The interzonal Alya Marquardt

Alya Marquardt - Alula

The breaking wave of anticipation hit London's shores way before the woman herself stepped out of the water. The influence of Alya Marquardt has already been felt in the capital with the recording of three albums for her new label Two Rivers. Both Calum Gourlay's solo bass album and the Tobias Delius/Olie Brice/Mark Sanders offering are to be released on 4th March 2015 at the Vortex. Her own album and performances are destined to reach further than the boundaries of the London and the UK.

George Crowley - Saxophone

Alya Marquadt is the British-Iraqi singer/song-writer, originally from Basrah in Southern Iraq but now living in London, UK. This night at the Green Note, Camden (11/01/2015) we had a mix of Iraqi folk songs, improv vignettes and original music influenced by Iraqi maqam and contemporary jazz. Her group Alula inhabit the 'cosmopolitan cultural interzone' (as described in The Independent) but this definition won't hold them for long, such is their desire for evolution and expression.

Shirley Smart - Cello

Word had spread and the Green Note was packed out with a who's who of journalists, players and music enthusiasts. I sat next to bassist Marianne Windham and jazz artist Elaine Breinlinger, across the darkened room I glimpsed London Jazz New's Sebastian Scotney beside trumpeter Yazz Ahmed and Shez Raja. The night's opener was just as deep and dark as the venue itself. Amongst the intricate motifs from saxophonist George Crowley were the dreadnoughts of bassist Olie Brice.



Nikos Ziarkis - Oud

The eye was taken by Alya Marquardt, while Nikos Ziarkis (oud), Shirley Smart (cello) and Sam Leak (piano) were hidden behind a BBC camera, such was the interest in this gig. They served up an exotic ploughman's by the fourth tune with an improvised dish. Asaf Sirkis (drums) was very much the crunch, a cracker perhaps. Nikos Ziarkis and Shirley Smart the tangy herbs. This was a flavour to excite, more than a meal in itself.



Asaf Sirkis - drums

Alya Marquardt was captivating throughout. She enchanted us with an unnerving desperation that made the escapist within express itself with desire.

Olie Brice - bass

Khadri El Chai put the smile on collective faces, including that of Asaf Sirkis who was obviously enjoying himself. The tune pulsed with an energy that propelled itself like a spinning top. Olie Brice's sound was the funboy at the party, like the buoyant bon viveur who knows all the best anecdotes. 

 

It was George Crowley who captured the hearts though. Despite a Gallic demeanour reminiscent of a young Inspector Closseau with a burgeoning moustache there was nothing haphazard or comical about his impact. Crowley was pivotal to the night, the music and pleasure.

 

Sam Leak - piano

Alya Marquadt is due to release the album Chai Party in early 2015. It will be launched on 6th April at Vortex jazz club in London.

 

AL.

Derek Nash - The Spark

Derek Nash

Ever since I have been drawing Jazz musicians Derek Nash has been part of my sketchbooks but this is the first time I have been able to contain this exuberant performer within this blog. It is not only words that struggle to restrain his energy but also my sketches which never do justice to a dress sense that features a lurid line in flowery shirts and stage choreography that would be more at home in a Bruce Lee film.

Within 90 seconds of his entrance at the Twickenham Jazz Club (27/02/2014) he had already treated us one of his trademark hitch kicks. Luckily I sat next to Derek Nash's beautiful wife, Beverley, for the evening and she confirmed that Nash youthful dance moves do not cause him any injury, even as he skirts close to his half century.



Alex Hutton- piano

The leg kicking opener soon became Ellington's "Just Squeeze Me" and we saw flashes of what has made Alex Hutton such a popular keys man at TJC. The perkiness of his recent engagement to singer Kate Winter saw his head bobbing between a pair of 'Harry Hill' style collars. Like virtually all piano players Hutton has an intensity in his gaze which is unnerving but his feet give us a clue to his more homely nature, as usual they were devoid of shoes while his socked feet jigged to each tune's melody.

Oli Hayhurst - Bass

 A favourite of the first set was Derek Nash's "Waltz for my father". With (bent) soprano in hand he painted us a colourful picture, this was a tableau of pure pointillist skill, like one of Seurat's Parisienne riversides. The small light dabs of Nash's saxophone taken in their entirety gave us a broad emotional vision of his father as we sat back and viewed it from a distance. Derek Nash is a closet culture vulture and in the break between sets divulged the sweet spots of a recent trip to Venice.

Asaf Sirkis - drums

"The Spark" of the night was rightfully reserved for a new tune of the same name. So new that Derek Nash crouched close to the floor, his chart just inches away from his face in The Bloomsbury's sombre lighting. It has a rolling lyrical quality that Alex Hutton exploited with a calypso breakdown which ultimately resulted in  Oli Hayyhurst's wonderful slow descent amongst the tumult. Hayhurst has an easy static style, often both eyebrow raised in inverted Vs, mirroring two gables on sturdy barn.



