Mark Kavuma & The Banger Factory @ Parabola Arts Centre, Cheltenham - May 2

Mark Kavuma (trumpet); Mussinghi Brian Edwards (tenor sax); Theo Erskine (alto sax); Artie Zaitz (guitar); Renato Parris (piano, vocals); Lorenzo Morabito (bass); Jack Thomas (drums)

The Parabola Arts Centre was, we were told by Compere, Alex Carr, where we would come to for the real jazz at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival this year. And to a great extent, she was right and our feet would take is there repeatedly over the weekend. Recent JazzFM Instrumentalist of the year, Mark Kavuma, was our opening act for the festival weekend and it looked like a full house was here to welcome him.

Opener, The Stand In, was a good introduction to his style. A Blue Note sounding tenor, alto and trumpet line wrapped itself around fluid guitar runs before Kavuma’s preaching trumpet sets off on a blazing run; a fully rounded tenor solo hands off to piano and then the baton is passed to Zaitz’s guitar for a solo that raises memories of Robbie Robertson or Eric Clapton. 

Ripper follows full of fast dancing urban swing as a haring, hell for leather alto solo takes off with the guitar adding colour and shape in the background; a blistering solo from Kavuma is followed by some more mellow tenor swing. A knotty guitar solo follows; the bassist is great, everything hangs off the rhythm section who are mountainous at the back. An explosive, fractious drum solo leads into some ringing hanging reverb soaked notes from the guitarist, pure Americana which is not out of place in this setting.

The third piece is a stately Mingus-esque, Porky Pie type blues opening with a melancholy song of loss and resignation from the bass. Kavuma blows cascades of notes that dance among the stars. He has the attack of those Blue Note stars of yore such as Hubbard and Dorham. The tenor solo is the most human, warm and welcoming sound you’ll hear this year. Tube is easy rolling summer vibes that you could imagine someone like Gladys Knight wrapping a vocal line round; an alto solo climbs up, dancing through the scales; wordless voices lead the rise in heat and volume before the guitar takes off. It feels like a moment of perfection when the brass and reeds come back in.

It all kicks off again for Opus 4 with a series of frantic tumbling solos and thundering drums. A stabbing, piercing solo from Kavuma over bomb dropping drums leads into a scrappling guitar solo before the drummer gets another go! The Songbird, a lush romantic ballad, that rises and falls in a series of waves, opens with a storm of cymbals and a tenor wail that falls away, Kavuma orchestrating it all. We close with a high energy Latin rampage with sparkling alto and a flurry of notes from the punchy trumpet; the bass hammering away at the back.

This is a good night out band; strange to hear them at 6:30pm on a Friday, but it was a good appetiser for the Festival, and, as the compere said, it was real jazz. Dave Sayer