Tim Garland’s Lighthouse Trio was one of four small ensembles that stood out at the JazzFest Berlin’s late-night sessions in the Quasimodo club at the weekend. This was their final date of a six-week tour of Asia and Europe and Garland, together with pianist Gwilym Simcock and percussionist Asaf Sirkis, clearly put everything in to it, to the delight of the attentive audience.

Garland’s writing draws on a variety of sources from tango to middle-eastern music and from Celtic music to classical so that each piece has its own distinct character. His saxophone playing also covers a wide range of expression from an almost explosive intensity over Simcock’s powerful flamenco-influenced chords to the meditative calm of ‘Blue and Green’, while Sirkis, with his exotic array of hang drum, frame drums, small cymbals and clay pot, provides a counterpoint of subtle rhythm and unusual sounds.

The Vijay Iyer Trio demonstrated with a compelling performance why its leader is regarded as one of the most inventive and resourceful of the new generation of pianists. A highlight was the remarkable interplay between Iyer and bassist Stephan Crump.

The Mathias Eick Quartet created exciting dramatic contrasts, with Eick’s trumpet crafting melodic lines of serene beauty, sparse but evocative in a way that has become identifiably Norwegian, while seemingly oblivious to the ominous, insistent drumming of Torstein Lofthus rising to a crescendo behind him.

Sardinian trumpeter Paolo Fresu’s Devil Quartet, closed the JazzFest late on Sunday evening with a spirited performance featuring excellent soloing from Fresu and guitarist Bebo Ferra. On the main stage earlier in the afternoon the Arild Andersen Trio, with the Scottish tenor saxophonist Tommy Smith and French percussionist Patrice Heral replacing an unwell Paolo Vinaccia, scored a major success. Andersen’s highly individual bass style, powerful but lyrical, underpins the trio and his suite ‘Independency’ proved an excellent showcase for the trio as a whole and for each member’s creativity as a soloist.

– Charles Alexander

Pictured: Tim Garland