I’ve been a resident DJ, programmer (of sorts) and collaborator with Brilliant Corners for several years now, but an Arts Council commission gave us our first chance to make films together.

Their flagship event is Played Twice. It’s a simple concept: a jazz record is played in full to a silent room through Klipschorn speakers, followed by a live interpretation. Simple, but impossible during lockdown.

They had 3 elite lineups of UK jazz talent for sold out events that … couldn’t happen. Instead, a new idea: to present these one-take performances to an audience through film. To find a style that was faithful to the source material.

Tight, 4:3, black and white compositions that captured the concerted effort of a group. Minimal cuts, no handheld distractions, a focus that encouraged the viewer to listen, more than anything else.

“A clean visual document of what it looks like when people play jazz,” as Brilliant Corners’ founder Amit said.

It was an absolute joy to sit with the tiny crew and venue staff through these performances after 14 months without music to share.

The films were launched by Wax Poetics as part of a larger editorial piece about the venue, which you can read here.

Credits

Director: Hector Aponysus

Performers: Alex Hawkins, Adé Egun Crispin Robinson, Dave Okumu, David Preston, Neil Charles, Seb Rochford, Shabaka Hutchings, Shirley Tetteh, Tom Herbert, Tom Skinner