Where shall I start with my catch up of the weeks gigs, other then rounding up the rest of the things I saw at the Jazz festival. I was lucky that I was working at the Jazz fest because it meant I got too see all the acts I wanted too. I must admit I never thought I would get to see some real jazz legeneds of groove.

Saturdays main highlight was the very original funky drummer Zigaboo Modeliste who is bedt known for being the drummer of The Metres, the original pioneers of funk.

There was also a headline gig from Fred Wesley and Pee Wee Eliss who were best known as the horn section for the one and only James Brown.

There was also up and coming pianist and young composer of the years winner Beka Gochiashvili

And lets not forget about Elliott Randall big blustering 60’s feel good blues rock. 

After things were all finished on Saturday night I then headed on over to Start The Bus to see legendary hip hop double bass and scratch dj duo Fingathing who were celebrating their return to bristol in about 5 or so years. 

Sunday saw me back at the Colston Hall feeling pretty worse for ware but it did finish off in fine style with Highlights from Get The Blessing, who proved with such effortless ease why they are in my opinion the greatest jazz band in the UK, who with added in put from Portishead guitarist Adrian Uttley they slayed all with cutting doom jazz, presenting fresh takes from their new album Lope And Antilope.

They were joined with Indigo Kid who were Nice, infact the whole weekend was as you could put it nice.

Sunday night saw a headline set from Irish rockabily fire cracker Imelda May, who delivered a real grooving set of emotional rock n roll driven with real sense of rock n rolls thrill ride.

Of course I ended up staying around for the legendary jam sessions that took place.

Monday happened and despite having less life Dodo I managed to drag my rotting corpse out the door down to the cellar of the Louisiana which boasted and impressive line up of local artists staring Jack Cookson, Beccy Farr, Ben Truner and an absolutely jaw dropping opening set from Singer harpist Natalie Whitelands, who managed to charm people with her own songs but leave people stunned when she wheeled out Phillip Glass with which you could feel the collective jaw drop before finishing off with a cover of Sufjan Stevens Chicago. 

Wednesday I decided to take the trip all the way across the other side of the city up Gloucester rd to see my good friends Brockley Forrest bring their swamp garage blues rock. soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/users/11584541″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]

Thursday saw me do the classic gig sprint from one venue to another first of all I was at the Thunderbolt for Bristols greatest ever beat combo, the ever overly enthusiastic Bucky who were playing their first show in over a year supporting Black Casino and the Ghost. As with every Bucky show there was one personality that dwarfed everything that being the one armed drumming sensation know as Joff. Joff is enthusiasm personified and hilariously absent minded. It’s fair to say its probably the only ever time I have ever been told that I look like Brenda Lee

Because the gig finished pretty early that meant I could head somewhere else if I wanted too, so me and my friend decided to head over too the Stag and Hounds because I was tempted to try and catch Those Amongst Us Are Wolves who were pretty impressive Mogwai inspired post rock.

Friday saw me head somewhere, completely underground, the Cavern Club in st Nicks Market for a Howling Owl Records night starring a stellar headline set from Nottinghams brilliantly shoegaze psych rockers The Cult Of Dom Keller.

Support came from Bristols own psych trio Taos Humm

Opening up the night were local duo Factotum, who I couldnt help but feel that lacked a certain Joff factor.

all in all it was great week of shows.