A Night at the Willie Clancy Summer Festival

The night was dark but not full of terrors. On the contrary, this was one of the best moments of my entire life. Everything you fancy in Ireland was there, and more: beer, Irish music, a packed dim pub and laughs with one-night friends. This could be a summing up of that night, though it would not give a fair account of the overall magical feel.

This actually may be the kind of nights rather common to most people – you know, outgoing, happy, normal people. But to me, the whole context made it a time and place that were in perfect harmony, and that will resonate with me until my last breath. You see, I had been traveling on my own in Ireland for a week then, and I had still a good three weeks ahead. I had left my family cocoon to go explore the unknown (it was neither Iraq nor Siberia, but you know, for 19-year-old me it was already a lot for a first lone travel), so I had still not gotten the knack of the whole unsettling traveling experience, how to endure loneliness in a place you’ve never been to before and quickly make it your own.

This Willie Clancy Festival is held annually since 1973 in memory of the piper Willie Clancy and takes place in the beautiful little seashore village of Miltown Malbay, County Clare, in the more traditional West of Ireland. This festival attracts people from over the world for its renowned traditional music Summer School, Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy, the largest of the country. It offers a full program of lectures, recitals, dances, exhibitions and many cultural workshops during that week. So, I ended up in this festival (which I highly recommend) because I was actually carrying out a research on Irish traditional music and its link to collective war memory in the country – so it seemed pretty relevant to go spend a few days over there.

But the night. For starters, that night was also the first time I went into a bar on my own. I plucked up my courage, left my dorm bunk bed and told myself I would have a decent night, even if there was no one I could hang out with in my dorm. Once in the street, I just played it by ear and went into one of the many pubs of the village. I dived into the mass of people already in the Players’ Club, ordered a can of cider, and just listened. It was 7 in the evening, and by 9 the pub was really, really packed. I still wonder how we all fitted in there. But never mind, the music was very entertaining and filling me up with plain, innocent joy.

Then and there I met a little bunch of people, themselves musicians. We started chatting, drunkenly gaily, and we ended up spending the whole evening together. Once we managed to get hold of a booth, they just started playing – me, right in the middle of this, happy and tipsy as ever. Never had I thought I would be at the very heart of an improvised Irish music band!

At three o’clock they left, and I stayed there, in the Players’ Club. You know, people always say how great it is to be able to live and share your experiences with your friends. But you know what? Sometimes it is just as good to be selfishly alone to live them. When you are by yourself, all of your senses are alert, and you really are a 100% in the moment, no “parasite” around you. Of course it also depends on the kind of experience and people you’re with too. But on that very moment, I am just thankful my body and soul were a 100% present, because my memory has now printed it in forever.

The dim light of the pub, in contrast with the loudness of the crowded room’s laughs and cheers, the smell of spilled beer, the damp hotness, the players in the corner playing relentlessly for eight hours… The repetitive and cheerful aspect of Irish traditional music surely played a great part of this transcending night’s feeling. Quite complex to master, it gives the impression of being easily played though. It is a kind of music ever so delightful; its repetitions make it easy to understand it, and to take root in the place and moment you’re in somehow. Recorded Irish music is never half as magical and entertaining as it is live, for it is not made to be a commercial product: it is truly something to be lived.

On that night, everything just made perfect sense. The people seemed to be one with the music, although in a simple manner – no need for an obvious trance or whatever. Transcendence is not just for religious people, pot smokers or Jehovah’s Witnesses. It does not have to be linked to martyrdom or Tibetan-like meditation. I do believe it is also practiced, through another way – and even though they don’t call it that – by down-to-earth people who are just having a beer with friends and enjoying fine music that has been their legacy for generations, in good times and in bad; that very music which is the heart and soul of their country.

This article was written for this blog only.

Live review @ The Blue Note, NYC: Terence Blanchard, Ravi Coltrane + Gerald Clayton Trio

Thursday 8th January, New York

In the dimly lit dark blue room, a cocktail in hand, all of us in the audience were waiting for the band to appear on stage. Groundbreaking names, a legendary venue, a historical jazz festival: indeed the night was promising a lot, and it did live up to the expectations.

Located in Greenwhich Village, NYC, the Blue Note has been a focal point of the jazz world since its creation in 1981, and thus has received the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Tito Puente, Chick Corea and many others. The quintet has been playing at the club for five days straight as part of the Monterey Jazz Festival, the longest continuously running jazz festival in the world that also has an educative year-round mission through many local to international tours across the continent.

