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Brilliant Corners 2023
Courtesy Manuel-Miethe
It was as if Archie Shepp had somehow slipped into Black Sabbath’s ranks—an alternative universe for sure.
Black Box
Belfast, N. Ireland
2-11 March, 2023
One of the highlights of Belfast's music calendar, Brilliant Corners' eleventh annual shindig served up thirteen concerts over nine days. As ever, the main venue was Black Box, where audiences were treated to the best of Irish, British, European and North American jazz and improvised music.
Heavy snow threatened to disrupt proceedings, while industrial action in France threw a slight spanner in the works. Promoters Moving On Music, however, have seen it all before in 27 years of putting on gigs, and its team rose to every challenge. A number of musicians paid glowing tribute to MOM from the stage, with
Alexander Hawkins
pianob.1981
It is not just MOM's enlightened programming, but the care and respect with which it treats the musicians. That could mean the mundane stuff like sourcing a particular cymbal or acoustic guitar, but it also means taking jet-lagged musicians on a walk to the top of Cave Hill to clear their heads and gaze down on Belfast in all its glory. This translates into happy musicians who give their all on stage.
Binker Golding
saxophone, tenorNearly every gig saw musicians praise MOM, drawing applause from appreciative audiences who have come to know, at gigs throughout the year—and down the years—that MOM is synonymous with great music. Brilliant Corners 2023 was no exception.
BC 2023 began in a new venue for the festival. Accidental Theatre is a snug and kooky little arts theatre in the city center that hosts comedy, music, theatre and dance. If the venue has a credo it is creative collaboration, bringing together artists and audiences in the spirit of community enrichment.
Fitting then, that this improvised music night should be a collaboration between the Sonic Art Research Centre (SARC), of Queen's University, and Brilliant Corners' Moving On Music.
SARC's state-of-the-art performance space has opened its doors to numerous year-round gigs by Moving On Music, including memorable solo piano performances by Craig Taborn and Vijay Iyer, the contemporary classical music of ConTempo Quartet and electronics courtesy of Matmos. This latest SARC/MOM collaboration was the second event in the Handmade Music series, a monthly celebration of experimental music.
A crowd of around a hundred, seated or standing in semi-circular formation before a raised stage, was treated to three performances of very distinctive character.
Alan Niblock
For decades, Belfast bassist
Alan Niblock
bass, acousticb.1957
Evan Parker
saxophone, sopranob.1944
Paul Dunmall
saxophoneb.1953
Mark Sanders
drumsb.1960
Lol Coxhill
saxophone, sopranob.1932
Despite the bow-driven experimental sounds that intermingled happily with walking-bass patterns, there was a through-composed feel to the music's flow, broken as it was into five pieces. A string of beads attached to the bass strings between bridge and tailpiece emitted surprisingly atmospheric sounds when Niblock shook his bass. This was one of two striking compositions featuring spoken-word performance, another new avenue of artistic exploration for Niblock. His lyrics—enigmatic poetry touching on governance, freedom, spontaneity and change—were framed by strong, jagged rhythmic lines.
Conceptually bold, provocative music, played with unwavering intent. This may have been only Niblock's second ever solo performance, but he appears to have discovered a whole new lease of music life.
QUB Ensemble
Upstairs, in a smaller room, the Book Bar, thirty people congregated for QUB Ensemble. QUBe is a collective from the aforementioned SARC, directed by Paul Stapleton and Conor McAuley and comprised of students, staff and guest musicians. QUBe appears in all shapes and sizes, diving into the music of
John Zorn
saxophone, altob.1953
Sun Ra
piano1914 - 1993
For this iteration of the collective, Paddy McKeown on acoustic guitar, Robert Coleman on melodica, and Bihe Wen on recorder were making their debut as a trio. With Coleman's melodica the shimmering, melodic centre, Bihe on recorder and slide-whistle added bird-like, angular counterpoint, while McKeown juggled faintly sketched, folksy figures and damped-strings percussive accents.
