EFG London Jazz Festival: Alina Bzhezhinska Quartet at Pizza Express Soho

Always in fine form, London-based harpist Alina Bzhezhinska brought her quartet (Tony Kofi, alto and soprano sax, Mikele Montolli on electric & double bass, and drummer/percussionist Joel Prime)to Pizza Express Soho for an in-depth exploration of her spiritual jazz inspirations, spanning works by Pharaoh Sanders, McCoy Tyner, and both Tranes alongside several original compositions. Opening with a pair of Alice Coltrane covers ('Wisdom Eye/Blue Nile'), the venue’s low-ceiling resonance instantly brought her sculptural 47-stringed instrument to life, with thudding low tones giving way to a vivid array of high-register rolls and flutters.

Wasting no time, the band stayed in Alice’s orbit for the next two tracks: first, a rework of Joe Henderson’s Fire, constructed around Mikele Montolli’s architectural electric bass motifs, and then Pharaoh Sanders’s Astral Travelling, seasoned with Tony Kofi’s leisurely sax spirals and the sparkle of an mbira thumb-piano. The room’s focus further intensified for 'Altera Vita', a duet composed by Kofi in honour of Pharaoh, with his patient horn lines also hinting at Lester Young’s breathy textures as well as slow-tempo Trane tracks such as 'Naima' and 'Alabama' - amidst slow-shifting harmonic contrast embedded by the harp’s lengthy sustain. Bzhezhinska’s accompaniment, spiced with subtle pedal effects, remained as sublime as her lead playing throughout, encompassing palm-mutes, string-slides, intricate overtonal techniques, and percussive loops tapped out on the instrument’s body.

Slowing the tempo, their take on Trane’s 'After the Rain' (prefaced with “see, I can still play softly...”) set speech-like sax-harp incantations into a thick mist of cymbals - and the tempo-jumping 'Los Caballos' (‘The Horses’) saw Joel Prime’s clattering stickwork come alive across diverse grooves. The band closed with the much-sampled Alice classic 'Journey in Satchidananda', undulating between elemental order and chaos while summoning late-night colours that belied the early afternoon setting.

Jazz harp remains in an odd spot: wildly popular amongst disparate listening groups, but still seldom-performed in its full glory on the live circuit (...presumably, this is down to the instrument’s expensive nature and unwieldy practicalities: standing over 6ft and weighing around 40kg: although Bzhezhinska told me after the show that “this year, we have the highest representation of the harp in live jazz: it’s infectious...”).

Thus, occasions such as this are to be cherished - and I eagerly await the quartet’s upcoming album, dedicated to Pharaoh and scheduled for an early 2024 release.