the chamber strings of Manchester Camerata. 

George opened the evening with four solo piano improvisations that set the mood perfectly for the commission, played to what was an extremely attentive RNCM crowd.  George's style is very much on the classical end of the scale, and he delivered some lovely and quite simple improvisations in the vein of Satie and Max Richter. He closed the solo sections with a sweet sparse take on 'Secret Love'

The commissioned piece opened with some long lush chords interspersed with just a few surprising and unsettling tones. This segued in a Steve Reich like rhythmic part before Doreen Edwards came in to add her rich deep voice to the dark descending sequence. George's aim with the commission was to convey a "snapshot or racial tension in America, taking poems and aural accounts" of slaves in the USA. George absorbed these poems and accounts into his piece as a series of audio samples overlaid on the music at various points throughout the piece, giving an overall quite cinematic feel. 

Generally the sections were very melodic and accessible, with some beautiful long chords played out by the strings. A fewer darker moments were conveyed by train like rhythms and harder harmony. Particularly impressive was a re-setting of 'Strange Fruit', Doreen singing a verse very movingly on her own, the strings and piano then coming in for a second verse to give the melody a somewhat unexpected twist.  I think George could have made more of the piece's darker moments, but this was a warm and very satisfying evening's music.

Rick Simpson Quartet - Manchester Jazz Festival 2012

Rick Simpson Quartet, Festival Pavilion, Thursday 19th July 2012

The London based Rick Simpson Quartet were playing music from their debut album, ‘Semi Wogan’ on Thursday afternoon. This lot were a very accomplished and engaging set of players. 'Semi-Wogan' was the track that initially caught my ear, being a nice groover with some neat contemporary style piano on top from pianist Rick.  I didn't catch the name of what was my favourite track, but it started with a very cool funky double bass riff from Tom Farmer, coming across with what has to be one of the finest amplified double bass sounds I've ever heard, the woodiness of his gorgeous tone making it through the sound system brilliantly. When drummer Jon Scott came in, the whole thing really lifted off the ground, these two really working together well. 

 There were some obligatory quirky numbers in the set, but for me they were at their best on the more contemporary flowing and reflective pieces. The fast swing of 'Chairman Meow' did however, give sax player George Crowley the chance to continuous-quaver his way through its winding sequence admirably. Top stuff. I hope to be catching the Rick Simpson Quartet again soon if I can.