Jazz festivals tend to want to vary their programme by introducing new bands, new players and new projects each year. This is right, but there is also room for developing relationships with certain musicians, and bringing them back on a regular basis with a new project. Two musicians that Cheltenham Jazz Festival has developed long term relationships will be appearing in this year’s programme at the Parabola Arts Centre (PAC). They are pianist Kit Downes and trumpeter Dave Douglas.
Kit Downes has appeared at the festival on an annual basis for the last ten years or so ( I have lost count!). He is an amazingly creative musician and has appeared at Cheltenham in a whole range of projects from solo church organ, a duo with drummer Seb Rochford and last year with the wonderful Deadeye trio. This year he will be appearing with vocalist Norma Winstone with whom he has been touring recently and playing music that has ‘sensitivity, timing and creative power’ (review by Christoph Giese in Jazzwise). Norma, by contrast, has rarely appeared at Cheltenham; she appeared in a band led by Nikki Iles, and was due to present her own project in 2020, but that was the year the festival was cancelled as a result of the pandemic. It is good that this gap in programming is being rectified this year. Norma and Kit are bringing out an album on the ECM label later this year, and I imagine copies will be available at the festival. They play in PAC at 6pm on Saturday 4th May.
Trish Clowes and Dave Douglas EYES UP Saturday 4th May 8.15 PAC
Trish Clowes and Dave Douglas share a love for the compositions of Wayne Shorter, and some of these will feature in their Cheltenham set alongside their own compositions specially written for this EYES UP project. Trish has recorded with her My Iris band for Dave Douglas’ Greenleaf label in the USA and they played a gig together last year at the 606 Club in London. This gave them the incentive for them to develop the EYES UP project which will undertake a short UK and Ireland tour around the Cheltenham date. The group will also feature Ross Stanley on piano, Chris Montague on guitar and Joel Barford on drums. Dave Douglas has not been as regular a visitor to to Cheltenham as Kit Downes, but he has appeared with various projects, initially with his electronic project Freak In, then with Be Still based around hymns and originals, and latterly in duo with drummer Joey Baron. Dave has always been a force on the creative New York scene, playing with John Zorn’s Masada group as well as his own varied projects which include commissions for dance groups (Trisha Brown) and contemporary music groups (Birmingham Contemporary Music Group). Trish Clowes is a similarly creative player; her recent duo recording with Ross Stanley, A Journey To Where on the Stoney Lane album, is a beautiful album.
Both these gigs are highlights of this year’s Cherltenham Jazz Festival. More details can be found at http://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/jazz.
TDE Promotions 