Branford Marsalis, Empirical and Dave Holland Get Set For Bath Music Festival
Monday, May 18, 2009
The Bath International Music Festival gets underway this Friday, continuing until 6 June and while the main focus is classical music, the festival under pianist Joanna MacGregor’s artistic direction, has built on its strong jazz history which in the 1990s established a reputation for introducing jazz musicians and bands from Italy, France and all over Europe.
This year the 16 days of the festival has jazz and world music highlights mainly over the bank holiday weekend. On the opening day, the son of the late great Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure, Vieux Farka Toure, making a name for himself in his own right, takes the stage at the Pavilion for a free entry concert at one of the mainstay venues of the festival, just over the road from the tranquil pleasures of the city’s cricket ground.
Next day, Saturday 23 May, former European jazz musician of the year pianist Bojan Z performs in an afternoon double bill at the Komedia with the Portico Quartet, the hang percussion-led quartet which was signed to Real World records earlier this year after making a big impact with best selling debut Knee-Deep In The North Sea. The evening concert at the Pavilion features the US alto saxophone star Maceo Parker, who knows how to dance and knows how to get people dancing with his infectious funky horn sound that goes back to his days with James Brown.
On Sunday 24 May Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin, the “zen funk” Swiss group which has built a strong following based on its absorbing minimalist sound appears in a double bill at the Komedia with Tom Cawley’s Curios, the piano trio which made an impact at Dublin’s 12 Points festival earlier in the year. In the evening Dave Holland’s Quintet plus the Dan Stern Quintet headline at the Pavilion. Holland, the expatriate Wolverhampton-born bassist long since resident in the States, is best known for his work with Miles Davis. However, Holland has led a series of formidable groups over the years and his latest album released last year won the Jazzwise album of the year in December for Pass It On. Later in the evening over at the Mission theatre electric guitarist Dave Okumu, who is now making a name for himself with the avant rock group The Invisible, appears with his other group, Crump.
Bank Holiday Monday sees Swedish legend Bobo Stenson at the Assembly Rooms and, bringing the long weekend to a fitting climax, the Branford Marsalis Quartet comes to Bath with Empirical in support at the Forum. For more details and the full line-up go to www.bathmusicfest.org.uk
- Stephen Graham