Sunday confirmed the eighth Cheltenham jazz festival as being as entertaining a balance of styles, stars, nascent talent, interventionist programming and jazz angles from the archival to the experimental as any since the event's inception.
An early-afternoon two-guitar blast from UK band Partisans incorporated the idiosyncratic, former Steely Dan member Wayne Krantz, and two bands led by trombonists - Chris Barber and Mike Gibbs - headlined in the evening. The septuagenarian Barber, who was a vital catalyst to the struggling British jazz scene in the 1950s, was here guesting with Badbone, the funk ensemble led by trombonist Dennis Rollins. Rollins returned the compliment with Barber's amiably punchy jazz-legacy band later on.
Partisans' collaboration with Krantz always looked to be a highlight of the weekend. Though Krantz was a shade withdrawn compared with the stinging performances he has delivered in Britain with his own trios, it turned out to be a highlight that made you blink in its glare. Drummer Gene Calderazzo started explosively and went nuclear, and the frequently lyrical and reflective saxophonist Julian Siegel ripped into a series of uptempo harangues reminiscent of Kenny Garrett with the later Miles Davis bands.
Much more tentative, but promising for the future, was Birmingham Conservatoire student Alcyona Mick's piano-led quintet. Mick composes rather formal, rhythmically devious pieces, and her patient, probing solos mingle sharp and sparing lyricism with something like the percussive chording of Ahmad Jamal.
Rollins came to party, and if his Crusaders-to-hip-hop repertoire was inevitably a little rhythmically static, his own improvising grace was very classy, particularly in a delectable reflection on Tracy Chapman's Fast Car. Chris Barber, joining Rollins for two tunes, soon settled on common ground in the phrasing of the blues. Barber's own show in the evening confirmed just why his resourceful mix of traditionalism, enthusiasm and perfectionism has enjoyed a 50-year career.
Pianist and composer Uri Caine played the most integrated of his jazz/ classical splicings: his Mahler show. Mahler's strident marching songs and jaunty cafe-fiddle melodies segued in and out of hard postbop swinging and raucous free-jazz in a manner that sometimes suggested a less whimsical Carla Bley.
