Birmingham Jazz Festival serves up a feast

Jun 29 2009 Jazz by Peter Bacon, Birmingham Post

Peter Bacon previews the busiest ten days in Birmingham’s jazz calendar

The time when jazz takes over the world may still be a pipe-dream for those of us who love the music, but once a year we find encouragement in the fact that jazz can take over a city.

Women swing their hips a little wider as they walk, men lengthen their stride and seem to fit their suits more suavely, smiles are broader, and pints are frothier.

And what about all our worries?

Well, who cares that the country is deep in debt, who cares that the summer might end before we get a chance to go on holiday? The Birmingham International Jazz Festival, starting this Friday and going all the way to Sunday, July 12, takes them all away.

This is the 25th festival and, as befits special anniversary years, there are all kinds of treats, including an all-star jam session, daily jazz broadcasts from the heart of the festival, a jazz festival online TV station, a special festival ale, and two festival CD releases.

Even the commuters get catered for with jazz bands greeting the bleary-eyed at Snow Hill station at 8am (not traditional jazz time I know, but when city-domination is what’s happening, the musicians must rise with the larks), and there is even a jazz poet on the buses!

Let’s tackle that all-star jam first. The jam session is a fine tradition in jazz, and I well remember my father’s recordings of the great Jazz At The Philharmonic jam sessions. Jim Simpson’s BIJF went where Norman Granz’s JATP had gone before at his first festival 25 years ago and he does it again this year.

The place is the Botanical Gardens, the date is Thursday, July 9, and the time is 7pm. The ingredients in this fruity jam are Digby Fairweather and Enrico Tomasso on trumpets, Robert Fowler and Art Themen on saxophones, Mark Nightingale and Ian Bateman on trombones, Jim Hart on vibes, David Newton on piano, Dave Green on bass, Ralph Salmins on drums and Val Wiseman on vocals.

A pretty impressive roll call of horns, then, and one of the hardest working, strongest-swinging rhythm sections in British jazz, plus a vocalist with a similar work ethic.

Digby is the only player who was present at the first BIJF jam – that session was a sell-out and was preserved on what would become an album of the year.

Among the long, long, list of names (it takes a lot of players to fill a city) there are many familiar ones from past Birmingham festivals, but in no way should familiarity breed anything other than huge affection for the likes of saxophonists Alan Barnes and Themen, trumpeters Bruce Adams and Tomasso, and of course the festival’s patron, Fairweather, who took over from the late Humprey Lyttelton last year.

Other very welcome names in the line-up are Birmingham-born tenor player Dave O’Higgins, pianist Newton, bassist Green, young vibes master Hart and trombonist Nightingale.

Among the international visitors, the standouts are Pee Wee Ellis and Greg Abate from the US, the Nomy Rosenberg Trio from Holland, the Hot D’Jazz Trio of Cracow from Poland and Petra Ernyei from the Czech Republic.

Ellis is a really special player with a great history and, doubtless, many stories to tell. The tenor saxophonist was musical director for James Brown back in the 1960s and went on to work a lot with Van Morrison too.

Representing the home city is a great bunch of bands, both large and small.

Needing a bigger bandstand are drummer Garry Allcock and his All Stars Big Band, who, for their Town Hall gig on Saturday, July 4, are joined by an even bigger drumming legend, Eric Delaney.

Able to fit into smaller spaces are MJHQ, bassist Mike Hatton’s band, and Tim Amann’s Xtet (how many’s that? No, don’t ask) who are joined by the Russian saxophonist Oleg Kireyev (a regular visitor to this festival).

Bands on the bill over the ten days include Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen, King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys, and the Midland Youth Jazz Orchestra.

Adding a little classy tribute band jazz-rock to the party is the excellent Nearly Dan. If you have missed the real thing, Steely Dan, this week, or if you just want to hear all the Dan classics they didn’t play, do check out Nearly Dan at the Jam House. They are very good indeed.

Award for best band name has to go to The Fantabulous Sheepwash Playboys, from the village of the same name (Sheepwash, not Fantabulous) in Devon.

Oh, and the man bringing jazz and poetry to the Number 11 is Steve Steinhaus.

While some of the bigger gigs, like the all-star jam, have an entrance charge, it is the time-honoured tradition of the Birmingham International Jazz Festival is accessible to all, hence about 90 per cent of the gigs are free ones, and they take place in all kinds of non-traditional venues in addition to the usual pubs and clubs.

And if you live outside Birmingham and want to stay over, there are good deals at the festival’s partner hotels: City Inn, Ibis, Hotel Du Vin and Blueberry Hotel (Star City).

For more information on all of this and a detailed timetable of events (and bear in mind that some groups play a few times in different venues over the ten days), pick up a programme around town or go to birminghamjazzfestival.com

*There is a booking hotline for the charged gigs on 0121 454 7020.