Sandy Brown Jazz

[Some computers might ask you to allow the music to play on this page]

The EFG London Jazz Festival is one of the best jazz festivals in the world and one of the most exciting music events in the UK. London is blessed with a vibrant jazz scene that continues year round in clubs such as Ronnie Scott’s, but also in many restaurants, pubs, halls and basements that serve as venues for jazz, often run by volunteers, and that provide opportunities for jazz musicians, young and old, to perform for live audiences.  In addition London has several universities and conservatoires that provide top quality music education and training ensuring a steady stream of new talent and in many cases providing employment for established musicians. Apart from the usual venues there are also world class concert halls that are employed during the festival to showcase some of the world’s best jazz musicians. Another important element is the cosmopolitan nature of London which ensures audiences for musicians from around the world.

In 2020 the festival was severely threatened, like so many other live events, by a surge in Covid infections and another lockdown, but even in such daunting circumstances the festival organiser, Serious, was still able to produce great concerts which were broadcast online to the world.  In recognition of this achievement Serious was awarded the 2021 Jazz FM Innovation Award. 

However for many bands and most audiences the 2021 festival was the first time in 18 months that live jazz has been possible.  The joy for artists performing live again was unmistakable and audiences demonstrated that by their obvious delight with enthusiastic applause.

Girls Play Jazz

The festival is huge with 341 events listed on the website over the ten days ranging from top flight concerts with Charles Lloyd at the Barbican supported by Nerija to local jazz clubs, participation events such as Jazz Yoga and educational opportunities like Girls Play Jazz.  The production company, Serious, that organises the festival does not have sufficient in-house resources to keep tabs on everything that is going on so they use volunteers who are asked to visit the gigs and events and report back. Anyone can apply to volunteer and they are asked to report on items such as audience size and reaction, venue facilities, how the event was staged and if possible talk to the artists and venue staff to get feedback that is used to improve future festivals.  In return volunteers receive guest tickets and expenses and it is an activity which I have very much enjoyed doing for the last 9 years.

However, one gig that I really wanted to see - and so I bought a ticket for - was the Linley Hamilton Quintet's Jimi Hendrix Meets Miles Davis at Pizza Express (Holborn).  It is reported that Miles Davis did meet Jimi Hendrix and they would have performed together but for Hendrix’s untimely death.  This experimental gig was designed to give a taste of what might have been from an international band assembled by Linley Hamilton with himself on trumpet, Marc Guillermont on guitar, Cian Boylan on piano/keyboard, Rami Lakkis on bass and Bence Bolygo on drums.  They played three tunes by Davis and three by Hendrix and it was almost impossible to believe that the band members had met and rehearsed for the first time only the day before, such was the quality of the performance. 

Talking to Linley Hamilton, he described how the project had been a subject of great interest which he had developed at the University of Ulster where he is a lecturer.  During the performance, Hamilton’s narrative was both informative and entertaining while the musicians embraced his arrangements with gusto. Hamilton paid tribute to the amazing skill of the musicians with Marc Guillermont, famed for his jazz fusion performances, a real star, although Hamilton himself is a great trumpeter and the audience clearly loved it.  

My next gig was violinist and vocalist Johanna Burnheart playing tunes from her album Burnheart at the Spice of Life pub in Soho.  Her band featured another rising star, Jonny Mansfield, on vibraphone together with Jonny Wickham on double bass and Ben Brown on drums. The description of her album mentions that “Johanna’s work exists at the point where modal jazz and techno meet. This is an ever developing venture as technology allows the acoustic sound of the violin to come alive electronically without compromises”.  The electronics were definitely in evidence at the Spice of Life but rather than dominate the instrument as sometimes seems to happen, Burnheart used them to add variety to her music in a very positive way, much as the album notes had promised, and she provided a gig full of interest.

Johanna playing Silence Is Golden at last year's festival.

The following night at the Barbican was a remarkable tribute to the Lebanese singer, composer and master of the oud, Marcel Khalifé and to Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, by Marcel’s son Bachar Mar-Khalifé and his band. The show was ready to tour the world in early 2020 but then of course Covid happened, so this performance was the first in 18 months. 

Marcel Khalifé
photograph by Francois Roussau

Both Khalifé senior and junior are exceptional in their fields. Marcel has long white hair and beard and must be loved as much by his adoring fans as is the seasonal present deliverer. His beautiful voice and oud playing clearly enthralled many in the audience who sang along with some of his well known songs. Bachar Mar-Khalifé is a pianist and organist and his international sextet has accordion, cello, guitar, double bass and drums. All the musicians were excellent and have clearly picked up where they left off although as Bachar mentioned, rehearsal in the time of Covid has not been easy. The music was in turns mournful and joyful with folkloric dances brought right up to date, but the audience loved it all.

Here's a brief video in which Bachar Mar-Khalifé appears on stage with his father Marcel Khalifé in a musical tribute to his friend the great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. (In French with the option of changing subtitles to English in video settings).

