Alexander Hawkins, Robert Mitchell’s True Think and Claude Deppa for Bath Jazz Weekend 2024
Mike Flynn
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
The Bath Jazz Weekend (BJW) returns for its fourth edition from 5 to 7 January 2024 with a packed lined-up of high calibre bands and soloists from the UK and Europe
The annual Bath Jazz Weekend is set to return in early 2024, at the Widcombe Social Club in the city, running across the first weekend of the year from 5 to 7 January. Promoted by Nod Knowles, who runs Bath’s All Of The Above jazz concert series, the programme includes a number of musicians from Europe, reflecting the BJW’s ever-widening reputation in the jazz community.
Beginning on Friday night, as always, with a jazz-suffused film, this year’s offering is the French New Wave classic Ascenseur pour l’Echafaud (Lift to the Scaffold) featuring Mile Davis’ legendary, groundbreaking soundtrack.
Friday’s live music programme kicks off with two British masters of improvisation – a first-time-ever duo between pianist Alexander Hawkins and, happily back after a long lay-off, saxophonist Larry Stabbins. South African trumpeter Claude Deppa rounds off the evening with the quintet Middle Eye, a new band forged between Deppa and the always in-demand saxophonist Clare Hirst.
Saturday’s programme divides into afternoon and evening sessions. The tricolour flies high on Saturday afternoon as the Weekend reaffirms Bath’s long-held love of European artists with the appearance of French baritone saxophonist François Corneloup, known for his associations with, among many others, Louis Sclavis and Henri Texier – here in duo with British pianist Tony Hymas.
Pianist Sophia Domancich is the other high-profile French visitor, in a quartet with master-saxophonist Paul Dunmall, bassist Olie Brice and drummer Miles Levin, each one of them recalling their long-standing musical associations with Miles’ father, the late Tony Levin.
Saturday evening’s session reinforces the internationally-renowned flavour of the programme. Vocalists Julie Tippetts and Maggie Nicols reprise their entrancing duo partnership, a musical meeting repeated many times across Europe over the years, which never fails to range from sounds of garden-fence gossip to sublimely spiritual emotion.
Bandleader Robert Mitchell’s True Think returns to the BJW after last year’s quartet outing, this time with the addition of vocalist Liselotte Ostblum adding to the band’s musical picture of contemporary life.
The evening ends with a rare outing for composer/saxophonist/synth wizard Will Gregory (also known for his Moog Ensemble and as one half of the eclectic electronic duo Goldfrapp) in tandem with irrepressible, ever inventive drummer Tony Orrell in their long-standing collaboration The Gas Giants, aided and abetted in mayhem, wit and mashup by bassist Ross Hughes.
On Sunday the three-gig programme begins with the quartet EscherSteps, a dive into of rock, jazz and improvisation led by Loose Tubes alumnus, keyboardist, flautist and composer Eddie Parker.
Another Loose Tubes original, Mark Lockheart (saxophone) and Huw Warren (piano), between them 50% of the celebrated quartet Perfect Houseplants, take forward their acclaimed new partnership with the added grounding of bassist Yuri Goloubev.
Rounding off Sunday, four leading young generation artists join saxophonist and composer Mali Sheard in her new band Homestead. Equipped with the fire of discovery and the support and inspiration of organisations such as Tomorrow’s Warriors, Mali and Homestead not only promise to keep the flame of Bath’s Jazz Weekend alive but to propel it brightly and vigorously into 2024 and beyond.
Tickets for all weekend, single days or single sessions are available online from AllOfTheAboveMusic.eventbrite.com or via Bath Box Office – bathboxoffice.org.uk/whats-on/bath-jazz-weekend-2024
For more info and updates visit www.bathjazzweekend.com
