Renowned Edinburgh venue The Jazz Bar will be putting on an experimental piece called ‘Five Beats In A Bar’ during the annual Fringe Festival from 9-15 August.

Combining music and beat poetry, the piece will create “jazzetry” – a form whereby the result explores different meanings in the words while at the same time complements the rhythm of the music.

The performers will be pianist Jonathan Gee, co-founder of the Monk Liberation Front, and vocalist Louise Gibbs, along with Leeds-based Trio Literati actors Maggie Mash, Jane Oakshott and Richard Rastall.

The music will mainly, but not all, derive from the music of Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker – including Mingus’ classic ‘Goodbye Pork Pie Hat’, which Gibbs recorded for her last album Everybody’s Song But Our Own – as well as other standards, such as ‘Beautiful Love’.

This will be offset by works from Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Robert Creeley, putting itself firmly in the smoky atmosphere of 1950s America. While the poetry remains a constant, the stripped-down arrangements will be open to Gee and Gibbs’ interpretation ensuring a different performance each time. The show will be put on as an afternoon taster from 3.30-4.30pm to hopefully attract more people to the regular jazz nights.

There will be a preview of the show at Richmond House School in Leeds, this coming Wednesday (28 July), with the only other performance so far to take place after Edinburgh scheduled for the Hexham Abbey Festival on 27 September.

– James Bourne

For more go to www.thejazzbar.co.uk