jazz
CD: Bruno Heinen & Kristian Borring - Postcard to Bill EvansMonday, 07 September 2015
Jazz pianist Bill Evans was a titanic figure in jazz performance until addiction and death took him in 1980, his blend of strength and sensitivity unparalleled, while his collaborations with Miles Davis and Charles Mingus, among others, left epochal... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Mozart, Magdalena Filipczak, Masterworks of the 20th CenturySaturday, 05 September 2015
Mozart, arr. Makato Ozone: Piano Concerto No.9 Makato Ozone (piano), Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, dir. Tommy Smith (Spartacus Records)This is something pretty special. Jazzed-up Bach usually works, as Jacques Loussier has shown, and I've... Read more... |
CD: Loose Tubes - ArrivingWednesday, 19 August 2015
Playing that exudes a real joie de vivre, compositions that unfailingly get the synapses firing, fearless soloing, and a textural density and rhythmic punch that deliver a powerful emotional jolt. It's rare to hear music-making of this calibre,... Read more... |
Just in From Scandinavia: Nordic Music Round-Up 14Monday, 17 August 2015
Don’t be fooled by the header picture. Despite the relaxed poses, Iceland’s Pink Street Boys are amongst the angriest, loudest, most unhinged bands on the planet right now. Hits #1, their debut vinyl album – which follows distorted-sounding, lower-... Read more... |
CD: Slime - CompanyMonday, 10 August 2015
Company could have been recorded any time in the past 25 years. Although Slime’s debut feels fresh, affinities with the familiar tag Company as a retro-nodding debut which will have a broad appeal. Chin-stroking collectors will love its references.... Read more... |
Chick Corea & Herbie Hancock, BarbicanTuesday, 07 July 2015
There was a buzz at the Barbican last night, the kind that makes you feel like a child again, a ripple of electric energy that only comes with seeing the true greats. And they don’t come much greater than Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, two jazz... Read more... |
NYCC, NYJO, Southwark CathedralFriday, 03 July 2015
Cleopatra in her barge gliding down the nave of Southwark Cathedral? Only figuratively, in the hypnotic “Half the Fun” movement of Duke Ellington’s constantly surprising Shakespeare compendium Such Sweet Thunder. Still, it wouldn’t be that much... Read more... |
AmyThursday, 02 July 2015
“I don’t think I could handle it, I think I’d go mad.” It’s the sort of answer given by anyone asked how they’d react to fame. With the possibility looming of recognition beyond jazz circles, Amy Winehouse, who was then not so well-known, responded... Read more... |
Freedom: The Art of Improvisation Festival, The Vortex, DalstonTuesday, 30 June 2015
Freedom Festival, a new event curated by vibes player and electronicist Orphy Robinson and vocalist Cleveland Watkiss, is all about bringing improvised music out of the shadows and into the limelight. All the same, it felt strange going to the... Read more... |
CD: Robert Glasper – CoveredSaturday, 27 June 2015
Robert Glasper has recently been making a name, and winning Grammys with his electronic fusion outfit, the Robert Glasper Experiment. After years of Casey Benjamin’s croaking vocoder on the Black Radio albums, the pealing acoustic notes of Glasper’s... Read more... |
Seb Rochford and Co, Brilliant CornersSaturday, 20 June 2015
If you still haven’t been to Played Twice, a monthly jazz night held at Brilliant Corners in Dalston, I suggest you do something about it. The concept is simple. First there’s a playthrough of a landmark album on the venue’s top of the range... Read more... |
Ornette Coleman (1930-2015), Jazz LiberatorSaturday, 13 June 2015
Like John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, who died this week, was both a defining and divisive figure in jazz history. His highly individual and virtuosic playing and his development of a non-harmonic style of improvisation and composition have remained... Read more... |
