Cheltenham, Bath and other UK Festivals 2011

[A Lark Ascending]

Just got a mailing from Cheltenham with some hints.

To be honest, the initial namings don't look very exciting at all. Jamie Cullum is fronting it again (nothing against Mr. Cullum but this does seem to be part of the increasing Budweiseration of the festival).

A super group of Dave Holland/Jason Moran/Eric Harland/Chris Potter - could have potential but runs the risk of being another evening of glossy stars, probably lost in the anonimity of the Town Hall. Andy Shephard with Seb Rochford could be interesting, a Django Bates large group commission, John Taylor with Julian Arguelles.

But the real frightner:

Join Guy Barker and the BBC Concert Orchestra for a special Jazz Royalty edition of Friday Night is Music Night featuring an array of excellent guest singers, live from Cheltenham, celebrating the music of Count Basie, Duke Ellington and more. This truly royal celebration will be the jewel in our crown as we celebrate the momentous occasion of the Royal Wedding with a party at Jazz on the Square.

Yuch!

Let's hope there's more of interest in the lesser known stuff - there have to be some spikey Republican young guns! Though I fear Cheltenham, has gone upmarket in the last few years - probably priced itself to a level it has to get returns via a less original programme.

Edited January 16, 2011 by A Lark Ascending

[BillF]

But the real frightener:

This truly royal celebration will be the jewel in our crown as we celebrate the momentous occasion of the Royal Wedding with a party at Jazz on the Square.

Well, Cheltenham is that sort of place! Certainly won't be any celebrations at the Wigan Jazz Festival, if the 2,000 Manchester City Council sackings and the rapturous reception of Bruce Adams' George Bush jokes at a previous festival are anything to go by! Incidentally, I'm quite hopeful that wedding day will also be strikes and demos day.

Edited January 16, 2011 by BillF

[sidewinder]

To be honest, the initial namings don't look very exciting at all. Jamie Cullum is fronting it again (nothing against Mr. Cullum but this does seem to be part of the increasing Budweiseration of the festival).

Got the flyer too and that was also my reaction to it. Cheltenham seems to have lost it as far as jazz is concerned. Nothing against Mr Cullum but this festival is getting increasingly commoditised into some sort of lifestyle brand that hinges around the Cullum gig. What about all of those smaller, interesting gigs focussed around the Town Hall of years passed. Ben Allison, Henry Grimes, Vandermark, Bennie Maupin?

I blame some of the locals e.g. Jeremy Clarkson and his Cotswold lifestyle mafia in their 4x4s and designer wellies

I'm sure (hopeful?) that Bath will be better.

But the real frightener:

This truly royal celebration will be the jewel in our crown as we celebrate the momentous occasion of the Royal Wedding with a party at Jazz on the Square.

Well, Cheltenham is that sort of place! Certainly won't be any celebrations at the Wigan Jazz Festival, if the 2,000 Manchester City Council sackings and the rapturous reception of Bruce Adams' George Bush jokes at a previous festival are anything to go by! Incidentally, I'm quite hopeful that wedding day will also be strikes and demos day.

Sounds like a festival with heart.

But the real frightner:

Join Guy Barker and the BBC Concert Orchestra for a special Jazz Royalty edition of Friday Night is Music Night featuring an array of excellent guest singers, live from Cheltenham, celebrating the music of Count Basie, Duke Ellington and more. This truly royal celebration will be the jewel in our crown as we celebrate the momentous occasion of the Royal Wedding with a party at Jazz on the Square.

Gross.

As good an excuse for a Mingusian alternative festival as there is.

Edited January 17, 2011 by sidewinder

[A Lark Ascending]

Anyone going?

