Another week in Birmingham and another week of really varied and stimulating gigs. A few thoughts follow, mostly on the range of experiences that music can generate.
The gig at Fizzle on Tuesday featured a double bill of two trios with saxophonist Rachel Musson in both of them. The first featured Rachel on tenor saxophone, Julie Kjaer on alto saxophone, and Hannah Marshall on cello. They played a beautiful set, based around the interaction between the two saxophonists. This created a gentle, warm set of improvisations all glued together by Hannah Marshall’s contributions on the cello. The second set in which Rachel played with Chris Mapp on electric bass and Mark Sanders on drums was much more upbeat with Rachel weaving long flowing melodic lines over the always varied contributions of Chris and Mark.
It was interesting to compare the music of this Fizzle gig with that heard in the first of the Paul Dunmall Invites series in the previous week and described in the previous posting on this site. The music there created an extremely exciting and dramatic series of improvisations. The two sets at the Fizzle gig were much gentler, full of thoughtful interaction, but nonetheless requiring a concentration and commitment on the part of the audience to get that intense experience that comes from listening to improvised music.
Another fascinating contrast came at the Jazzlines Friday session with the music of Nifeco Costa who leads Babock Djazz, a band of players from Guinea Bissau, a small country in West Africa which has Portuguese as its official language. They have all settled in UK coming originally as refugees. Their music has the gentle flowing rhythm of so much African music, whether it is from West Africa or southern African countries. The music is built around Nifeco’s songs and features the high sound of the guitar so typical of African music. The experience of listening to this music is quite different to that with the improvised music described above. The music is gently rhythmic, but does not vary that much. One sits back and lets it flow over one.
I suppose Liran Donin’s 1000 Boats project heard at Birmingham Jazz on Friday night brings an experience that lies somewhere between that of listening to improvised music and that experienced when listening to Nifeco Costa’s African rhythms. The two sets from the 1000 Boats band presented a number of beautiful melodies strongly influenced by Liran Donin’s Middle Eastern and North African background and were interpreted by a two saxophone front line, Chris Williams on alto sax and Josh Arcaleo on tenor sax, plus some striking contributions from Italian pianist Maria Chiara Argiro and wonderfully lyrical solos from Donin on bass.
Finally, it was a joy to witness on Saturday Mark Sanders’ session with a senior group from the Jazzlines Ensembles. Mark was introducing them to ‘conduction’, an approach originally devised by Butch Morris in which free improvisation is guided by a conductor using a series of hand signals to vary the playing. The students, all teenagers, are proficient on their instruments, but are unlikely to have played in a free jazz style before. Under the guidance of Mark they created some really stimulating and original music. It was then really interesting to observe members of the group undertake their own conductions; again some fascinating music was created
I should declare an interest: I am involved with both the Jazzlines and Fizzle programmes. The opinions expressed here are of course mine.
player who has recently graduated from the jazz course at the Birmingham Conservatoire. James was been working with Paul Dunmall recently and recorded on the album Paul made with Steve Swell and Mark Sanders (So Perhaps: FMR Records FMR CD545-0719), but on this occasion was playing in a more mainstream style. The first set featured a piano bass drums trio with Dave Ferris on piano and Kai Chaurensy on drums. The repertoire was based around pianists and bass players of whom James is particularly fond: Fred Hersch, Bill Evans, Drew Gress and Charles Mingus. The trio brought lots of energy to this material and there was a freshness in the way they interpreted the material that was very welcome. All three players excelled, but I was really impressed by the fluency and imagination of Dave Ferris’ playing. For the second set they were joined by saxophonist Vittorio Mura, back on a break from his studies in New York; it was clear that his stay there has resulted in a greater edge in his soloing.
Then it was straight off to 1000 Trades pub where Birmingham Jazz were presenting the Magpie Trio led by drummer Sam Jesson with Tom Farmer on bass and James Allsopp on saxophone. Sam Jesson is another graduate from the jazz course at Birmingham Conservatoire. Interestingly, while at the Conservatoire Sam was mostly interested in the more ‘out’ styles of jazz, but here in the Magpie Trio he is focussing on a more mainstream repertoire with a focus on this occasion on material associated with the pianist Ahmad Jamal. I really enjoyed their two sets, particularly the inventiveness that went into their interpretations of that material. James Allsopp is a player that one also associates with more contemporary forms of the music, (Golden Age of Steam, Snack Family) but he is also an excellent interpreter of more standard forms, occasionally taking his solos out, but always coming back into the mainstream. There was throughout a freshness in the trio’s music that was very impressive.
But enough of philosophy, what gigs are coming up? The season starts with a new venture that we are very proud of: Paul Dunmall Invites. This will involve a monthly gig at the Eastside Jazz Club at Birmingham Conservatoire during term time at which Paul Dunmall invites fellow improvisers to join him for a session.