Kelvin Christiane - Tenor Saxophone

Even when Derek Nash is deep within a ballad he slipped in a leg kick or two, like an Uncle who can't resist blasting in a cheeky penalty past his nephew in the back garden. Asaf Sirkis on drums was the height of subtly and Mrs Nash was taken with his striking mallet work on Grover Washington's "Winelight". It's irresistible sexual beat inspired her to describe Sirkis as a "handsome Freddie Mercury".

Bobby Timmon's "Moanin" brought the tenor of Nash and TJC Maitre Kelvin Christiane together. The latter was surprisingly introspective but typically robust in his playing. He kept his eyes down, his body trapped between green and purple lights like he had been caught in a flickering Hitchcock film.

Derek Nash will forever be the scene stealer. How can you focus on anyone other than him when he not only plays his instrument with such aplomb but continuously looks like he's warming up in preparation for a football match. As well as his trademark hitch kick we were treated to the can-can leg flick, the bounce from foot to foot, a couple of knee bends and also the sweeping of his sax beside him like he was paddling a canoe against a strong current. Here's a musician who never stands still.

AL.

Maciek Pysz - Insight into Intuition

Maciek Pysz - Guitar

I was at an advantage last Wednesday (22/05/2013, The Forge, Camden) at the album launch of Maciek Pysz's new album 'Insight'. This was music prepared for those of us who could open the gates of our conscious minds and let the music flood in. If that sounds pretentious then I don't mean it to. There are times in anyone's life when they are receptive to this kind of music, whether in moments of acute loneliness, tender euphoria or when simple exterior influences collide like alcohol (just enough) and the company of others that are intent on the same purpose.

As I drew, the concentration was so focussed on the minutiae, the furrowed brow of Yuri Goloubev (Bass) or the distinctive bottom lip of Asaf Sirkis (percussion), that you block out all other reasoning. It leaves the mind unguarded and without the usual gatekeepers of reality. It is similar to the key of Abstract Art, and it no surprise that Maciek Pysz cited Mark Rothko as an influence for one of his tunes, 'Maroon'. Of course there are many ways to experience Abstract work, and instrumental music has much in common with this genre. We can understand where Abstract work is placed in history, its sense of time, the story behind it or we can open ourselves up and just experience.
So because my concentration was so taken with the physical form of the 3 personalities on stage, this left the music unabated and it poked and prodded my exposed memories and feelings.

Yuri Goloubev - Bass

In the margins of my sketchbook I write notes that are streams of personal connections. For a change I'm going to reproduce them here in their entirety (virtually unedited) because it is only fitting for an album launch titled 'Insight'.

Those Days....Cascading rubble and dancing water droplets on the finest of Autumn branches. Galloping Sirkis, smacking brushes like the whip against a gypsy horse's rump.

Blue Water.....Rapid fire, a bullet volley, a kamikaze fighter flowing overhead over rolling waves, crash, it is finished, it stops.

Amici....Slow and warm conversation, snatches of phrases. This is one hell of a complicated friendship.

Lost in London...Dropping keys in a hollow hallway, accidentally kicking a chinking beer bottle as you walk alone in an underpass.

Insight....Running thoughts, a fartlek of ideas, starting, stopping, starting again. Pysz dancing then. They were the best of times, they were the worst of times. Positive, then very intense. Impossible to keep up.

Asaf Sirkis - Drums

Huge sound of applause. Goloubev piercing eyes. A lightness from Pysz, a trick really, the web looks brittle but its still flexible and sticks. The mind plays games.

Moody Leaf....Beautiful and dark, cinematic. Almost a shame to have Sirkis join this party.

Recuerdos de la Alhambra....Photographers duelling in audience. Beauty fuelled by itself.

Tangella.....Sirkis rolls back cuffs and plays like enormous pair of chattering false teeth. He's slapping my bum.

Under the sky....Yuri Goloubev has a habit of slacking his jaw to one side. Playful now. Many of the tones are dictated by YG. Playing French cricket not a Bass, croquet perhaps. Joy of something, somewhere or someone. Yet there are thunderclouds over there and the feeling you have of being lost.

Dedication....Tone dictated by Pysz.
Yuri Goloubev is the breath you take and Maciek Pysz is the words, just like they sound..UPBEAT....the mechanics, a thousand different ways to speak a vowel or the permutation of letters. Asaf Sirkis, the memory, the scratching in your head that tells you which tap to turn on to feel the power flow through your body.


Now you know the stuff that's rolling around my head and I hope the notes aren't too disparate to be incoherent. But it seems an apt way to describe the way in which the the audience were asked to drop their guards and let the music roll in. If you want to find out if it works for you, or if you want to let Maciek Pysz tread his delicate feet through your mind then follow this link -
Maciek Pysz - Insight on iTunes.

AL.

