Review: Alice Zawadski + Petra Haller

The night opened with a unique, intriguing and audacious act, in which tap-dancer Petra Haller and pianist Tom O'Brian improvised together for 30 minutes. The result was mesmerising, with the careful and cautious collaboration between musician and dancer proving both touching and intimate to watch.

Although tap dance is endlessly variable in terms of its rhythmic expression, it can be quite limited in terms of its ability to express narrative and emotional depth, especially in an improvised as opposed to choreographed form. The thoughtful and delicate listening between Haller and O'Brien went some way toward counterbalancing that, but it would be interesting to see this same premise revisited with a broader dance vocabulary. Nonetheless, a beautiful experiment in the wild and astonishing versatility of human artistic expression.

Next was Alice Zawadski with Invented Folklore, sharing music inspired by a day she spent exploring Watford and conversing with residents and business owners. She's a wonderful storyteller and brought her characters to life with sincerity and humour, both in her introductions to the songs, and in the music itself. She's this year's winner of the Jazz FM Vocalist of the year award, so it was a genuine privilege to be able to enjoy her singing and violin playing in such a close setting.

Xhosa Cole, who I reviewed last year for his electric appearance on the same Pump House stage at the Watford Jazz Junction Festival, played flute and saxophone. I don't have the name of the pianist, but the rest of the band were Jon Scott on drums, Misha Mullov-Abbado on double bass and Watford born ("Harlequin born", according to Alice!) Simon Roth on his own invented instrument the 'Magic Box', which lent an eerie, futuristic sound to proceedings.

This was the final night of Watford Junction's performances at the Pump House for this year, but the jazz continues on Sunday 18th May with Jazz Steps in Oxhey and Watford Heath. I look forward to celebrating the festival's fifth anniversary next year! For more details visit the festival website.