Here they met for this night: world-renown trumpeter Terence Blanchard and saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, Monterey award-winning pianist and musical director Gerald Clayton, and two rising stars of the jazz scene: Joe Sanders on bass, who has already played with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter to name only those two; and Justin Brown on drums, a UC Berkeley graduate who has worked with Kenny Garrett and Stefon Harris. At one point during the performance, I was so entranced by his solo that I even forgot to take notes, which just shows how captivating he can be.

The crew arrives on stage, and starts right away with one of Blanchard’s compositions. Shifting measures from duple to triple time ones and fast-paced, this track asserts itself without notice. The trumpet solo Blanchard gives us recalls Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s famous Flight of the Bumblebee somehow, in its mastery of light and seemingly easy velocity.

“Jazz is about being a bad ass motherfuck*r”, Blanchard once said during a summer course at the University of Virginia a few years ago. But he has also recently turned to Buddhism in recent years. This open-mindedness and eclectism transpires in his playing: cocky but mastered, risky but confident and poised – balanced, but unbalanced enough to push limits a little further every time.

Then follows a tenor saxophone solo by Coltrane. Although he does not look too happy with his reed, his free jazz style is enjoyable and is cleverly backed by drummer Brown, whose accents are not too strong or invasive but audible enough to be noticed – in short, a perfect attention to detail.

Clayton’s solo is darker and calmer, like the obscure sea retiring after a stormy weather. The actual Clayton Trio play for a little while – that is, piano, drums and bass – and we can just feel that they know each other well musically speaking. Brown knows very well what Clayton likes and tries to drag him along further, pushes him gently, and indeed it works out perfectly. The symbiosis is complete. The solo gets into a light Latin groove, before they all come back together on the theme, ending in a happy and messy, but coherent hubbub.

After a classical jazz transition, Clayton continues on playing to introduce one of his compositions from his last A Life Forum album. The drums join the piano softly, playing only on the edge of the snare drum at first, giving a rather traditional, rhythmic feel in the same vibe as Avishai Cohen Trio.

Trumpet and tenor saxophone then have a calm but very convincing dialogue, where they echo each other at times, playfully intertwining their arguments. But the musical climax arrives; we can just feel the tension in the whole room – they’re losing their minds in an elaborate Aristocats-like festival, for our greatest pleasure.

What is truly interesting in attending a concert is that not only you get the sound experience – in its most unique form, for it is real at that present time only – but you also get the physical experience. You belong to a physical audience, feeling what it feels and absorbing the music; and you get to observe how the music is done before your very eyes, and how the musicians interact. It is just so enjoyable to watch the band members smile at one another, obviously enjoying their playing together; to notice that Sanders at the bass took off his shoes and is now playing in plain socks; or to see the eye contact Clayton and Brown make when playing together, the latter supporting the former’s solo in the most perfect way possible.

A presentations break sprinkled with anecdotes and humor takes place, in which I particularly appreciate the fact that Blanchard praises Coltrane’s own talent for itself, without making any direct cause-effect link with his famous father. Indeed it would be an easy thing to do, just as many journalists actually do, including myself. But while it may hold some truth, it is important to regard the artist for who he/she is and for his talent and work, before making any quick and handy connections that could incidentally degrade his/her own value as a unique performer.

A gentle bass and drums duo then starts, soon joined by the trumpet and saxophone, all the while very soft and tender. The rhythm begins to take another shape, more undulating on a waltz-like pattern. Tone modulations then add themselves, giving yet another color to the mood before it goes into a coherent inferno: Clayton’s genius in composition can clearly be felt again.

But now comes the time of the Clayton Trio: Blanchard and Coltrane get off stage to let them play. On this light-hearted and uncluttered music, Sanders gives a wonderful bass solo – we just don’t get enough of those! The whole track is very intense and puts you in a good, adventurous mood. Brown using the edge of the cymbals recalls a Japanese music-like feeling, very soothing… up until the surprising energetic end of the track. This was a very convincing showcase of the trio’s creative concord indeed.

And last but not least, the band comes together for a fast-paced track full of give-it-all-for-the-end! solos. We finally get to hear Coltrane playing the soprano saxophone that we’ve been staring at all night long in expectation! He gives a very be-bop, enthusiastic playing – it seems he cannot stop anymore. He really gets carried away in inspiration, giving us a very nice memory to end the concert with. Clayton follows, giving a balanced solo, surprising in its regularity and classic structure but exceedingly splendid. As we all expect in delight, it all ends with a bang like a happy firework grand finale, leaving us with star-filled eyes.

This article appeared on AAAmusic.co.uk.