Each year, the Manchester Jazz Festival programme includes a specially created piece – for 2018, the honour goes to Scottish composer and harpist Esther Swift. Sponsored by Irwin Mitchell, the mjf originals commission celebrates contemporary jazz by providing an opportunity for a talented regional artist to present new work. Light Gatherer sees Esther bring together voice – in the form of a deconstructed version of the verse of Manchester-based Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy – with string trio, piano, saxophone, trombone, accordion and percussion, and features many of Manchester’s notable improvisational musicians. As the festival continues to champion women in music – with half of all bands at mjf 2017 including a part-female line-up – this brand-new composition also lets Esther’s own regular harp quartet, Clouds, take centre stage, comprising herself, Elfair Dyer, Rebecca Mills and Angelina Warburton. Focusing on the mood and rhythm of speech, think poetry meets jazz meets contemporary classical meets folk.
Thu 26 Jul, Salon Perdu, Festival Square (Albert Square), Manchester, M2 6LW, Tel: 0843 208 1848, 8pm, £15 adv (£16.50 door), manchesterjazz.com
- Words:
- Sarah-Clare Conlon
- Published on:
- Mon 16 Jul 2018
