Great that there is limited activity again on the London jazz scene but things are far from ideal

Round midnight? Fat chance on the London jazz scene at the moment.

Shocked is one reaction at the state of the scene at the moment although the situation has improved since Lockdown. Having said that the debatable policy of the government imposing a 10pm curfew on hospitality venues just last week threw a huge spanner in the works and ruined at a stroke the late night character of many jazz environments and reduced once again their ability to function as businesses. However, at least in London, a big crumb of comfort, live music isn't banned unlike from March until August.

So, there is some activity with some top clubs running gigs on Fridays and Saturdays (eg the Vortex), several days of the week (Ronnie Scott's, Jazz Cafe and the 606), a situation which is still quite new. The Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho remains closed with no dates at all on their website until late-November. There is however activity at the chain's Holborn venue planned and the venue is part of the London Jazz Festival this year. However not everything that that venue puts on is strictly relevant to jazz fans.

On the subject of the London Jazz Festival some major clubs (Ronnie's, the Vortex and again the Pizza Express Jazz Club) are not listed at all on the programme as venues. Looking at the festival website the venues listed as taking part are: Cadogan Hall, Crazy Coqs, 606 Club, Milton Court, Spice of Life, Jazz Cafe, Oliver's Jazz Bar, Riverhouse Barn Arts Centre, Kings Place, Green Note, Karamel, Ziggy's World Jazz Club, Hampstead Jazz Club, Barbican, Cafe Oto, Islington Assembly Hall, Omnibus Theatre, Shoreditch Town Hall, ClerkenwellARTSlab, PizzaExpress (Holborn), Duke Street Church, The Post Bar, Club Inégales, Art Cafe, Queen Charlotte Hall, Richmond, Artis Blackheath. That's still quite a substantial list. But note too the absence of any South Bank venues, in festivals gone by a significant scene for some of the biggest concerts.

Online gigs are a big part of the programme this year. When things return to normal will online gigs still feature or are they just a stop-gap? On that subject, real-time streams are far better from an ''event'' perspective than pre-recorded video presented as live only in the sense of ''scheduled live'' even if the latter often has better technical qualities given the time to finesse the visuals and sound. It is because the latter type can be just another video on YouTube even if created especially for a festival and lacks a sense of occasion. International stars and global icons of the music, a feature in the festival's glory years, are mostly missing this year. It just isn't possible at the moment because of travel restrictions for most, especially US artists who used to figure significantly at the festival, to travel. However, with the artist pool available it is an opportunity to enjoy more UK artists than might otherwise have been booked. And that is a good thing. Stephen Graham

Frith Street, London, pic. marlbank

Tags:

Two solo piano albums, to kick things off, that have a certain amount in common and are released within weeks of each other. Both the work of top-class improvisers, one German and better known, one Polish coming into his own as a lead artist. Both are on German labels. I'm talking about Mondenkind by Michael Wollny and Lonely Shadows by Dominik Wania certainly among the best albums of the year like all five of these albums.

Wania's record is the more intense, interior vision; Wollny’s while certainly not incapable of finding those dark spaces has more an exuberant feel to it, in that regard he has more in common with Wania's fellow Polish virtuoso Leszek Możdżer while Wania is more a Keith Jarrett in temperament certainly approximating to the more austere side of the master.

Each deserve an emotional response particularly when individual passages transcend the technical virtuosity each so typically display. Most listeners, while certainly thrilling on one level or another to feats of great musicianship, aren’t necessarily always after such displays although I suppose we all get blindsided by great skill and expect it perhaps but not always demand it.

What each pianist here achieves is in their interpretations leaving footprints in the mind that somehow tap an imaginative response inside us initially and lingeringly. Solo piano albums have the ability to shine a stronger light on frank statement. You get that clarity and the infinitive resource which is remarkable.

Alfa Mist’s On My Ones scores most for being in touch with listeners who may not always just listen to only jazz or even at all but who come to the music via hip-hop and grime. There is a frankness here and a great candour in the rippling motion. Albums released immediately prior to Lockdown suffered more than most this year in terms of profile and this was one we need to remember looking back this year and appreciate all over again.

Benjamin Moussay’s Promontoire I liked a lot when I first started listening to it but while it remains a favourite its slightly sugary voicings lose their appeal a bit but only if you listen to the album too much so I’ve begun rationing this one.

Stefano Bollani’s Piano Variations on Jesus Christ Superstar by contrast is a revelation of reinvention and by all means wear it out. While fixed firmly to source material the interpretation allows plenty of scope for the born improviser in Bollani to stamp his own sound on numbers from the love it or hate it musical and if anything improve on the original, not that it detained too many jazz listeners in its original form first time around. SG

Great that there is limited activity again on the London jazz scene but things are far from ideal

Solo piano albums: 5 to savour