Croeso y Cafe Oto

A welcome in Welsh from the trumpeter, composer and bandleader Tomos Williams prefaced the performance in Dalston of the third part of his Cwmwl Tystion series: Empathy, to follow the live recordings of Witness (released in 2021) and Riot! (2023) made during earlier tours. In all three, Williams blends the language of contemporary jazz with stories from the last 200 years of Welsh history.

For each part, he deployed different resources: the harp of Rhodri Davies and the voice of Francesca Simmons on Witness, the saxophone of Soweto Kinch and the vibes of Orphy Robinson on Riot!. For Empathy, he retained the voice of Eadyth Crawford and the drums of Mark O’Connor and added the Vietnamese guitarist Nguyen Le, the American bass guitarist Melvin Gibbs and a second voice, that of Mared Williams.

The two non-Welsh guests, both virtuosos of effects-enhanced stringed instruments, played powerful roles in setting the tone and trajectory of the music chosen and written to accompany pieces inspired by Paul Robeson’s recital to the mining families of Aberpennar (Mountain Ash) in 1938, the eviction of the villagers of Mynydd Epynt in Powys by the Ministry of Defence in 1940, the Aberfan disaster of 1966 and the miners’ strike of 1984. All these were accompanied by Simon Proffitt’s back-projected visuals.

Gibbs, once a member of Defunkt, has few equals in turning a five-string bass guitarist into an electronic orchestra. Le is one of the most adept of post-Hendrix guitarists. They found a willing accomplice in the powerful and dextrous O’Connor. At times I was reminded of Miles Davis’s Tutu period, of Jon Hassell’s Fourth World Music, and of Terje Rypdal at his wildest. One late passage raised the volume to death-metal levels.

That made the use of the two voices, sometimes combined in folk-like materials, even more valuable as a contrast, along with the sudden and very moving insertion, during the Aberfan passage, of the pre-recorded sound of a pipe organ and a chapel choir, and Williams’s use of Donald Byrd’s “Cristo Redentor” as a healing balm towards the conclusion. Earlier, the trumpeter had excelled in a tightly muted solo over a lovely habanera rhythm.

After six concerts at various venues around Wales in the preceding days, this visit to Llundain represented the tour’s finale: the final performance of this particular work by this particular band. As they laid down their instruments and stepped back from microphones, the sense of exhilaration had a special resonance.

* Parts one and two of Cwmwl Tystion are available on the Ty Cerdd label.