Doors 9pm, music 9.30pm
Line-up
Chris Batchelor – Trumpet, Cornet
James Allsopp – Baritone Saxophone, Clarinet
Liam Noble – Piano, Fender Rhodes
Paul Clarvis – Drums
About
“Pigfoot, Chris Batchelor’s unfailingly entertaining quartet ….If Batchelor ran a restaurant, critics would be describing small plates, packed with punchy flavours, using only the finest ingredients. Pigfoot will remind you of music you loved, and make you love it all over again. It’s the sort of artistic mission that could give jazz a good name.” Jon Turney – London Jazz News
Pigfoot was formed by Chris Batchelor in 2014 to play classic 1920’s New Orleans themes with an open and original improvised approach to the material. This resulted in the acclaimed 2014 CD ‘21st Century Acid Trad’, recorded live at the Vortex Jazz Club in London.
Their inquisitive exploration of classic repertoire developed further afield, through a subsequent series of gigs at the Vortex entitled Pigfoot Play… where they extended in all directions, with gigs dedicated to Opera, Motown, Elvis, Bacharach and the hits of 1972, all spontaneously re-invented by the band’s wild musicality and wry humour.
Their 2019 CD ‘Pigfoot Shuffle’ represents the highlights of this extensive repertoire. Here they turn their genre-bending skills to re-workings of Led Zeppelin’s raucous “Black Dog”, the 70’s funk of Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusherman”, a South African township groove rendering of a Mozart aria from “The Marriage of Figaro” and, typically, a medley of Elvis Presley and Wagner material.
The music often turns on the unpredictable fulcrum of Noble and Clarvis’ long term duo partnership, and the Pigfoot sound has developed with the introduction of Liam Noble’s creative and imaginative keyboard setup. This allows Chris Batchelor and James Allsopp the option to combine as a flexible and powerful frontline, egged on by the inspired eccentricity of Paul Clarvis’ sparky and spiky drumming.
“Talk about originality. Pigfoot have absolutely nailed it….. you really do have to hear the music because it’s just so damned different. Of all the 10 numbers here, the most obvious standout is the absolutely electrifying version of Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog which positively leaps out of the speakers.” Roger Farbey – Jazz Journal