And he deserved it! Jazz provides exuberant fun as well as mental fodder, and this was a superb extrovert/introvert blend.

The combination of vibes-man Beaujolais’ and saxist Mark Lockheart, invited comparison with the celebrated Harold Land/ Bobby Hutcherson partnership.

Lockheart like Land has a laid-back style, hiding an escalating killer touch in a velvet glove. Beaujolais though, four mallets flying into percussive meltdown, is a different kettle of vibes.
Not that his a stranger to rarified harmony. His take on Jobim’s moving Dindi, sent shivers down the vertebrae.

When he’s driving into the blues though, there’s no holding him.  For example on an original tune with an early rock feel, which proved to be a firework full of subtle surprises?

Certainly pianist Robin Aspland didn’t keyboard with his foot, a la Jerry Lee Lewis. Instead he swathed driving innovation in melodic chordal enchantment and was a delight.

In intriguing solos bassist Simon Thorpe amplified the subtle thrust he brought to the mix, and drummer Winston Clifford was an unselfish hero, providing all the dynamics any band could need.

 So with Damon Brown at D’Fly on 10/2, current jazz in Cheltenham is all credit and no squeeze

Arnie Somogyi’s ‘Ambulance’ Tues 24 March

 Ambulance filled the Town Hall’s spatially challenged Drawing Room with pulsating atmosphere.

Providing some compensation for this gig’s removal from the larger, redecorated but acoustically ruined Pillar Room.
  
But then Arnie Somogyi’s quintet are a class act wherever they perform. In a nutshell, they’re the Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers of 2009.

Their sophistication level is way higher. But there’s the self-same delight in spirited and imaginative hard-bop improvisation

Somogyi’s huge but harmonically subtle bass sound was key, locked into a perfect partnership with the spare, logical but climatic-when-needed drumming of Dave Smith.

Unusually the frontline is made up of two saxists.

Rob Townsend took the solo on the rocking D Train: packing the punch and sound of a Texas tenor with post-bop invention.     . 

Paul Booth, whilst also no slouch, impressed with depth of soprano sax emotion on his own modal tune The Squirrel.  

The occasional standard composition was included and If I were a bell provided  particularly fine moments for the outstanding pianist, Tim Lapthorn. His fast, chattering solo grew into an exhilarating two-handed conversation.

Whilst he took to the melodica – a wind instrument with a keyboard - to provide atmospherics in a wonderful Somogyi composition exploring the moods of the sea.
    
Ambulance are indeed THE band, if you need an urgent mental and emotional pick–me-up

Steve Grossman Quintet, Tues 24 February
Nothing could spoil an occasion like this!
Not the temporary indisposition of the star, nor the fact that the redecorated Pillar Room has become an echo chamber, minus the carpet which grounded its acoustic. 
Forty years ago, teenage tenor–saxist Steve Grossman served his apprenticeship with Miles Davis’ jazz-fusion band. Subsequently, he has become a great jazz-proper soloist.
Though he mainly remained seated and played short solos, what he did play was inspirational. And another Steve, sound engineer Steve Cooper, worked damage limitation miracles.   
Like his hard-bop heroes: Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon and John Coltrane, Grossman improvised with a touch of divine authority, guarantying exciting journeys and logical endings.
He certainly inspired his frontline partner, cornet player Damon Brown, whose creative energy levels were colossal.
Whilst an attempt to assemble the UK’s best rhythm section succeeded, with pianist Robin Aspland, bassist Mark Hodgson and drummer Sebastian De Krom.
As to the best performances I’d choose the ballad Soul Trane with Grossman’s fine tone underwritten by moving harmonies, and Joy Spring in which his succinct genius provoked Brown into extended and ever better exploration.
Perhaps it’s as well there were problems. 100% efficacy might have just too much joy to bear.

 27 January, Tony Kofi plays Thelonious Monk,, 
 If Cheltenham Jazz’s first gig of 2009 was any indication, it’s going to be a very good year!

The Tony Kofi Quartet began to specialize in the music of the great 20th century jazz composer Thelonious Monk in 2000.

And it was soon apparent they have become quite miraculous at exploring tunes which are somehow both quirky and eccentric, but also the last word in joyful logic.

Alto-saxist Kofi has developed into a world class player in the process. His solo on the boppish theme Work was masterly.

Although he is very much of today, Kofi revealed something of bebop pioneer Charlie Parker in his make-up. Not least an uncompromising  approach to playing the blues, in extended and ever more exciting solos.

Pianist Jonathan Gee is a virtuoso, whereas Monk was a keyboard minimalist. Yet he retained the spirit of the latter, transforming Monkish jagged chords into scintillating runs.

But with the haunting Misterioso for example, he also revealed a talent for that most difficult thing of all - simplicity.

This was music that swung like there was no tomorrow, due to the rich-toned, imaginatively walking bass of Ben Hazlehurst.

And to the chattering, expansive but never intrusive drums of  Winston Clifford.

Kirk Lightsey Trio, Pillar Room,25/11

Sometimes it’s only when the big oaks fall in the jazz forest, that  the star quality of the remaining trees becomes apparent.

Pianist Kirk Lightsey played with such towering, since departed stars, as Chet Baker, Harold Land, Kenny Burrell and Dexter Gordon.

Then he left the New York asphalt jungle for the forests of France, just as due recognition was coming his way.

History will get it right, as did the audience at the Pillar Room

Lightsey is no longer the archetypal hard-bop pianist.

He mostly played his own tunes, themes that migrated frequently between lyrical and rhythmic – often Latin – sections.

Bill Evans’  All I ask and - what was I think  - the age old pop song Temptation also received incisive, staccato Lightsey investigation.

And best of all was an unannounced blues, which produced what Duke Ellington called total jazz.

Lightsey built chorus on chorus of rising excitement. Surely it couldn’t keep getting better and better. But it did.

