jazz
Reissue CDs Weekly: WigwamSunday, 26 March 2017
Over 1972 to 1975, Finland staged a small-scale invasion of Britain. A friendly one, it was confined to music. First, the progressive rock band Tasavallan Presidentti came to London in May 1972 and played Ronnie Scott’s. The Sunday Times’ Derek... Read more... |
CD: José James - Love in a Time of MadnessWednesday, 22 February 2017
At least you always get something different from José James. Originally sprung to fame for blending jazz and hip-hop, this album has little of either, but according to his blurb, touches on R&B, soul, pop, electronica, folk, gospel and funk.... Read more... |
CD: John Mayall - Talk About ThatSunday, 22 January 2017
In the era of star-making TV progs and here-today-gone-tomorrow musicians, just how wonderful is it to have a new album from a man who marked his 80th birthday three years ago by signing a new contract with Eric Corne’s Forty Below Records?John... Read more... |
CD: Trish Clowes - My IrisWednesday, 11 January 2017
Saxophonist, composer and former Radio 3 New Generation Artist Trish Clowes has created a reputation for original chamber jazz of densely woven harmonies and delicate, sometimes folk-tinged melody. This fourth album, with a quartet rather than (as... Read more... |
CD: Camilla George Quartet - IsangSunday, 08 January 2017
Through her work with Tomorrow's Warriors and the Nu Civilisation Orchestra and, more recently, Jazz Jamaica, alto saxist Camilla George has been an integral part of the UK jazz scene for over a decade. Apart from its melodic fecundity, subtle... Read more... |
Albums of the Year: Christine Tobin - PeltSunday, 01 January 2017
Despite all of the challenges – more venues going to the wall, scarcity of funding, lack of column inches, and more – jazz in 2016 showed its seemingly endless capacity not only to survive and thrive, but also to innovate and invigorate. As one of... Read more... |
Albums of the Year: Shabaka and the Ancestors - Wisdom of EldersWednesday, 21 December 2016
The future direction of jazz has been the subject of anxious discussion for at least 50 years, and the last few have seen particular fervent speculation, usually provoked by another tedious “death of jazz” article. Fortunately, such pieces almost... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Sun RaSunday, 18 December 2016
Attempts to steer a straightforward path through the music of Sun Ra have always been hampered by the volume of records issued, their limited availability and trying to work out whether they represent something he had a hand in releasing. Just... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Mose Allison, Georgie FameSunday, 27 November 2016
In 1970, The Who opened their Live at Leeds album with “Young Man Blues”, a hefty version of a song its composer Mose Allison recorded as “Blues” in 1957. Back then, it was the only vocal track on Back Country Suite, an otherwise instrumental blues-... Read more... |
CD: Xam Duo - Xam DuoWednesday, 23 November 2016
Everything about Xam Duo’s debut album, out earlier this month on Sonic Cathedral, has a wonderful sense of self-indulgence: from the freeform, experimental feel, the stretched-out tones and resulting melodies that exist almost by implication, to... Read more... |
Wayne Shorter Quartet, BarbicanTuesday, 22 November 2016
At 83, and with 60-odd years on the road, Wayne Shorter could be forgiven for, in a musical sense, getting the slippers and pipe out and knocking out comfortable versions of his hits, the classic tunes he wrote for Miles Davis among them, like “... Read more... |
Rava / Herbert / Guidi + Murgia, Kings PlaceSaturday, 19 November 2016
There was an Italian flavour to the EFG London Jazz Festival programme at Kings Place on Thursday night. Enrico Rava is an eminent statesman of European jazz, who emerged in the 1960s as a disciple of Miles Davis. He was collaborating with young... Read more... |
