Brilliant Corners 2025: Days 5-8

Brilliant Corners 2025
Black Box/Various Venues
Belfast, N. Ireland
February 28-March 8, 2025

If the first four days of Brilliant Corners 2025 leaned towards long-form contemporary composition and free improvisation, the music of the last four days had a more spiritual tone, and a more heavily African-accented character. Many would say that all music comes from God, or that it is an offering to God, but as became clear, others find creative inspiration in much more earthly pursuits.

Where attendees during the first weekend had been reminded in poetic and powerful terms of the climate crisis, those present for the second weekend were reminded of the devastating war in Ukraine, and the part that each individual can play to alleviate the suffering of children, and to support Ukraine's existential fight against Putin's aggressive colonialism.

In the last few days of the festival, tributes, of both brief and extended nature, to McCoy Tyner, Alice Coltrane, Dorothy Ashby and Pharoah Sanders underlined the ongoing influence of jazz' post-bebop trailblazers.

Bhakti: Zoh Amba

According to the New York Times, free-jazz is gospel for Tennessee saxophonist Zoh Amba, but it is a term she rejects, describing her music more simply as coming from the heart. And that is her right. But her fierce playing in Black Box, a torrent of honks, shrieks, stuttering exclamations, with frequent use of overblowing to skewer notes and twist them into tortured sounds, could not but help evoke the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Frank Wright, latter-period John Coltrane, Peter Brötzmann et al. They also played from the heart.

But gospel is also gospel to Amba. Her impassioned incantations drew from devotional hymns—whose melodious rays would crack the collective tumult—and she dedicates her music to God. This gentler, more lyrical side to Amba's playing in fact dominates her debut album O, Sun (Tzadik, 2022). One exception, the feisty "Holy Din," could have served as an apt summation of this evening's performance.

For her Belfast debut Amba was joined by two of New York's finest in bassist Nick Dunston—returning to Brilliant Corners after appearing with the Stephen Davis Unit in 2024—and drummer Chris Corsano.

The trio roared from the get-go. The opening salvo of incendiary interplay, at a blistering pace, lasted 12 minutes before the energy diminished, whereupon Amba delivered a vibrato-heavy passage like a sobbing lament. Then it was off to the races again, the trio's heady gallop punctuated by the odd bass-and-drum duet as Amba drew breath. Following a murderous drum solo from Corsano, the leader returned to the fray with an electric guitar, her ragged strumming and vocals steering the trio into grunge rock. But it proved to be a brief incursion as she took up her saxophone once more and blew—and overblew—over Dunston's frenetic bowing and Corsano's ever-evolving tapestry. The first piece concluded after 34 howling minutes.

Dynamic shading was not lacking, particularly on the second piece, a relatively short 12-minute excursion that began with a wobbly tenor melody. Dunston employed his bow diversely, sawing and tapping the strings. Corsano flipped his sticks end over end to alter the pitch and intensity of his playing. At times the drummer worked with two sticks in one hand, and regularly switched between sticks, brooms and brushes as the volume and intensity oscillated. Amba's improvising, emotively surging rather than technically precise, was speckled with little glints of folksy melodies. It spilled easily into overblown skronk, but it was all part of the same well.

The trio wrapped up its breathless set with a 10-minute workout. At its free-flowing height, with the three musicians locked into each other's waves, there were shades of Charles Mingus' revelry in both roots and total freedom.

Addressing the audience, Amba shared that her great-grandmother had come from Donegal, a Gaelic-speaking part of Ireland steeped in traditional music. One wonders what her ancestor would make of this music. It would probably sound foreign to her ears, but she would likely recognize the keening, prayer-like quality in Amba's playing, the fearless spirit, and above all, her passion.

Bex Burch & Laurel Pardue

Once a month, Moving On Music occupies Accidental Theatre for an evening of experimental music that goes by the moniker Handmade Music, a collaboration with Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC). Around 70 people packed the small room to listen to percussionist/singer and composer Bex Burch and violinist/percussionist Laurel Pardue.

Burch is the motor of Vula Viel, which arrived like a breath of fresh air on the London jazz scene with its double-kit, Afro-free-jazz debut Good Is Good (Vula Viel Records, 2015). Reimagined as a trio with Ruth Goller and Jim Hart, Vula Viel has since released two more cracking albums, Do Not Be Afraid (2019) and What's Not Enough About That? (2020)—also on her own label. At the heart of Vula Viel and Burch's music is the gyil, a wooden xylophone from Ghana. The instrument also took centre-stage this evening.

