UK Jazz News

corto.alto at the 2025 Norfolk and Norwich Festival

The Spiegeltent, Norwich, 22 May 2025

corto.alto in Norwich. Photo credit Bruce Lindsay

corto.alto arrived at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival on something of a wavecrest, having won UK Jazz Act of the Year and the Innovation Award at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards barely a month ago. Expectations were high, therefore, for this performance in the venerable Spiegeltent. By the end of the ninety-minute set it was clear that those expectations had been met, and then some.

corto.alto in Norwich. Photo credit Bruce Lindsay

corto.alto is the alter ego of Glasgow musician Liam Shortall, although it’s also used to refer collectively to the ensemble which he leads. This evening, Shortall used the name to refer to the band and referred to himself simply as Liam. corto.alto has something of a fluid lineup, but for this show it was a quartet, — Shortall on trombone, bass guitar and electronics, Mateusz Sobieski on saxophone, Alex Wesson on keyboard and Graham Costello on drums. The musicians were a lively on-stage presence, despite having driven down from Glasgow to Norwich that day, enjoying themselves and projecting that fun throughout the Spiegeltent, both to the standing audience in front of the stage and to those, including this reviewer, seated in snug little booths around the edge of the space. It didn’t take long for the band’s funky, immediately infectious, rhythms to get people moving.

Shortall switched regularly between bass guitar and trombone throughout the set, as well as adding electronic effects: the result of the effects/bass pairing was at times the sort of deep, rich, low end that is felt through the sternum rather than heard through the ears. Costello was a powerhouse on drums — his solo was probably the longest solo of the evening but still held the audience’s attention throughout — and the sunglasses-wearing Sobieski blew some high-energy tenor as well as adding some mellower, sweeter, phrases. Wesson took only one long keyboard solo, but was a constant and effective presence throughout the evening, working to build the rhythmic foundations on which Sobieski and Shortall (on trombone) built their own solos.

The set consisted mostly of original instrumentals, plus a cover of Kendrick Lamar’s “Die Hard,” a version which Shortall described as “weird.” corto.alto’s music combines a myriad of different styles and genres — there were hints of film noir, ‘80s TV soundtracks, hip-hop, dub, jazz, and even a few moments that suggested the music of Osibisa, although there’s no suggestion that these are all conscious influences on the corto.alto sound. What corto.alto does with all of these sometimes disparate sounds is to meld them together to create something that’s original yet accessible, a music that’s thoughtful and imaginative but also fun and danceable. What more do you need for a great night out?

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