Charlotte Keeffe Talks Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2024 And More

Free Jazz virtuoso Charlotte Keeffe will perform at Parabola Arts Centre in Cheltenham on Saturday 4th May 2024 as part of Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2024. She chatted to us about her set and more: 

Charlotte Keeffe’s Right Here, Right Now Quartet will be performing at Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2024 on Saturday 4 May 2024 at 1:30pm in the Parabola Arts Centre. Have you performed at the festival before or attended it as an audience member?

WAHOO! Oh I’m delighted to be playing this year’s mighty Cheltenham Jazz Festival with my RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW Quartet featuring Ashley John Long on double bass, Ben Handysides on drums and Moss Freed on guitar! We’ll be blowing the roof off the Parabola Arts Centre at 1:30pm, you’re ALL so welcome to come and join us, be part of it!

Please stick around and come see and hear the Cheltenham Improvisers Orchestra live at The Wilson from 7pm – I’m delighted to have been invited to play with this wonderful ensemble as part of their special Cheltenham Jazz Festival performance!

On Sunday 5th May, at 2:30pm, back in the Parabola Arts Centre, I’m over-the-moon to be part of the mega Sam Eastmond’s John Zorn Bagatelles Band, please come and join us! Eastmond’s arrangements of Zorn’s music guarantees you an unforgettable live music experience! Oh I can’t wait to play ALL of these gigs, what a weekend it’s going to be!

I remember when I first came to Cheltenham Jazz Festival, I think it must have been around 2011/12 ~ I was determined to get to the (live) music, I planned a long coach ride/adventure coming from Lincolnshire. I remember finally arriving and straight away
 the brilliant John Taylor! He was just sitting there, underneath one of the summery looking white tents amongst the sweet festival atmosphere with lots of folks gently surrounding him, smiling, laughing, drinking… It was one of the most exciting and
surreal moments of my life – I was suddenly so close to SO much exciting music (musicians)! I was still at school, it was one of the first festivals I went to. I quickly caught the live music/festival ‘bug’ and realised there really is nothing else like a music
(Jazz) festival, it was ALL so exciting and still is!

You released your second album ‘ALIVE! in the studio’ last year. How did you want to approach the making of the album?

Being a freely-improvising musician, I play/make very raw (abstract) music, which is
instigated and inspired by whatever moment I am in, (I also love smothering the venue
in distorted (exploratory) trumpet cries!) Music happens and thrives in the moment/right
here, right now for me, and I crave the (a)liveness of the music – it can feel beautifully
connecting, liberating and ultimately transcendent! I wish everyone could experience
that feeling, I really want to inspire folks to feel/seek it…

So why do I record and release music if it’s all about the ‘right here, right now’/live
performances for me?!

My debut album, Right Here, Right Now, which is also available on Discus Music,
excitedly happened pretty organically!

During lockdown, I posted a clip of my RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW Quartet playing our
first gig at London’s Jazz in the Round in 2019, and Martin Archer who runs Discus
Music, very quickly and kindly reached out to me on the back of watching that clip, to
ask if I had any recordings of the Quartet as he’d LOVE to release them! I was (am)
super delighted and of course I jumped at such a wonderful opportunity! I really wanted
my debut album to be a reflection of all of the projects/ensembles/music I make, not just
feature my RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW Quartet. Thankfully Martin understood this
more CV/sample/snapshot approach, and my debut album features some of my solo,
duo, quartet and large ensemble (London Improvisers Orchestra) works. Also, and
more-to-the-point, it features mostly all recordings from live gigs/performances – some
recordings I didn’t even know were happening!