Bright gyil motifs-cum-rhythmic mantras interlocked with counter rhythms from two standing drums—one for each musician. Pardue, who inhabits both folk and classical worlds, alternated between drum rhythms and violin, drawing pizzicato pulses, beautiful legato lines and folksy riffs from her strings. Burch's vocals colored several songs. Tender and almost whispered, her songs of love and loss were spiked by exclamative interjections.

Percussive textures abounded: cow bells large and small; gamelan-esque metal plates; temple bells; key-ring-sized harmonica; old-school guitar tuners in the shape of miniature mouth organs—single and multi-barreled; dripping water; and tuning forks to generate amplified hum. Whether layering rhythms or simply exploring sounds, the effects were hypnotic.

Sandwiched between two sets, a portion of the crowd relocated upstairs to the tiny Book Bar for the performance of sound-designer Marty Byrne, a long-standing member of improvising collective QUBe (Queens University Belfast Ensemble). With a loop station and other boxes of tricks, Byrne read text and sang, all the while dishing out generous dollops of reverb, a dash of modulation, sprinklings of harmony, delay, pitch bending and more besides. His text, a highly personal and dramatic reflection on growing up in the challenging circumstances of family traumas—and against the backdrop of Irish civil conflict—felt like confessional therapy, and it was powerful stuff.

By contrast, the final piece, while more full-on sonically—the small room engulfed in booming, reverberating, pulsing sounds—was more light-hearted in theme. Who knew that an ode to a cheese spread-and-baguette combination could inspire such off-the-wall experimentation?

After a brief intermission, Burch and Pardue picked up where they had left off, roping in the audience for contrapuntal clapping and humming duties on another infectious tune where gyil and violin wove dancing lines. For the final number, the duo paid homage to performance artist Laurie Anderson with the singer's hit "Oh Superman." The coming together of Anderson's Jules Massenet-inspired melody, metronomic gyil pulse and waltzing violin made for a potent finale. What was not enough about that?

Sultan Stevenson Trio

Sultan Stevenson must be getting used to sold out gigs. They seem to follow him around. The London pianist came through the ranks of Peter Brötzmann , announcing himself to the wider world with Faithful One (Whirlwind Recordings, 2023). Accolades followed in its wake. There is a buzz around him.

For his Belfast debut, Stevenson was joined by regular trio partners, bassist Jacob Gryn and drummer Joel Waters. Kicking off with "Guilt By Association," the trio wasted no time in establishing its swing credentials. The first solos went to Gryn, a melodious accompanist whose seemingly effortless playing impressed throughout, and the busy Waters, with Stevenson maintaining a rhythmic undercurrent. The leader's unaccompanied reply balanced a light vamp, which gave way to left-hand rumbling, and melodic stirrings in the right that gained in potency, if not in clear direction. Bass and drums rejoined for the brief stretch to the line.

The two-part set featured several tracks from El Roi (2025), Stevenson's second album, and his first on Dave Stapleton's Edition Records label. Stevenson cites Tyner as an influence and there were hints of John Coltrane's pianist in the Londoner's chordal progressions on the lively "Unspeakable Happiness." The trio breathed more on the slow opening segment of the third number, with Stevenson's lyricism to the fore. Gathering wind in his sails, Stevenson stretched out, bass and drums responding to his lead. Coming from the post-bop tradition, Stevenson's language suggested the orbit of Blue Note Record-era Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, the latter whose "Witch Hunt" he quoted directly, as if to underline the point.

The second set began with "My Unbelief," a fiery swing number that won audience approval. But it was when Stevenson and company stepped a little away from the straight-ahead, post bop idiom that the music was arguably most persuasive. A case in point was the slow-burning "Purpose," where the trio built patiently on a head-bobbing groove, part Lafayette Gilchrist, part Ahmad Jamal, that worked its way under the skin, with Waters unleashing fierce rolls, booming kick-bass bombs and crash-cymbal explosions. Another example came with the hymnal "He Has Made Me Whole," a brushes-steered, blues-inflected ballad that climaxed in a billowing piano coda that landed on the softest of notes.

Introducing the final number, "Safe Passage," Stevenson acknowledged his debt to McCoy Tyner. On cue, the trio (re)launched into animated post-bop terrain that paid overt tribute both to Tyner's personal dynamism, and in a four-note motif, to Coltrane's A Love Supreme. Extended fireworks from Waters rounded out composition and set.

Stevenson is an undoubted talent who has already notched some significant milestones on his journey, but it still feels as though he is searching for a clear identity. Still, one to keep an eye on.

