Jazzed up with a mix of rock, rap and fusion

The 34th Cork Guinness festival has expanded from its core musical base, says Kieran Bohane

THESE days, jazz is a broad church. A quick glance at the performers in the annual Guinness Jazz Festival — now in its 34th year — emphasises that jazz festivals are not the niche event they once were.

Nowadays the festival in Cork is about getting bums on seats, and in fulfilling that role it showcases an eclectic mix, from jazz to rock and rap to fusion. And in Cork there are usually a few oddities: Stanley Jordan at the Triskel on Saturday night being one of the oddest.

Another oddity was the closure of the Everyman Theatre to jazz audiences as it stayed silent on Friday night, leaving the Triskel to show off its new and wonderful venue at Christchurch, where, with a mix of standards and pop songs, the all-Irish quartet led by Belfast trumpeter and broadcaster Linley Hamilton kicked off proceedings with a fine set.

Hamilton, along with pianist Johnny Taylor, drummer Dominic Mullan and bassist Dan Bodwell, drew from Rodgers and Hart’s This Can’t Be Love to Carole King’s Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? culminating in a well-worked rendition of Kenny Garret’s foot-tapper Happy People. After one hour and 15 minutes, those bums began to numb on the hard pews that pass as seats at Christchurch, and it came as a welcome relief to many when US alto player Bobby Watson banished the blues with his blistering and pacey take on Coltrane’s Cousin Mary. After delivering a masterclass on the technique of circular breathing, Watson followed up with a song dedicated to his sister Karita, which segued effortlessly into the mid-1960s Tony Hatch pop song Downtown, made famous by Petula Clark.

While there’s no doubting the Kansan’s virtuosity and his passion, there was a ‘festival band’ feeling to the set. It turned out to be the Bruce Barth show where the pianist delivered a performance chock-a-block with even more scintillating twists, turns and time changes than a Seán Gallagher presidential campaign. Best on the night must have been the wonderfully upbeat Time Will Tell and long-time Watson theme tune ETA.

Part of the problem during the festival is the inability to be in two places at one time, so opting for the unusual combination of headline act Trygve Seim and Frode Halti at the Triskel meant passing up on the chance to hear Empirical doing their wonderful thing at the Crane Lane. Although accounts of the young British band’s performance were favourable, the quality of music, with heavy doses of improvisation at Christchurch, was a joy. In a totally acoustic session — even the lights were turned off — Seim on saxophones and Halti on accordion delivered a truly amazing set, two pieces comprised of a number of tunes, the first from their ECM recording Yeraz, and the second based on an Armenian folk tune.

The music was both challenging and absorbing and at times barely audible as Seim’s saxophone emitted only air notes. Only for the single-note drone of Halti’s accordion, one could have heard the church mice’s applause. It was music that, if you just let it wash over you, seemed to cleanse the spirit and bestow on its listeners a sense of wonder and well-being — they even got a standing ovation after the first number.

I suspect there were few ovations later on that night at the Triskel where, after the rather unusually flat performance by singer Ian Shaw — despite the best efforts of pianist Phil Ware and drummer Gene Calderazzo — American guitarist Stanley Jordan played a strange set which was neither fish nor fowl. While showing off his incredible piano technique on an electric guitar, he was playing so fast that notes were muddled. The performance had a certain circus-act oddity about it, and you’d have to wonder at the wisdom of putting him on the billing. No doubt guitar heads loved it, and many, it seemed, worshipped at his altar, but, despite the technique and one-handed playing, the music left me cold.

Leaving Stanley to his own devices, I made a sharp exit and headed up to MacCurtain Street in a bid to catch the tail end of Randy Brecker with Bill Evan’s Soulgrass at the Everyman, only to be met by the rocking thud thud of Josh Dion’s drums before catching Bill Evans doing an improv session (“to pee off the bluegrass guys and pee off the jazz guys”) with Ryan Cavanaugh’s banjo. I wondered: why bother?

Sunday started off fine, little rain and no cold, but it took a sharp dip when Soweto Kinch at the Bodega lost out to a family commitment. Kinch’s The New Emancipation CD, released late last year, has made a big impression and the Bodega’s billing was an inspired choice, although for a number of fans his late arrival coupled with the constant yap-yapping of some patrons left a sour taste.

Later that evening — again at Triskel Christchurch — was the incredibly talented Norwegian Marius Neset. It was tempting to opt for the Everyman, where the French accordionist, along with multi-reedsman John Surman and trumpet Dave Douglas, were — our spies tell us — boringly brilliant as they remained surprisingly faithful to the music of Italian film composer, Nino Rota. But thankfully, Neset won the day.

Although the line-up with the 25-year-old saxophonist was different for his marvellous recent CD, Golden Xplosion, Neset, along with drummer Martin France, bassist Phil Donkin and pianist Magnus Hjorth, delivered a performance worthy of going down as one of the best at Cork in recent history.

Neset hit the ground running and displayed awesome technical ability; coupled with wonderful composition skills. This guy looks set to create quite a stir. He’s still got a long way to go, but one senses there’s something special about to be launched on the world of jazz. It would be even better if he could form a steady band, but such is the life of a modern-day jazz artist having to play with ten or 20 different outfits to earn a crust. Although on Sunday night at Triskel Christchurch it didn’t seem to matter, such was the quality.

Picture: Stanley Jordan’s guitar playing was virtuoso. Photo: Patrick Hogan, Provision