Review: Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2015 (Sat)

Cheltenham is just one stop up the line so it’s hardly surprising that so many of Bristol’s jazz audience were there for the annual jazz festival. These days it occupies Montpellier Gardens with big marquee stages, food stalls and bars just like a regular festival site and this year’s pleasant weather kept the place thronging throughout the weekend. And like all good festivals the programme offered difficult choices throughout the day.

The last minute drop-out of the San Ra Arkestra brought in US veteran Archie Shepp, whose 77 year old hips didn’t stop him being a hipster still. Resting back on a stool in the Big Top arena his smooth-toned sax  and fine bop fluency, punctuated with spells of vocalising that ranged from a blues-fuelled ‘Don’t Get Around Much Any More’ to the declamatory politics of ‘Revolution’, reminding us that Shepp has always been deeply committed to the Black political cause that, sadly, seems as relevant now as in the 60s. Long-time sideman Tom McClung’s piano has become a great foil for the saxophonist, wrapping his solos with well-sketched chords and moods, and his Burning Bright closed the set with Shepp giving it the full Coltrane treatment.

Despite being a decade older Lee Konitz is still a nimble player, too, and his set with the Dave Douglas Quartet was another masterclass drawn from a long musical history, promising standard tunes played ‘like we’ve never played them before’. Trumpeter Douglas is a headline act himself and his bands are always very classy but in defering to Konitz’ seniority and choice of material they showed no frustration, rather the easy collaboration of a bunch of players running through tunes like All The Things You Are and Softly As A Morning Sunrise around a kitchen table. The latter was especially successful, each player laying their different piece into a perfectly consistent jigsaw puzzle, Linda Oh’s exploratory bass effortlessly revealing her star quality. Possibly the only person missing from the picture was Douglas, generously over-restrained for most of the time, though he sparkled on Body And Soul.

At 62, Joe Lovano is a mere boy by comparison and his African-themed Village Rhythms project had the energy of a fresh stage in what has been an ever-changing musical career. The music ranged from Senegalese percussionist Abdou Mboup’s acoustic folk song Waxta to the fast Afro-funk of Lovano’s Eurabian Prophet and a finale of Coltrane’s Spiritual. As with Archie Shepp, the composure of Lovano’s tone and the influence of John Coltrane ran through the set, though much space was given to Liberty Ellman’s dazzling guitar and the two intersected beautifully on the Afro-themed reading of Spiritual.

Saturday ended in the small Parabola Theatre with a rather confused ‘selfie jazz’ project that left half the audience fiddling with their mobiles and missing the excellent Impermanence Trio’s free music in their attempt to influence it. Happily Elaine Mitchener’s superb duo with pianist Alexander Hawkins retrieved the situation with her free-ranging vocal treatment of well-picked lines from standard ballads. She chopped, stretched and deconstructed their sound and meaning while Hawkins responded to the drama with quick-thinking accuracy, making a great collaboration that should be further explored.