Very Late To The Party But..

Of course those outside the UK moight have to use devious means to watch this but..

The four finalists of this year’s competition were saxophonist George Johnson, bassist Ursula Harrison, pianist Nils Kavanagh and trumpeter Klara Devlin.
Playing their pieces in front of an audience at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London’s South Bank, the house band accompanying them was pianst Zoe Rahman, bassist Alec Dankworth and drummer Sophie Alloway.
First up was George Johnson playing a seamless set. He was very accomplished but I was not engaged by what he was playing. Drummer Sophie Alloway didn’t really seem that engaged too. A difficult thing, being the first one on in a live show. He drew the short straw, warming up the rhythm section.

Next was bassist Ursula Harrison replacing Alec Dankworth and playing three distinct pieces. The first and third were her own compositions, the middle one was her arrangement of Wayne Shorter’s “Speak No Evil”, which is one of my all-time favourites and her arrangement was superb. The house band really perked up on that one. A great choice to play and it went down really well with the QEH audience.

Third on stage was pianist Nils Kavanagh, replacing Zoe Rahman. He also played 3 distinct pieces. Again the first and third were his originals, the middle one being an old jazz standard, the name of which I forget. He was very good, especially on his second original. The rhythm section were obviously enjoying playing that one. Very good but still not very engaging until the 3rd tune.

Finally we had trumpeter Klara Devlin, who played 4 short pieces. The first, introduced by a beautiful solo section, was an original. To my ears the best-composed original piece performed that night. Her second piece was Freddie Hubbard’s “Hub Tones” which everyone seemed to enjoy playing. Next was a duet with Zoe Rahman on Horace Silver’s “Peace”. Beautifully-played but a distinct lowering of momentum. She finished with her own arrangement of “Litha” by Chick Corea. A good finish.
I thought it a clever idea to get all four to play together (with drummer Sophie, who had to work the hardest all evening) on a Charlie Parker tune “Bloomdido” which none of them previously knew. Led by Nils Kavanagh. All of them played really well together. Good individual solos, in turn, and of course trading fours with the drummer to good effect too.
Previous winner, bassist Ewan Hastie (2022) played a composition of his own with Zoe and Sophie while the judges, Nikki Yeoh, Soweto Kinch, Laura Jurd, Jasper Høiby and Zara McFarlane deliberated. It was good but not exceptional.

Usula Harrison won it. Well-deserved. I was very impressed by her playing and attitude. I suspect it was the version of Wayne Shorter’s “Speak No Evil” that swung it, though. Such a great choice.

I thought Klara Devlin was the best instrumentalist of all of them, definitely one to watch, she’s only 18, so lots of promise there.
Having only one original composition was what mostly counted against her, I suspect. I’ve previously seen her a good few times with the Tomorrow’s Warriors Frontline all-female band, who are wonderful.

Not sure why Huw Stevens was a presenter on this. He looked awkward and out of place and contributed nothing in his comments.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0025gbw/bbc-young-musician-2024-bbc-young-jazz-musician-2024

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