Bassist Steve Watts and drummer Dave Wiggins provided exemplary support, often in orchestral decorative style, but mighty potent when need be.

Come back soon Mr Lightsey. We know about star jazz oaks in England 

Killer Shrimp,Pillar Room, 21/10

Absence is supposed to make the heart grow fonder.

But the lack of a piano in the remarkable band Killer Shrimp left nostalgia untroubled.

Surprising. Chording instruments provide a structure akin to the human skeleton. But there are admirable precedents and they all point to one thing  - You’d better have a darn good rhythm section!

And they did. Bassist Mark Hodgson equated to a small and infinitely varied orchestra. And surging drummer Alyn Cosker left no note unpropelled

Why do it? In a word … freedom. Chords support but they also limit  the direction of solos. And without them you really hear the natural sound and interplay of the other instruments.

The arrangements capitalised on the contrast between Damon Brown’s pure silver tone, and the warm whirling tenor-sax of Ed Jones.

The old standard You don’t know what love is  delivered beauty with every moving part visible, and Same old Blues had the monster kick suggested by the band’s name.

Best though were self-penned, ingenious themes for improvisation which the two frontliners exploited to the nth degree.

But jazz piano isn’t really redundant. It’s like black and white photos.
Great  novelty value for a while, but you soon realise what you are missing..

And if you need proof, the great master Kirk Lightsey is at the Pillar room on  25 November.

Jean Toussaint Quartet, 23 September 08

What’s do you say to loud, intrusive drummers? My answer would be …close the door on your way out.

But sometimes the likes of  Troy Miller, are incorrectly placed in that category. And then the correct answer is … Don’t stop, I’ve never heard anything so creative!

Miller was the talisman of a superb quartet, continually surging through, pointing the way, building, culminating everything that occurred.

Ex-Art Blakey saxist Jean Toussaint has maintained the same personnel for five years now and it shows.

Bassist Larry Bartley used his solo moments magically - as in A tribute to Clifford Jarvis, drawing intriguing shadows and colours, whilst his rhythm work was a pulsating, logical thing of beauty.

Pianist Andrew McCormack contributed a fine What is this thing Called Love, the theme  emerging out of oriental harmonies. And on a bristling Mc Cormack composition, he and boss tenor-man Jean Toussaint excitingly swapped the lead,

Toussaint the leader organised a tight programme, with two arresting tunes dedicated to his children, Wayne Shorter’s hypnotic Mah-jong, a new take on All the Things you are … and more. His spiritual John Coltrane tones adding mystery.

The Coltrane generation left a lot of tantalising country unexplored. Toussaint’s the man to trek on. 
 
 Greg Abate with the Alex Steele Trio,
Friday 11 July, Everyman Theatre County Bar
 
If you want to believe that the moon is made of green cheese and that there’s a mysterious world over the rainbow … do not despair. It’s possible, anything’s possible – all you need do is catch American saxophonist Greg Abate next time around.

It helps to have a love of bebop alto-sax playing, but Greg’s charm and sincerity win over every disbeliever to his world of musical and other impossibilities,

So who is this miraculous guy?  Just a musician who started out with the Ray Charles’ Band and now works with some of the best of US jazzmen. 

Mid 20th century idol, Charlie Parker is his hero - updated for the new millennium. But you’d have to go right back to traditional jazzman Sidney Bechet, to find a player with like dynamism and intensity,

At the Everyman bar on tunes like Green Dolphin Street, Greg favoured speeding tempos. How else was he introduce all the brilliance and interweaving ideas of his racing mind,

 So occasional ballads like We’re be together again hit home all the harder with big-city blue loneliness.

Having met the Alex Steele Trio only minutes before, the ever prompting Greg refused to believe they couldn’t achieve perfection together.

Before long they did. Astounding! Maybe next time around he’ll do something about the weather.

Simon Spillett Quartet, Cheltenham Town Hall, 17 June

This was two for the price of one: a tribute to Tubby Hayes and a chance to hear tenor-saxist Simon Spillett in his own right.

Hayes, who died age 38 in 1973, was a dominant force for two decades. A cockney tenor with technique to die for, he was never happier than when the tempo flew and the chord changes came thick and fast.

Perhaps more than any home grown musician, he proved we could take on the Americans at their own game.

Spillett – girth apart – had all the Tubby virtues, including two of his rhythm section, John Critchinson and The Rev’d Spike Wells. In honour of his old boss Critchinson honed his impressive keyboard technique to taut, bluesy essentials.

Wells, a drummer of primeval thrust and amazing dexterity demonstrated that the devil does not have all the best tunes. And bassist Andy Cleyndert - a delver into deep mysteries - was also a delight.

A lugubrious tubby-tune Off the Wagon provided nostalgia and solo insights. Some other blues really wailed in Coltrane mode. And Simple Waltz - in six/four time was astoundingly anything but.

Great to be reminded that jazz can be an extrovert sport, and that tough guys can break you up with ballads like What’s New.

Dylan Howe's Unity 4. Thurs 29 May, Pillar Room, Cheltenham Town Hall. Jean Toussaint with the Alex Steele Trio, Everyman Bar, 7 March
                                                      
Late night in a small bar and a great saxophonist is producing creative miracles for you and a relatively small audience. How should you feel? Privileged? Guilty? Sad that more people are not savouring the experience?

Jazz was on fire with experiment in the mid-1960s and one aspect of that ferment was revived at the Town Hall, with drummer/leader Dylan Howe’s recreation of the music of Hammond organist Larry Young.

Before Young, Hammond meant funky soul-jazz. Via him it entered John Coltrane and Miles Davis territory, with improvisation based upon modes (musical scales) overlaying complex under-structures. 

Howe - a regular with the late Ian Drury’s band - proved himself no Blockhead, and his explicitly judged cymbal work was key to his fine sense of time. His Young substitute was Ross Stanley, a lively if not a dominating or inspirational Hammond-ist.

