Fife Jazz Festival 2010

The 3rd Fife Jazz Festival is on this weekend in venues across Fife. The festival presents a wide range of styles of jazz, from traditional jazz to contemporary trios via an assortment of big bands. Some of the highlights are:

• Norrbotten Big Band with Peter Erskine. The renowned American drummer with what is apparently a very fine big band. Dunfermline on Friday, St Andrews on Saturday.
• The Swedish trio of Fredrik Nordström (tenor), Palle Danielsson (bass) and Fredrik Lindqvist (drums). They’re all very fine players individually, and I reckon this could be very good indeed. St Andrews, Friday.
• Colin Steele’s Stramash. Folk-jazz fusion. Also in St Andrews on Friday.
• Acker Bilk. Glenrothes, Friday.
• Swing 2010 with Brian Kellock. Django lives! In fact, he turned 100 last month. Strathmiglo, Saturday
• Carol Kidd. Kirkcaldy, Saturday.
• Angie King and Bruce Adams. Charlestown, Sunday.

Local musicians who are appearing include Calum Gourlay, Jonathan Cairney, the Fife Jazz and Youth Jazz Orchestras, and the New Columbians. The full programme, plus details of venues, times and prices, can be found on the Fife Jazz Festival web site. The Scotsman has an article about The New Columbians online which goes on to preview the festival in general.

Update, February 9th 2010

Rob Adams reviewed the Norbotten Big Band with Peter Erskine and the Fredrik Nordström Trio in the Herald.

Alyn Cosker Trio with Seamus Blake

Vale Bar, 1st February 2010

This was the first gig I’d been to at the Vale Bar. In fact, it was the first time I knew that it put on live music. The performance took place in the upstairs bar, an atmospheric if awkwardly shaped space more reminiscent of a rock venue such as King Tut’s or The Captain’s Rest than a formal concert space. There was no stage, with the band simply setting up at one end of the room. The bar took up most of one side wall, and there was a small upper level at the back which housed the sound deck, a few tables and chairs, and the ladies loo. The venue apparently has a capacity of 70, and it was pretty full. The crowd was one of the youngest I’ve ever seen at a jazz concert (there were only a handful of us older than about 30) and included quite a few musicians.

This was very definitely a concert by the Alyn Cosker Trio plus saxophonist, rather than Seamus Blake plus backing band. The material was all originals from Alyn’s Lyn’s Une album. Michael Janisch was playing bass – mainly bass guitar, but also some double bass. What I particularly like about his playing, and that of Alyn Cosker, is that they can do all the fancy stuff without neglecting the basic rhythm section task of providing a good solid background for the rest of the band. Seamus Blake was very impressive on tenor. He has an attractive, fairly light, sound, with some of his playing in the upper register sounding very much like a soprano sax (Lucky Thompson’s soprano sound in particular). David Dunsmuir played some fine solos on guitar, switching between a dirty rocky John Scofield-like sound and a cleaner jazzier one as the need arose. For the last couple of numbers of a long concert (“Twitter and Bisted” and “Bheki”), the band were joined by Ryan Quigley on trumpet and Paul Towndrow on alto. If I remember correctly, Blake only played on the ensemble passages on these and left the soloing to the Scots.

This was a very enjoyable concert, and it’s always nice to see somewhere else putting on live jazz. It’s not a venue which would suit every band, though: there’s no piano, and I can’t see how you could get one up the stairs.

Euphbass was also at this gig, and the band’s Newcastle and London shows have been reviewed online.

Coming this week: Seamus Blake, Kellock – Argüelles and more

A few dates for your jazz diaries:

• Seamus Blake with the Alyn Cosker Trio, upstairs at the Vale Bar (just outside Queen Street Station). Monday 1st, 8pm. A new venue to me. Thanks to Euphbass for pointing this one out. New York based saxophonist Blake has worked with John Scofield and the Mingus Big Band among others, so this should be a good night. MIchael Janisch and David Dunsmuir complete the line-up.
• Details of Jazz International’s February concerts are now available. On Saturday 6th, there is an excellent looking double bill, with the Brian Kellock – Julian Argüelles Duo sharing a show with Australian piano trio Trichotomy. If you live in Edinburgh, you can hear them each do a full gig, Trichotomy on Thursday at the Jazz Bar, and Kellock and Argüelles on Sunday at the Lot, but unfortunately for some reason (probably to do with tour schedules), we only get them doing half a show each.
• On the other hand, Trichotomy’s Edinburgh gig clashes with a performance at the Lot by a fine Swedish trio of tenorist Fredrik Nordström, veteran bassist Palle Danielsson (who’s worked with Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek and Charles Lloyd) and drummer Fredrik Rundqvist. Nordström’s quintet set Moment is one of my favourite jazz albums of the Noughties, so if I lived in Edinburgh, this is the one I’d be at on Thursday, much though I’d be interested to hear Trichotomy.
• Tommy Smith’s Youth Jazz Orchestra are playing at the Tolbooth in Stirling on Saturday 6th, before going on to the RSAMD on Sunday the 7th.
• Later in the month, Jazz International are putting on Christine Tobin and Liam Noble who will be doing a concert based around Carol King’s Tapestry album (Sunday 14th), and the Stewart Forbes – David Newton Quartet (Sunday 21st).