These Handmade Music improvised sessions are short by design, but a mere ten minutes gave the trio little space to develop a properly meaty narrative.
Lara Jones
Downstairs once again, the audience showed music lovers' patience as London-based Lara Jones grappled with wires, cables and plugs to get her equipment operational. Once up and running, she delivered a forty-minute set of electronic beats, sampled and processed sounds.Armed only with a laptop, a midi keyboard and occasional vocal riffs, Jones layered fat dance beats, swirling ambient textures and nimble keyboard patterns to conjure a coursing stream of music that was rhythmically vital and primal in its intensity. Frequently beautiful and consistently engaging, it was impossible to remain indifferent before such personal, uncompromising music.
Jones' influences are not obvious, but she doubtless stands on the shoulder of giants who paved the way, electronic pioneers and sound sculptors such as Suzanne Ciani, Delia Derbyshire,
Pauline Oliveros
accordion1932 - 2016
Worth checking out too, is J-Frisco, the avant-jazz trio that Jones—a classically trained saxophonist—co-habits alongside Megan Roe and Jemma Freese.
Jack Charles Kelly Trio
No stranger to Brilliant Corners, bassist Jack Charles Kelly has graced the local jazz scene for several years, internalizing the language of bebop and the Great American Songbook. This support slot to Run Logan Run was something of a departure, with Kelly delivering three original compositions. This was only their second airing, following a slot at Scott's Jazz Club in January, and the first performance of this particular trio featuring drummer
James Anderson
violinA country-ish,
Bill Frisell
guitar, electricb.1951
Anderson, a habitual collaborator with Kelly, played with equal measures control and freedom, coloring the music with textural breadth and rhythmic guile. The intuitive understanding between these former housemates was clear. A short but rewarding set concluded with "Hate Crime," a laid back, melodically cheery tune of handsome design.
Kelly's chops are well established, but he is clearly developing as a serious composer and as a leader who recognizes good company. The hardscrabble years of low rent gigging and busking, plus eighteen months in America playing jazz, and Americana/bluegrass with Indiana group The Debutantes, are paying dividends. The road ahead looks bright for Jack Charles Kelly.
Run Logan Run
Try slapping a label on Run Logan Run and see if it sticks. Jazz rock? Psychedlic jazz? Spiritual jazz? Neo-jazz metal? Suffice it to say, saxophonist
Andrew Neil Hayes
saxophone, tenorMatt Brown
drums
John McLaughlin
guitarb.1942
For its Belfast debut, the band rolled out music from Nature Will Take Care of You (Worm Discs, 2022). That album features strings and a brass section, but there was none of that in Black Box. Instead, Hayes and Brown were joined by guitarist " data-original-title="" title="">Dan Messore and electric bassist Beth O'Lenahan.
The set roared and soared from the start, with the doomy churn and growling riffs of "Growing Pain" bleeding into the ethereal, tenor saxophone-led "Where Do You Go?"—a little like
Girls in Airports
band / ensemble / orchestrab.2009
At the rockier end of Run Logan Run's spectrum on the "Searching for God in Strangers Faces," O'Lenahan's fuzzy bass was a potent anchoring force in the face of ferocious drumming and saxophone-cum guitar wailing. It was as if
Archie Shepp
saxophone, tenorb.1937
The encore, "Caveman Disco," delivered a potent mash-up of thumping dancefloor rhythms, jazz-funk melodicism and alt rock edge. A memorable gig that has surely earned Run Logan Run a Belfast following.
