Jazz picks of the month: August 2015

Ah – the annual jazz Ramadan that is August is upon us, with the Fringe @ Mall session heading off to join the Bebop Club for a summer holiday somewhere and slim pickings at other regular haunts. Happily a couple of notable festivals should offer some entertaining prospects in compensation but first let’s celebrate those redoubtable folk at Future Inn and The Old Duke for resisting the temptation to head off to the beaches.

The Future Inn August programme is especially good, too, featuring the Jazz Defenders (Thursday 6), Denny Ilett Band featuring Dave Newton (Thursday 13), Pushy Doctors (Thursday 20) and finally Tim Thornton Quartet featuring Jason Rebello (Thursday 27). The Defenders is a new quintet of some familiar and well-respected local names: George Cooper (piano), Nicholas Dover (sax), Nick Malcolm (trumpet and – you’ve guessed it – Will Harris (bass) and Mark Whitlam (drums). The music is all original, inspired by classic Blue Note heroes like Horace Silver, Freddie Hubbard all of which sounds like the recipe for something great. Denny and Dave are a nicely matched pairing of well-informed jazz virtuosity on guitar and piano, and Andy Sheppard’s Pushy Doctors project is definitely one of the best in the West. Mark Whitlam will be behind the kit for this gig though as, sadly, regular drummer Tony Orrell is recovering from some pretty serious health problems at present. Young double bass player Tim Thornton (pictured at top) is one of those names that will soon be on everybody’s lips, and his quartet often includes another – local hero James Gardiner-Bateman. Teaming them up with jazz piano legend Jason Rebello surely makes this unmissable.

Denny Ilett also crops up at The Alma with the Denny Ilett Quintet (Sunday 16) and the first of what will be a regular residency on the third Sunday of every month. The following Sunday (23) the exuberant Dakhla Brass will showcase new CD Gorilla, Gorilla, Gorilla in their inimitable ‘New Orleans goes to North Africa’ style.

For the really big jazz names you’ll need to get your bridge money together and head for the Brecon Jazz Festival (Friday 7 – Sunday 9). It’s about 70 (mainly Welsh) miles to get there but it’s a great line-up with Norma Winstone’s haunting Stories Yet to Tell trio and the impeccable empathic pairing of Kenny Barron’s duo with Dave Holland kicking things off on Friday 7 and a host of big names running through Saturday 8 (check Pigfoot, the ‘acid trad’ quartet featuring Orin Marshall’s epic tuba and Neil Cowley’s tribute to Dudley Moore). Sunday sees Kenny Wheeler’s last music – Songs For Quintet – performed in tribute with Gwilym Simcock joining the four players who played with Kenny for that session as well as Robert Glasper’s ever-astounding trio. There’s much, much more of course so maybe you can use the week to run through the full programme.

But for a celebration of good old good-time jazz you can actually stagger home from then join the Bank Holiday crowd on the King Street cobbles for the Old Duke Jazz Festival (Saturday 29 – Monday 31). Starting with a blues-themed Saturday and ending with the customary old school and trad programme on Monday, the programme for Sunday includes Bristol’s own second line street band Brass Junkies.

Further ahead – great jazz gigs to look out for (and maybe book)in the coming months

Get The Blessing album launch, Lantern, Sept 13

The Big Swing Colston Hall, Sept 19

Barb Jungr St Georges, Sept 25

Beats & Pieces Lantern, Sept 30

Andy Sheppard & John Paricelli Fringe @ Mall, Sept 30

Namvula Lantern, Oct 4

Jim Mullen Trio Fringe @ Mall, Oct 7 

Aaron Parks Trio St George’s, Oct 8

Andy Sheppard St George’s, Oct 13

Ian Ballamy Quartet  Fringe @ Mall, Oct 14

Matthew Halsall Gondwana Orchestra St George’s, Oct 15

Snarky Puppy  O2 Academy, Oct 15

The Grandmothers of Invention Fleece, Oct 18

Souljazz Orchestra  Lantern, Oct 19

Simple Things Festival  Colston Hall, Oct 24

Hot 8 Brass Band Lantern, Nov 3

Kamasi Washington  Lantern, Nov 13

Andreya Triana  Lantern, Nov 14

Alan Barnes Octet St George’s, Dec 17