Bristol’s month in jazz – May 2025

As a young drummer Clark Tracey was a regular performer at Bedminster’s legendary jazz pub The Albert and he persuaded his father, the great Stan Tracey, to also make frequent playing visits. His long established quintet Clark Tracey’s Jazz Champions (Beacon, Sun 18) includes saxophonists Art Themen and Simon Allen – both sidemen from Stan’s various bands – as well as award-winning pianist David Newton and Andy Cleyndert on bass – another Albert regular. It’s not just a supergroup, it’s also a well-grounded, hard-bopping musical force. And another couple of superstar duos are coming to town, starting with pianist Huw Warren and bass player Yuri Goloubev (Fringejazz, Bristol Music Centre, Wed 7) and the twin guitars of Fred Frith and Adrian Utley (Beacon, Sun 11). Huw and Yuri are each top performers on the UK scene and beyond and their improvising skills are superb while Fred Frith has been a byword for radical and experimental guitar playing since the late 60s. He’s joined by Adrian Utley whose jazz career was derailed by the 90s success of Portishead but who is now diversifying impressively through a whole range of projects, making this duo a real meeting of open minds.

Bristol-based pianist Rebecca Nash is making ever bigger waves across the UK and European scene and she links up with Matt Anderson – another award-winning composer and saxophonist coming to the Bebop (Thur 22). As with Frith & Utley this will be the first time they have played together, albeit with Matt’s regular bass player Will Harris and Andy Hague drumming, but their shared open style of melodic improvisation should be a great match.

The excellent Cheltenham Jazz Festival is upon us, of course (various venues, May 1-5) and you might be able to catch a last minute ticket or two, but March has come and gone without the annual Bristol Jazz Festival – this year’s programme was shot down by a lack of funding support, sadly. Festival organiser Katya Gorrie is determined to keep it going, nonetheless, and will be organising a number of fundraising events including a minifest dourly entitled One Night Only (Mount Without, Wed 28). The brilliant line-up includes The Good Stuff Gospel Choir, Moscow Drug Club, Brass Junkies, Rebecca Nash & Raph Clarkson and The Jazz Defenders – all performers that have sparkled at previous BJF weekends and all giving their services for free to help keep the event alive for the future. Bristol also benefits greatly from the livewire energy of the University Jazz Funk and Soul Society (aka JFS) and their annual JFStival (Mr Wolf’s, Tue 20) is always a great combination of music and vibe. This year’s line-up includes electronic producer Ruse, the self-explanatory Manor Funk and funky headliners Hungry Hungry Hippos – another supergroup of jazz groovers, including Gary Alesbrook (trumpet) and Alex Hutchings (guitar).

The Hippos also feature the talented Dan Newberry on sax whose busy month starts with the Mockingbird Session (Vittoria, Fri 2) and then followed by two different quartets the first at the Bebop (Thur 8) including Tom Berge (bass) and Henrik Jensen (bass), the second at The Raven (Fri 23) with the Yeti rhythm section of Ashley John Long (bass) and Alex Goodyear (drums).

Andy Hague will be back on the drum stool at the Bebop for the Andy Urquhart Quartet gig (Thur 29). Trumpeter Andy U and pianist Phil Doyle are both regular members of Sound of Blue Note but this quartet covers a wider range of more contemporary music. Andy H resumes his trumpet playing in his Latin jazz Sextet Gringo for two outings: the Bebop Club (Thur 1) and Canteen (Wed 14) while FringeJazz has saxophonist Alex Merritt’s Quartet (Bristol Music Club, Wed 28) with characterful pianist Elliot Galvin. The forceful sax of Sam Crockatt joins Adam Stokes’ guitar trio for a tribute to soulful blues-influenced saxophonist Eddie Harris (St George’s, Wed 21), the last of this successful season’s collaborations curated by Adam at St George’s.

Sam features in John Law’s Re-Creations (Greenbank, Fri 16) with that ever creative pianist transforming all kinds of music through imaginative arrangements and group improvisation. It’s quite a month for piano players, in fact – we’ve already mentioned Elliot Galvin, Huw Warren and Rebecca Nash – and hot new keyboard talent Ross Hicks bringing his trio to the Bebop (Thur 15). Dave Morecroft’s high energy piano fuels funk’n’fusion trio Juxter (Canteen, Thur 8) while, by contrast, Jemima Evans’ piano trio Sounding Seas (El Rincon, Thur 15) has the more measured and evocative pace and sound of Scandinavian contemporary jazz. Film composer and pianist Daan Temmink’s Trio brings their cinematic sound to Karolina’s Jazz Club (Crafty Egg, Fishponds, Fri 9) and club organiser Karolina Griškutė herself appears at El Rincon (Thur 22) singing original songs and standards with guitarist Luca Powell.

St George’s has another vocal/guitar duo – Ant Law and Brigitte Beraha – at their lunchtime slot (Fri 30). Brigitte’s extraordinary versatile  contributions added much to Kevin Figes Wallpaper Music project, while Ant has become recognised as one of the country’s major contemporary jazz guitarists. Another new supergroup has Snazzback guitarist Eli Jitsuto joining Ruth Hammond on organ with Sophie Stockham’s saxes and Matt Brown drumming as The Jem Organ Quartet for a JFS session (Mr Wolf’s, Tue 6) heading into The Meters grooves. Guitarist James Chadwick has a cool trio at Tobacco Factory (Sun 4) and singer/guitarist Jonah Hitchens leads off his horn-heavy jazz-funk band with fusion style both at The Raven’s Dark Carnival (Sun 4) and The Fringe (Fri 9). You can also expect more fusion grooving from the bass-led Ben Hands Band (Mr Wolf’s, Sun 17).

