Bristol’s month in jazz – May 2024

So here we go – with three big festival programmes within easy reach of the city and a whole host of great gigs in between May is looking like a nicely exhausting month for jazz-minded Bristolians. Big names aplenty at Cheltenham Jazz Festival (Wed 1-Mon 6), though the biggest are selling out fast there were still a few for highlights such as lively Glaswegians corto.alto, supercool Dave Douglas & Trish Clowes and New York sax star Lakecia Benjamin. Then the month rounds off with the increasingly hip JazzStroud! (Thur 23 – Sun 26) and a line-up including Ezra Collective keyboard star Joe Armon-Jones, Seed-leader Cassie Kinoshi’s new electronic trio un.procedure and Bristol’s uberdrummer Matt Brown’s brashly brassy 6161.

The third festival is a new one – the  Bristol-based DIASPORA! (Fri 3 – Mon 6) aims to be a celebration of the region’s diverse range of cultural creatives with music playing a big part. Starting with legendary roots reggae band Talisman (Canteen, Fri 3) and Palestine master of the nay flute Farish Ishaq (Palestine Museum, Fri 3) the weekend includes the mighty Afrojazz of Baraka (Canteen, Sat 4), Moroccan oud player Soufian Saihi (Canteen, Sun 5) and Senegalese seminal superstars Orchestra Baobab (Beacon, Sun 4). Monday sees Flamenco-Rumba duo Maria Galvache and David Nash at the Canteen and Orchestral Qawwali Project at the Beacon. The latter was a big hit at WOMAD last year, combining the impassioned devotional singing of Qawwali with full string orchestral arrangements.

Back to the jazz agenda – and trombonist Raph Clarkson’s fantastic South African collaborative project Equal Spirits (pictured at top) launches their debut album (Tobacco Factory, Sun 5). It’s a rich reminder of the important wave of musicians who fled Apartheid in the 70s and infused the UK jazz scene with their joyful musical energy. Before that, however, the compelling piano trio Yetii welcome exuberant Mancunian clarinettist Arun Ghosh to their regular Greenbank session (Thur 2). Sadly that gig is up against singer Sarah Colman’s Quintet celebration of Joni Mitchell’s legacy (Bebop, Thur 2). Both should be excellent, as will Yetii’s collaboration with Jake McMurchie’s powerful tenor sax (St Ambrose Church, Fri 31). There’s more big name visitors coming: eclectic US jazz guitar legend Bill Frisell’s Trio are at St George’s (Thur 16), swiftly followed by the regenerated GoGo Penguin (Beacon, Sat 18) with their new drummer and optimistically titled album Everything Is Going To Be OK. And then St George’s will welcome our prodigal son when Andy Sheppard returns with the Espen Eriksen Trio (Thur 23) before FringeJazz bring pianist Huw Warren’s Brazilian project Choro Choro Choro (Bristol Music Club, Wed 29) with the uplifting percussion of Adriano Adewale.

Fans of the classic Jimmy Smith organ trio sound should catch US visitors Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio (Lost Horizon, Mon 27) as well as the classic Blue Note stylings of the Andy Hague/Dan Newberry Organ Quartet (Bebop, Thur 16) with Tom Berge on the Hammond and the highly original trombone-led Threes Up Organ Trio (Bebop, Thur 30). The Bristol-based organ trio of Dan Moore, Eli Jitsuto and Matt Brown drew quite a crowd at last month’s Bristol Jazz Festival and they will no doubt be packing out Spirited (Sun 5) and another local favourite organ grinder – with his demon left hand bass – Anders Olinder appears with alto sax dynamo James Morton and stinging jazz guitarist Tony Remy twice this month (The Bell, Mon 20, Bristol Music Club Thur 23) and also with the whimsically named Hungry Hungry Hippos  (JFS@Mr Wolfs, Tue 14). That’s an exciting new supergroup also featuring Gary Alesbrook (trumpet), Dan Newberry (sax), Alex Hutchings (guitar) and Ian Matthews drumming. Gary will also be the featured soloist at the Stag and Hounds Sunday session (Sun 19) with other guests being swinging singer Lucy Moon (Sun 5), tenor sax man Jake McMurchie (Sun 12) and guitarist Stuart Oliver (Sun 26).

It’s that time again – Soul Divas (Mr Wolf’s, Tue 7) is the JFS annual celebration of female jazz talent both as vocalists but also with a 21-piece all-female big band providing the sound power. Later that week they have their Spring Ting fundraiser at Strange Brew (Thur 9) with all kinds of jazzy fun topped off by reliable party-pleasers Snazzback. Strange Brew will also see another local prodigal when poet-rapper Dizraeli appears with his tight and tasty jazz-adjacent band (Thur 30). Soul-jazz and Latin vocalist and songwriter Tammy Payne has an excellent quintet that comes to this month’s Fringe In The Round (Tue 7).