Nick Meier and a Sirkis Smile

Nick Meier - Guitar

I've just finished sketches of the Nick Meier group at Pizza Express, Soho (19/03/2013) for Rainlore's World.
Check out the review HERE.

Sketches of Nick Meier, Asaf Sirkis, Demi Garcia, Lizzie Ball, James Pearson and Pat Bettison.



Lizzie Ball - Viloin & Vocals

Yearning for Delirium - Joanna Strand



Joanna Strand

Before I started my journey into the realm of 'Delirium' I had to be prepared. Although I'd read Joanna Strand's manifesto for a future

including altered states and celebrated imperfections I knew not whether I would find a dystopia or utopia at the Pizza Express last Thursday (07/02/2013).

 

The previous days I had been sketching in a simulated mental health ward at Kingston University for a commission so I did (for once) feel qualified. The 'patients' I had worked with had been potentially violent, addicted, anxious and possessed minds searching for salvation. Understandably I found myself sitting in Pizza Express' tomblike catacomb in an agitated and exhausted state myself.

 

As I dropped into my seat and looked across the table at the stranger opposite, alarms bells sounded in my skull. Underlit by the venue's dramatic lighting he turned to me and said 'Jekyll or Hyde?'

John Gregson

The stranger took another swig of Peroni and I wondered whether this was his 'potion'. Within moments I was luckily put at my ease, this wasn't a challenge to my sanity but an introduction. The charming man opposite was none other than the guitarist John Gregson who had worked with Joanna on the hit musical, Jekyll and Hyde.

 

Before we could exchange our life stories the lights abruptly dimmed and we plunged into 'Delirium'.

 

Yazz Ahmed

Strand had promised a world of juxtapositions and the group of musicians before us didn't disappoint. She occupied the centre of the stage, fully at ease and with an open warm face. Her wide gestural arms enticed us into her embrace and although absolutely confident (at least on the outside) she still displayed a hint of fallibility.

 

Where Strand offered us openness, in contrast, Trumpeter Yazz Ahmed's magnet pull was through her crisp understated playing and the those thick lashes under a heavy fringe.

Ahmed epitomises Delirium's statement to represent the yearning, longing and craving represented in music and poetry. To quote it word for word, the audience found themselves 'Wishing for the unattainable'.

 

Romano Viazzano -
Accordion

To my right was Romano Viazzano, and his bright red jumper was the only colour in a understated 6 piece group. He is a hard man to describe, this night his smile spread slowly, like an assassins, but a few days earlier I'd sketched him in the National Theatre Foyer, where he performed in front of a crowd of families (including his own 5 children) and he displayed a joyful exuberance. Right now his head was bowed in concentration as he tackled Asaf Sirkis' tune 'Sailing'.

 

Asaf Sirkis - drums

Again as a juxtaposition sat Sirkis himself, head held high like a thoroughbred on the Epson Downs. Lets face it he is a drummer who would win the jazz equivalent of the Derby by 10 lengths.

I have worked briefly with Asaf on Alex Hutton's Legentis album and he is by no means a temperamental colt.

Once again he was outstanding, performing with grace and tenderness.

 

Nick Pini - Bass

 As we listened to 'Easy Living', the final tune of the first set, I frantically sketched Nick Pini on double bass. He is hard to capture on paper. He starts every tune with his copper hair neatly pinned behind his ears but eventually the music is too powerful and he reaches the final note in a state of wild dishevelment.

 

As I got to know John 'Mr Jekyll' Gregson in the interval I asked his professional opinion about the music,

"This is my first taste of Delirium, but what I'm struck by is the textures. The instruments provide us with layers and depth, they work together rather than take the spotlight in their own right."

John Bailey - Piano

 I'd sketched this same outfit (less Frank Walden) at The Forge in 2012 for Mr Rainlore's review, but I enjoyed the ambition and depth of these tunes more. This was a team working together intellectually as well as physically.

 

 Not every aspect was a success though and I believe Delirium were 'Striving for the Ideal' (to quote Joanna Strand again) and occasionally found themselves in a no-man's land where even a combination of talent and strong emotive intentions was not enough to influence the audience. The poetry was beautiful and well crafted but I couldn't transport myself to the tangible Natural world suggested by it while sitting comfortably in the warm, safe and privileged surroundings of the Pizza Express. I am full of admiration though that they aimed high and as a result we soared at a lofty altitude. Higher even than my previous experience whilst Fly(ing) Transatlantic with them.

 

Joanna Strand was at her most mesmerising whilst singing Poulenc and the sentiments she paints with her French palette transported me back to the small village of Cambieure, where I still have my studio and many friends. So many French words play with your mind using both sound and meaning, the Papi of all them all is 'oublie' for me. At once reminding me of those people I miss and those that I never want to be parted from.

 

Eventually I parted myself from Joanna Strand, Delrium and John Gregson but it will not be so easy to forget them.

 

AL.