Ulster Youth Jazz Orchestra
Now in its thirtieth year, the Ulster Youth Jazz Orchestra took up its habitual festival slot on Saturday afternoon. As usual, the house was full, with family and friends of the musicians out in force. With Paul O'Reilly at the helm, the 25-piece orchestra tore into the standards repertoire with gusto.Quite the start it was, too, with Yoko Kanno's theme "Tank," from the Japanese sci-fi anime series "Cowboy Bebop," and a swinging version of Henry Mancini's iconic "The Pink Panther." Cartoon music seems ripe for serious big-band treatment and
Frank Zappa
guitar, electric1940 - 1993
From
Nat Adderley
trumpet1931 - 2000
Charlie Parker
saxophone, alto1920 - 1955
Herbie Hancock
pianob.1940
Walter Page
bass, acoustic1900 - 1957
Jaco Pastorius
bass, electric1951 - 1987
Singers Kate Fitzsimons and Yasmine Fitzpatrick gave confident performances on standards old and new, with
Nina Simone
piano and vocals1933 - 2003
Astor Piazzolla
bandoneon1921 - 1992
How many of these musicians will go on to pursue a career in jazz? Probably very few. That reality is less to do with their talent than with the lack of opportunities. It was great to see Black Box packed with relatives and friends of these young musicians for the UYJO extravaganza, but to ensure that there is a jazz future for those who aspire to one, then support for jazz initiatives year-round is necessary to grow and nurture the scene.
Sarathy Korwar
Saturday evening saw London-based drummer, tablaist and composer
Sarathy Korwar
drumsInfectious groove and bags of percussion were the staples, with Korwar's touch light yet propulsive.
Tamar Osborn
saxophone, tenorAlistair MacSween
keyboardsHarmonized chant, intricate four-way hand-claps and free-wheeling flute combined on "Remember Begum Rokheya," a rhythmically infectious tune inspired by the early twentieth century Bengali feminist, activist and science fiction writer. There has always been a political aspect to Korwar's music, giving voice to the disenfranchised, though he wears it lightly.
All hands were on percussion deck for "That Clocks Don't Tell But Make Time," but there were other layers at play; electronics played an important role throughout, a filter for bright, folksy melodies and contemporary rhythms alike. There was a gently cantering quality to much of the music, including the encore, "Bismillah," and it was tempting to imagine where this music might have gone with a heavy, dub bass line or a soaring Indian vocal, something to lift it into the stratosphere.
Ant Law/Alex Hitchcock Quartet
It was the first time in Belfast for saxophonist
Alex Hitchcock
saxophone
Sun-Mi Hong
drums
Ant Law
guitar, electricb.1983
Scott Flanigan
piano
Jasper Hoiby
bass, acoustic
Phronesis
band / ensemble / orchestraFour tunes flew by—ripe with fluid solos of contrasting character from the co-leaders—before the band drew breath. Captivating individual play was not in short supply across the set, but never felt gratuitous. Mood, dynamic flow and group interplay were equal protagonists on contemporary tunes refreshingly free of obvious influences.
Law and Hitchcock also perform as a duo from time to time—notably supporting Hong's headlining spot at the EFG London Jazz Festival in 2022—and their trading back and forth on "Chrysalis," over Hong and H?iby's bustling groove, provided visceral excitement.
Hong worked her kit with an artisan's flair, keeping lightly swinging though flexible time. She rationed thrilling interjections, but when featured, as on "Vivid," a group vamp granted her licence to really stretch out. Hong's intro led the way on the brooding "Don't Wait Too Long," her rumbling mallets punctuated by tinny splashes from a small Korean cymbal suspended at knee height. Hitchcock's soft lowing ushered in a passage of tone-poem refinement, before Law's infectious riff launched the saxophonist on an uncluttered, lyrical course.
New material also figured, a welcome indicator that the Law/Hitchcock Quartet is looking to the future. H?iby stole the spotlight on a slower number with a trademark singing solo before the quartet signed off with the lively "Colors," Hitchcock and Law saving their most untethered soloing—with a knowing sense of theatre—for this charged finale.