As mentioned above, an increasingly weaker affair but I've managed to piece together a weekend, mainly of Brits:

Friday

• 
  
  
• Curios
  

Saturday

• 
  
  
• Outhouse Quartet
  
• Kit Downes Quartet
  
• John Taylor and Julian Arguelles
  
• Django Bates with large band
  

Sunday

• 
  
  
• Kit Downes Sextet
  
• Django Bates Trio
  
• Overtone Quartet (Moran/Harland/Potter/Grenadier - the latter instead of Dave Holland who has had to pull out)
  
• Big Air - acouple of ex-Loose Tubers meet Myra Melford and Jim Black and Oren Marshall on tuba - they put out an excellent album a couple of years back.
  

Bath is even more disappointing - apart from an Evan Parker thing in the afternoon there's nothing there to catch my interest. It used to be so packed with events.

Edited April 27, 2011 by A Lark Ascending

[sidewinder]

I'm abstaining on this one. I'll likely head down to Swanage and catch some of the performances up at Bath. Not a vintage year !

[David Ayers]

No festivals for me. I'll be keeping the faith at Cafe Oto. Upcoming we've got Fred Frith, Peter Evans, Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, etc. etc. etc. etc. NON-STOP! Who needs those absurd, passéiste festivals...

[A Lark Ascending]

No festivals for me. I'll be keeping the faith at Cafe Oto. Upcoming we've got Fred Frith, Peter Evans, Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, etc. etc. etc. etc. NON-STOP! Who needs those absurd, passéiste festivals...

No Cafe Oto for we provincials (though we do now have a Costa Coffee in Worksop!). Seems to be exclusive to you south-eastern sophisticates!

Saw Evans at Cheltenham last year, as it happens. Very impressive. Would love to see Fred Frith again - last time I saw him was in Exeter in 1977 towards the end of his Henry Cow days.

Edited April 26, 2011 by A Lark Ascending

[David Ayers]

No festivals for me. I'll be keeping the faith at Cafe Oto. Upcoming we've got Fred Frith, Peter Evans, Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, etc. etc. etc. etc. NON-STOP! Who needs those absurd, passéiste festivals...

No Cafe Oto for we provincials (though we do now have a Costa Coffee in Worksop!). Seems to be exclusive to you south-eastern sophisticates!

Saw Evans at Cheltenham last year, as it happens. Very impressive. Would love to see Fred Frith again - last time I saw him was in Exeter in 1977 towards the end of his Henry Cow days.

Well, true on the regional question. London can obviously better support a range of musics. But that said I don't really see why (across all the arts) provincial arts offerings have to be so, well, provincial. I think there is more passion out there for the Friths, Butchers and Gustafssons of this world than for the MOR toe-tapping fare which people are supposed to be satisfied with outside London.

[A Lark Ascending]

Well, true on the regional question. London can obviously better support a range of musics. But that said I don't really see why (across all the arts) provincial arts offerings have to be so, well, provincial. I think there is more passion out there for the Friths, Butchers and Gustafssons of this world than for the MOR toe-tapping fare which people are supposed to be satisfied with outside London.

Maybe in Huddersfield!

Bit of hyperbole there, David. The choice is not as stark as cutting edge 'avant garde' and 'MOR toe-tapping fare'.

Most of us need a bit of melody or at least some sort of harmonic anchor that we can hang onto most of the time (which doesn't stop us occasionally venturing out into worlds that have dispensed with or limited their involvement with those features).

As for 'the arts'...oh dear. Are they still with us? Would have thought the movers and shakers would have turfed out that particular box long ago.

[David Ayers]

Well, true on the regional question. London can obviously better support a range of musics. But that said I don't really see why (across all the arts) provincial arts offerings have to be so, well, provincial. I think there is more passion out there for the Friths, Butchers and Gustafssons of this world than for the MOR toe-tapping fare which people are supposed to be satisfied with outside London.

Maybe in Huddersfield!

Bit of hyperbole there, David. The choice is not as stark as cutting edge 'avant garde' and 'MOR toe-tapping fare'.

Most of us need a bit of melody or at least some sort of harmonic anchor that we can hang onto most of the time (which doesn't stop us occasionally venturing out into worlds that have dispensed with or limited their involvement with those features).

As for 'the arts'...oh dear. Are they still with us? Would have thought the movers and shakers would have turfed out that particular box long ago.

