Review: Monday at the Sidmouth Jazz and Blues Festival

Some of that was due to the high quality of musical acts playing at the Blackmore Gardens for free during the afternoon. One act in particular stole the show with a stand-out performance that wowed the crowd and will be forever etched upon my mind.

But first there were the infectious Cuban grooves of Indira Roman & Aji Pa’Ti to consider during what was thankfully a slightly cooler day than Saturday.

I first caught Roman and her six-piece band at last year’s festival and felt her colourful set had its moments. This year Roman blasted further up the Scoville scale with an improved group, adding even hotter spice to her bewitching blend of Cuban, Columbian and UK musical styles.

Beautifully attired in a blue dress topped by a fetching dark blue hat, Roman proudly marched around the stage, hands high in the air, working the crowd and urging them to dance. And with her distinctive take on numbers such as González and Domínguez’s “Yo Soy El Punto Cubano” and, surprisingly, Queen’s “I Want to Break Free”, it wasn’t long before the crowd responded, led by an enthusiastic phalanx of festival goers in the midst of the park. Great stuff.

And then came the surprise. About half an hour later Hannah Williams & The Affirmations casually ambled on stage and calmly and methodically took the place apart with a set so soulful and stunning that the hair stood up on the back of my neck. I wasn’t the only one. The crowd loved the band and quite rightly so.

Williams – a former finalist of The Voice UK – has been out of the limelight for a while, having a baby. Now back in action, the woman with the golden voice clearly means business and is aiming for the very top. And with her innovative take on Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused” and strong original numbers such as the bluesy “Sinner”, the catchy “Set The Whole Thing on Fire”, the gospely “Late Nights and Heartbreak” and the rippling “50 Foot Woman”, she deserves to succeed. In short, Williams’s set was stunning.

Williams may have been a very hard act to follow, but The Big Smoke Family warmed to their task and gave it everything during the late afternoon. Described as “purveyors of voodoo funk”, the five-piece band have a strong line in original funky New Orleans-style modern instrumentals, mixing guitar, bass, brass and drums with chants, samples and street beats.

Led by charismatic drummer Roy Pfeffer, they blasted through their own catchy “Twitchy”, offered a delightful “Can Of Worms”, and gave us the hectic call and response shouter “Ain’t No Smoke Without Fire”. And with a raucous “Come On Home”, they brought the happy crowd to their feet, singing and dancing. Pretty good, all round.

Then the park closed and, as on Saturday, we all trooped out to reassemble an hour or so later with our folding chairs for the ticketed part of the day.

The Alex Clarke Quartet opened up proceedings in front of a near capacity crowd. A finalist in the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year 2020, saxophonist Clarke is clearly a good and very fluid player, but looked a little uneasy, possibly overawed by the big occasion. Backed by Tom Berge (piano), James Owston (bass) and Clark Tracey (drums), she took us through a polite set of instrumentals, including Jimmy Heath’s “A Sound for Sore Ears”, and smooth versions of “Where or When?” and “I Get A Kick Out of You”. It was all very pleasant and was well received by the audience, but Clarke’s performance – and her staid choice of material – sadly lacked pizzazz.  

The same couldn’t be said for the evening’s headliner, jazz supremo and multi-instrumentalist Courtney Pine. Blowing his saxophone wildly in the wings, the man awarded an OBE and a CBE for his services to jazz music burst dramatically on to the stage in a flurry of joyful notes.

His Sidmouth show was a rambling but highly enjoyable joyful mix of multi-cultural influences, blending jazz, ska, calypso, mento, rock, reggae, jazz… you name it, and apart from heavy metal and classical, the man and his tight band threw it in.

There were some lovely moments – such as when Pine slotted in refrains from Paul Desmond’s “Take Five”, Bobby Timmons’ “Moanin’” and Bill Withers’ “Lean On Me”. And then there were the stage antics, such as getting the crowd to jump and down 110 times. Extraordinary stuff.

All too soon, it was over, and so too was this year’s Sidmouth International Jazz and Blues Festival. Event founder Ian Bowden and his team pulled off a remarkable feat to build upon last year’s success. They did so and with considerable aplomb, so here’s hoping that there will be a third festival.