Music / Jazz
Bristol Jazz Fest: day 2 feat Andy Sheppard
Bristol International Jazz and Blues Festival, Colston Hall, Saturday March 7
If there had been criticisms of the festival programme for lack of breadth there could be no doubting the quality on offer as todays events unfolded. An early hit was the unveiling of new material from Moonlight Saving Time (Foyer), a ‘Bristol born’ band whose multi-layered contemporary sound has gained a clearer identity with time.
The poise of MST’s Emily Wright’s vocals also proved a fine precursor to singer/violinist Alice Zawadski’s category-busting set of Sephardic folk-rock mixed with abstract originals and blessed with Alex Roth’s finely judged guitar. Zawadski’s vocals have a clipped, Icelandic diction and a fluent precision well suited to Middle Eastern styles and the piano duo opening to You As A Man unfolded as a remarkable moment of emotional audacity.
Unsurprisingly the Lantern was filled to bursting for Clarke ‘Lester’ Peters entertaining set of swing and jazz classics, complete with son Max making a guest appearance and a spontaneous duet with Lillian Boutté and culminating in the heart-felt explosion of Louis Jordan’s Five Guys Named Mo for a delighted audience.
What followed, however, was one of those moments of limpid perfection such as all gig goers hope for but are rarely gifted. The quartet assembled by Andy Sheppard for his impending ECM album comprises four extremely individual musicians yet, somehow, he has managed to focus them to his conception of spacious, melodic improvisations.
The results bore out his position as Grand Master of Elegance in contemporary jazz, melodies as simply honed as the best of folk tunes allowed to blossom into rich soundscapes. The infinitely subtle electronics of guitarist Eivind Aarset were crucial, as was the wayward percussion of Michele Rabbia (kitchen foil included), but ultimately it was Sheppard’s compositions that shaped this music with their combination of efficient minimalism and maximum emotional impact.
It was a hard act to follow, and Carleen Anderson was challenged from the outset, with an under-rehearsed band that couldn’t deliver the funk punch her material demanded while staring fixedly at the charts. The singer herself seemed under the weather, gulping throat lozenges and tea to fend off what sounded like imminent collapse of her vocal chords. Challenging stuff for a headliner with a devoted fan base, but by the end she had the audience on-side and her self-accompanied solo piano rendition of Don’t Look Back In Anger held them spellbound.
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