Jazz breaking news: Gregory Porter, Troyk-estra and Mike Stern take Cheltenham by storm
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
If last year's bold move to a new, tented village locale had ended in a torrential downpour, then this year’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival will be remembered as the one when the sun shone and it got its mojo back.
The bill had a new confidence about it too, albeit using accessible crowd-pleasing artists such as Dionne Warwick, The Noisettes and Van Morrison to shout out to a wider public that something interesting was happening here. And beneath this brightly coloured surface there was depth and substance aplenty, with the likes of Ravi Coltrane and Gary Burton showing off sophisticated American jazz at its adventurous best. Their bands spoke volumes too of the swathes of quality players around at the moment – pianist David Virelles and trumpeter Ralph Alessi shining alongside the saxophonist, drummer Antonio Sánchez and dazzling young guitarist Julian Lage both outstanding with Burton. Over at the big top former Miles alumni Mike Stern and Bill Evans gave it their all in a reunion quartet of considerable power, rocking it up in the Big Top to a rapturous reception.
The second only performance from Troyk-estra, originally put together for Jazzwise’s 15th anniversary at Ronnie Scott’s last year, with the fearsomely good three-piece joined by the current crop of Royal Academy brass hotshots, was also a genuine highlight. Fully grooved in now it’s almost unnerving to hear such mind melting music played at such high velocity by a big band. Highly detailed and highly charged, the ripples of rhythm and melody emanating from Chris Montague’s guitar were magnified through the swathes of horns to dizzying effect. This is a killer band in need of more gigs. As for Artist In Residence Gregory Porter it was a bit of a mutual love in between the festival, his fans and the man himself. His headline performance was one of adrenalin pumping thrills, in a turbo charged set that didn’t let up for a full hour and a half. Backed by his sublimely simpatico NYC quartet, complete with alto sax tornado Yosuke Sato, he included some new material but it was tumultuous 15-minute ‘1960 What?’ that brought the feverish crowd to an ecstatic high. If that wasn’t enough he stepped up too at Van Morrison’s acclaimed Monday night gig to sing ‘Tupelo Honey’, to close this event on the sweetest of notes.
– Mike Flynn
– Photo by Ruth Butler
Read the full review with exclusive photos in the June issue of Jazzwise