Today I am going to write about a couple of the amazing musical events that I attended recently.
Bristol International Jazz & Blues Festival is an annual music event that happened at the Colston Hall in Bristol (UK) from the 6th to 8th of March 2015.
The first thing I would like to mention is the outstanding lecture about Louis Armstrong given by the archivist from the Louis Armstrong Museum (New York), Ricky Riccardi. In a very educative and emotive way he lead us to the least known latter years of Pops’ life.
The second event was an astonishing performance by the internationally-known jazz clarinet player Evan Christopher and his band Django à la Créole.
The band instrumentation itself, consisting of clarinet and guitar/banjo as the lead instruments (instead of the usual trumpet and saxophone player), as well as bass and double bass as the rhythm section (instead of the usual drums and piano), gives a completely unique sonority and classy style, very characteristic of New Orleans Jazz.
Evan Christopher’s way of playing is in my opinion full of taste, musicality, flexibility in his tone and rhythmic character. His clarinet, a Selmer Improved Albert system, has been quite commonly used by great New Orleans jazzmen such as Jimmie Noone, Omer Simeon, Irving Fazola, Johnny Dodds, Edmond Hall and George Lewis. It produces a powerful sound that gives the chance to stand out as a soloist, as well as a very mellow and warm one, in order to blend and accompany other leading instruments. Here a picture of this model:
For all these reasons, it was a real pleasure for me to have these outstanding concerts and musicians in venues around Bristol, I love it.