Jess Gillam Ensemble. Lakeside, Nottingham. 2 November 2024, 5☆☆☆☆☆. Review: William Ruff.
Photo credit: Robin Clewley.
Jess Gillam Ensemble. Lakeside, Nottingham. 2 November 2024,
5☆☆☆☆☆. Review: William Ruff.
“Simply astonishing.”
The problem with writing about saxophonist Jess Gillam and her Ensemble is that words remain fixed to the page whilst everything about their performance moves, often at great speed. Their Lakeside concert had been a sell-out for months and, judging from the audience reaction on the night, no one would have regretted sprinting to the box office. The ingredients are becoming familiar: Jess’s huge musical personality and dazzling virtuosity; the versatility and artistry of the musicians she gathers round her; programming that is as imaginative as it is varied – and the sort of dynamism and life-enhancing fun which lasts long after the final note has been played.
There can’t be any cultural barriers which Jess hasn’t toppled in the years since she exploded onto the world in that famous BBC Young Musician final. She has a knack of seeing people safely cocooned in their comfort zones, reaching out a hand to them and then showing them what they have been missing. She’s classically trained but now just as likely to celebrate jazz and folk in her programmes. And the queue of composers wanting to write new material for her is growing all the time.
Just take the first two items in Saturday’s Lakeside programme. On the programme it stated innocently enough that the traditional Wild Rover would be followed by a movement from a C P E Bach Flute Concerto. Folk meets classical, you might think – but that gives no idea of what actually happened. The opening sounds were very strange, with Elsa Bradley’s hammer dulcimer to the fore, evoking some kind of primordial Chaos. Then Jess enters from the wings, conjuring a dreamy Nordic world of romance and folklore – before swapping instruments and exploding into an Irish jig. This was the start of an evening in which dividing lines between nationalities and genres dissolved before one’s very ears.
The Concerto which followed could well have brought screams of protest from classical purists in the audience. Music from the 18th century played on saxophone with marimba, piano etc? But it was all delivered with such panache and conviction that any doubts were banished on a wave of sheer exhilaration. Simon Parkin was the arranger, clearly a man who sees what connects the worlds of classical jazz rather than what divides them. The range of colours drawn from the solo saxophone as well as the ensemble was kaleidoscopic and it wasn’t hard to imagine Bach’s most famous (and most experimental) musical son approving of the result. Elsa Bradley’s lightning changes between percussion instruments deserves special mention.
The programme was cleverly conceived: lots of fast, super-virtuoso playing from Jess and her colleagues - but there were more reflective numbers too, such as the lovely Cantique by Nadia Boulanger and the pairing of Olafur Arnald’s Saman with James Blake’s Retrograde. Not only did the spotlight fall on the Ensemble’s ability to produce hushed loveliness but also gave the audience the chance to hear exquisite piano playing from Leif Kaner-Lidstrom.
Also on the menu: David Bowie, Michael Nyman, Debussy , Duke Ellington and a number of contemporary composers, including Jess’s teacher and musical mentor, John Harle, whose wild, Technicolor music seems to stretch saxophone technique beyond all reasonable limits. All this (and more) was folded into a mix to which it would, at times, have been easier for the audience to dance in the aisles rather than sit still and listen.
I’m not sure how they found the energy for an encore but high-octane Cumbrian folk tunes ended the evening and sent the audience out into the November night with smiles of astonishment on their faces.
Jess Gillam Ensemble
Jess Gillam (saxophones), Ciaran McCabe (violin), Michael Jones (violin), Eion Schmidt-Martin (viola), Gabriella Swallow (cello), Leif Kaner-Lidstrom (piano), Elsa Bradley (percussion)