Young flirted with Rock and that tradition continued with guitarist Mike Outram. A graduate of the Hendrix/ Pat Methany school and a sophisticated listening player, he strived diligently to make his musical vocabulary blend.

But the outstanding success was alto-saxist Tony Kofi. Flying over the churning complexities of Woody Shaw’s Zoltan, and a taut but still beautiful version of Moonlight in Vermont, he displayed a mastery that connected disparate elements gloriously.

Late on the magic died. The guitar became too much of a mismatch, and Kofi was sucked down into undertolls of excessive discord.

But this was a splendid and individualised rerun, of music calling out for rediscovery.

The Zoë Raman Trio  25 March 08, Pillar Room, Cheltenham Town Hall.

Like most overnight successes pianist Zoë Rahman was around for quite some time before her big moment. A Mercury Prize nomination made her a jazz star in 2006, and the publicity delivered a large appreciative audience of all ages to the Pillar Room.  

Popularity can mean blowing with the wind, but not Zoë. Her jazz-based but individual and exotic musical vision remained 100% proof.

The trio’s absolute joy in improvisation was apparent.  Olie Hayhurst’s big sensitive bass contributed with telepathic skill. Whilst Rahman and drummer/percussionist Gene Calderazzo, were like an old couple completing and enriching each other’s sentences.

Critics like to put players in bags and Zoë’s is labelled, Keith Jarrett and Thelonious Monk. But that won’t do. There was an exotic strain perhaps drawn from her Bangladeshi father, and an impish sense of humour which delivered the old chestnut Gotta Travel On with driving panache.

Perhaps there was a little too much introspection at the start with tunes morphing into one another. But not for long.

Whether it was classic Monk tunes or her own fascinating compositions like the rhythmically hypnotic Camel, Zoë delivered par excellence, aided by a brilliant line-up with all the benefits of long association.
 
She’s back in six weeks in the jazz festival. If you missed her now, don’t make the same mistake again.

Such was the scenario when US jazzman Jean Toussaint played with the excellent Alex Steele Trio. Here was a musician feted in his youthful days with Art Blakey’s prestigious Jazz Messengers. Now neglected as he concentrates on the day job of tutor at a London music college.   

The answer to those opening questions was to revel in the stirring beauty of it all, in the knowledge that via a new CD and website a revived Toussaint career is imminent.

It could not be more deserved. Playing without a microphone, he delivered  ravishing tenor sax, with every register of the instrument beautifully articulated and blended. And perhaps more to the point he improvised with boldness and originality .

 His style was a fresh take on John Coltrane, delivered via a circumspect approach to slower tunes, which gradually drew out every gem of melody. Whilst beefier material was dissected with thrilling harmonic panache.
 
The trio with Steele, bassist Clive Morton and drummer Simon Radford spread out a magic carpet of confidence, and Nice Eyes a piano/sax duet will linger long in the memory

Art Themen Quartet. Tues 26 Feb, Town Hall Pillar Room,

How wrong can you be? I’d gathered that veteran-saxist Art Themen was winding down to a still vital but gentler form of jazz.

Perish the thought! Now retired from the day job of hospital consultant and leading a band of epic drive, he powered off with a molten Have you met Miss Jones. An unconverted believer in assaulting rather than cosseting the senses.

This was exciting adventurous music by any standard, and much of it thanks to another professional – The Revd Spike Wells on drums. Spike created swing beyond praise. His subtly and grasp of fast changing tempi however, call for no comment. Clearly the Almighty has granted him additional invisible limbs 

Floating over this energy field, additionally generated by inspired bassist Andy Cleyndert, Themen had all his old acerbic edge. Invitation found him looping the theme through John Coltrane-ish chord changes to dazzling effect.

And he memorably drew out the melodic essence of A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square, over a taut evolving backdrop. 

John Critchinson’s contribution went beyond the flow of his incredible piano technique, when he told great if unrepeatable jokes, in memory of the late Ronnie Scott.

Overall this was an exhilarating hard-bop pick-me–up, way beyond the doubted powers of Prozac.

John Etheridge with the Alex Steele Trio,
 Everyman Theatre Bar, Friday 8 February

Imagine yourself a gifted and versatile guitarist, one who plays with the master of the Spanish guitar John Williams, and with tribute bands dedicated to Frank Zappa, Stephane Grappelli and Soft Machine. 

You’re going down to Cheltenham to play with a local jazz trio. So which of your styles will you use?

Strangely enough John Etheridge’s chose his rock persona, which on occasion created something of a tissue mis-match.
 
Fine on the opening R& B number, with Alex Steele groovily supporting in Hammond organ mode. But a bit of a misnomer on the ballad In a Sentimental Mood, with the band rooted in intricacies of the tune, and the guitar echoing from  the stratosphere.

Nevertheless, here was noteworthy playing. And that became clearer when Etheridge played Stormy Weather as a dazzling solo, with a sound that was amplified rather than electrified.

But things have a way of working out. The ever charming Etheridge closed to prolonged applause with country-ish soft rock, followed by vintage funk given a Hendrix twist.

Solid bassist Clive Morton and drummer Simon Radford - creatively filling in all those rock spaces - were never lost for a moment. So it was a case of ignore the label - enjoy the music.

Dave Liebman Quartet,  Pillar Room 29 1 08

Audiences love a star. And a near full-house welcomed Dave Liebman, who has ranked as ‘something special’, since he joined mega-star Miles Davis’, 1970 jazz-funk band

Liebman has taken many directions, exploring the way-out pastures of late John Coltrane music, consorting with a host of big names, and gaining unique mastery over that metal oddity, the soprano saxophone, to give it woodwind–like delicacy and expression.

His Anglo-American Quartet played taut, tense arrangements which were all about texture and control, rather than running with the jazz muse. Central to them was the tight, reined-in drumming of Jeff Williams, the orchestral bass of Aidan O’Donnell and the fusiony guitar of Phil Robson.   
 
