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Review of 2017

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“The BEJE (Bristol European Jazz Ensemble) is the brainchild of Bristol jazz trumpeter David Mowat. Their distinctive sound is a combination of David’s lyrical trumpet,
Knud Stuwe’s masterful guitar and oud fused with the sympathetic rhythmic section of bassist, Federico Leonori and drummer, Jon Clark.

Their culturally diverse repertoire comprises elements of American jazz, contemporary folk and beautifully re-harmonised classical music; an uplifting journey across musical boundaries”

Andy Christie composer on hearing BEJE at Bristol Music Club Nov 28th 2017

BEJE has had a less busy year in 2017 than in the preceding three on account of David Mowat’s focus on his Arts Council England-funded project ‘Longing Belonging and Balfour’, a music with spoken word take on The Balfour Declaration of 1917 which has traveled around the UK. There’s some crossover with BEJE as Knud Stuwe is involved as arranger composer and oud player and the jazz has seeped into the Yiddish song and Arabic maqaams.

After The Bristol Music Club gig in January came a gig at a hot pub party with Senegalese kora Master Moussa Kouyate, then a Bristol Fringe gig at the same time as the Bristol Jazz and Blues Festival in March and a Colston Hall gig in May (where the video and recording were done). These last two were in stark contrast of personnel, with Julien  on tenor, Paolo drums Daan keyboards and Federico bass, whilst the May gig Jon Clark was on drums, Al Swainger on bass and Len was on alto and soprano.  There were more recent originals played in Colston Hall than the grooves we layed out with Moussa.

Jazz Stroud May 28 2017

In May at The Stroud Jazz Festival BEJE went down very well and in June a large audience at The Portishead Speakeasy loved us. Hostess-singer Kate O’Loughlin wrote after “What a joyous night last night.David Mowat and BEJE played extraordinary takes on regular Jazz standards along with some very moving, contemporary own compositions, beautifully executed”

Despite a long summer gap and one one on one rehearsal with bass dep Guilaume our gig at The Bocabar in Glastonbury in September was as free-flowing as ever with bassist-promoter Adrian Smith writing “It was a great gig on Friday 8th at the Bocabar with BEJE  – Beautiful compositions and some really top notch playing. The audience loved every minute of it. If you get a chance you should definitely go see the Bristol European Jazz Ensemble”

By request we were invited back to the slightly less pristine (having had us jazzers once already) classical Bristol Music Club, developing a taste for reflective jazz and story telling in

Portishead Speakeasy June 16 2017

November, which takes us to 2018.

 

Bocabar Glastonbury Sept 8 2017

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BEJE FIRST JAZZ ACT IN 113 YEARS

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BEJE performed at the Bristol Music Club, a venerable institution, as part of its long-established series of chamber music, on Tuesday January 10th 2017. Though there have been occasional jazz concerts booked there at other times this was the first time ‘chamber jazz’ had been accepted as a sub genre of ‘chamber music’. The stipulation was to play entirely acoustically, so even Paolo Adamo’s drums let alone David Mowat’s trumpet and Federico Leonori’s sonorous bass played to the level of Knud Stuwe’s oud and his nylon strong cut away acoustic guitar (ironically designed with a direct input for an amp). Concert Secretary Dick Little commented:

‘Very many thanks for a most enjoyable concert last night, full of variety and great musical and technical skills. We classical musicians find your improvisational skills quite magical! Hope you didn’t find us too formal! The first jazz concert in 113 years I think!’
We played to a fairly full house and warm applause, including, in the jazz audience tradition, for sparky duet improvs by the Italian boys. Audience member (and pic taker) Peter Bruce commented
beje-at-bristol-music-club-jan-10-2017‘Great jazz performances and improvisations flowing together’
Later I received this full review from Alison Dodd, committee member who gave the vote of thanks

BEJE  at  BRISTOL MUSIC CLUB

 

Recently Beje, represented by David Mowat (trumpet), Knud Stuwe (guitar and oud), Federico Leonori (double bass) and Paolo Adamo (drums) played Bristol Music Club, an audience perhaps more accustomed to listening to classical string quartets than a jazz group – but undeterred, Beje got on with what they do best, easy, relaxed playing that comes from long association and total enjoyment of what they do.

 

They gave us a wide-ranging programme, partly following the pilgrimage that David himself had made, on foot and at times quite alone, from Bristol to Jerusalem.  We travelled to Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans, and from mountains high above the Mediterranean to the Somerset Levels, David’s own music responding to the styles of music that he met as he journeyed and engaged directly with the people he encountered along the way.  There was superb playing with some great solos – David’s wonderfully smooth trumpet, intricate patterns from Knud on both his instruments, and a magnificent duet which had Federico and Paolo vying to outdo one another with ever more energetic and ambitious feats which the audience could not resist, at last bursting out, however diffidently, with admiring applause.

 

This was a captivating performance, propelled forward even through the pauses within melodies by an impeccable sense of rhythm.  One ‘gentle ambient piece’ from the Balkans was a Dance for Timshel, Timshel being Hope in the face of how things are.  We had felt very much aware of that vital hope during this exhilarating evening of playing, which was both sensitively  lyrical and full of zest.

