Jonathan Bratoeff Quartet at Jazz Club on May 26th
Jonathan Bratoeff is a young French guitarist who has been based in London for the last several years; interesting that there is a bit of a French jazz community in the city: saxophonist Stephane Payen is also based here and saxophonist/Clarinettist Robin Fincker divides his time between London and Paris. They are all members of the F-Ire Collective and former F-Ire administrator Stephanie Knibbe is also part of the community.
Jonathan leads an excellent quartet with Mark Hanslip on saxophones, Tom Mason on bass and James Maddren, very much the drummer of the moment. He is also a member of the Kit Downes Trio. The quartet has made a CD entitled Mindscapes and is touring UK at the moment including a date at Birmingahm Jazz’s monthly session at the Rainbow tomorrow night at 9pm (Wednesday 26th May). The music combines echoes of the guitar playing of both John Scofield and Pat Metheny, plus a mix of free playing and melodic exploration. Blogger Ian Mann heard them on tour in Cardiff and has commented:
Catch Bratoeff if you can. He’s a highly original guitarist and an increasingly mature composer. The tunes on “Mindscapes” plus the newer pieces heard here are uniformly strong and the album is strongly recommended. This is clever,complex music but it’s also melodic, readily accessible and not at all “difficult” for the listener. The hand picked band serve Bratoeff’s compositions well and Maddren, in particular, seems destined for great things.
Tony
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