Best of all was the beautiful Ornette Coleman theme, Lonely Woman, with piercing piccolo flute over droning bass, sounding for all the world like the last surviving song thrush after a nuclear holocaust.

There was a pinch of comic relief when, in a jumping flea of a composition, Liebman and Robson swapped sharp atonal choruses of rising eccentricity.

Standards got a look in, although not the mystical theme of Speak Low. Instead the American peppered its chords with a rhythmic pattern, and built his own melodic climax.

Yutaka Shiina Trio  +   Damon Brown,   6 December @ Subtone

Quite how Cheltenham Jazz and co-promoters Subtone, shoe-horned a grand piano into a Promenade basement, I do not know. 
However, I’ll be eternally grateful that they did so, to present Japanese pianist Yutaka Shiina at his amazing best.
Shiina came on a surge of a rave reviews from performances with America’s finest, and they did not lie. Here was an oriental player imbued with hard-bop, but offering something totally original, mesmerizing and exciting 
   The indisposition of the tour bassist necessitated a more conservative programme. The good news was name of the replacement: Thad Kelly.
A purveyor of understatement that says everything, he slotted into the middle of  Shiina’s sound,  subtly driving and complementing like a buddy of old. 
It was a night for creative restraint. Drummer Lionel Bocarra was low on volume and ego: high on inspiration.
Trumpeter Damon Brown’s high flying technique and sensitivity deserve a review apart, but this was Shiina’s night. He thrived on Thelonious Monk compositions and standards.
Here was a master of seemingly irreconcilable elements: total relaxation, percussively energised  variations, a zooming,  seemingly conventional right hand which also contributed thrilling original discords, and the ability to build and build all this upon the tune.  
If jazz is the sound of surprise , Shiina is jazz personified  

Arnie Somogyi’s ‘Ambulance’,Pillar Room.  20 11 07 Chelt' Town Hall
This was my first hearing of Arnie Somogyi’s band and it was an unforgettable experience.
The advance publicity referred to … Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers updated for 2007, which is  fine. As long as the emphasis is on the year.
Just as Blakey did, bassist Somogyi has gathered a group of incredibly talented young musicians around him.
But the main thrust here was post-bop rather than hard-bop. In other words not-so-much blues and gospel influences: more minor-key intensity and advanced harmony, plus a dash of electronics.
So one original composition began with imaginative and super-skilled drummer Dave Smith, playing over a seaside recording of himself percussing a giant seashell. Eerily effective.
 Panto and musical sophistication are opposites. But not when singer Nia Lynn dropped by from the Everyman. Her phrasing on If I Should Lose You was worthy of the great Karen Krogg. And tenor-saxist Rob Townsend’s solo mixing of  rhythm and emotion fitted beautifully 
 A trio performance of My Foolish Heart, was all ravishing delicacy and moving restraint.
Saxist Paul Booth also excelled in delving between the black notes and combining with Townsend. Whilst pianist Tim Lapthorn is an exciting original, flying off two-handed rippling runs, breaking them up with dramatic chords, ever throwing in ideas.
I intend to be an ‘Ambulance’ chaser from now on.

Derek Briggs

Tues 30 October/Roger Beaujolais Quintet

Great vibes from a master vibraphonist are like nothing else, and Roger Beaujolais and his hand-picked quintet delivered some jazz par excellence.

Two mallets are for sissies these days. Beaujolais got a big sound chording with four, whilst his two-headed soloing still sounded like an orchestra.

The vibes/tenor-sax frontline featuring Dave Lewis, recalled the Bobby Hutcherson/Harold Land bands.

If they didn’t reach that mystical level of sublimity, Lewis’ tone had the same laidback bluesy feel, and he could motor when needed.

Refreshingly, Beaujolais played standards in addition to his own excellent compositions. Wes Montgomery’s Full House set a vital hard-bop mood with the vibesman swinging out, whilst on Jobim’s Dindi he concentrated on revealing the sheer beauty of the melody.

Musically and blues-illy, pianist Robin Aspland was the equivalent to people who can always speak in fascinating, beautifully articulated and finely constructed sentences.
.
Bassist Simon Thorpe never put a finger anywhere but right. And drummer Winston Clifford, the great discovery from early era of Courtney Pine, was a joy.

Just perhaps the creative tension was uneven and dropped towards the end
of a long evening.

But the quintet went out stomping at its considerable best. 

Pee Wee Ellis/Gareth Williams, 25/9/07, Pillar Room

Saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis stands around five foot tall.

But he’s also a man of considerable girth, which perhaps explains where he stores his gigantic and delightfully diverse musical personality.

Originally from a jazz background he came to fame as the MD to the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. More recently he’s frequented funk.

But no, at the Pillar Room we were treated to the jazz model Pee Wee, and indeed it was a treat.

Nothing’s straightforwardly in one bag for Pee Wee. He sounded like 1930s players such as Illinois Jacquet rasping into riffs or caressing melodies with old-fashioned vibrato, flew with bop, suggested post-bop, or just drenched everything in a blue coat of soul.

It was all quite a challenge for pianist Gareth Williams. By the time he soloed on 
Blue Monk its complex harmonies had become a swing era blues. No matter, he had fun combining the two. 

The virtuoso modern pianist and the magical chameleon blended well and provided exhilarating contrast. And such was their drive and ingenuity, the absence of a rhythm section was no problem.

Finally a welcome James Brown favourite arrived, and Pee Wee had a jazz audience clapping and singing. Whatever next?