Right Here, Right Now.
You are a precious collaboration.
Pieces, journeys, stories…
Right Here, Right Now.
You are full of improvisations.
A mantra. A practise.
Exploring. Feeling. Listening.
Expressing.
Feeling.
Listening
Breathe, Right Here, Right Now.
You are a way of being.
Making music.
Right Here, Right Now.
You are full of connections and connecting…
Right Here, Right Now.
You have captured my past;
melodies and compositions I wrote as a teenager,
my 1st freely improvised trumpet solo,
my 1st conduction. Breathe.
You are full of my intentions and un-intentions.
You are raw and fragile.
Right Here, Right Now.
You are when my trumpet seems to play itself.
You are as it is.
Let it be.
Be, be.
Right Here, Right Now.
Breathe.
Creative Freedom For All.
By Charlotte Keeffe

It was a quick process to put together/release Right Here, Right Now (back in June
2021) – I really wanted to leave the live recordings alone, trying to ‘match’ the
feelings/energy from the live gigs/moments.
Going back to lockdown, (like so many folks/musicians), my partner and I started to
record ourselves at home! I suddenly became fascinated and excited about the idea of
recording my own music/album in a studio – as I mentioned earlier, I’d not really been
that fussed about doing this prior to lockdown, because it’s more about the (a)live
performance (and/or recordings from gigs) for me!

A combination of the above, and
receiving very exciting reviews about my debut album, it quickly became clear to Martin
(Discus Music) and I that a Quartet studio album was to happen next, and last year, on
Thursday 13th April, at Goldsmiths Music Studios in London, we made it happen! We
got all the music recorded in one session/afternoon – it was a fantastic, but intense
session! I’ve recorded lots of music in lots of studios, but this was my first time leading
all of my own music-making and boy, I’ve learnt LOTS from the journey/process!

We kicked-off the session with a piece called Sweet, Corn, now, in the context of our
live performances this is usually our last number and we always feel exhausted when
we play it, so I wanted to play/record this piece without feeling exhausted, but
interestingly it just didn’t feel ‘right’ when we played it at the beginning of our recording
session (not feeling exhausted), so we all decided to come back to it at the end (as per
live performance) and it felt much better, we gave it one blast at the end, when we were
all shattered, and that is what you hear on the album! I’m eternally grateful to Ashley
John Long (double bass), Ben Handysides (drums) and Moss Freed (guitar) for their
powerful musicianship – it’s always more than inspiring playing with them! It is (the
music) as it is, and I’m so grateful and excited about how the album is being received!
So, going back to ‘why do I record and release music if it’s all about the ‘right here, right
now’/live performance (recordings) for me?!’ Perhaps it’s obvious to say, but there’s
something more composer-like in doing-so (as opposed to improviser-like) I feel really
inspired and compelled to explore more of this composer part of me! I think of music as
a liquid/water.

I’m fascinated and curious as to how musicians/composers create ways
(sculptures) to support and/or nurture the flow of that liquid/music! You could let the
liquid (music) spread everywhere, you could let it soak up in a piece of kitchen roll and
squeeze it out elsewhere, or pop it in a beautiful decorative vase, there are endless
ways of holding/guiding that liquid/making-music and I’m curious as to how folks
choose, or not choose to do it!

Do you have any favoured stage instruments, effects, pedals, microphones etc?

I LOVE exploring the space we’re performing in, the sound bounces off walls, ceilings, poles, floors in certain ways that can really inspire the music-making! Right now, there’s so much for me to explore acoustically on my trumpet and flugelhorn, but I’m always fascinated with Moss’ guitar pedals/effects! I sometimes use the microphone as a mute (an effect), and/or, I intentionally play inaudibly, far away from the mic…

The trumpet is such an evocative vocal and percussive instrument, I’m so in love with it! Sound is everything, it’s of course what people hear/notice first. It blows my mind that each sound I make on my trumpet has its own unique position – the difference between each of these positions (sounds) is very subtle. I love the feeling of the notes surfing on the air! Practising is an essential and meditative process for me. I’m currently focusing on being as relaxed as possible when I play and practise – passionately blowing everything through the small hole in the mouthpiece can sometimes feel really intense for me!

Trumpet sounds/notes have become moving colourful 3D shapes in my mind’s eye, like a graphic score, particularly when I’m playing freely, experimentally and abstractly. I’ve become obsessed with exploring the space in these shapes/sounds; playing them
this-way, that-way, upwards, sideways, downwards, diagonally, backwards – desperately getting inside the sound and pulling it around! My trumpet and flugelhorn have become my Sound (paint) Brushes. I cannot get enough of exploring what seems like endless possibilities through improvising, composing and conduction.