Johanna Summer
The Yamaha Grand piano stood not on the Black Box stage, but on the floor, bringing Johanna Summer that much closer to the audience, who can rarely have enjoyed such a close-quarters encounter with a world-class pianist. With one white spotlight illuminating pianist and piano from behind, and another in front, the rest of the room was cast in darkness—an aptly dramatic setting for the music that unfolded.Both classically and jazz-trained, Summer has carved out something of a niche with her improvised versions of classical pieces, documented on Schumann Kaleidoskop ( 2020) and Resonanzen (2023), both on Siggi Loch's ACT Music label.
Taking the microphone, Summer's introduction was half-apology, half spoiler-alert, explaining that she would not be trotting out "swinging Tin Pan Alley tunes" but instead, largely improvised classical works.
Beginning with her take on Maurice Ravel's "Le Tombeau de Couperin," Summer proceeded to lift the bonnet on—and tinker rather splendidly with—piano works by Bach, Schumann, Beethoven, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin and Mompou. At times, the pianist would veer into open-ended improvisational terrain where vamps served as springboards to tumbling lines flecked with bluesy undertones. In these moments, Summer's muse seemed more
Keith Jarrett
pianob.1945
After forty minutes, Summer took a brief break. The room stirred again. In the second half it only took the dimming of the lights to induce silence in the room, fractured only by the occasional creak of Black Box's wooden floorboards.
Leaning into the music, Summer's body language conveyed intense focus, whether applying a gossamer touch or drawing thunder from the keys. Technically dazzling, Summer glided from skeletal impressionism to stormy rhapsody, summoning a kaleidoscope of moods, especially in the fertile middle ground. A thrilling workover of Gy?rgy Ligeti's "Musica Recercata" brought the concert to an impassioned conclusion.
Called back to the piano for one more, Summer offered Robert Schumann's achingly pretty "Tr?umerei," bookending her liberal interpretation with music-box delicacy. Beautiful though it was, the lullaby-esque intimacy in effect extinguished the flames of the stirring Ligeti finale. This was arguably one performance whose power could only be slightly diminished by the convention of the encore. Still, a remarkable show of pianistic virtuosity, improvisational flair and feeling.
David Helbock
The disruption caused by transportation strikes in France meant that singer
Camille Bertault
vocalsb.1986
David Helbock
pianob.1984
Few on the planet are unfamiliar with John Williams' music. But with the exception of relatively faithful readings of the themes for Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan, the odd rumbling crescendo aside, Helbock's were radical and often tempestuous deconstructions. It was also a fairly random program that flitted from Williams to jazz, classical, pop and original compositions.
Beginning with an excerpt from Beethoven's 7th Symphony, then moving swiftly onto Williams' theme from ET Helbock frequently employed the piano's innards, damping the strings with hand or towel, plucking pizzicato-style or swiping like a harp—even sounding chords. Impressive, Helbock's stride piano athleticism, his left hand holding a ludicrously fast circular motif as his right pounced on and toyed feverishly with the melodic contours of Superman.
Is it possible to sound more like
Thelonious Monk
piano1917 - 1982
There was more bouncing, stride-laced Monk, poetry by Eric Fried set to rubato music courtesy of
Enrico Pieranunzi
pianob.1949
Two heads may better than one, according to conventional wisdom, but sometimes, as David Helbock demonstrated in buckets, one is plenty.
Lina Allemano Four
Canadian trumpeter
Lina Allemano
trumpetIn Allemano's conceptually fresh sound world, harmony and dissonance are happy bedfellows, with trumpet and
Brodie West
clarinet
Andrew Downing
bass
Nick Fraser
drumsb.1976
References to "diptychs," regularly turned sheet music and an episodic, thirty-minute suite entitled "Plague Diaries," ablaze with contrapuntal fires, attested to the through-composed, structurally complex frames of the music. Within those frames, free-jazz heads of steam muddied the intellectual waters in visceral fashion—music for head and gut. "Beans," from Vegetables (Lumo Records, 2021), closed the set on a dense, free-wheeling note, with conventional notions of front-line lead and rhythm section support upended in a wonderful show of controlled chaos.
