There
is something about the nervous melodies and abrasive textures of jazz,
and the laconic unsentimentality of most of its practitioners, that
somehow doesn't square with the lakeland landscapes and nature-harmonies
of Wordsworth. Yet Cumbria is the homeland of the Appleby jazz festival,
now in its 14th year since its inception as a one-off Stan Tracey gig
staged in the house of its founder, Neil Ferber.
Appleby
is the only festival devoted almost entirely to the UK jazz scene. The
overlooked Don Weller, one of the country's all-time tenor-sax creative
giants, is one of Ferber's favourites, as are Tracey, bop-sax stars
Peter King and Alan Barnes, and - a fascinating exception from the event's
generally straightahead character - the fierce avant-garde player Evan
Parker.
This
year, Parker presided over a Sunday afternoon of free-association between
a variety of Appleby players. But he also departed from his usual style
to play in a powerful trio with former Tubby Hayes drummer Tony Levin
and bass virtuoso John Edwards that brought the orthodox jazz tradition
and its more wayward descendants into balance.
The
trio drew together a sophisticated, spontaneous mix of guttural tenor-sax
improvising, vaporous, seamless soprano-sax lines and bursts of urgent
swing driven by the powerful Levin's uncanny polyrhythmic sense. Parker
even veered close to Sonny Rollins quotations, something he does in
public only about once a decade.
But
it was two sets by trumpeter Kenny Wheeler's rarely assembled big band
that dominated Saturday's programme. Wheeler's music, in its long, undulating
sighs of sound, shadowy spaces and misty, purple-hued harmonies, fitted
the Cumbrian landscape as if written for it.
Pianists
of very different attitudes occupied much of Sunday evening. An electrifying
set by a Gordon Beck trio, with French musicians Bruno Rousselet and
Philip Soirat on bass and drums, brought some of the most ecstatic reactions
of the weekend. Beck, a fearsome keyboard player, played long, fast
runs as if every note was in sharp focus in his mind. He had a startling
unity of purpose with his partners and played a repertoire of powerful,
resonant, and often engagingly bluesy themes.
By
contrast, Stan Tracey, virtually the festival's artist-in-residence,
left far more space; he tinkled and splattered where Beck forged imperturbably
on. But in his fine trio with his son Clark (drums) and Andrew Cleyndert
(bass), Tracey reworked Thelonious Monk and reinvented Over the Rainbow
as a mix of metallic chords and surprisingly piquant counter-melody.
He then swept through a more forthright and swinging quintet set with
the fluent bebop of Nigel Hitchcock on alto and the shrewd, long-range
narrative sense and quirky mannerisms of tenor saxophonist Ben Castle
combined.