CBSO Centre, Birmingham UK
12/13-03-10
After a couple of days of moving around other venues, the Harmonic Festival proper settled at the CBSO Centre for two nights. On Friday it was the turn of the international visitors, and last night it had a home-grown theme.

The Claudia Quintet from New York started their gig off as a six-piece, with drummer John Hollenbeck, bassist Drew Gress, vibes player  Tim Collins, accordionist Ted Reichman and reeds player Chris Speed joined by pianist Matt Mitchell. Their music is substantially notated and inhabits that area where modern jazz, contemporary composition and innovative rock overlap. The man sitting next to me said it made him think of Frank Zappa, which made a lot of sense. Its riches lie in the ensemble playing and the subtle interaction of saxophone or clarinet, accordion and vibes against some pretty rigorous beats. But it was also a little over-earnest, the band a little too constrained by the music on their stands for my taste.

The stand-out contribution for me was Mitchell’s. He was given some decent solo space and made the most of it with intricately constructed and intensely felt improvisations. Here was where the music suddenly blossomed into life.

For the second half the band expanded further with local boys Steve Tromans adding Fender Rhodes and Percy Pursglove on trumpet. This is not the easiest band to step into – it’s not exactly a jamming outfit, and the construction of the music seems so indivisible from the core band’s instrumentation that it is difficult finding space in it for more. The possibilities were there for investigating the timbral possibilities offered by acoustic piano, vibes, accordion and Fender Rhodes all in close proximity, but this remained largely unexplored. Pursglove and Tromans gave it their best shot but to my ears the reality didn’t meet the expectation.

Last night offered the real Festival experience – the chance to over-indulge on the the music and come away dyspeptic.

It all kicked off just after 5pm with trumpeter Aaron Diaz’s new band Moon Unit (yes, the Zappajazz man is keeping his Frank hat in place) and a great start to the evening it was. Diaz shared the front row with fellow Sub Ensemble hornman Colin Mills on bari and tenor bright spark Nick Rundle, while Andy Bunting on piano and Tom Durham on guitar provided the chords and Rob Anstey on bass and Jim Bashford on drums the rhythm. Good new tunes not only from Diaz but from Anstey, Mills and Durham, too, plus a bit of Zombie Woof for old times’ sake. It was their first outing and it felt like it – but not uncomfortably so. The line-up and the material are worth bedding in. Rundle a real force on the scene, it seems.

New music, too, from bassist and Harmonic co-organiser Chrs Mapp for his new combo Gambol. Presumably Chris had been gambolling about Birmingham with an ear out for new sounds, so inspiration came not only from the Bullring Market (Secondhand Telly) and balti houses (Royal something…) but also from the many crazies out there in the streets (Locals). The ubiquitous Bashford was in the drum chair again, the Sub Ensemble’s Rob Norman was on keys, and Sam Wooster (trumpet) and Lluis Mather (tenor) were out front. Mapp, Norman and Wooster made use of loops and effects and could have used them more forcefully. The combination of good grooves, strong soloists and some nice sound effects made this the most intriguing set of the festival for me. Oh, and what a pleasure to hear Norman letting rip on a Steinway. May they Gambol again soon!

Singer Sara Colman had some new songs to present and mixed them in with choice selections from her 2009 CD Ready. All of them benefited strongly from a great working band – Ben Markland MDing from the double bass, Carl Hemmingsley on drums and Chris Taylor on piano – and it’s always good to hear a singer who is part of the band instead of just standing out front. A class act.

The grand finale to the whole Harmonic Festival broke free of musical formality and restriction: Paul Dunmall was on saxophone, clarinet and bagpipes, John Edwards on double bass and Mark Sanders on drums. I confess to cloth ears when it comes to free jazz, and have grown reluctant to offer any kind of observation on this kind of music for fear of incurring the wrath of its (sometimes over-sensitive) supporters. However, I will venture this opinion: I think fans of free improvisational music would be hard-pressed to find finer practitioners than these three. They all possess, it seems to me, boundless instrumental technique and the ability to translate it into immensely powerful and cliche-free music. I could do with fewer avalanches and more quiet plateaus, but one cannot have everything. (And please, free jazz fans, this is not – I repeat NOT – a criticism.)

In between last night’s main gigs there were lively duo performances in the bar, from gently grooving samba songs to full-on free rowdiness – good festival spirit here.

And so, that was the first Harmonic Festival, which showed its real strength and its distinctive heart on the final night, given that the gigs on the preceding three days would, likely as not, have been happening anyway, albeit without Harmonic branding. My only other caveat is not exactly the elephant in the room but rather the elephant not in the room. Given the healthy support Harmonic got from the Arts Council, from Birmingham Jazz and others, and considering the hard work put in by its organisers in publicising it, the number of empty seats in the CBSO Centre auditorium last night was, I thought, disappointing.

I was certainly pleased I went.