Trilok Gurtu Band with Jan Garbarek and Shankar Mahadevan

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 27th January 2010.

It wasn’t clear in advance what the format of Wednesday’s concert in the GRCH Main Auditorium was going to be. The tickets stated that it was by “Trilok Gurtu Band with special guests Jan Garbarek and Shankar Mahadevan”, and from the Celtic Connections brochure it was clear that folk trio Lau were going to be involved in some way.

I’d half expected Lau to be the support band, but in the event the show opened with the Trilok Gurtu Band by itself: Gurtu on percussion, plus an international line-up of violin (and occasional keyboards), bass, guitar, and keyboards (and occasional tenor sax). They played a  competent sort of world jazz rock – think 70s Miles or the Zawinul Syndicate and you’d be in the right area – without really convincing me that they were more than just session band perfect.

Trilok Gurtu was positioned at the right-hand side of the stage (from the audience’s point of view), with a drumkit in front and to his right, Indian hand-drums to his left, and an assortment of various small percussion instruments behind him. I preferred his percussion playing to his kit drum playing: while he was very good on the latter, his style was slightly-dated jazz-funk fusion drumming rather than jazz playing.

So far so so-so. But the gig sprang to life when the guests came on. First up was Indian singer Shankar Mahadevan. I know next to nothing about Indian music, but apparently he’s active in the film music world there, and has worked with John McLaughlin’s Shakti in the past. Whatever his background, he was superb. He did a couple of songs, then Jan Garbarek came on and did a couple of pieces, then we got Mahadevan and Garbarek together. I’m not really a Jan Garbarek fan – I admire his music more than I like it – but he was on excellent form. His playing had more fire and less ice than I’d expected and made me wish I’d bought a ticket for his concert the next night after all. At this concert he played a lot more tenor than soprano. Mid-concert, Garbarek and Mahadevan left the stage and Lau came on. They played one song with the full band, which didn’t quite gel, and one as a quartet with Trilok Gurtu on percussion which worked much better.

Gurtu then played a solo piece, which featured gongs being lowered into buckets of water, before Garbarek, Mahadevan and the band came back for the rest of the show. The main set finished with Garbarek, Mahadevan and Gurtu trading licks in the style of a good old-fashioned tenor battle.

Overall I thought this was a slightly patchy concert. Gurtu’s band by itself didn’t have the musical personality to really grip the audience, but were excellent when working as a backing group for Mahadevan and Garbarek. The singer and the saxophonist were the stars of the evening.

Kenny Mathieson reviewed the concert for the Scotsman.
Update: And Rob Adams reviewed it for the Herald. Pity their sub couldn’t be bothered to spell Trilok Gurtu’s name right.

Your music needs YOU!

Bill Kyle, who runs Bridge Music and the Jazz Bar in Edinburgh, (www.thejazzbar.co.uk), is looking for volunteers to help put on a season of concerts in Glasgow.

He says

I visualise a team composed of 4-6 actual event stagers, a couple of ‘advisory’ posts with people like Paul Towndrow, Stuart Brown etc, and myself. Regular meetings would be required to plan ahead and ensure all is in place for events. In many cases the Glasgow events would be tied in with Bridge Music Edinburgh gigs, so we’re offering a touring band two Scottish dates instead of just one. There are many, many fabulous gig opportunities coming up that could be happening in Glasgow, but we need a strong local team to run them.

If you want to offer your services, or simply to find out more, you can get full details from Bill Kyle. I don’t want him to be submerged in a deluge of spam, so I won’t give his email address directly, but it’s “bill” followed by the usual “at” symbol followed by the bit of the Jazz Bar web address after the initial “www.”.