Dr Chonk & The Nature Injection (also featuring Eli Jitsuto, alongside Cousin Kula’s Will Wells) bring their high-sheen ambient discipline to The Raven (Fri 9), but for more directly funky stuff you could check Cantaloup (The Raven, Fri 16), the highly seasoned Manfredi Funk Initiative (Canteen, Sat 17), the double bill of Beatroot and Funky Ducks (Mr Wolf’s, Fri 23) or the Soul Strutters (The Raven, Fri 30).

Prefer that swing thing? The Fleece has Swingamajig (Sun 4) – an all-dayer from 2pm till ‘late’ – with a host of music ranging from Balkan and ska to Electro-swing while vocalist Lucy Moon’s Paper Moon band make a welcome re-appearance at Grain Barge (Tue 13) with their classic swing and Latin sound and Jack Calloway’s old-school clarinet sound will be at the Robin Hood (Thur 1). US duo Nathan & Jessie offer acoustic swinging jazzy folk (Canteen, Thur 22), L’Etoile Studio hosts MJS making acid jazz live ((Thur 1) and John Paul Gard’s blistering Hammond organ returns to the Old Fish Market at the helm of Manuals of Fire (Sun 4).

There isn’t really a genre label for some of the complex, high production artfulness that jazz musicians are complicit with but Bristol has a fair bit of whatever that is and it’s on offer this month. Starting with the energetic acapella (and drums) Tryani Collective, appearing at Jam Jar (Thur 1) with Collective member Stevie Toddler also performing her highly individual songs then it’s big name Alabaster DePlume’s clever artlessness at Trinity (Tue 6) with support from neo-classical loop singer Lucy Gooch. Another intriguing double bill sees the cinematic Sounds of Ursa supported by Afro-Kraut Brackish spin-off Slate Trio (Grounded, Fishponds, Sat 10) while the ethereal singer, harpist and producer Bethany Ley appears at St Dunstan’s House (Fri 30) in support of nu-jazz singer James Storm.

When they picked the name Improv’s Greatest Hits their tongues must surely have been firmly in their cheeks but this month’s session at The Old England (Fri 30) really is a blinder. London’s abstract art rockers The Cowards and equally abstract spoken word duologists Devin Birse & Jessie Buers foreshadow a headline performance from Hiroshima’s Kina:suttsu and E-da Kazuhisa. And the IGH house band has Glaxo Baby (and Pop Group) legend guitarist Dan Catsis guesting … greatest hits, indeed. Meanwhile Fringejazz has indisputable improvising greatest hitter Paul Dunmall (Bristol Music Club, Wed 14) in a top-notch quartet with Liam Noble (piano), John Edwards (bass) and Mark Sanders (drums), all star names in their own right. The SWIG collective’s monthly session (Mon 5, Star & Dove) welcomes avant-cellist Hannah Marshall back to Bristol and two SWIG core members – percussionist Luigi Marino and trombonist Raph Clarkson – perform as a duo at The Fringe (Tue 6).

A gachapon, according to Wikipedia, is a toy in a capsule from a Japanese vending machine (and not a Spanish soup) and Liquid Library are hosting a Free Jazz Gachapon at The Dark Horse (Thur 8) with a dazzling array of improv names who will be picked at random to play together. If you bring an instrument you could throw yourself in (but contact charliebmiles@gmail.com in advance). And happily The Cube has another of the very enjoyable Tongue Fu Laboratory Sessions (Thur 22) pitching performance poetry against spontaneous musical accompaniment from the cracking trio of Riaan Vosloo (bass), Matt Brown (drums) and Clinton Hough (guitar). The Cube also has ambient improvisers Refractions (Sat 3) and the oddly weird melange soiree of SSP9 (Mon 26).

The ‘contemporary classical’ label seems to be an ever-extending envelope on the fringes of jazz and this month sees The Beacon hosting film composer David Julyan performing music from Memento and others (Fri 2), minimal Italian composer Federico Albanese (Tue 6) and the interesting ‘post-classical’ double bill of Tom Rogerson and Submotion Orchestra’s Taz Modi (Thur 15). The always unpredictable (but always excellent) Manchester Collective turn up again at St George’s (Thur 29), this time as a violin duo. Saxophonist Dave Colebourne’s 30 Circles project creates looping woodwind soundscapes live at L’Etoile Studio (Thur 8) and contemporary classical meets improvisation when cellist Elmer Reidy and trumpeter Matt Davis perform separately and together in the Field Concert series in St Annes Church (Sun 18). Electronic experimentalism comes to Elmer’s Arms with the Bristol Laptop Orchestra (Tue 6) and Strange Brew in the shape of The Vernon Spring (Sun 25).

There’s still plenty of jam to be had … The Old England has its Community Jam Session every Tuesday, and the Stag & Hounds usually has a session on Sunday afternoons but there’s no information about them on line this month. The Fringe offers Hot Club Jam (Mon 5), Peanut Butter Jam (Mon 12), Jazz Rapport Jam (Mon 19) and the Seed Sessions (Mon 26). The Canteen has Stone Cold Funk Jam (Tue 6 & Tue 20), Canteen Jazz Session (Wed 7), Slapdash Hip Hop Jam (Tue 13), Beat Cleaver Hip Hop Jam (Mon 19), Canteen Latin Session (Wed 21), Kole Tang Hip Hop Jam (Tue 27). Mr Wolfs has Donut Filler Jam (Wed 14 & 28) and the JFS jam (Tue 13). Jam Jar has its monthly Door Is Ajar session (Sat 31).