Cheltenham Jazz Festival Saturday

Saturday at the festival started with a little photoshoot for Jazz library of presenter Alyn Shipton in conversation with the lovely Henry Grimes.  Henry is a very gently spoken man and has a fascinating story to tell which Alyn explores in the interview which will be broadcast later in the month.

The first concert of the day was at the Pillar room and featured The Golden Age of Steam.  With two Edition Artists on stage (Kit Downes, organ and Tim Giles, Drums)  with the terrific James Allsopp on saxes this is a great new band with a very distinctive and abrasive sound.

Unfortunately due to a power cut at the Everyman Theatre the John Surman/Nikki Yeoh show was cancelled so the next show at the Pillar Room features Henry Grimes, fresh from his Jazz Library interview, playing in his group, the Profound Sound Trio, alongside Paul Dunmall on saxes and Andrew Cyrille on drums. This is a very good improv trio with three of the best known players in the field - a real tour de force and not for the faint of heart!

Back to Jazz library and this time Alyn was interviewing Dave Liebman, who was due to be playing with the BBC Big Band at the Everyman afterwards, unfortunately due to the ongoing electrical fault at a sub station in the street, this show was also very sadly cancelled.

Dave and Phil Robson and some of the band make the most of the sunshine outside the Everyman waiting for news.

So after the sad news of the cancellation of the Big Band concert there was still a brilliant show to see at the Pillar room. Robert Mitchells 3iO featuring Richard Spavin on drums and Tom Mason on bass were stunning. It was a packed audience and Robert and the band won masses of fans with a masterclass in piano trio writing and playing.

With great sighs of reliefs from Tony, Ian and Amy at the festival office power was finally restored to the theatre in time for Madeline Peyroux to take the stage and deliver a sublime set with a totally fantastic band.  Great show!

The evening was rounded off with a few drinks at the Hotel du Vin where the jazz party atmosphere carried on into the small hours - very nice to see Tony Levin stepping in on drums in the house band too!

London Jazz Festival Sunday 23rd

So last day of the festival, and back at the South Bank for a whole series of free concerts and some rather special headline events too.

First off at the Clore Ballroom was a 'BBC Introducing' show featuring some new and not so new bands on the scene. The Mighty Jeddo, featuring Daniel Crosby and chums started proceedings with a set that could have easily marked the beginning of judgement day. Daniel drumming like he only had 10 minutes left on this earth and he was going to use that time to to hit his drums as often and as hard as he could. Ably assisted in his task Shabaka Hutchings on sax and the excellent Peter Edwards on keys this band were taking no prisoners - they even had a go at good old Tizer - whatever next!






...well whatever next was Chris Sharleys new project Trio VD (I'm reliably informed that stands for Valentines Day)...

Playing quirky angular music with lots of spikey bits and plenty of energy, live this trio sound vibrant and happening. Edition have the demo Chris and the band recorded and we are in talks about a possible release when the album has been recorded, we are very excited!

The sets ate the Ballroom continued with Robert Mitchell and Pete Warehams Final Terror and very good they were too (as I was told)..

I moved over to the Purcell Room to catch Andy Sheppard preparing for his 'Melody Gainsbourg' show - featuring a star studded cast of Nguyen Le and Angelo Bruschini on guitars, Michel Benita on Bass, Seb Rochford on drums and Ma Chenka on vocals.

The line up were sounding pretty good in rehershal, Le playing some super delicate little runs on guitar and Andy sounding suitably sexy on saxes. Ms Chenka's vocals having been honed o years of Gauloise and (probably) late nights was just perfect!

Next door in the QE Hall Bireli Lagrene and his trio were also adding a little Gallic flair to the surroundings and with the addition of the great guitarist Martin Taylor sounded like the audience here were set for a very good evening of guitar virtuosity.

So for the big show of the night back to the Festival Hall for the much anticipated show of the festival - Chick Corea and John McLaughlin. The set began with a duet between Chick & John, a quite reflective piece, and then the rest of the band joined them on stage for a much more up-tempo vamp with some fine soloing from McLaughlin and Kenny Garrett (when they got his radio mike working!). As usual photographers only got to stay for the first 2 tures and so reluctantly I had to leave. It looked set to be a vintage performance!

To round off the weekend and the festival I went with fellow photographer David Redfern to Ronnies for the Laurence Cottle big band featuring Claire Martin. This was the perfect antedote for a hectic weekend with some really nice playing from Martin Shaw, Mark Nightingale and Nigel Hitchcock. Claire was on excellent form especially for Laurence's arrangement of Soft Cell's 'Tainted Love', which took on a whole new meaning in her version. A great way to end a frenetic week of Jazz in what has been a great London Festival.