Well to put it differently, I am not sure why the same range and quality available in London is so rarely reproduced outside London. If the limitations are those of budget, then fine, that's just how it is. But if the limitations are those of the ambition of the organisers in developing audiences and in properly serving the existing arts (as opposed to an older generation's hazy suppostions about what imaginary benighted others could ever have dreamed the arts, resting wholly outside their hazily projected Lowry-esque existences, might possibly have once been, in a government-sponsored Age of Heritage and Yore) then - I am going to need brooms, lots of brooms.

Oh and the arts are indeed arts and are paid for by arts funding, so if for no other reason than insisting on a stake in those budgets and in the public discourse attached to them, it is worth retaining the term. Like 'education'.

Edited April 26, 2011 by David Ayers

[A Lark Ascending]

I am not sure why the same range and quality available in London is so rarely reproduced outside London.

Not too hard to work out. The audience for 'edgy' non-rock music is very small - in London there's a big enough population to make putting on such events viable.

Elsewhere, it really is down to enthusiasts. I've been to many a left-field jazz event and rarely has the audience been huge. Only in London and at certain festivals do you get bigger audiences for such events - Bath and Cheltenham have in the past managed packed houses for things like the Henry Grimes concert that Sidewinder mentioned. (Appleby was always hilarious in this respect - absolutely state-of-the-'art(s)' in the Evan Parker Sunday afternoon Freezone. But they'd put one event on the main stage at 5.00 on Saturday and there'd be a mass exodus from from the marquee from the ageing boppers).

It's very sad to see Cheltenham stepping further away from the edges (though it's never been a left-of-centre festival) - financial pressures more than anything, I suspect. Add that devil's compromise that you get hooked up into when you sign up with big sponsors.

I've no interest in all the arts and aesthetes stuff; music is just something I follow for pleasure. But I do think maintaining a vibrant and ever changing musical scene requires representing as wide a reach as possible. Taking chances on what might appear 'difficult' can often unlock new areas for the individual; for the wider area of music it's vital - without the constant refreshing coming from the exploratory ends, the mainstream can do nothing but atrophy.

Which is why 'arts' funding needs to be much more directed that way rather than propping up large buildings that promise cutting edge productions of Tosca!

Edited April 26, 2011 by A Lark Ascending

[sidewinder]

Who needs those absurd, passéiste festivals...

well I do, for one. Especially when they've got Ringwood Ales on cask in place of overpriced lattes..

No Cafe Oto for we provincials (though we do now have a Costa Coffee in Worksop!).

"You were lucky. We had to make do wi' tea urn" (said in broad Yorkshire voice..)

[David Ayers]

Who needs those absurd, passéiste festivals...

well I do, for one. Especially when they've got Ringwood Ales on cask in place of overpriced lattes..

Heh heh. Well Cafe Oto has some *great* bottled beers by Kernel! Come and join me and I'll buy you one. In fact I'll buy you ten - and a latte!

[BillF]

Who needs those absurd, passéiste festivals...

well I do, for one. Especially when they've got Ringwood Ales on cask in place of overpriced lattes..

Heh heh. Well Cafe Oto has some *great* bottled beers by Kernel! Come and join me and I'll buy you one. In fact I'll buy you ten - and a latte!

I think I'd need ten:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/25/han-bennink-review?INTCMP=SRCH

[A Lark Ascending]

Another issue with living outside the urban centres. You're usually driving. So the beer becomes irrelevant.

And one of the advantages of going to a festival for a weekend. The car is irrelevant, the beer consumable!

Edited April 26, 2011 by A Lark Ascending

[A Lark Ascending]

I take all my belly-aching back - had a marvellous weekend of music (but still didn't drink any Budweiser).

Highpoints:

• 
  
  
• the Taylor/Arguelles duo - including a most unseasonal Ray Charles-ish 'In the Bleak Midwinter'...maybe a nod at being in Holst's hometown;
  
• Django Bates biggish band - really brought home what a great acoustic pianist Bates is (standing out as a distinctive voice from the current crop of similar sounding pianists). Wonderfully whacky charts. Very good with his trio the following day too.
  