What music do you enjoy listening to? Do you have any recommendations?

It sounds cheesy, but there’s SO much music happening all the time.
Listen to the sounds where you live, feel the rhythm of your heartbeat, let that squeaky
floorboard sound inspire you and how would you write the rhythm of that dripping,
ticking sound from outside?!

Music is everywhere, everyone and everything!

What was the story/inspiration behind the track ‘A Horse Named Galaxy’?

‘A Horse Named Galaxy’ is for my amazing Mum, and her passion for horses! I’m always searching for ways to bring as much as possible together! I really enjoy merging and mixing singable and unsingable sounds and melodies, so distorting and stretching out musical ingredients like chewing gum stuck on the bottom of my shoe!

‘A Horse Named Galaxy’ is an example of catchy, straight ahead, traditional musical ingredients merged with distorted, abstract, raw explorations in the moment – come to the Parabola Arts Centre on Saturday 4th May at 1:30pm to find out more!

Have you been working on any new ideas/material?
I’m very keen to release the (A)LIVE recordings from our/RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW at Café OTO gig back in January, plus a live duo recording of Phil Minton and I also from OTO…

I would LOVE to establish a U.K. Improvisers Orchestra, and/or a RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW Orchestra plus festival and live concert series, I of course want to play more internationally too! I’m really looking forward to playing in Vienna and Switzerland again
this summer!

I also have plans for a duo album with bassist and composer Ashley John Long, and playing (more) with Lara de Belder, Peter Evans, Evan Parker, Ingrid Laubrock, Alex Paxton, Matana Roberts, Alex Hawkins, Alya Al-Sultani, Angel Bat Dawid…

Writing music/melodies for dancer Petra Haller too, and perhaps doing a PhD along the way as well! Oh and making Phil Minton’s Feral trumpet choir a happening thing! In the meantime, please get in touch for plays, commissions, lessons, workshops!

What is your earliest musical memory?

I spent hours, from the age of about 7, coming up with (improvising) all sorts of melodies on my little keyboard to various rhythms/beats, and then I recorded everything
on my Mum’s old cassette player! I created abstract collages by cutting up coloured
paper/rubbish, for the cassette covers, and then proudly presented them as Christmas
presents to family members!

Who designed/created the album’s artwork?

The one and only, sensational GINA SOUTHGATE, here’s her website;
https://www.artistginasouthgate.com 

I’m super proud and excited Gina was up for painting/responding to the music from my debut album too! Her artwork is featured on both of my albums. Gina’s painting of us/RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW for ‘ALIVE! in the studio’ was painted during our first gig back in 2019 at London’s Jazz in the Round!

What makes Charlotte Keeffe happy and what makes you unhappy?

Aww, I’m happiest/fullest when I’m playing/making-music, fully in the present/moment amongst exciting kindred spirits! I always get a warm happy buzz from my practising sessions too! I also LOVE being Auntie Charlotte to my incredible nieces and nephews, I LOVE family times and being with my beautiful fiancée, Lara de Belder!

But of course, seeing how divisive folks can be with each other around the world makes me very unhappy! So, come on, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW, more than ever before, let’s come together – I can’t wait to see you all there on Saturday 4th May at 1:30pm in the Parabola Arts Centre!

Photo Credit: Nick Brittain

Charlotte Keeffe: Right Here, Right Now, Quartet will perform at Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2024 on Saturday 4th May 2024 at 1.30pm (UK Time)at  Parabola Arts Centre, Cheltenham, United Kingdom.

Tickets are priced from £20.00. 

Event Page: https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/jazz/whats-on/2024/charlotte-keeffe-right-here-right-now-quartet

For more information about the festival please visit: https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/jazz

For more information on Charlotte Keeffe visit her official website: https://www.charlottekeeffe.com/