Music / Jazz
The week in jazz: April 2-7 2018
Having emerged with the original F-IRE collective in 2005 vocalist and songwriter Julia Biel took a while to find her feet as a solo artist. Early tours saw her delicate and expressive voice somewhat buried under within all-star band and it was really only as a singer/guitarist she was most able to reveal the exceptional quality of her voice. Musically clear and rich in her own personality it invited collaborations with the likes of Polar Bear, Hidden Orchestra and Everything But The Girl’s Ben Watts and she also joined Afro-jazz collective Soothsayers. Happily these distractions have not impeded her work as a songwriter and this year saw the release of her much anticipated third album – the imaginatively titled Julia Biel – and a tour to introduce it to the world which passes by the Colston Hall on Thursday (5).
BRACE’s Ollie Moore (left) in his Pigbag days
Some 20 years before Ms Biel caught the jazz scene’s ear saxophonist Ollie Moore was winding up the first emanation of his band Pigbag. Years of musical experimentation have followed, with his improvising duo BRACE a vigorous presence on the Bristol free music scene. Their appearance at the Fringe (Monday 2) will see Ollie and partner drummer Aidan Searle join forces with a similar sax/drums duo of Timothy Milton Hill and Wayne Rex and a certain amount of partner swapping is promised (oo-err!).
Taku Sugimoto goes back to nature
Experimental music fans face a hard choice on Monday as Rough Trade hosts an eclectic avant-garde evening including multi-media experimentalist Josie Grounds (aka Himë Bangs) and headlined by conceptual guitar hero Taku Sugimoto. Taku’s work has become increasingly meditative and subtle, so his collaboration with vigorous actor and musician Minami Saeki should have interesting tensions and dynamics. Those in search of more confrontative contemporary jazz should head for Cafe Salt on Tuesday (3) and a no-nonsense double bill of post-rockers Milon and the punk-jazz improvistions of Iceman Furniss Quartet.
is needed now More than ever
Gregory Porter
There may still be a few tickets left for Gregory Porter at Colston Hall on the same night (Tuesday 3) but the well-deserved appeal of the man would make a sell-out highly likely (*since time of writing the gig has in fact sold out). Anyone who saw his recent BBC4 series on popular music will know how effortlessly powerful his voice can be, as well as his commitment to the material he sings. Surely one of the most musical male jazz vocalists of our time? Fans might also want to catch Bath-based actor and singer James Lambeth’s early evening slot in the Colston Hall foyer (Friday 6)
John Law (second from right) and his excellent Re-Creations
Pianist John Law is a fine composer, peerless improviser and exceptional interpreter of the multi-faceted music of the great Thelonious Monk. He also has a surprising interest in mainstream pop music and John Law’s Re-creations (Fringe, Wednesday 4) is a project that celebrates music associated with Radiohead, Adele, Sting and others through stylish arrangements and improvisational explorations. The quartet also includes Loop Collective sax star Sam Crockatt, a worthy free-blowing foil to John’s originality on keys.
The classic jazz Sound Of Blue Note
If there’s one thing that defines jazziness for most people it has to be the Sound of Blue Note (Bebop Club, Friday 6), particularly during the hard bopping era of the 50s and 60s. This hot-stuff quintet have transcribed neglected classics from the period and frontliners Terry Quinney (sax) and Andy Urquhart (trumpet) hold nothing back in blowing fresh life into music that’s an unbelievable half century old. Even older, however, is the jazz-driven pop music of the 20s and 30s evoked by the Pasadena Roof Orchestra (St George’s, Sunday 8) and including songs and tunes made famous by Al Bowlly and Duke Ellington in a reliably entertaining package.
Fervour main man Sean Gibbs
Good to see Future Inn showcasing another bunch of talented new faces in the shape of Fervour (Thursday 5), a lively quintet led by ace trumpeter Sean Gibbs and featuring Trope bass player Nick Jurd. The band were picked for support by the Arts Council last year and this national tour launches the resulting album. There’s another launch at the Gallimaufry that night, too, when promoters collective Astral Tusk announce their ambitions as ‘Curators of future music, united in a pursuit of improvisation and synthesised sound’ with a pleasingly upbeat triple bill of fresh Bristol jazz talent comprising electro-improv outfit Hippo, math-minded proggers Waldos Gift and the exuberant Latin-meets-Afro groove fest that is Snazzback.
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