Festival aims to make all the right noises
KENNY MATHIESON
EUROPEAN jazz has grown steadily in both size and significance in the post-war decades. Once a sideshow in which standards of excellence were measured by how close players could get to sounding authentically American, European jazz has developed a distinctive range of voices and idioms that not only stand as a viable alternative to the US mainstream, but also exert an influence on many American musicians.
Jazz from across Europe, and particularly Scandinavia, has a prominent presence at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival, beginning with a historical echo. Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli were the first Europeans really to register in world jazz terms, and Django's grandson, David, will perform with Martin Taylor's Gypsy Jazz Trio.
The line-up also includes musicians working in earlier US-inspired traditions, including ragtime specialist Morten Gunnar Larsen, Italian pianist Rossano Sportiello and hot jazz outfit Jazz Daniel's Puddlers from France.
New Orleans and early jazz is where this festival began, and the performers are supporting the Save New Orleans Music appeal, with collections throughout the event. For a distinctive strain of European jazz, though, we must look to contemporary jazz, and there is no shortage of it in the programme.
The Scandinavians lead the way, with festival debuts for the Swedish "supergroup" Sister Maj's Blouse, Norway's The Stoner, and the much-acclaimed Tord Gustavsen Trio. Gustavsen's blend of thoughtful but richly sensuous music, characterised by often slow tempos, melodic beauty and a subtle flow of energy between the pianist, bassist Harald Johnsen and drummer Jarle Vespestad, has won the group widespread approval.
The emergence of a distinct European jazz sound is often ascribed in part to a sense of place, and that perception has seemed especially true in Scandinavia, reflected in the music of artists such as Jan Garbarek and Ketil Bjørnstad, as well as the current generation. Gustavsen gives the idea qualified assent: "Where you grow up affects your tastes and shapes your frame of reference. But Norway is very much a part of the global community. We have gained inspiration from the global cultural scene through travelling, through immigrants enriching our own culture, through the media, and of course by listening to music from all over the world.
"But I still think the space of Norway's rural environments, the darkness of our winters and the connection to a heritage of folk music, might account for something in our music." If that scenario sounds vaguely familiar, it is doubtless because it has strong echoes on our own doorstep. A musician like Colin Steele, who reprises his excellent Stramash project with a ten-piece band made up of jazz and folk musicians, has also felt that pull of place, as have Tommy Smith, John Rae, the Bancroft brothers and many more.
Their explorations have added their own dialect to the emerging language of European jazz, mixed in varying degrees with the American models that first inspired them to play.
The Edinburgh-based saxophonist Julian Argüelles, whose lineage is Anglo-Portuguese, brings an even more complex mixture of influences to bear on his work, and his collaboration with American pianist Ethan Iverson and Swedes Palle Danielsson (bass) and Fredrik Noren (drums) should be a fascinating meeting of minds.
Other areas of Europe are less well-represented in the line-up, although Italian trumpeter Giovanni Falzone will lead a quartet, and the music of Eastern Europe is an essential ingredient in the eclectic musical mix of Edinburgh-based Moishe's Bagel. The broader development of European jazz undoubtedly owes a great deal to musicians from England, Germany, France, Italy, Poland and Russia.
The festival also has an impressively wide variety of American music on offer. Possibilities range from the New Orleans and mainstream staples of The Spirit of New Orleans and Statesmen of Jazz, through to cutting-edge New York directions from Ethan Iverson, Reid Anderson and Bill McHenry. Major names such as pianist Chick Corea, saxophonist James Carter, vocal sensation Rene Marie and the immensely popular crossover group Manhattan Transfer would be assets in any festival. There will also be a chance to check out musicians like guitarist John Hart and saxophonist Houston Person on their festival debuts.
Cornetist Warren Vache's collaboration with the Scottish Ensemble and the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra's performance of a jazz band version of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue should also be major highlights of a packed programme.
• The Starbucks Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival runs from 28 July until 6 August. Tel: 0131-467 5200 or visit
www.edinburghjazzfestival.co.uk
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