 Pete King with the Alex Steele Trio, Fri 7/9 , Everyman Theatre Bar

Hallelujah! The ‘summer’ break is over and jazz is on the calendar again.
This first outpouring was the opener for a late-night, star-plus-local-rhythm-section series, organised by the charity Cheltenham Jazz. The place was the intimate Everyman Theatre bar, and the star was the incomparable Pete King. 
King is part of that great second generation of British boppers, an alto-saxist long considered the ultimate follower of modern–jazz originator Charlie Parker. Until that is, in mid-life he became a zealous and exciting convert to the revolutionary music of John Coltrane.
Which Pete King should the audience expect? Well - perhaps because the tunes and jazz standards played belonged to the  Parker years  - he reverted to his Mk I persona. And it was a tremendous pleasure to relive that era.   
An additional treat was the presence of another London guest, bassist Arnie Somogyi. Quite scary company for locals, pianist Alex Steele and drummer Simon Radford. But they met the challenge with finesse.
The best moments were King’s tour de force on Lush Life ,a whirling, evolving solo saxophone loop which morphed into the evocative harmonies of Body and Soul, on which the subtly driving bassist added a solo of fine intensity

Chris Laurence Quartet, Pillar Room, Cheltenham Town Hall,Tuesday 19 June

A good band doesn’t necessarily mean a good performance: a point proved by bassist Chris Laurence’s quartet.

A virtuoso in both the classical and jazz worlds, Laurence - like vibraphonist Frank Ricotti – has been busy in the recording studios for many years.

Now they’re  back on the road, the hope was 2000’s take on the sounds they made with Mike Gibbs in the 1970’s – akin to Gary Burton early groups.

The opening numbers, including Steve Swallow’s Falling Grace, maintained that hope. Laurence and Ricotti remain a class act.

And from a newer generation, drummer Martin France blended seamlessly and creatively, whilst guitarist John Parracelli added  Jon Scofield-like attack and harmonic awareness.

After that the quartet somehow became trapped on a rocky plateau inhabited by tangos of little melody, which they treated with excessive respect. Only Ricotti showed he had heat in his tank.. You needed to be the producer of a Great Railway Journeys programme about The Pyrenees to be fired by it.

There was some relief. George Shearing’s  Conception seemed a positive orgy of tunefulness, and even Kenny Wheeler’s No song but my own  sounded ripe for a sing-along.

The subtlety was fine. The failure to build anything upon it was a massive disappointment.

Scott Hamilton Quartet, Tuesday 29 May. Pillar Room                                                                                                                  

Anyone seeking an example of how life has changed in the last fifty years could do worse than compare this serenely enjoyable gig with the taut, driving emotion of the last one presented by Cheltenham Jazz.

Jean Toussaint’s quartet delved into harmonies with the hair-raising, exploratory zeal of a Ranulph Fiennes, riding on gritty, frequently evolving rhythms.

Saxist Hamilton, however, immediately nailed his colours to the 1930-50s, strolling through the ballad I just found out, adding just minor decoration, his unique warm tone and utter relaxation.

 Put another way, it’s an approach that looks on the bright side of life and economises on the black keys. Pianist John Pearce - a fine melodic player – also stayed close to melodies with beautifully-rounded cascading notes. Even the complexities of Thelonious Monk’s I mean you, failed to tempt him into delving.

Yet the theory only goes so far. Hamilton’s Willow weep for me was deeply moving, whilst I got rhythm and others confirmed that the swing era didn’t get its name for nothing.

And the sure walking-bass of Dave Green simultaneously spiced
chords to delicious effect, with drummer Steve Brown swing personified. 

Can anyone say which gig was the best? No, it a personal thing. But there’s no rule against liking both.
 
 Louis Stewart/Frank Harrison Group
27 February  2007, Pillar Room, Cheltenham Town Hall.

I haven’t seen the cover photo of the new Louis Stewart/Frank Harrison CD but after hearing them live, I know exactly what it should look like.

63 old Stewart should be seated holding his guitar, whilst 30+ pianist Harrison should be standing with his right hand on Stewart’s shoulder, denoting son/father affection.

Old-fashioned maybe, but it would capture the uncanny accord between two extremely fine and distinctive players.

Stewart, for many years a Ronnie Scott sideman, proved the most ingenious of guitarists. Most players dash off flying runs by the dozen. With the Irishman everything sounded seamless.

But - no pussycat - he filled out swingers with chunky, subtle Wes Montomery chording. Alternatively on ballads, he almost insinuated his telling commentary.

Harrison too suggested rather than hammered. A middle of the keyboard man, his right hand could motor meaningfully, whilst the rare sense of harmony he shares with Stewart, made his ballad contributions tender and knowing.

Quite where ‘new’ bassist Aidan O’Donnell sprung from I don’t know, but from there he brought amazing authority, technique and empathy.

That superb drummer Stephen Keogh was fine, although on a few occasions non-simpatico with the guitar.    

 From the magic mixture of standards played, the guitar/piano duet Everything happens to me was the highlight.

 Dick Pearce & Alex Steele Trio , Everyman Theatre Bar, 16 February

Late night jazz – or is it just the fact that it’s played in bars? – lends itself to vigorous argument.

A knowledgeable jazz fan was asserting that trumpet players should be so hot they scorch the hairs on your neck. I argued that it was quite sufficient if the said strands merely stood on end in amazement. The discussion went unresolved, but Dick Pearce proved himself to be a hair-raiser of distinction.

He played with amazing fluidity, unshowy technical brilliance and ravishing, fine clear tone. But when the high notes came – and they frequently did – they were part of a wider flight of improvisation and not blasts leading to a bigger explosion.

Invitation taken as blues, though, was hot enough for metal-smelting. Pearce flew fast and high in a meaningful direction, and pianist Alex Steele played the best solo I’ve heard from him, earning mega-applause from the capacity audience.

How Insensitive was totally the reverse in Pearce’s lyrical concept, whilst a medium paced The end of a beautiful friendship swung like there was no tomorrow, with the bassist showing why he was introduced as ‘the legendary Clive Morton.’
   
