HUW WARREN - Dylan Thomas: Do not go gentle
Blue Orange Theatre, Birmingham; Sunday 5th November 2017
Blue Orange Theatre, Birmingham; Sunday 5th November 2017
Huw Warren: piano; Iain Bellamy: saxophone; Martin France: drums; Steve Watts: bass.
Huw Warren composed his suite for Dylan Thomas’s centenary and it was premiered at the Brecon Jazz Festival in 2014. We are fortunate that he is now touring this marvellously evocative set of pieces. The set opened with Warren’s gently rolling piano over which Bellamy played sax that had a vaguely calypso feel at times buoyed on by France and Watts swinging behind him. This piece, ‘Do not go gentle’, called to mind driving through lush countryside of South Wales and there were several occasions during this set when I was struck with the ways in which Warren’s composition not only capture the rhythm of Thomas’s poetry but also the countryside around Swansea where both Thomas and Warren were born and raised. The next piece, ‘Llareggub’, conveyed the mythical ‘small town, starless and bible black’ from Under Milk Wood, with its ‘sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea’. The suite was dedicated by Warren to Stan Tracy, as we were reminded in the introduction by Phil Rose from Brum Jazz. Again the piece conjured up the Welsh countryside, and this theme developed further in the next piece, ‘Fern Hill’. Across these pieces, Bellamy and Warren traded solos with wit and warmth, and France and Watts keep tight control of the pacing and rhythm, occasionally soloing themselves – although their main solos were reserved for the second set. Continuing the first set, the band next played a piece called ‘Salvadors’. This is from the era of the band Perfect Houseplants (of which Warren and France were members). The piece was introduced by Warren as a sort of cross between Wagner and café music, as he’d read somewhere that this was all the Salvador Dali wanted to listen to on his death-bed. Oddly enough, this is exactly what the piece sounded like. The first set closed with ‘Organ Morgan’, named for a character from Under Milk Wood.
The second set opened with an evocation of a different aspect of south Wales. This piece had the nagging insistence of traffic stuck in a tailback, and was dedicated to the ‘lovely, ugly town’ of Swansea (these was Dylan Thomas’s words to describe his, and Warren’s, birthplace). This was a long piece that took a number of different twists and turns, with a couple of great solos by France and Watts, as well as superlative playing by Warren and Bellamy. Next up, we had an extract from a suite for another son of south Wales, Roald Dahl. This particular piece, ‘Pig’, was based on one of Dahl’s revolting rhymes, in which a strict vegetarian ends up dying in an abattoir. The set closed with Hymn, dedicated to Ann Griffiths.
What was most appealing about the tunes played was not just the excellent musicianship of the players, but also the sense that Warren has been steadily crafting his own form of ‘Welsh Jazz’; if other countries can lay claim to a form of jazz, why not Wales? Certainly, Warren’s tunes carry a soft, lilt that speaks of the towns and valleys with warmth and optimism.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Photo Credit: Brian Homer
Huw Warren composed his suite for Dylan Thomas’s centenary and it was premiered at the Brecon Jazz Festival in 2014. We are fortunate that he is now touring this marvellously evocative set of pieces. The set opened with Warren’s gently rolling piano over which Bellamy played sax that had a vaguely calypso feel at times buoyed on by France and Watts swinging behind him. This piece, ‘Do not go gentle’, called to mind driving through lush countryside of South Wales and there were several occasions during this set when I was struck with the ways in which Warren’s composition not only capture the rhythm of Thomas’s poetry but also the countryside around Swansea where both Thomas and Warren were born and raised. The next piece, ‘Llareggub’, conveyed the mythical ‘small town, starless and bible black’ from Under Milk Wood, with its ‘sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea’. The suite was dedicated by Warren to Stan Tracy, as we were reminded in the introduction by Phil Rose from Brum Jazz. Again the piece conjured up the Welsh countryside, and this theme developed further in the next piece, ‘Fern Hill’. Across these pieces, Bellamy and Warren traded solos with wit and warmth, and France and Watts keep tight control of the pacing and rhythm, occasionally soloing themselves – although their main solos were reserved for the second set. Continuing the first set, the band next played a piece called ‘Salvadors’. This is from the era of the band Perfect Houseplants (of which Warren and France were members). The piece was introduced by Warren as a sort of cross between Wagner and café music, as he’d read somewhere that this was all the Salvador Dali wanted to listen to on his death-bed. Oddly enough, this is exactly what the piece sounded like. The first set closed with ‘Organ Morgan’, named for a character from Under Milk Wood.
The second set opened with an evocation of a different aspect of south Wales. This piece had the nagging insistence of traffic stuck in a tailback, and was dedicated to the ‘lovely, ugly town’ of Swansea (these was Dylan Thomas’s words to describe his, and Warren’s, birthplace). This was a long piece that took a number of different twists and turns, with a couple of great solos by France and Watts, as well as superlative playing by Warren and Bellamy. Next up, we had an extract from a suite for another son of south Wales, Roald Dahl. This particular piece, ‘Pig’, was based on one of Dahl’s revolting rhymes, in which a strict vegetarian ends up dying in an abattoir. The set closed with Hymn, dedicated to Ann Griffiths.
What was most appealing about the tunes played was not just the excellent musicianship of the players, but also the sense that Warren has been steadily crafting his own form of ‘Welsh Jazz’; if other countries can lay claim to a form of jazz, why not Wales? Certainly, Warren’s tunes carry a soft, lilt that speaks of the towns and valleys with warmth and optimism.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Photo Credit: Brian Homer