Alina Bzhezhinska HipHarpCollective: A Tribute to Alice Coltrane

With the final day of Brilliant Corners 2025 falling on International Womens Day it was entirely appropriate that harpist Alina Bzhezhinska should have the honor of closing the festival in The MAC. All the more so as her program paid tribute to the great harpist Alice Coltrane. This may have been Bzezhinska's first appearance in Belfast, but it was a welcome return to Ireland for the Ukrainian-born, London-based musician following her ten-date Irish tour in 2020 (see review here).

Bzhezhinska's quartet featured a change of rhythm section from her previous visit to these shores, with drummer matt holmes and double bassist Menelik Claffy doing the honors. Rounding out the band was tenor saxophonist Tony Kofi, who has forged a significant musical partnership with Bzhezhinska since 2017.

It was with a nod to Pharoah Sanders that the show began, Kofi's keening lines the entrée to Alice Coltrane's powerful "Blue Nile," one of several tracks from Bzhezhinska's Inspiration (Ubuntu Music, 2018). Kofi stretched out over swirling harp and percolating rhythms before Bzhezhinska picked up the reins. Whether comping or soloing, Bzhezhinska displayed remarkable technique. Her billowing glissandi and arpeggio flourishes flared at the more dramatic end of a spectrum that was perhaps even more compelling in sotto voce passages where the subtlety and intricacy in her musicianship was magnified.

From Coltrane's collaboration with Joe Henderson, The Elements (Milestone, 1974), Bzhezhinska offered the aptly titled "Fire"—all probing rhythms and fesity soloing. Taking things down a notch, Bzhezhinska and Kofi gave a duet performance of "Altera Vita," the title track of their beguiling duo album (see review Altera Vita) of the same name. Their tender meditation was a heartfelt dedicated to Pharoah Sanders. The first set concluded with a smoking rendition of Alice Coltrane's posthumous ode to her husband, "Something About John Coltrane," with Kofi's impassioned flames stoked by the lithe rhythm section.

By way of introduction to "Meditation," Bzhezhinska explained that the melody originates from an area close to the Carpathian Mountains where she was born. With dignity, Bzhezhinska said that the Ukrainians also want peace, "but not at any price, because they have already paid a very high price." She highlighted the fundraising concerts that HipHarpCollective does for Tetyana Myalkovska Arts Centre, a children's charity in Lutck, Ukraine, that uses art as therapy for children orphaned, dislocated and traumatized by the war. She invited people to check out her website for further information. Warm applause greeted her words, and the composition, whose melancholy and dissonances sounded like a lament for the suffering in Ukraine.

Prior to Alice Coltrane, the most innovative trailblazer of jazz harp was Dorothy Ashby, who was playing jazz clubs in Detroit in the early '50s. The racial and gender prejudice she had to fight against were compounded by the general indifference to the very notion of jazz harp. Yet she persevered, recording a string of fine albums in the '60s before moving into more lucrative studio work. Bzhezhinska paid homage to Ashby's influence in words and then in music, the band turning up the funk on "Soul Vibrations" from Ashby's Afro-Harping (Cadet, 1968)—an album that Bzhezhinska had performed in full in London in 2019. The biggest cheers, however, greeted Claffey's bass solo, a tremendously energetic mixture of groove and freedom.

Kofi's fiery "Dear Alice" and the irrisitible canter of Coltrane's "Los Caballos" closed out the set on an impassioned note, the highly vocal standing ovation bringing the quartet back for its—and Alice Coltrane's—lap of honor. After all the fire, Bzhezhinska led the quartet on a gently reflective interpretation of Coltrane's lyrical "Journey in Satchidananda," bringing down the curtain, slowly and elegantly, on Brilliant Corners for another year.

Wrap-up

Good crowds and great atmosphere were the common denominators during the eight days of Brilliant Corners 2025. The odd voice of complaint could be heard in relation to the duration of Zoh Amba's gig, which lasted little more than an hour, but try doing anything at high intensity for an hour (weeding, ironing, clothes-washing by hand, shoe-polishing, running, singing) and then, with the sweat pouring off you, ask yourself if an hour is short.

As ever, there was a decent representation of Irish musicians, with the concerts of Ed Bennet and Orion Courtney Lee providing some of the most progressive and provocative music of the festival. Hopefully, the festival will continue to find space for local talent.

Was there less jazz than in previous years of Brilliant Corners? That is probably a matter of opinion, but some of the more difficult-to-pigeonhole music undoubtedly provided some of the festival's outstanding highlights. There has always been a slightly provocative edge to promoters Moving On Music's programming for Brilliant Corners, one that keeps the 'what is jazz today?' flag flying. The debate continues.

By programming music that would otherwise rarely be seen by many punters, Brilliant Corners is first and foremost doing the music a great service. And by pushing the boundaries of people's comfort zones, this small but potent Belfast jazz festival is expanding and enriching people's cultural life.

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