From the Vortex Jazz Club:
Thursday 17
Paul Dunmall Trio
Paul Dumnall (saxophone), Tony Marsh (drums) and John Edwards (bass) are three master musicians who are pillars of the improvised music scene. The deep concentration and commitment of all three players can verge on the scary to witness. Their music can uplift the spirits to the highest. Better not miss it.Golden Age of Steam
Led by reeds player James Allsopp, the band builds on his association with drummer Tim Giles, co-leader of the award-winning quintet Fraud. The line-up is completed by keyboard virtuoso Kit Downes, winner of the BBC Jazz Award for Rising Star 2008. Inspired by the anarchic playfulness of Ligeti’s music, the joyous thunder of Coltrane and Ayler and the twisted lyricism of Captain Beefheart, the music is sometimes labyrinthine, sometimes eerily sparse – incorporating seismic riffs, limping marches and intricately woven textures.Saturday 19
Fringe Magnetic
Trumpeter Rory Simmons Fringe Magnetic plays loose grooves with free vocal improvisation, fusing chamber music and cutting-edge jazz. Featuring some of the most exciting and dynamic young musicians from the London jazz, classical and improvised scene.Sunday 20
Mopomoso – monthly free improvisation night
This month’s Mopomoso concert continues to bring you the very best from the free improvisation end of things with four strikingly individual sets of intimate duo and solo performances.Garside / Powell
A well-established Brighton-based duo of some standing – revered bass player Gus Garside and sound installation artist Dan Powell ‘…have an interest in modern composition as well as improvising and seem to combine both, recalling the rigorous acoustic soundscapes of the avant-garde and a number of sideways leaps into unknown territories’ (Gravitational Pull).Guillaume Viltard
A solo set from the French bass player, Viltard is now based in London, where he has established a firm reputation for his inventive and imaginative music. His group ‘Treehouse’ played Mopomoso last year to wide acclaim and this is his eagerly awaited debut for us as a soloist.Kay Grant / Alex Ward
The New York vocalist Kay Grant is now a UK resident and indispensable part of the London scene. She is joined here by regular partner, clarinet maestro Alex Ward for what promises to be a fine example of the improvisatory art.Luo Chao yun / John Russell
A rare chance to catch this exciting duo. Taiwanese pipa virtuoso meets top British guitar improviser in an East meets West collaboration of frets, fingers, strings and plectra, positively bubbling with musical delights.Friday 25
Loop Double BIll
Dog Soup
Led by trumpeter Robbie Robson, with John Turville and Hans Koller (keyboards), Johnny Brierley (bass) and Tim Giles (drums), the band use a number of electronic effects to create different textures and colours.Samplers and loops create a swirling bed of music over which to improvise, blurring the distinctions between gritty, dark grooves, electronic sounds, loops and samples and free group improvisation.
‘Robson, sampling and remodulating his trumpet tones, let his notes ooze in and out, their edges as hazy as Mark Rothko’s luminescent colour slabs. John Turville’s strangely distorted Rhodes-piano chords recalled Dali’s melted fob-watch. Be warned: Dog Soup before bedtime leaves you with feverishly vivid pictures (Jack Massarik).
Tom-Mix & Veryan Weston
Tom-Mix – Mark Hanslip (tenor saxophone), Olie Brice (double bass), Tony Marsh (drums) – have worked hard on developing a trio sound based on open improvisation, intense group listening and rhythmic flexibility, which makes reference to John Coltrane, Lee Konitz and Sonny Rollins, Bartok, Webern and Xenakis, free improvisation and the raw energy of free jazz.For this Loop Collective residency, they’re delighted to be joined for the first time by piano great Veryan Weston, perhaps best known for his long-standing relationships with both vocalist Phil Minton and saxophonist Trevor Watts.
Saturday 26
The People Band
The legendary sixties free-form pioneers return to the Vortex. On this occasion the band will be bouncing sound and improvising outside in Gillett Square as a prelude to their trade-mark no-boundaries show.Sunday 27
Butcher / Prevost / Viltard
John Butcher is perhaps the most fluent and imaginative saxophonist to have emerged since (and some say beyond) Evan Parker. His musical forays enter into the very metal of the saxophone; discovering sonic possibilities that at first defy then enrich the imagination.Guillaume Viltard is a young French bassist who has settled in London. He is associated with many of the musicians that have developed through the improvisation workshop first convened by Eddie Prévost over ten years ago.
Guillaume steadfastly and heroically abjures using the amplifier, applying instead his great physical strength to project and pummel wood and strings into new musical shapes.
Eddie Prévost has recorded with John Butcher over the past few years in a percussive vein with bowed tam-tam and cymbals. He is, of course, a founder-member of the legendary noise/improvisation group AMM (which began in 1966) to which many improvisation bands owe an aesthetic debt.
On this gig he will be playing drums, where he is equally at home and inventive. Despite their reputations this trio is venturing into new territory.
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