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Past Events
A look at some the artists and events that have recently featured at The Edge. For more information, email manager@edgeartscentre.co.uk,
or call Alison Vermee on 01952 728911
All photographs copyright Tom Foxall unless stated otherwise.
Saturday 12th November
Dennis Rollins’ Velocity Trio
8.00 p.m. £12/£10
Dennis Rollins trombone
Ross Stanley Hammond organ
Pedro Segundo drums
?Saturday 15th October
Kairos 4tet
8.00 p.m. £12/£10
Adam Waldmann saxes
Ivo Neame piano
Jasper Høiby bass
Jon Scott drums
Saturday 3rd September
Marius Neset Quartet
Marius Neset tenor & soprano saxes
Nick Ramm piano
Jasper Høiby bass
Anton Eger drums
Saturday 18th June • Studio
The Impossible Gentlemen
Gwilym Simcock piano
Mike Walker guitar
Steve Swallow bass
Adam Nussbaum drums
Saturday 2nd April • Studio
Phronesis
Jasper Høiby bass
Ivo Neame piano
Anton Eger drums
Concert review: Ralph Towner and Paolo Fresu
by Peter Bacon http://thejazzbreakfast.wordpress.com
Pictures 2,3 and 4 were taken at the Edge concert by Tom Foxhall (Copyright)
The Edge Arts Centre, Much Wenlock, UK
09-03-2011
 The first notes from Ralph Towner’s classical guitar on Punta Giara brought that tingle to the spine: here in the room was that sound I’ve been listening to for over 40 years, ever since, in The Winter Consort, he played his song Icarus. It’s a completely distinctive sound, highly personal and original not only in the tones Towner’s fingers draw from the guitar, but also in the musical vocabulary he brings to the music.
Punta Giara was, he explained, the first piece he ever played with Paolo Fresu, when Towner wrote for a festival band 15 years ago on the trumpeter’s native island of Sardinia. With Towner now resident in Italy it was only a matter of time before the two got together again, and they did just that in 2009 to record the album Chiaroscuro for the ECM label. Many of the tunes from that collection featured in last night’s wonderful concert.
If no one could quite match Towner for a personal sound, Paolo Fresu does pretty damned well. Like the guitarist, the trumpeter speaks so naturally through his instrument, with great taste, great subtlety, and with a quiet fire. Both musicians can work up a real head of steam, a great pulsing groove which is enhanced by the very nature of being restrained within a kind of chamber music atmosphere. And the fairly intimate nature of the venue was just right for that.
Full marks to Fresu for boldness, in tackling two signature tunes so closely allied with iconic trumpeters: Blues In Green inevitably conjures up Miles Davis; I Fall In Love Too Easily recalls Chet Baker. With Towner’s guitar settings and his own well-formed style, Fresu brought plenty of new insights to both.
If the first set, with Towner’s Wistful Thinking, Doubled Up and Zephyr, all from the Chiaroscuro album, was a joy I doubted could be improved upon, the second set, with marginally improved sound, rose to heavenly heights. A new tune, She Sleeps, augurs well for further recordings by the duo, while the title song from Chiaroscuro and the richly exquisite Sacred Place, with Towner on baritone guitar, formed the concert’s zenith.
The pair came out afterwards to chat with the crowd and sign CDs; the air in the foyer was as heady with warm satisfaction as it had been with the heat of anticipation two hours earlier.
Gigs like this one don’t come around very often and are to be grasped with both hands when they do. If you’ve never been to The Edge Arts Centre, it has a really fine jazz programme – Phronesis, the Neon Quartet and Gwilym Simcock’s The Impossible Gentlemen lined up over the next three months – but be warned: it also has a dedicated, informed and sophisticated audience who book often and book early. The sold out sign is frequently utilised.
Ralph Towner and Paolo Fresu are at the Purcell Room at London’s Southbank Centre this evening, and at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester tomorrow evening. If you can get a ticket, don’t hesitate.
Peter Bacon http://thejazzbreakfast.wordpress.com
Saturday 19th February
John Law’s Art of Sound Trio
John Law piano
Asaf Sirkis drums
Tom Farmer bass
Saturday 29th January
Sarah Gillespie
Sarah Gillespie vocal, guitar
Gilad Atzmon saxes, clarinet accordion
Enzo Zirilli drums
Ben Bastin bass
Saturday 27th November • Studio
Asaf Sirkis Trio
8.00 p.m. £10/ £8
Asaf Sirkis drums
Yaron Stavi bass
Tassos Spiliotopolous guitar
Saturday 6th November • Studio
Neil Cowley Trio
8.00 p.m. £12/ £10
Neil Cowley piano
Richard Sadler bass
Evan Jenkins drums
All pictures copyright - by Tom Foxall
Saturday 15th May • Hall
Glad Day
The Choral Version
Settings of the Poetry of William Blake
by Mike Westbrook
8.00 p.m. £14/£12
Music by Mike Westbrook
Texts arranged by Adrian Mitchell and Kate Westbrook
Phil Minton voice
Kate Westbrook voice
Karen Street accordion
Billy Thompson violin
Mike Westbrook piano
Steve Berry double bass
The St. Pancras Singers
All pictures copyright - by Tom Foxall
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