One of the highlights of the Parabola Arts Centre (PAC) programme is always the Saturday morning sold-out student exchange project, where students from overseas conservatoires (in this case from Hamburg and Siena), join with students from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (RBC) to create three mixed ensembles.
Over the years the overseas contingent has reduced somewhat, but the project still stands, and still shows us glimpses of musicians – some of whom will be stars of the future. Certainly looking back at these events over the years throws up a lot of names who are now established stars
This year the students seem to have been given rather more time than in the past and all used it well, but since all the groups have come together just for this gig none of them have names, just numbers.
Quintet 1 gave us a programme of tunes from Cedar Walton, Kenny Dorham, Wayne Shorter and others. This particular group was basically a Birmingham quartet with the addition of their single guest Italian saxophonist who slotted in seamlessly.
Piano: Joe Noble – RBC
Bass: Harvey Lees – RBC
Drums: Tom Phillips – RBC
Sax: Leonardo Odierna – Siena Jazz-Accademia Nazionale del Jazz
Trumpet: Max Mikardo-Greaves – RBC
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Quintet 2 was my personal pick of the bunch. Their programme was all originals composed by different band members. There was terrific interaction between the musicians throughout. The compositions were all interesting and showed some real wit. And they all seemed to be enjoying themselves enormously.
Guitar: Francesco Faro – Siena Jazz-Accademia Nazionale del Jazz
Bass: Kyle Welch – RBC
Drums: Josh Rose – RBC
Sax: Nathaniel Evans – RBC
Trombone: Ben Matthis Wroblewski – HfMT Hamburg
Quintet 3 also brought their own compositions and produced a mature performance with some powerful and imaginative soloing.
Piano: Nick Manz – RBC
Bass: Federico Giolito – Siena Jazz-Accademia Nazionale del Jazz
Drums: Dom Holyoake – RBC
Sax: Hedwig Janko – HfMT Hamburg
Vocals: Sophie Gilbert – RBC
Given the limited time these students have to work together its amazing that they produce such excellent performances. Any of these bands would be welcome as they stand at jazz clubs up and down the country and I’ve no doubt that we’ll be hearing from a lot of these students into the future.
Peter Slavid broadcasts a programme of European Jazz on mixcloud.com/ukjazz and various internet stations and podcast sites