 

 

 

 

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autumn gigs 2015

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WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 21st 9pm The Canteen Stokes Croft Bristol 9pm free entry. BEJE with Knd Stuwe on guitar replacing Anders Olinder. Expect a more Middle Eastern and Balkan slant than usual (even) as Mr Stuwe gets out his oudh, used to great effect in his band Mr Dowland’s Midnight with tenorsax man Jake McMurchie.

FRIDAY NOV 6th 8.30pm BeBop Club Entry price tbc, Around £7.50. Hotwells Bristol. Back with Anders at Bristol’s premier jazz club. We’ll be  swinging for England with the incomparable locked in rhythm section of Italians Pasquale and Paolo.

SUNDAY NOV 22nd 8.30pm Southampton Modern Jazz Club free entryhttp://www.southamptonmodernjazzclub.com/

SATURDAY NOV 28th 7pm Saint Stephen’s Church BS11EQ BEJE with The dazzling Dutch jazz singer Anne Chris coming to Bristol especially for this one-off gig. Tickets on the door £10/£5 students or buy ahead for £8.75 from Bristol Ticket Shop. http://www.bristolticketshop.co.uk/eventdetails.aspx?e=10635 A Jazz Vocals MA graduate from Amsterdam’s Conservatory Anne has 3 albums and a trail of international gigs behind her, not least in her native top venues, Bimhuis and North Sea Jazz Festival. She’s a highly rated up and coming singer with a youthful somewhat melancholic voice. BEJE will back her for 6 of her songs as well as play their own material.

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‘FLAWLESS PRECISION AND ABSOLUTE PASSION’ at Prema Arts Centre May 22 2015

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prema arts centre“It’s always a good and healthy thing when a programmer of a venue is proved wrong and tonight’s performance at Prema from the Bristol European Jazz Ensemble serves as a prime example of that very phenomenon. Having booked live music for this venue for twenty years and in spite of various attempts to bring jazz into the centre’s music programme, the audience’s booking preferences led me to believe that “you can’t sell jazz at Prema”. Well, we took a punt and it seems that our audience (who are always used to sharing a punt with us) really do rather like jazz. Especially when it’s played by a bunch of amazing musicians. Tonight’s line up offered a broad spectrum of musical styles, genres and flavours – each one executed with flawless precision and absolute passion. The performance from the Bristol European Jazz Ensemble will help us to rekindle an audience for slightly more experimental music and allow us to have some fun in bringing in an even broader live music programme for this remarkable arts centre – Gloucestershire’s most intimate performance venue.” Gordon Scott Prema Arts centre Director (pic-  not of BEJE)

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BEJE at PREMA ARTS CENTRE MAY 22

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The interest from Prema Arts Centre [Fri May 22 8pm £12/9 in advance. Bethesda Chapel South Street Uley (Nr Dursley) Gloucestershire GL11 5SS] allows us to present ourselves as ‘world music’ whilst others see us as ‘modern jazz’. It all depends what a programmer thinks their audience likes. What people actually like when we get to a gig may be different to what we think we like as experience (usually) trumps preconception. I’m always trying to think how to present the band, whilst band members tell me not to compromise on the quality of the music that emerges on stage from the improvising dialogue that pushes us into ever more open and exciting places. It’s an interesting place to be as band leader, recpetive to the music making as a fellow musician, but also attentive to to the audience before they arrive and when actually there. http://www.prema.org.uk/whats-on/weekly-classes/Bristol%20European%20Jazz%20Ensemble/?prod=131

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BEJE band leader co-exhibitor at JAZZ AHEAD in BREMEN GERMANY

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Having launched our new cd ‘Beje Bites’ and made a new promo film of ‘Redfield Carnival’ www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIDmuRfYL1w David Mowat the BEJE leader is to travel to Bremen at European Jazz’s premier event, ‘Jazz Ahead’ on 23 to 26 April. His intention is to secure the first European gig for BEJE at a club or festival around which smaller gigs can be organised. And attracting the interest of an agent would be fabulous as well. Musicians may find him hanging out at the jam sessions (if they are to be had). He will be a co-exhibitor on the Jazz Services UK stand.

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BEJE at Bristol’s Big Green Week June 19th

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Thursday 19th 8.30pm Future Inn Bristol £5 entry BEJE.016http://www.futureinns.co.uk/bristol/jazz-at-future-inns/

I still have to finish setting my four poems ‘The Bridging Place’ about Bristol to music. In them I try and re-imagine the city and its natural location from the perspective of elemental powers-earth, water, fire and stone, putting human history and destiny in some kind of perspective.

I can’t decide whether to score them out accurately or indicate a ‘feel’ for the BEJE musicians to follow. Knud Stuwe set them originally in 2010 with a contemporary, Charles Ives-ish score. Fabulous, but not appropriate for this band. I’m going for a more paired-down earthy feel, closer to the bass-emphasis of the Beat era of jazz and poetry (so Pasquale, BEJE bass player is the man for it)

Now the practical bit: It’s at the Future Inn Bristol, Bond Street South (next to Cabot Circus giant carpark but there’s free parking in the hotelcarpark) Bristol BS1 3EN Tel: 0117 304 1010

Other numbers this evening will be from our ‘Live At The Fringe’ album. Plus one new one ‘Walled Garden’

The Big Green Week brochure advertised the gig as free which is innacurate I’m afraid. This used to be the case until recently at Future Inn but is no longer. The corrected message wasn’t picked up by the BGW editor, at least in time. Sorry about that.