 With drummer Simon Radford also in devilish form, we went home unscorched but totally stimulated.

Seigel, Cohen and Baron, Pillar Room, Cheltenham Town Hall, Tuesday 23 January

How can a trio offer the variety of orchestra? Easily, when it consists of multi-instrumentalist Julian Seigel, double bass maestro Greg Cohen plucking and frequently bowing, and percussion troupe Joey Barron.

With one exception the music was composed by Seigel, the saxist-clarinetest who seem to be everywhere on the British jazz and jazz-meets-contemporary-classical scenes.

The compositions were mainly of the latter school, consisting of oft repeated, short melodic or rhythmic sequences, without the extensive, lead instrument exploration customary to jazz.

But if texture, mood and decoration were the names of the game, the two New Yorkers were the ideal players. One punter whilst not warming to the music, said he’d happily settle for a one man show by Baron.

Indeed there are not enough superlatives to describe the skill and subtlety of his drumming, nor its essential simplicity and crisp purity of sound. Cohen frequently contributed busy imaginative figures to the mix, or provided a bowed tension behind Seigel’s meandering bass-clarinet.

Haunted Waltz played on clarinet, keyed fond memories of Walton’s 1922 eccentricity Façade, and the unannounced closer suggested a static version of Love Supreme.

Oh, and that familiar tune? It was Alfie with a brief, beautiful rendition of the melody.

 Don Weller with the Alex Steele Trio, Thursday 14 December, Subtone,

Jazz players are usually defined as ‘like so & so’ but Don Weller is a reviewer’s nightmare. He’s a completely original so & so.

You could hear jazz history in his playing, but similarly all musicians use the same notes – it’s what Weller does to them that’s different.

Think of him as The Terminator, pursuing themes, using the whole sax-range, racking up the tension with swoops and churning metallic developments, and finishing them off with bluesy climaxes, climbing from the basement to the overblown stratosphere.

The result?  Tunes and structures left exhausted, but joyfully triumphant.
Mind you he needs an A1 rhythm section. And without a note of rehearsal,
 he had one in the magnificent Alex Steele Trio.

 Just one of those things  in the Weller version was way-out blues, with pianist Alex Steele dishing–up knotty chord-fodder, and soloing with matching complexity and excitement.

On Monk’s Nutty, Steele traded phrases with one of the fastest sax-minds in the West, and lived to tell the tale, enjoyably.

Bassist Thad Kelly rarely plays walking bass, but on Second Time Around - he did just that, producing  conventional wowl – and a riot of harmonic comment.

And drummer Simon Radford never placed a beat anywhere but perfectly.

 Kirk Lightsey Trio, Cheltenham Town Hall , 30 11 06

“What’s the point of listening to anyone else, “someone said in the interval, “Kirk Lightsey is total jazz.”  

There should have been weighty counter arguments, but I couldn’t think of any then, nor can I now.

As a young pianist Kirk played with Dexter Gordon, Chet Baker, Woody Shaw, David Murray and Harold Land., Now at 69 he plays like two young men on one keyboard. 

When the tempo is up, you’d better duck for all the molten heat that‘s flying over your head. When it’s a ballad there’s no rest, he converts all that harmonic energy into emotional subtext that hits the heartstrings. Stop the piano; I want to catch up with what I missed!
 
But there were three hairless heads bent over instruments. The others belonged to the two Dave’s, Wilkins (bass) and Wickens (drums). Both were orchestral players, responding to there leader’s dynamism, with precision and total understanding.

What to choose as a favourite? Perhaps a Brazilian theme, all understatement and texture which overwhelmed the senses. Or the old tango, Temptation, with all its ingenious inputs combining into a pulsating finale, recreating the seven day making of the world.
 
Lightsey is total jazz. Wake up world, whilst he’s  still here to be heard. 

Roger Beaujolais/Alex Steele Trio, Everyman
Theatre Bar, 24 November

Music lessons rarely occur close to the witching hour, but then the late night jazz sessions organised by Cheltenham Jazz for the Everyman Theatre bar are anything but formal.

Magic wasn’t an issue, although if you’ve heard Roger Beaujolais you might disagree. Indeed it was his superlative playing that drew a section of the audience to him in the break, asking … just what creates vibes out of the vibraphone?

The answer was an instrument of just three octaves, as compared with the piano’s seven, a reverberation pedal that bends and sustains notes, and the added individual factor, the player’s way with mallets that fly and suggest
a multitude of simultaneous themes and harmonies.

Beaujolais’ arrangements were in ideal hands.  Pianos and vibraphones can duplicate territory, but Alex Steele wisely kept his hands close together mid-keyboard. The resultant minimalism immensely enhanced both his
support and solo work.

The pulse was always anchored plumb centre in Adrian Litvinoff’s bass, and the crisp dynamic drumming of Simon Radford provided a superb rhythmic raft

Jazz and popular standards, like an up tempo motoring Just Friends, and an intricate but totally moving What’s new, were the staples of a great evening. There’s just one more in 2006: saxist Mark Lockheart on 14 December.

Tommaso Starace Quartet, 31 October 06

Programme music with its emphasis on musical pictures, and jazz are very different animals. The former sets its heart on poetic visions, the latter needs to move wherever the spirit takes it.  The Tommaso Storace Quarter delivered both concepts in one concert.

Its theme was the eccentric 1950s- 60s photographs of master lens man Elliott Erwin, and the compositions weaved around them by Italian alto-saxist Storace. The turning point was his playing, which based upon old masters Charlie Parker and Cannonball Adderley, swung like crazy.

With vibraphonist Jim Hart whose brilliance belied the fact that he is normally in the drum chair, bassist Simon Woolf and drummer Tristan Mailliot, this was a perfectly balanced quartet that played for one another without a hint of ego.