There is method to Allemano's madness, and whilst such adventurous, singular music may not be for everyone, the Belfast audience showed its appreciation.
Fergus McCreadie Trio
Scottish jazz is in rude health and Fergus McCreadie one of its leading lights. His debut album Turas (Self Produced, 2019) already turned a few heads. The pianist was soon snapped up by Edition Records, who released his subsequent albums Cairn (2021) and the Mercury Music Prize-nominated Forest Floor (2022), albums that have only increased the noise around his exciting trio.McCreadie, double bassist
David Bowden
bassStephen Henderson
drumsThe trio's dynamic range at the poles was significant, but too often the slow, gently lyrical passages, as well as the extended vamps, saw the music plateau for overly long periods, creating an inertia that took a little of the sting out of the performance. Beginning with "North" and segueing into "The Teacher," "Ardbeg" and then a new, untitled tune, the trio played uninterrupted for a ballsy fifty-five minutes. McCreadie found his sweet spot in the middle of the piano's range, rarely straying into the keyboard's upper registers.
Henderson's lively drum intro on another new composition paved the way for McCreadie's jig-like melody, a springboard to a lengthy improvised passage of lightning-fast pianistic virtuosity and rhythmic heat. Thrilling stuff, it was too. A folksy rhapsody of slow-burning, anthemic quality closed the set. An animated Black Box audience demanded more, and the trio obliged with a rhythmically charged tune, built around a catchy motif that eventually caught fire, propelling the trio into romping terrain.
At its best, the Fergus McCreadie Trio was irrisitible. It is not quite the fully matured article just yet, but its potential appears boundless.
Alexander Hawkins Trio
"Play how you wish the world to be."
Wayne Shorter
saxophone1933 - 2023
Alexander Hawkins
pianob.1981
Sun Ra
piano1914 - 1993
Louis Moholo-Moholo
drums1940 - 2025
Neil Charles
bass, acousticMost of the material presented was a preview of the trio's forthcoming album, Carnival Celestial (Intakt Records, 2023). Hawkins is a deep student of jazz piano history. In his knotty rhythms, splashy percussive accents and tireless motivic flow, strode the spirits of
Art Tatum
piano1909 - 1956
Thelonious Monk
piano1917 - 1982
Cecil Taylor
piano1929 - 2018
Bud Powell
piano1924 - 1966
Duke Ellington
piano1899 - 1974
But Hawkins is above all an original voice and this trio a spectacular vehicle for his untamed imagination. Charles and Davis worked their respective instruments hard in matching Hawkins' fire, the bassist maintaining a taxing melodic and rhythmic narrative, while Davis, in a bravura display, employed hands, brushes, mallets, sticks and kalimba as the folds of the music dictated. Three dynamos, each compelling in his own right, forging adventurous music that was much greater than the sum of its parts.
The Alexander Hawkins Trio is feted throughout Europe, where it plays far, wide and regularly. It was therefore a surprise to hear Hawkins say that Belfast was "one of the few places in the UK where we can play." Is this brilliant trio's music really too 'out' for the average UK jazz punter? Or is it perhaps the venues whose conservatism underestimates and short changes their customers? Their loss. The Alexander Hawkins Trio at BC 2023 was certainly a wild ride, but one that was utterly compelling from first not to last. Is that not what a live music experience should be all about?
Roamer
The Saturday afternoon slot fell to Irish quartet Roamer. With its members based in Dublin, Cologne, London, and at various times, Berlin and New York, Roamer does not get out much. This was the band's first gig in two years. Its one-hour set showcased the music from Lost Bees (Diatribe Records, 2022), a celebration of the poetry of Portstewart poet Cherry Smyth.Drummer
Matthew Jacobson
drums
Simon Jermyn
bass, electricMatthew Halpin
saxophone
Lauren Kinsella
vocalsImpressive, Roamer's ability to shape-shift effortlessly from shoe-gazing introspection to coursing uplift, laced with Kinsella's wordless improvisations, Halpin's melodious forays and their arresting harmonic waves—elements heard to great effect on Jermyn's "5th Neck of the Woods" and the driving "Fairy Tale." At every step, Jacobson and Jermyn plied elastic grooves and painterly shading, Jacobson working skin and metal with hands, brushes, sticks and bow. Woozy electronics accentuated the more ethereal reaches of the music.
