Peter Slavid attended the concerts on Saturday 5 October at this year’s Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music. He writes:
The penultimate day of this, now well established festival saw a fine triple bill in the wonderful Literary and Philosophical Society venue. Earlier in the day some of us had been treated to some ferocious percussive solo piano from Cuban-American Aruan Ortiz.
The evening opened in a rather more conventional fashion with the young J.A.M. String Collective: Annalise Lam (Violin) / Julia Dos Reis (Viola) / Miranda Lewis-Brown (Cello).
They improvised over charming melodies finishing with a fine arrangement of Ornette Coleman’s classic Lonely Woman.
Next was a solo guitar performance by Tara Cunningham. This was a mesmeric performance as she conjured a range of sounds and effects, sometimes atmospheric, at others harsh and sharp.
The final, headline act was The Flame: Robert Mitchell (Piano) / Olie Brice (Double Bass) / Mark Sanders (Drums). This is an outstanding improvising trio of musicians all at the peak of their powers – listening, interacting and prompting. Sanders can play delicately, but is at his best thundering alongside the others, prompting and dropping bombs in all the right places. Brice is a whirlwind, rumbling in the background or driving things along in the foreground. Mitchell uses his formidable technique to good effect whether on dramatic chords or glittering runs.
Unfortunately this was my only visit this year to a festival that now runs over two weekends with dozens of acts. Its tight focus on this style of improvised music give it a unique place in the jazz calendar.
