FEATURE: Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music

Image: Aruán Ortiz by ÅdneDyrnesli

The Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music returns for two weekends that aim to provide the city with a diverse celebration of grassroots, boundary-pushing music across several city venues.

The festival opens on Friday 27th September in a unique and innovative style with the Friday Night Chill Out at Jesmond Swimming Pool. Faye MacCalman – bandleader of jazz art rockers Archipelago – will play a solo saxophone set while you swim, contributing to the festival’s initiative to encourage audiences into holistic spaces centred around health and wellbeing.

The guitar-sax-drums trio Taupe return to the festival to headline on Saturday 28^th September at The Cumberland Arms. Mathy compositions fuse sludgy riffs with turbulent dissonance and playful improv. Also on the bill are experimental string quartet warp/weft as well as Danish pianist, composer and bandleader Jeppe Zeeberg and his band The Absolute Pinnacle of Human Achievement. On Sunday 29^th, the prolific duo of saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and drummer Tom Rainey bring their acclaimed partnership to The Globe for an international collaboration with in-demand rhythm partnership Johnny Hunter and John Pope.

The following weekend’s musical delights kick off early on Thursday 3^rd October in another original showcase, as the festival partners with Northern Silents to present surrealist film scores at Gosforth Civic Theatre. Celebrated soundtrack artists Alcyona Mick and Juliana Day will improvise live scores to screenings of six short Dadaist films by key figures of the movement, such as Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp and others.

a festival that is sure to challenge and celebrate in equal measures

On Friday 4^th and Saturday 5^th October settle in for two stacked days at The Lit & Phil. Get along early for a Friday lunchtime solo set from avant jazz pianist and composer Satoko Fujii, before bringing in the evening with a collaboration between Amirtha Kidambi and Manon McCoy. Flying in from the USA, Kidambi plays with abstract rhythms rooted in free-jazz and Indian Carnatic music. She will team with Sheffield-based experimental harpist McCoy, with influences from contemporary classical, British folk and free improv. Finally, a triple bill will round off the day featuring Lisbon-based Ziv Taubenfeld (bass clarinet) and London’s Olie Brice (double bass) joined by Copenhagen’s Kresten Osgood on drums for a new collaboration. Meanwhile, a solo set of free improv with loops and effects can be expected from bassist Andy Champion, while Izumi Kimura (piano) and Gerry Hemingway (drums/percussion) will blend free spontaneity with structured melodies.

Also on Saturday, Cuban pianist Aruán Ortiz will get the ball rolling at 1pm, with influences ranging from contemporary classical to Cuban-Haitian and Afro-Carribean rhythms. Ziv Taubenfeld will then return as a guest of the rousing cello/violin/melodeon/percussion ensemble Shunyata Improvisation Group before an exciting triple bill brings Saturday to a close. Annalise Lam, Julia Dos Reis and Miranda Lewis-Brown are the J.A.M. String Collective, threading classical string compositions with blues and jazz. Tara Cunningham’s film composition work inspires a captivating experience, stretching the confines of the sounds and textures her instrument is capable of in a solo guitar set. Finally, free-flowing trio The Flame mould energetic improv around poetry and spoken word.

The Catriona Bourne Quartet will be first up at The Globe on Sunday 6th October, with electric harp steering evocative compositions blending jazz, folk and classical. Clog dancer and accordion virtuoso Heather Ferrier will wow with her alt. folk solo set, and last but not least, the quintet Emma Johnson’s Gravy Boat will perform in support of their album Northern Flame, an imaginative, cinematic record which will bring the curtain down on a festival that is sure to challenge and celebrate in equal measures.