Hiby-Bardon-Hession
The Queens Head, Monmouth
Wed 18 July
Free jazz, the genre that’s been bringing out the inner conservative in jazz fans for over 50 years, finds a more ready audience in some places than others. Not always big liberally-minded cities, although quite often, but very sparingly in south Wales. And yet The Queens Head in Monmouth, a 16th century alehouse with a regular programme of jazz and blues, has for several years now been a regular (as in, once a year or so) stopoff for a small coterie of free jazz stalwarts from England and mainland Europe.
This month three of them are back, after a 2016 gig here that music booker Neill Bell calls “astonishingly powerful”. Hans Peter Hiby, a German tenor saxophonist, and Leeds drummer Paul Hession have both been active in the free jazz underground since the 1980s, often collaborating with each other; Michael Bardon, an Irish double bassist, is the spring chicken of the trio in his early 30s. Most recently, they’ve recorded an album, {Roots}, as Hiby-Bardon-Hession, and it’s a thing of raucous beauty. Hession drums with clattering dexterity yet frequently drops out to reveal surprisingly melodic sax passages and tender bass thrum; it’s essentially a live recording, so if it sounds good to you, imagine it up in your grill as you nurse an ale.
Admission: free. Info: 01600 712767
words Noel Gardner