Dee Byrne’s Outlines is a fabulous sextet of free-minded players (Bristol Music Club, Wed 15) playing the saxophonist’s visual art-inspired compositional sketches that are now being released on vinyl. It’s a good month for saxophonists, as ever, with fast-rising star Jasmine Myra coming to Strange Brew (Sun 5) supported by brisk groovers Nonunonu. FringeJazz have Sam Crockatt’s great Quartet (Bristol Music Club, Wed 8) while Martin Kern joins the Adam Stokes Trio to celebrate Sonny Rollins (St George’s, Wed 15) and the Bebop sees the debut of Greek saxophonist Vasilis Xenopoulos with pianist Paul Edis and the rest of their quartet (Thur 23). The monthly Jazzata session in The Lantern has Brandon Allen’s Groove Project, an electro-acoustic quintet led by the Australian saxophonist with fiery guitarist Mike Outram in the ranks. There’s another couple of interesting guitar-led gigs, too, with Tomorrows Warriors rising star Francisco Garcia de Paredes in a lunchtime duo at St George’s (Fri 17) and Matt Hopkins joining with pianist David Newton in their quartet at the Bebop (Thur 9).

If past Bristol visits are anything to go by there should be a lively crowd for up-beat Latin Jazz combo Colectiva when they appear at the Jam on the Horizon (Sat 4). It’s an all-dayer across St Judes with tons of good music at various venues including Lost Horizon and Jam Jar, the latter having a month of groovy Fridays including prog-groovers Nebula Sun (Fri 10), the ‘high energy knees up’ outfit Mista Trick (Fri 17) and psych-groove jazzers Cykada (Fri 24). In a similar vein Canteen welcomes back the mighty Mango Factory (Sat 11) and ‘club ready jazz fusion’ band Creature (Fri 24) while Stone Cold Hustle bring hard-edged funk and R’n’B both to inaugurate a new South Bristol Venue (St Dunstans, Fri 3) and celebrate a well-seasoned hub of liveness (The Bell, Wed 29).

Following the successful New Music Festival in April that interesting zone of ‘contemporary classical’ brings Ex-Easter Island Heads (Cube, Fri 17) with their  distinctive presence as electronic successors to minimalists like Glenn Branca and Steve Reich. Chesaba (Marble Factory, Tue 28) sees remarkable South African cello innovator Abel Seacole blend African traditions with European Baroque structures. Solo pianist Tøkio Myers performs his new album and stripped back versions of his previous hits at St George’s (Wed 8) on the same night that ethereal post-folk duo Fran & Flora bring their hypnotic deconstruction of European folk traditions to St Ambrose Church with support from trumpet/violin duo Cirenne. Avant-garde soundtrack composer Graham Reynolds is joined by ‘sinner songwriter’ Daisy Chapman at The Cube (Sun 5) where a triple bill is also headed by Samir Kennedy’s Chaos Ballad cabaret ballet (Tue 14). Strange Brew offers Japanese duo Kakuhan (Wed 15) alongside ambient soundscapist Dylan Henner and Kenyan sound artist KMRU and, of course, the blissfully eclectic Cosmo Sheldrake is a Beacon promotion at SWX (Thur 2).

But if you want things to be a bit more unpredictable … there’s a whole string of improvisation-based events starting with long-established European collaborators Trio Sowari headlining a great evening at Cafe Kino (Fri 3). Apparently this month will see the last South West Improvisers Group session at Kino, too (Mon 6) but they promise to have a new home ready for June. Vocal improv duo Makigami Koichi and Phil Minton join the trio of Kay Grant, Matthew Grigg and Jo Kelly  for a duo/trio/quintet programme at L’Etoille Studio (Fri 10) then superstar improv drummer from New York Chris Corsano performs solo between Dali de Saint Paul & Dylan Mallet and Canadian wild card outfit Earthball (Cube, Thur 23). For all out noise chaos why not try RuinsZu at Crofters (Sat 11) or the ‘chamber industrial’ duo Hackedepicciotto (Crofters, Thur 9)?

Finally, the jam sessions. Spread thickly as usual. Sadly the weekly Bounce session at Strange Brew is no more but Mr Wolf’s Donut Filler is still on Wednesdays as is the JFS Tuesday Jam at the same venue. The Stag & Hounds Sunday sessions are alive and well, too.

The Fringe has Hot Club Jam (Mon 6), Peanut Butter Jam (Mon 13), Jazz Rapport Jam (Mon 20) and Stomping Jam (Mon 27).

Canteen has Canteen Jazz Session (Wed 1), Stone Cold Funk Jam (Tue 7 & Tue 21), Slapdash (Tue 14), Canteen Latin Session (Wed 15), Chilli Jam Session (Mon 20).

Jam Jar has The Door is Ajar session (Sat 25)

World music listings are now a separate page: check for Bristol’s Month in World Music (coming soon)