Suggesting that Love Supreme drifts further and further from its \u2018jazz fest\u2019 status is a bit like complaining that cats are fickle, or that policemen keep getting younger.\u00a0 But the auguries weren\u2019t good:\u00a0Brexit, the wettest June on record, the M25 at its customary crawl past a load of aluminium sheds just a mile from the M23 turn off, and then being woken on the first night at 3.45 am precisely by the bloke in the next tent being violently and repeatedly ill.<\/p>\n
Whoever programmes the first acts on the Saturday gets it right more often than not. The first of two London Lianes, Liane Carroll opened in the Big Top, and filled it in both senses with her rich, bluesy tone and immaculate audience technique. Carroll is clearly a wonderful pianist and has a gutsy, dynamic way with originals and standards alike, including the first of the festival\u2019s tributes to headliner, Burt Bacharach, with a warm version of \u2018Say a little prayer\u2019.\u00a0 Carroll was accompanied by her husband, Roger Carey on bass, and Mark Fletcher on drums. If you get the chance to see her at a venue near you, take it;\u00a0 she\u2019s clearly on her way up to national treasure status. The other Liane, La Havas, appeared later on the main stage. La Havas, too, has a wonderful way with an audience, \u00a0albeit less extrovert, and she too, did a wonderful version of \u2018I say a little prayer\u2019. La Havas is a fine songwriter and worked well both with her band, and as a brave and affecting solo performer.<\/p>\n
First up in the Arena were Partikel\u2019s String Theory Quartet.\u00a0 A trio for a number of years, they now appear with a guitarist, whose name I didn\u2019t catch.\u00a0Duncan Eagle\u2019s tenor sax has a lapidary warmth, combining fluency and punch, and the bass of Max Luthert joins Eric Ford\u2019s busy drumming to provide a real strength to their original, and arresting compositions.\u00a0Their guitarist is on the warm, Wes Montgomery side of the contemporary guitar and blends in seamlessly with this very fine band, who\u2019ve often worked with a \u2018real\u2019 string quartet.<\/p>\n
Esperanza Spalding has parked her double bass and gone for the electric and a full-on theatrical presentation of her current album \u2018Emily\u2019s D+Evolution\u2019.\u00a0Her live show now consists of a narrative driven, choreographed performance where she is joined by guitarist Matthew Stevens and drummer Justin Tyson.\u00a0 Spalding is also accompanied by three singers, who also act out on stage and announce each part of the show with large notices, i.e., \u2018Prologue\u2019 \u2018Evolution\u2019, etc.\u00a0When Spalding and Stevens get going there are sparks on stage, and she\u2019s an astonishing bassist, and singer;\u00a0the comparisons to Kate Bush are not far-fetched.<\/p>\n
Spalding was followed in the Big Top on Saturday by Brad Mehldau, Mark Giuliana and John Scofield. They brought Mehldau and Giuliana\u2019s electric project, and were joined by Scofield\u2019s country blues inflected guitar.\u00a0For all drummer Giuliana\u2019s technical flair and brilliance, there\u2019s still plenty of space in their interactions, which hark back a little to the \u2018cosmi-groove\u2019 period of the early seventies; spaced out and slightly noodly. The tact and lyricism that Mehldau brings to his acoustic trio was present here in his playing on electronic keyboard.\u00a0And it all made for a constantly interesting and laid back hour.<\/p>\n
Final performer in the Big Top was St Germain, aka French producer, Ludovico Navarre.\u00a0Navarre reprised the grooves from both his wonderful \u2018Tourist\u2019 and the more recent eponymous \u2018St Germain\u2019 albums. Navarre\u2019s touring band consists of musicians from Gabon, Mali, Brazil and Cote D\u2019Ivoire, playing, amongst more conventional instrumentation, electric ngoni and electric cora; Navarre himself remains quietly at the back of the stage working the electronics.\u00a0Navarre\u2019s characteristic deep house dance music was both movingly and beautifully worked with<\/em> and by<\/em> this great band.\u00a0Not jazz no, but a stand out of the festival.<\/p>\n Manchester was well represented this year with the Beats and Pieces Big Band who started things off in the Big Top on Sunday. Led by the inventive and energetic Ben Cottrell, the band play Cottrell\u2019s original compositions with great verve and dexterity.\u00a0Later, Gogo Penguin brought their own brilliant dexterity to the same stage.\u00a0It is more than refreshing to hear an acoustic piano trio really exploring their instrumentation.\u00a0Their compositional style, which works through patterns, and pushes and explores them, shows the group as a real trio of musicians and not just a piano player with a rhythm session.\u00a0GoGo Penguin are not-so-quietly turning themselves into Europe\u2019s premier trio.<\/p>\n When Kamasi Washington\u2019s The Epic<\/em> appeared last year, he was hailed as a commanding new voice in jazz compostion. The three CD set contained his own tunes, sweeping, warm and grand, written for large choir and orchestra, with quirky reworkings, such as a slowed down jazz version of Debussy\u2019s \u2018Claire du Lune\u2019.\u00a0Washington is touring a slimmed down version of \u2018The Epic\u2019 around Europe;\u00a0 he was at Glastonbury and the Glasgow Jazz Festival this week.\u00a0This touring group comprises many of the same musicians from the recording sessions; \u00a0but substitutes the grandeur of the recording, with a rougher, ballsier, more improvisational take on the same material. Washington\u2019s own style on tenor sax has been compared to none other than John Coltrane.\u00a0And the group\u2019s two drummers drove proceedings hard. Other good things: Femi Temowo and the Engines Orchestra;\u00a0bringing a warm and gentle version of Afro-beat, complete with string quartet.<\/p>\n And finally, Burt Bacharach. To see the great man go through all his hits with a good band and great singers was a simply a privilege. Not only a perfect singalong, but as the sun set in the only cloudless blue sky of the whole weekend, a perfect way to finish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Love Supreme Jazz Festival 2016: Glynde Place, July 1-3. Suggesting that Love Supreme drifts further and further from its \u2018jazz fest\u2019 status is a bit like complaining that cats are fickle, or that policemen keep getting younger.\u00a0 But the auguries weren\u2019t good:\u00a0Brexit, the wettest June on record, the M25 at its customary crawl past a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[15,283],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n