• Kit Downes Sextet - some marvellous writing here again.
  
• Big Air - simply wonderful. Another couple of ex-Loose Tubers (Steve Buckley/Chris Batchelor alongside the biggest tuba I've ever seen (Oren Marshall), the smallest free-ish pianist I've ever seen (Myra Melford) and that master of pots and pans drumming, Jim Black. Melford attacking her piano was a sight to behold (and behear); the sheer zest and out-of-the-ordinary playing of the front line was exhilarating. Think they may be playing elsewhere in the next few days - worth going out of your way to hear.
  

Man of the match - baritone/bass clarinet/tenor player James Allsopp who really impressed both with Bates and in a couple of Downes concerts,

The secret of Cheltenham - just book into the Pillar Room.

Made one trip into the main Town Hall room for Potter/Moran/Grenadier/Harland. Came across as Starbucks jazz - I don't know what happens there but all the instruments end up sounding completely separate - no real sense of the bass and drums locking together. And two long drum solos! Was quite listless by the end - and then, 15 minute later, Big Air kicked in next door. Immediately brought back to life.

Edited May 2, 2011 by A Lark Ascending

[sidewinder]

Glad it went well - I'd completely forgotten that Cheltenham was on over the weekend !

Myra Melford - yes, a very accomplished pianist/composer with a strong Muhal Richard Abrams influence. Caught her several years ago in Bradford-on-Avon. That was with a mixed UK/US group too. Did she get her harmonium out?

Edited May 2, 2011 by sidewinder

[A Lark Ascending]

Glad it went well - I'd completely forgotten that Cheltenham was on over the weekend !

Head too full of the Royal Wedding?

Myra Melford - yes, a very accomplished pianist/composer with a strong Muhal Richard Abrams influence. Caught her several years ago in Bradford-on-Avon. That was with a mixed UK/US group too. Did she get her harmonium out?

No harmonium. Do recall seeing her using one with Leroy Jenkins and Joseph Jarman at Brecon back in the late 90s.

[sidewinder]

Glad it went well - I'd completely forgotten that Cheltenham was on over the weekend !

Head too full of the Royal Wedding?

Can't say there was anything on the roster this year that said to me 'must see' and the thought of the long car treck to and from Cheltenham was not an attractive proposition this weekend I'm afraid.

[coreymwamba]

Manchester's coming up in July - although the programme is still not out yet, I know I'm playing! Does anyone normally go to it?

[Head Man]

Myra Melford - yes, a very accomplished pianist/composer with a strong Muhal Richard Abrams influence. Did she get her harmonium out?

Is that a euphemism for something "Ryan Giggsy"?

Edited May 24, 2011 by Head Man

[BillF]

Manchester's coming up in July - although the programme is still not out yet, I know I'm playing! Does anyone normally go to it?

No, I've never found anything I particularly wanted to hear. For me, it's always been outclassed by the festival in Wigan, also in Greater Manchester. However, my tastes are primarily for the sort of jazz recorded between 1945 and 1965, which means Wigan's repertoire has been just right for me. Over the years I've seen Mel Lewis, Frank Foster, Phil Woods, Claudio Roditi, Bill Holman, Scott Hamilton, Peter King, Alan Barnes, etc, etc, but the festival is now sadly reduced to a four day event because of public spending cuts:

http://www.wiganjazzclub.co.uk/WIJF.htm

[Alexander Hawkins]

Hey Corey - I think we're playing on the same bill!

[sidewinder]

Myra Melford - yes, a very accomplished pianist/composer with a strong Muhal Richard Abrams influence. Did she get her harmonium out?

Is that a euphemism for something "Ryan Giggsy"?

[coreymwamba]

Hey Corey - I think we're playing on the same bill!

EXCELLENT!! The trio is stopping over so we can all hang...

Edited May 26, 2011 by coreymwamba