The London jazz festival’s third day had its share of reminders that a reputedly cerebral art has no problem with emotional intensity – notably through an unscheduled second show on Sunday by Kamasi Washington, whose ascent to jazz sensation is also hailed on the festival’s new BBC Music Jazz pop-up station this year. Elsewhere on the same evening, pianists Marcin Wasilewski and Helen Sung, who ostensibly represent jazz’s more temperate zones, both played with a blistering dynamism.
Wasilewski, with his much-acclaimed trio augmented by Swedish saxophonist Joakim Milder, showcased their recent album Spark of Life. Their set joined plaintive tenor sax meditations, the shifting tide of Wasilewski’s lyrical accompaniment, and the confiding observations of bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskiewicz, but there was also plenty of the fast-moving ensemble’s empathy, reflecting Wasilewski’s fascination with the rhythm section Herbie Hancock steered for Miles Davis. The lyrical melancholy of the late Polish composer Krzysztof Komeda was fused with a flexible contemporary-jazz drive, with the latter quality in full flow in the finale on Hancock’s Actual Proof.
The show’s first half was given over to Helen Sung’s piano trio. Although Sung is familiar to UK audiences as the piano chair of the Mingus Big Band, this set was a delightful surprise. Her lyricism, light touch, and classical polish (she kicked in Chick Corea’s Armando’s Rhumba like a Bach prelude) was complemented by plenty of hard-chord muscle, the repertoire featured Wayne Shorter, Percy Mayfield and her own thoughtful originals, and saxophonist Logan Richardson was a subtle frontline partner.
Earlier in the day, on the Barbican’s freestage, the tonal subtlety and patient story-building of saxophonist Alexander Bone showed why he’d won the 2014 BBC Young Jazz Musician award, and the warm, sophisticated, but often breezily funky sound of bassist Misha Mullov-Abbado’s group suggested that this acclaimed young UK jazz composer is now well into his highly promising stride.
• The London jazz festival runs until 22 November.
