Quercus at Guinness Cork Jazz Festival at Triskel Christchurch

Quercus, the trio in which pianist Huw Warren and saxophonist Ian Ballamy shape new contexts for the dark and moving voice of June Tabor, made a major impact with its ECM debut album, issued in 2013.
The recording won the German Record Critics’ Prize as Album of the Year (Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Jahrespreis) and the international press recognized what the UK folk world has known for many years: that nobody gets inside the meaning of a song in the way that June Tabor does, illuminating a lyric and exploring a tune’s emotional atmosphere.
“An unlikely trio, you might think, but the combination proves quite magical. Together they create a subtle new idiom.” – Dave Gelly, The Observer...

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Quercus, the trio in which pianist Huw Warren and saxophonist Ian Ballamy shape new contexts for the dark and moving voice of June Tabor, made a major impact with its ECM debut album, issued in 2013.
The recording won the German Record Critics’ Prize as Album of the Year (Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Jahrespreis) and the international press recognized what the UK folk world has known for many years: that nobody gets inside the meaning of a song in the way that June Tabor does, illuminating a lyric and exploring a tune’s emotional atmosphere.
“An unlikely trio, you might think, but the combination proves quite magical. Together they create a subtle new idiom.” – Dave Gelly, The Observer
On Nightfall, recorded in December 2015 at Cooper Hall in the Somerset town of Frome and produced by Warren and Ballamy, Quercus takes its creative process to the next level. There are wonderful songs from folk tradition here, including “The Manchester Angel” and the 19th century broadside “Once I Loved You Dear (The Irish Girl)”, pieces collected by Somerset folklorist Ruth Tongue (“On Berrow Sands” and “The Shepherd and his Dog”), a charming version of “The Cuckoo” inspired by the singing of Dorset gypsy Queen Caroline Hughes, and there are subtly phrased instrumental pieces – Warren’s pastoral “Christchurch”, Ballamy’s ballad “Emmeline”.

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