The week after the first Paul Dunmall Invites session sees another excellent improv session, this time at the Lamp Tavern as part of the Fizzle season. This is on Tuesday 14th January and features saxophonist Rachel Musson in two different contexts, the first with Chris Mapp on bass and Mark Sanders on drums and secondly with Julie Kjaer on flute and Hannah Marshall on cello.
Fizzle/TDE Promotions is a coalition of events at The Lamp Tavern, curated by Andy Woodhead, and events curated by myself at various venues, notably the Hexagon Theatre at mac, the Eastside Jazz Club at the Birmingham Conservatoire. There were also collaborations with the Flatpack Festival for silent film + improv events and with BEAST at the University of Birmingham for an electro-acoustic event. TDE Promotions set up a short tour for the double bill for the Jacob Garchik UK Gospel Trombone Choir and the Jacob Garchik Richard Foote Quintet that went to the CBSO Centre Birmingham, the Yellow Arch Sheffield and The Vortex London.
Evan Parker Invites is a monthly event at the Vortex Jazz Club in which Evan Parker invites guests for an improvised session. It is a gig I like to catch whenever I can as I find that the different guests bring out something special and unique in Evan’s playing and I enjoy the mix of friendly competitiveness and collaboration between them. This month the guests were saxophonist Tomas Challenger, bass player John Edwards and drummer Mark Sanders. John and Mark are almost certainly the most exciting bass and drum partnership in improv anywhere in the world; they work together regularly and with great empathy and provide a really strong swinging basis for the improvisations of the front line players. They swing like the clappers, a phrase not always associated with free playing, but it should be said that increasingly free playing does involve a strong but flexible groove that drives the soloists into different places. This was very apparent at certain points when Mark really raised the temperature and brought out something special in Evan’s playing.
It was, however, the prospect of hearing Tom Challenger with Evan that really drew me to the gig. I have enjoyed Tom’s playing in various contexts in the last year or so. I have heard him in a project with Mike Fletcher, then with the Uncanny Valley trio with Phil Donkin and Oliver Steidle and, most recently, with Kit Downes in the Dreamlife of Debris group.
Gunter ‘Baby’ Sommer is one of those almost legendary names in European jazz. He was born in Dresden, Germany in 1943 and still active in music and teaching today. He was a pioneer of European free jazz and played a major role in the development of the role of drums in that style of music in the 1960s and onwards. He was based in the former East Germany and was part of an active and distinctive scene of free improvisers in that country. He worked in a trio with Conny Bauer and Peter Kowald and in special projects with leading figures of free jazz, notably Wadada Leo Smith and Peter Brotzmann. He also is known for really inventive solo drum performances.
In Birmingham on December 10th Raymond and Gunter will play a duo concert in the Hexagon Theatre at mac (8pm) and also feature in seminar run by the Jazz Research Group at Birmingham City University focussing on the development of free jazz in Europe, from 4pm to 6pm. Speakers in addition to Raymond and Gunter are Petter Frost Fadnes and Sarah Gail Brand. Petter Frost Fadnes will talk about his work with pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, Raymond Macdonald and Gunter Sommer will interview each other about their influences and Sarah Gail Brand will talk about her experience as an improvising trombonist in UK.
There were three key gigs: Tuesday 26th saw a double bill at the Hare & Hounds with two new commissions from Aaron Diaz and Stella Roberts, the former playing with Anton Hunter from Manchester and Euan Palmer from Birmingham, while the latter played in duo format with drummer Will Glaser. Both sets were brilliant. Wednesday 27th saw the return of the Paul Dunmall Quintet with Chicago drummer Hamid Drake to the Eastside Jazz Club at The Conservatoire, this time performing with a big band made up of students from the jazz course at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Ed Puddick had arranged Dunmall’s material from the Dreamtime and Soultime suites and the combination of these punchy arrangements with the passion of the quintet was full of drama and excitement. Finally on Thursday 28th David Austin Grey premiered on the stage at Symphony Hall his very attractive suite In Search Of A Common Paradise based on the theme of migration of birds
The main set will feature Kit Downes and the music from his brilliant new album for ECM Dreamtime of Debris. The band includes Kit on piano and harmonium, Tom Challenger on saxophones, Lucy Railton on cello and Phelan Burgoyne on drums (replacing Seb Rochford). The review on AllAboutJazz describes it thus: The album is full of nuance. In its dark and claustrophobic setting, it nevertheless creates illuminated open spaces. The music is introspective and spiritual and can waver between lullaby and nightmare. After being largely absent from Downes’ ECM debut, Dreamlife of Debris reminds us he and Challenger are an extraordinarily creative team. 