The next night at the 606 Club in Chelsea was something completely different with a band led by Shane Forbes playing the music of Blossom Dearie. I had also hoped to see Kitty Whitelaw sing Blossom Dearie at The Bull’s Head, Barnes Bridge but this gig was cancelled due to someone in her band contracting Covid.  Shane Forbes is best known for his drumming with the amazing and award-winning band Empirical that sprung out of Tomorrow’s Warriors more than 15 years ago.  For this gig Shane assembled a really excellent band with Ruben Fox on tenor saxophone, Joe Webb on piano, Artie Zaitz on guitar and Tom Farmer on double bass. With no vocalist it was left to Forbes’s arrangements and the musicians’ improvisation to endeavour to capture Dearie’s very intelligent and amusing style and this they did superbly.  Fox’s playing of Dearie’s beautiful melodies was gorgeous and Webb’s piano excellent; Zaitz provided some exquisite guitar while Farmer and Forbes, who know each other so well through Empirical, were faultless.

Laura Jurd and Elliot Galvin

Third Stream music is a style that sits between jazz and classical music, incorporating elements of both with the most famous example being Miles Davis’s Sketches Of Spain which was inspired by Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo’s classical guitar concerto, Concierto de Aranjuez. At the Queen Elizabeth Hall the London Sinfonietta presented premieres of four new, Third Stream commissions by jazz musicians and composers, Shabaka Hutchings, Cassie Kinoshi, Elliot Galvin and Laura Jurd, and what was really impressive was that unlike Sketches Of Spain these four pieces were composed from scratch. The concert was hugely enjoyable for the audience but also for the composers who, during on-stage interviews, were clearly much affected by hearing their compositions played in public for the first time. Click here for some images from the night and a snatch of Shabaka Hutchings' Hordes of Undemocratic Savages. The whole concert should become available on YouTube at some point. 

Serious runs an annual development programme called 'Take Five' for emerging jazz and improvising musicians/composers and the London Jazz Festival provides an opportunity for some of them to strut their stuff.  Two bands I saw perform in the Purcell Room on the Southbank were the John Pope Quintet and J Frisco.  John Pope seems to be on a mission to make double bass solos really interesting and without question he succeeded. J Frisco uses a sophisticated array of electronics to create weird and wonderful soundscapes which might not be to everyone's taste but which do have a real fascination.

Here is a video of J Frisco at the 2020 Festival.

Another totally different style of jazz was performed by Hedvig Mollestad at Cafe Oto.  Mollestad plays guitar and has Ellen Brekken on electric and double bass and Ivar Loe Bjørnstad on drums.  The band's music borrows extensively from the style of heavy metal bands of the 1970s and many in the audience probably remember the music from the first time around. Mollestad’s music is loud but very entertaining and album titles such as Ding Dong You’re Dead and Smells Funny suggest her light hearted approach.  The drummer was dressed in Arsenal football kit, let’s hope he didn’t meet supporters of other London teams!

A brief taste of the Hedvig Mollestadt Trio.

The following night at the prestigious Wigmore Hall we witnessed a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Argentinian composer Astor Piazzola whose contribution to Argentine tango is legendary. The Wigmore Hall is a beautiful concert hall well known for classical music performed by small ensembles and because of its wonderful acoustics, the use of amplification is unnecessary. Piazzola spent his childhood in New York where he was inspired by both classical and jazz musicians and in particular the tango maestro Carlos Gardel. 

Astor Piazzola

He learned to play the bandoneon which has become synonymous with tango and for this concert the instrument was played by Claudio Constantini - other members of the band were pianist Federico Lechner, double bassist Antonio Miguel and Astor Piazzola’s grandson, Daniel “Pippi” Piazzolla who played drums. Both Lechner and Piazzolla (junior) are accomplished jazz musicians and their solo improvisations were excellent. Tango music played on the bandoneon evokes a unique combination of romance and drama, continual changes of tempo and rhythm make the music always interesting and as Piazzolla said, makes drumming very difficult. A wonderful musical occasion.

To finish the festival my last gig took place at a primary school in the pleasant London suburb of North Finchley.  It just so happens that one of the parents who has children at this school is the outstanding jazz pianist Zoe Rahman. About a year ago the school took part in a competition run by Yamaha to win Jamie Cullum’s piano and with a little help from Zoe they won.  Just before last Christmas Jamie arrived at the school to present them with the piano and this gig celebrated their good fortune.  Zoe played the piano with her normal band of Alec Dankworth on double bass and Gene Calderazzo on drums. Only a few weeks earlier the same band were playing at Ronnie Scott's and here they were playing in the school hall with the PTA selling home-made cakes. Zoe is a virtuoso pianist with a huge smile, she makes it all look so easy and to see her perform in front of her own and other children with parents, friends and relatives on hand was a joy.  Several of her tunes paid homage to her relatives and to the school such as Conversations With Nellie, Sweet Jasmine and Peace Garden, but she ended her gig and my London Jazz Festival adventure appropriately with a tune called Last Note.

A video of Zoe's Trio playing Last Note at Jazzahead!

Visit us on Facebook

Other pages you might find of interest :

© Sandy Brown Jazz 2021

Click HERE to join our mailing list