Smyth was really the fifth member of Roamer, her haunting words inspiring Kinsella, Halpin, Jacobson and Jermyn to flights of equally poetic, one-of-a-kind music.
Binker Golding
Making a return to Belfast following his memorable appearance with
Moses Boyd
drumsBinker Golding
saxophone, tenorAmericana, of course, comes in more flavors than Italian ice-cream, but Golding's principal ingredients were soul-jazz, blues and country. Guitarist
Artie Zaitz
guitar, electric
John Lee Hooker
guitar1917 - 2001
B.B. King
guitar, electric1925 - 2015
Daniel Casimir
bassZoe Pascal
drums
Elliot Galvin
piano
Sarah Tandy
harpFrom country-ish canter to jig-like flurry, from New Orleans to bebop by way of Chicago blues, Golding led his band on a mazy journey through America's musical heartland. The saxophonist's burning post-bop solos were central, but there was generous scope for Galvin and Zaitz to stretch out too.
On the slower brushes-driven "'Til my Heart Stops," featuring finely weighted solos from Zaitz, Casimir and the leader, Golding's melodious strengths as a composer shone through. These qualities were also to the fore on set-closer "All Out Of Fairy Tales," an anthemic finale to an uplifting performance and a fittingly positive note on which to end Brilliant Corners for another year.
Wrap Up
What this year's festival underlined, as it habitually does, is that jazz in the 21st Century is a prism through which all kinds of music and influences are refracted. Classical music, musique concrete, blues, country, soul, rock, electronic, film music, cartoon themes, tango, old folk melodies, poetry.... the list goes on and on. But was it not ever thus? Just one of
Sonny Rollins
saxophoneb.1930
Perhaps for this reason, the audiences at Brilliant Corners have become more diverse, age and gender-wise, as each edition rolls by. Attendees know, or come to know, that jazz is not some staid museum piece, but a vibrant, multi-hued music—an open book with chapters in its story as yet unwritten. But however jazz's story develops and morphs in the coming years, it is a safe bet that Brilliant Corners will continue to champion the various traditions, as well as embrace the bold and the innovative, in its inclusive yet progressive programme.
Tags
Live Review
Lina Allemano
Ian Patterson
United Kingdom
Belfast
Alexander Hawkins
Binker Golding
Alan Niblock
evan parker
Paul Dunmall
Mark Sanders
Lol Coxhill
Paul Stapleton
john zorn
Sun Ra
Pauline Oliveros
Jack Charles Kelly
James Anderson
Stephan McClenaghan
Bill Frisell
Andrew Neil Hayes
Matt Brown
Beth O'Lenahan
Girls in Airports
archie shepp
Frank Zappa
Nat Adderley
Charlie Parker
Herbie Hancock
Walter Page
Jaco Pastorius
Nina Simone
Astor Piazzola
Sarathy Korwar
Tamar Osborn
Alistair MacSween
Magnus Metha
Alex Hitchcock
Sun-Mi Hong
Ant Law
Jasper Hoiby
Phronesis
Keith Jarrett
Camille Bertault
Thelonious Monk
Enrico Pieranunzi
Brodie West
Andrew Downing
Nick Fraser
David Bowden
Stephen Henderson
Wayne Shorter
Cecil Taylor
Bud Powell
duke ellington
matthew jacobson
Simon Jermyn
Matthew Halpin
lauren kinsella
Moses Boyd
Artie Zaitz
John Lee Hooker
BB King
Daniel Casimir
Zoe Pascal
Elliot Galvin
Sonny Rollins
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