Srorace’s musical personality changed with the switch to soprano sax and  tunes emphasising the melodic. But Hart always added the sort of intensity and dynamic harmonics associated with the like of Bobby Hutcheson, with bassist and drummer in perfect accord.

And when the temperature was raised with the alto, the trio combined to create the living daylights of improvisation.

So something old, but also very new and totally captivating.

Gilad Atzmon with the Alex Steele Trio,12/10/06

Deadpan humour is Gilad Atzmon’s style. But why after ten minutes of wild, virtuoso action did he apologise for poor playing, saying he’d broken both his elbows?

Well for once it was the true. So all there was to do was to enjoy every wild idiosyncratic note, and wonder how the heck he’d sound if totally fit.

Atzmon, even the heavily bandaged version is a one-off. There’s something of the mountebank (medieval trickster) about the surreal Israeli saxist.

In a few bars of a song he goes from softest melody to climatic passion, maybe including a fraction of another tune. But somehow musically it’s always right, in fact tremendous.

 There’s a lot of Charlie Parker in his rhythmic drive and intensity, and the ballad Laura came out searingly moving. I’ll remember April helter-skeltered  and transformed into the most gut-wrenching slow blues you ever heard .

Pianist Alex Steele, bassist Clive Morton and drummer Simon Radford were absolutely superb, keeping pace and mood with the maverick soloist.

During Over the Rainbow Atzmon told a story of a trumpeter who killed himself because he couldn’t remember the middle bars. Then along came an ambulance, whose siren rendered them perfectly.

Great humour. Great music.

Jean Toussaint/Alex Steele Trio 22 September 2006

Imagine Pavarotti at the Playhouse or U2 playing the Town Hall, and you’ll get a jazz-world fix on Jean Toussaint, saxing for his supper at the Everyman late night bar. 

Toussaint, once of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, opted for the security
of teaching at London’s Guildhall, and found himself a big fish in a tiny British pool.

In heaven he’ll sit on Gabriel’s right hand, meanwhile, we might as well give ironic thanks for an economic jazz climate, which delivers such talent so cheaply.

Playing with this most potent of improvisers, should have scared
the daylights out of the Alex Steele trio. But no, they raised their game to World Cup level.

Toussaint churning, emotive line on Softly as in a morning sunrise, was memorably enhanced by pianist Steele, and his reward was a solo-swopping session with the saxist. Likewise, Thad Kelly’s spare but all encompassing bass, received the same recognition.

The tunes were familiar, but the interpretations dramatic with no holds barred.
Now’s the time soared, fuelled by Simon Radford’s drums, and Body and Soul broke every heart in the room, without a trace of sentimentality.

By the evening’s end we were into what would have been John Coltrane’s 80th birthday, and there could have been no better celebration.

 Damon Brown’s  Killer Shrimp, Pillar Room, Cheltenham Town Hall, Thursday 28 September 2006

It’s an ill wind that blows no good. Not that trumpeter Damon Brown ever blows anything but good, but the ill was the unavoidable absence of his frontline partner in Killer Shrimp, saxophonist Ed Jones,
So we got the Damon Brown Quartet instead and what was specially good about that, was Mercury Award nominated pianist Zoë Rahman, a pupil of JoAnne Brackeen, with a similar quirky and intriguing style.
Brown’s mastery if the trumpet was complete. His tone, golden and mellow in the middle range, soared up effortlessly to bite out high notes of drama, for example with Stella by starlight, a précis of the melody explored at speed.
This was Rahman’s first gig with the quartet, but she soon came into her own. On the middle-eastern sounding Harold’s Souk her solo advanced into  mystical regions, furthered by vocals from Brown and Brian Abrahams, the group’s easy-swinging drummer.
On his Busted back blues the leader summoned up visions of a sleepless night with bluesy variations, with Rahman in organ mode striking spiky chords at a tangent, which raised the temperature mightily.
Killer Shrimp remain on my ‘to hear’ list, but this set lifted by the sonorous bass of Jeremy Brown was splendid in its own right.     
      

                      
Tony Kofi Trio plus One, 23 May 2006, Cheltenham Town Hall

If there’s one bandleader promoters need be wary of it’s AMOS – shorthand for the type of guy who plays ‘All My Own Stuff’.

Everything can sound the same, and even way-out listeners eventually retreat with pitiful requests for some … any … well-known jazz classic.

But when Tony Kofi featured compositions from his new CD Future Past, the only cries were for …’More!’  It clearly deserves No.1 sales.

The evening rotated around a swinging but subtle Swede, Hammond organist Anders Olinder. It was fuelled by the stupendously musical drumming of Winston Clifford, and featured a last-minute, substitute trumpet player - Fulvio Sigurta.  

No problem. The young Italian maestro shone, absorbed the complexities, and produced solos that contrasted excitingly with the tumult of ideas flying from his leader’s sax.

Hammond sessions are usually high on stomping good tunes: low on little grey cells.
Kofi-music met both criteria and provided acres of space for interesting development.

Eternal Thinker was a musical attempt to solve the mind-body problem with the leader philosophising mightily on alto and baritone. Blue Pavel painted a portrait of a hugely alive jazz fan with Sigurtu finding lyricism amidst hurry, and Brotherhood delivered that concept with rocking love.  

OK AMOS, maybe you’ve been wronged.

 Luke Annesley/Alex Steele Trio , Fri 24 March 2006,The County Bar, Everyman

Cool, like most of the coolest cool-talk derives from jazz, and originally evoked 1950’s pictures of James Dean look-a-likes, playing semi-detached solos on Californian beaches.

So what was to be made of modern cool-merchant Luke Annesley? The answer from the London based alto-saxophonist was quite a lot.

With Annesley, as with Stan Getz his great inspiration, cool didn’t mean emasculated.

A natural improviser, he soon left the main themes of It could happen to you  and  I Surrender Dear, to embark on seemingly unlimited waves of excitingly related improvisation.

