Cork Jazz Festival in full swing at the Everyman

by Alan O'Riordan

Bansangu Orchestra/TS Monk Sextet, Everyman

Jazz weekend at the Everyman really got into its stride on Saturday afternoon with Paul Booth and the Bansangu Orchestra.

This is a big band showcasing the depth of UK talent, ably complemented by local lights Paul Dunlea on trombone, and Eoghan Walsh on bass.

Bansangu don’t just swing, they find a range of textures and combinations within the big band set up.

Booth leads the group through a musical landscape stretching from Brazil to Africa and the Middle East. Ireland was in the mix too, in the shape of an appearance by uilleann piper Flaithrí Neff.

TS Monk, by name alone, embodies jazz tradition. But he’s happy to speak that tradition too, hosting the concert via a serious of personal anecdotes that themselves are a who’s who of jazz —Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Max Roach, and, of course, his beloved father, Thelonius.

Musically, TS is very much the dutiful son, drawing on his father’s canon throughout. To begin, however, it’s a sweet, spot-on version of Wayne Shorter’s Jazz Messengers tune ‘One by One’. TS’s own tune ‘Sierra’ is a standout too.

If Monk oozes tradition, the same can be said for his brilliant band, featuring bassist Chris Berger, tenor saxophonist Willie Williams, alto player Patience Higgins, and trumpeter Randall Haywood.

We finish, inevitably, with ‘Round Midnight’. It’s Monk Snr’s centenary year, TS reminds us, and the song is now the most-recorded jazz standard of all. “You were right, dad,” he says.

“They get it.”

We certainly did.

China Moses/Pablo Ziegler Trio

China Moses, too, has it in her DNA — she’s the daughter of Dee Dee Bridgewater. She’s an engaging, self-deprecating, oversharing raconteur — her years as a TV presenter having left their mark. Such is her enthusiasm that, at one point, she leaps from the stage to intervene when she notices an argument in the aisles. The disputing parties are coaxed to hug it out.

Saturday finished with Pablo Ziegler, another willing servant of another great who epitomises a tradition: Astor Piazzolla.

Ziegler, on piano, is joined by guitarist Quique Sinesi, and Walter Castro on the signature instrument of the tango, the bandoneon. Ziegler’s set explores the melodic roots of tango, drawing on the cultural melting pot of South America.

The highlight is his piano leading Piazzolla’s Bach-inflected ‘Fuga y misterio’, a lively yet contemplative take on the original.

Nnenna Freelon/ Donny McCaslin

That great tradition was alive and well earlier on at the Everyman, in the hands of the Nnenna Freelon and her trio.

A confident, engaging performer, Freelon is blessed with a voice of rare richness. For ‘Skylark’, she’s accompanied by solo bass, a jaw-dropping showcase for her gift. Elsewhere, she and her trio invigorate familiar favourites from the American songbook, with the beautiful playing of pianist Miki Hayama a highlight.

There could not have been a great contrast with what followed: a raucous set of complicated noise from Donny McCaslin, focusing on his extraordinary new album Blow, and reminding us what David Bowie saw in this thrilling group.