Jazz breaking news: Gwyneth Herbert, Dave O'Higgins and Amy Roberts get Wiltshire Jazz Festival swinging

Opening the festival were the Southampton Youth Jazz Orchestra, led by Dan Mar-Molinero, with a vibrant set that took in standards, samba, salsa and Bacharach. Hot vocalist Alexander Stewart joined the promising young musicians for their last three tunes, ending with a storming swing take of Blondie’s ‘Call Me’. Adam Waldmann took to the stage as the sun threatened to show its face, with his award-winning group Kairos 4tet (pictured below), performing songs from their latest album, Everything We Hold, released only a week previously. Dedicated in part to the Occupy movements around the world, his restless, multi-part ’99 Suite’ featured delicate interplay between pianist Ivo Neame and Adam on tenor saxophone, backed by the subtly driving bass and drums of Jasper Høiby and Jon Scott. They ended their marquee set with a piece from his previous album Statement of Intent, showcasing Waldmann’s considerable talent on soprano saxophone.

With two sets in the intimate barn venue, the guitar duo of Charles Alexander and Andy Robinson performed elegant set pieces which in places evoked Django Reinhardt and Wes Montgomery, while the intriguing, jazz-circus like Gabby Young and Other Animals managed to get the audience to their feet with their Balkan-influenced swing. Over in the marquee, singer and bassist Nicola Farnon quickly established a strong rapport with her audience and played through a variety of popular standards, including a pulsating cha-cha rendition of ‘The More I See You’ as well as a soft samba of her own composition, ‘Don’t Know Why’. Other highlights of the festival included Amy Roberts (pictured below), whose quintet bridges the romping traditional style of New Orleans with swinging bebop, driven along by Jim Swinerton on rockabilly bass. The dual horns lineup, featuring John Hallam on saxophones and clarinet, made for interesting dialogue between the two musicians, although the standout performance of her set was a strong flute-led rendition of ‘Black Orpheus’. Over in the barn, Misbehavin’ had the small venue enthralled with a sound that at times veered between chanson, standards and slightly darker, baroque edges of voice and bass clarinet, which they would do well to explore further.

The real highlight of the festival, however, was the Two Minds Big Band, a joint project between Dave O’Higgins (pictured below) and Peter Wraight, both highly regarded musicians, composers and arrangers, who each took inspiration from the same five song titles and came up with impressively varied material. O’Higgins’ arrangements were fixed clearly in the jazz idiom, whilst Wraight’s material was much more orchestrated, often with sudden tempo changes and a certain cinematic quality. The all-star lineup featured standout performances from Mark Nightingale (trombone), Graham Harvey (piano) and Matt Skelton on drums, among others. The band closed their set, with a rollicking blues, ‘The Road to Rack & Ruin’, written and arranged by O’Higgins especially for the festival. The effortless style and ease of guitarist Martin Taylor and woodwinds player Alan Barnes provided a sophisticated contrast to the larger group, and the intimate duet setting showcased the deep level of musical understanding between these acclaimed musicians. Opening their set with a delightful ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’, the virtuosic duo continued with material from their album, ‘Two From The Road’.

Gwyneth Herbert closed out the festival with her eclectic mix of jazz, acoustic pop and folk, playing straight through her most recent album, The Sea Cabinet, with narration to explain her song-cycle concept . Her accomplished band, equally at home playing jazz as they are folk, brought four girls from local schools onstage to sing with them for the final couple of tunes. Taking its inspiration from the battered Aldeburgh coastline, the resulting material was very evocative in the night air, with animated audience participation on ‘Drip Drip’. A fitting end to a day of diverse and engaging performances.

– John Merritt (story and photos)