He fused well with his accompanists. Bassist Thad Kelly dug deeply into the profundities of You don’t know what loves is, and likewise pianist Alex Steele on How deep is the ocean? In contrast Annesley, on the night, didn’t come across as great balladeer.

He revelled however, in dropping a driving vamp into The sound of music, whilst a delayed action Slow boat to China - a natural vehicle for Steele - was a delight.

And to go out on jazz slang, the word hip hasn’t been so kindly treated by time. But it applied very much to the cool supercharged drumming of Simon Radford – especially as he was playing with an only partially mended broken hip,

Derek Briggs     

Tim Whitehead/Giovanni Mirabassi Quartet, Pillar Room, Cheltenham Town Hall 26 2 06

As international headlines were centring on the Tessa Jowl - Silivio Belisconi story, Cheltenham enjoyed undoubtedly positive Anglo-Italian co-operation, with the Tim Whitehead/Giovanni Mirabassi Quartet

The band are launching their new CD Lucky Boys – a title which Whitehead chose with a degree of irony, after being dive-bombed by a pigeon during the cover photo-shoot. 

It was interesting to hear Mirabbassi, an acclaimed star on the Continent who has worked with such luminaries as Chet Baker. Slumped over the piano, head down like a miser counting his money, he proved very generous with musical notes.

His superb and flowing technique, however, found its best outlet in quieter numbers. Barcarole revealed a classical leaning well-integrated into jazz. And best of all was a hypnotic lullaby he wrote one week ago for a newborn child, which grew engagingly in complexity with his and saxist Whitehead’s solos.

Imagine as a sax-piano duet was not a shrewd move, but Whitehead made a fair stab at that most beautiful of standards: You don’t know what love is, and his own funky compositions proved as entertaining as his sprightly announcements.           

In the rhythm department bassist Oili Hayhurst and drummer Mil Fell did all that was asked of them, adding solid cement to Anglo-Italian relations. 

 Julian Nichols/Alex Steele Trio, Everyman Theatre Bar, Friday 17 2 06

Saxophonist Julian Nicholas proved to be a very choice player indeed.

Sporting a brace of saxes he came across at his best - in this non-amplified setting - on alto. The piercing tone accentuated the merits of a laidback style that floated admirably towards the harmonic nuclei of a tune, only to pounce and shape variations that hit the emotions hard.

The opening My Shining hour was one such, whilst The Mountain – a funkster disguised with a deliciously delayed beat – displayed the vitals of  minimalist = maximum saxism.

All Blues, Miles Davis’ attractive theme, was opened out of its normal hypnotic progress by an original take by ever-thrusting pianist Alex Steele, whilst I love you released all the quiet subtlety of bassist Thad Kelly.

This though was an Alex Steele Trio with a difference. Drummer Simon Radford is temporarily in physio, and local lad Tim Ponting deputised.

From the start it was clear that Tim has that rare and indefinable rhythmic ‘it’ that separates real jazz drummers from the rest, and experience will add variety and balanced dynamics.

With Nicholas on tenor-sax, the quartet went out ultra-plaintively on the ballad if I should lose you, leaving fond hopes for a quick revisit.

Stan Tracey Quartet, Pillar Room, Chelt Town Hall, 24 Jan 06

The Godfather of Brit-mod jazz drew a capacity audience, leading an all-star quartet featuring trumpeter, Guy Barker.

For 45 years, since he was the house pianist at Ronnie Scott’s, Stan has been the jazzman of note and at 79 he still had surprises in store.

His heroes are Duke Ellington, and especially Thelonious Monk -  another genius, for long dismissed as an eccentric modernist. But here was Tracey on the edge of 80, largely reverting to the influences of Duke’s swing era, albeit through a post-modern perspective.

Fingers more associated with dense probing discords took free-flight on Bright Mississippi, a jumpy vamp of a back-country blues. Whilst Drop me off at Harlem recreated the Ellington spirit.

My Way done in tongue-in-cheek, El Cubano Club style featured Tracey’s other great gift to jazz - his drummer son Clark, and trumpeter Barker emoted mightily.   

His solo on In a sentimental mood was a thing of beauty and amazing technique, whilst the leader dazzled with an impressionistic Cheltenham at Midnight, composed on the spot. Throughout, bassist Andy Cleyndert repaid lengthy solo space with fine tone and ideas.

And finally, the encore was a Monk tune, but Tracey remained resolutely non-Monkish.

Alan Barnes/Alex Steele Trio, Subtone,  2 Dec 05

Same music.  Different venue.  New buzz reaction.

That’s the headline, for this benefit gig for promoters Cheltenham Jazz at the Subtone niteclub.  But it could have gone awry.
 
The Subtone has ‘done’ jazz before. But only the mega line-ups have pulled, with most non-jazzers remaining convinced jazz was sad.

This time it worked, with saxophonist Alan Barnes playing to a crowded room. Worked, because he’s a very fine player and a comedian to boot - and because sad old jazz, isn’t sad at all.

All human life is there, changing as we change.  Changing to reflect the player’s emotions and the reactions of the audience

Typically, Barnes announced the ballad You go to my head  as, “an audience participation number - it helps if you listen!” 95% did, and were sumptuously rewarded, with a rendition that raked the emotions.

 And if nite-spots generate their own buzz, there was no denying that the classic Dat Dere, with pianist Alex Steele at full blusy throttle, increased the voltage.

Likewise, I Remember Clifford with Barnes mesmerising on baritone-sax over Simon Radford’s sea of simmering cymbals. Or Nostalgia for Times Square, which Barnes warned could severely affect sexual function, due to Clive Morton’s amazing bass parts.

A phenomenal co-operation. Here’s to the next time

 Ingrid Laubrock Quintet, Pillar Room, Cheltenham Town Hall, Tuesday 22 Oct 05

Contemporary classical music and jazz have always been on waving terms, but currently some groups give the impression a marriage