Newcastle Jazz Festival - Day Two: Laura Jurd - June 27

Laura Jurd (trumpet, electronics); Elliot Galvin (piano); Ethan Johns (guitar); Oren Marshall (tuba); Jeremy Stacey (drums)

Laura Jurd, the much-lauded trumpeter/composer, arrived on Broad Chare to play a 'Miles Davis' set. The closing act at this year's Newcastle Jazz Festival drew a near capacity crowd. Trailed  variously as 'Re-imagining repertoire from across Miles' career' and '[drawing on] Davis's catalogue across his career', it remained to be seen what Jurd had in store.

In a valiant, but largely ineffective, attempt to create a through-draught, Live Theatre's doors were open to the elements until just before the down beat. As Laura Jurd took to the stage, industrial-size fans whirred, hand-held fans wafted, it was hotter than Hades. 

Jurd, long-time partner Elliot Galvin (piano), Ethan Jones (guitar), Oren Marshall (tuba) and drummer Jeremy Stacey, the latter supplying the 'rock' element to the performance, cranked it up, then cranked it up some more. Miles' sound from his 'electric period' (broadly 1968 to his death in 1991), was Jurd's primary focus. Galvin plugged into the mains, Johns, at times not a million miles from wah-wah Hendrix, Marshall threatening the foundations with almighty blasts from his stand-mounted instrument, and the aforementioned Stacey was all over the kit. 

Bandleader Jurd periodically danced a jig of delight, more than happy with what her bandmates were laying down. Sid's Ahead (from Milestones, 1958) was given the 'Electric Miles'/L. Jurd treatment. Miles Runs the Voodoo Down (from Bitches Brew, 1969) and Jilli (from Amandla, late 1980s) were very much of the period - electric and loud. 

Birth of the Cool, the iconic Davis-Gil Evans collaborations, and the first and second 'Great Quintets' were all but absent. A career retrospective? Anything but. A full-on tip-of-the-hat to 'Miles Goes Electric'? It most certainly was. Russell