A compelling new jazz sound from Chicago will ring out at Rich Mix, the dynamic arts centre in the heart of Shoreditch, as part of March’s Soul on Ice Festival.
Soul on Ice, a four-day festival curated by arts development organisation Certain Blacks, will feature music, cabaret and live art. It takes its name from the 1968 memoir by Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver (written while he was in Folsom Prison in California).
The music highlight is the visit of free jazz pioneers Vincent Davis, Ari Brown and Ed Wilkerson, who bring their acclaimed group The Katalyst Conversation to the venue on Thursday 14 March. Brown, who turned 80 on 1st February, is a Chicago-based saxophonist and flautist who excels in playing everything from hard bop to avant-garde jazz. In a long career, Brown has played alongside luminaries such as Archie Shepp and Sonny Stitt.
In an email interview from America, Brown talked about his grounding in jazz, and his relationship with Stitt. “Some of my earliest influences were John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and McCoy Tyner. I liked all the old cats, like Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Dexter Gordon, and Stan Getz – especially the smoothness of his delivery and tone. On piano, Ahmad Jamal was one of my favourites. I used to do a set before Sonny with John Watson, and then we’d do a set together. Sonny used to tell stories about him and Gene Ammons. I would go by his hotel room and get lessons from him. He had knee problems, and I recommended Doctor Sidney, a naprapath. After that, he gave me free lessons!”
Brown and acclaimed Chicago-born percussionist Davis were former members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) – a progressive body that flourished in Chicago in the late 1960s – and they reunited for a series of concerts called ‘Mondays in October’ in 2021, performing at The Katalyst Coffee Lounge and Music Gallery, a record store that had just opened in Chicago. The shop, which was part of impresario Kevin Beauchamp’s independent record label Katalyst Entertainment, is intent on preserving the AACM tradition of ‘Great Black Music: Ancient to the Future’.
The pairing was so successful that it was soon followed by a second series called ‘Mondays in May’. That concept evolved further, with more musicians, into a musician performance called ‘The Conversation’, when the pair were joined by Preyas Roy, an up-and-coming vibraphonist and marimba virtuoso. Roy, who originally came to the Chicago to study maths at the city’s University, had left his studies to focus on being a full-time musician, honing his skills with regular busking on Michigan Avenue.
A month later, Vincent reached out to Wilkerson, an acclaimed saxophone player, clarinettist, composer and music educator, to further expand the scope of their musical collaboration, and the result was last June’s ‘The Conversation Continues’ concerts.
Now, Londoners will get the chance to hear their innovative sound when the seasoned trio, along with Roy, bring this captivating musical exploration to Soul on Ice. “I’ve been to London a few times with Elvin Jones,” recalled Brown. “First time was at Ronnie Scott’s Club, and I did another concert at a ‘theatre in the round’. With Elvin, we had a chance to work in the UK, and I liked some of the other cities too. I’m excited to go to London, it’s been a long time.”
Brown says that the members of The Katalyst Conversation “have a lot in common musically”, adding “we feed off of each other. We understand and appreciate the differences and qualities that each member brings to the group. Spiritually, it’s connected to the history of Chicago jazz and blues but it’s something separate from the tradition.”
The evening with The Katalyst Conversation includes an extra treat – a collaboration with UK musicians from the Miles Danso Ensemble, which will showcase the playing of Miles Danso (double bass), Keith Waithe (flute), Maurice Brown (guitar), Gary Washington (cello) and Siemy Di (drums and percussion).
Part of the aim of this Certain Blacks initiative is to explore diversity, identity and improvisation through music, cabaret and live art. Among the other attractions performing at Rich Mix are The Cocoa Butter Club (15 March), a cabaret troupe who celebrate burlesque, circus, spoken word and comedy as they explore the narrative of bodies of colour.
On 16 March, the festival hosts Contortion Girl Hannah Finn and a day later there will be live drawing commissions and a panel discussion about diversity and inclusion in art, along with a dance performance from The Psyber Giantess (Ugandan Diana Amma Gyankoma Abankwah).
In his controversial polemic Cleaver insisted that the “cultural achievements” of multicultural races should be celebrated. With the music of The Katalyst Conversation and the pioneering dance, art and comedy on show from such a fascinating range of performers, there will be plenty to enjoy in this creative celebration of the human condition and of all its joyful diversity.
