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All fired up for the festival
PREVIEW
F-ire Collective
Kings Place
THE dust may have only just settled after the 100-concert spectacular that opened Kings Place last week, but London’s newest venue has kept the momentum going by launching straight into another mini-festival, this time focusing on the contemporary jazz of F-IRE Collective.
F-IRE have long been the source of some of the most interesting young players on the British jazz scene, from Mercury-nominated bands Polar Bear and Basquiat Strings to composer/saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock.
The collective took over Kings Place yesterday (Wednesday) for a five-day showcase of some of the most distinctive bands from the Collective, together with some major-league international colleagues and the next generation of London jazz players from F-IRE’s younger sibling, the Loop Collective.
Jazz legend Django Bates – who heralded the last renaissance in British jazz in the 1980s – opened the festival with his new group, the 19-strong youth band StoRMChaser, performing music from his latest album, Spring is Here (Shall we Dance…).
Today (Thursday) journalist Stuart Nicholson hosts an introduction to European artist collectives. Nicholson’s book, Is Jazz Dead (or Has it Moved to a Different Address?), was an examination of how European jazz has taken on the mantle of what was traditionally an American music. He introduces a talk by members of the network of eight European Jazz Collectives to which F-IRE belongs and their latest project ZOOM!, a double CD compilation of pan-European ground-breaking new works – the European Union of jazz.
From this wider creative community comes Friday’s performance by French supergroup Thôt, with local guests Tom Arthurs (trumpet) and Julian Siegel (saxophone).
Belgian tour de force Octurn perform new work 7 eyes, featuring IRCAM’s Gilbert Nouno on live electronic manipulations.
Some top-notch double bills will be the highlight of the week. Ingrid Laubrock has established herself as a distinctive composer as well as highly sought after saxophonist. Winner of the Arts Foundation Award for Jazz Composition, Laubrock has shown enormous talent as a composer and has performed with various non-jazz groups, including contemporary music ensemble Continuum among others.
She presents her new band, Nein, whose evocative music weaves between improvisations and composed material. Sharing the double bill is Seb Rochford’s Polar Bear, a band that have successfully brought together jazz and left-field audiences with their electronica-tinged melancholy and punk-thrash solos.
Another highlight will be the pairing of two groups who have brought the traditional format of the string quartet bang up to date: Basquiat Strings perform alongside the highly acclaimed classical improvisers Elysian Quartet, culminating in Dominant Twin Syndrome, which they performed at BBC Electric Proms.
The final day of the residency offers a pick and mix selection of F-IRE chamber concerts rolling through the afternoon and featuring the superb pianist Robert Mitchell, the atmospheric Jonathan Bratoeff Quartet, Nick Ramm’s comical Clown Revisited and Tom Arthurs with a new Berlin-London collaboration.
Using the versatile surrounding of Kings Place to the full, the week’s concerts are interspersed by creative music related films, workshops for young and old and a finale that features the F-IRE Collective Large Ensemble.
Thursday October 16
Zoom!: the history and future of European Jazz Collectives.
St Pancras Room. 6.30pm, free.
Double bill: Ingrid Laubrock and Nein/ Polar Bear. Hall One. 9pm, £14.50-£24.50.
Octurn / 7eyes. Hall Two. 7.15pm, £11.50.
Friday October 17
Basquiat Strings and Elysian Quartet. Hall One, 9.00pm, £13.50-£22.50.
Thot + Tom Arthurs + Julian Siegel. Hall Two. 7.15pm, £11.50.
Saturday October 18
Clown Revisited. St Pancras Room. 12.30pm, free.
Rolling Afternoon. Hall Two, 1.30 to 5.30pm
1.30pm – Oren Marshall / Maurizio Ravalico Duo
2.30pm – Tom Arthurs’ Subtopia
3.30pm – Robert Mitchell 3io
4.30pm – Jonathan Bratoëff Quartet
Tickets: £22 for the afternoon or £7.50 per performance. |
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