Monthly Archives: March 2009

CD reviews: 31-03-09

Posted on
Reply

Chris Batchelor & Steve Buckley: Big Air (Babel)
The trumpeter and saxophonist who came together in Loose Tubes in the 1980s, last recorded as a duo for the same label in 1999. That was called Life As We Know It, and in addition to the pair’s multi-instrumentalism, there were drummers, Paul Clarvis and Mark Sanders.

This new disc brings in a transatlantic element. In addition to Oren Marshall on tuba, we have pianist Myra Melford and drummer Jim Black.

It’s a richly varied programme and my favourite track keeps changing. Today it’s The Road, The Sky, The Moon, with Batchelor and Marshall sharing the improvising honours, Melford on harmonium and a lovely background wash of percussion.

But tomorrow it might be Song For The Garlic Seller with its looped trumpet blanket intro against which Buckley plays some great whistle (I can still picture the lanky Buckley pulling out his tiny tin whistle from his pocket and flying freely above the massed forces of Loose Tubes…)

Of course, this being Chris and Steve, nothing stays the same for long, so it isn’t long before Garlic Seller has transformed into a wholly different thing, with massed horn squalls and free piano and drums beneath.

There are loads of circus moments, jazz funk, folky bits and serene Far Eastern shadings. All the players are in fine form and it’s great to hear such strong personalities all at play in a happy kind of ordered chaos.

Lars Danielsson: Tarantella (ACT)
The double bass virtuoso has prettiness pretty well corralled and safe inside the pen. He has been wearing his heart more openly on his sleeve for the past few releases on the German ACT label, and this could just about be his loveliest yet.

The textures he gives us on the opening track, Pegasus, include breathy Norwegian trumpet from Mathias Eick, graceful acoustic guitar from John Parricelli, and the double bass and bowed cello of the boss.

The band is completed by Leszek Mozdzer on piano, celesta and harpsichord, and Eric Harland on drums and percussion.

The tunes Danielsson writes for them are achingly lovely, and some feel like melodies we have heard before.

Traveller’s Wife could be a lost Bach solo cello suite, had old JS visited Spain, while it’s sequel, Traveller’s Defence, has a courtly elegance that could also put it in the Baroque period. Introitus has a Middle Eastern call from distant trumpets before celesta and bass violin takes us somewhere timeless.

The playing is precise but romantic, the arrangements meticulous but relaxed. The whole thing is like an intricate and ancient carving. Just lovely.

Oumou Sangare: Seya (World Circuit)
It’s been out for over a month now but if you haven’t bought it yet, this latest release from the Malian singer and composer is well worth the money.

The title means Joy and there is plenty of that in these sinuous grooves; Sangare may tackle serious social issues in her lyrics but she always dresses sober thoughts in colourful ways, just as her trademark long green fingernails flash as she performs live.

Wassoulou music may still form the core but she brings in all kinds of influences from Magic Malik’s jazzy flute to Will Calhoun’s drums. There are choirs of backing vocals, there is the ngoni and the balafon, there are even lush strings. There is a richness and depth in the arrangements and instrumentation, yet it always sounds just perfectly balanced, never over-ostentatious.

And Oumou’s singing just gets more seemingly effortless, imbued with a kind of generous dignity, matching the serious with the playful, light with shade.

Yots K: Fire & Water (Haunted Ballroom)
Yots K brings Greek and South African influences to her jazz singing and songwriting, but living and working in London enhances her eclecticism even more.

Fire & Water has a Cuban bolero, a great, funky reworking of Love For Sale, songs by Tom Waits and Abbey Lincoln, Noel Coward’s Mad About The Boy, Cry Me A River and a self-penned title track.

The band, completed by Larry Bartley on bass and Enzo Zirilli on drums, is clearly a strong working quartet.

Yots’s singing, stronger in character than technique, is better suited to the non-standards and her reading of Nick Cave’s Into My Arms is particularly affecting. So too is Abbey Lincoln’s Throw It Away, which is well suited to her direct, dramatic style. Fresh and not risk-averse.

Concert review: Jazz Warrior Afropeans

Posted on
Reply

Town Hall, Birmingham
26-03-09

Back in the 1980s, Courtney Pine explained to a strong Town Hall turn-out, the Jazz Warriors was his chance to play with older, more established musicians. In their new Afropeans guise, Pine is now the old(er) guard and the young lions include trumpeter Mark Crown, cellist and singer Ayanna Witter-Johnson and clarinettist Shabaka Hutchings.

The band was formed primarily to honour the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, and, as its title suggests, brings together all the musical influences felt by Europeans of African origin.

They opened with a blast – Abolition Day – and a reminder that surely there is no more exhilarating sound than a big-band brass section in tight harmony. It’s the thing that gives me goose bumps every time.

Pianist Alex Wilson was spectacular on his own arrangement of a Malian song, called Remercier Les Travelleurs, in which he not only brought in his characteristic Latin piano style but also emulated the cascading arpeggios of the West African harp, the kora.

Black Flag began with a winning and unusual combination of timbres: the bass clarinet of Courtney and the steel pans of Samuel Dubois. From there it grew in lengthy solos by trumpeter Colin Graham and trombonist Trevor Edwards, the latter to a ska rhythm, and each ending in brass section cacophony.

It was a clear intention to give the young warriors their solo spots, but in the case of Witter-Johnson’s song and Mark Crown’s tribute to the late Freddie Hubbard, these sat uneasily in the programme. Hutchings fared much better – his composition, Joyous, was, for me, the highlight of the evening. He built it from a lyrical beginning to a virtuosic solo cadenza.

A chilling reminder of the band’s original impetus came in a final piece for vocal and rattled chains. The encore had the audience on its feet and clapping along.

Interaction with a gruff tenor

Posted on
Reply

Due to ill health I had to miss the Evan Parker gig at the Hare & Hounds on Saturday, so Tony Dudley-Evans has very kindly stepped in with this review:

An Evan Parker gig in Birmingham is a relatively rare event, so Saturday’s gig in Room 2 at the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath was an excellent opportunity to catch up with him.  He was playing in the company of John Edwards on bass and Mark Sanders on drums.  The event was organised by Steve of the Polar Bear Record Shop, which is located just a few yards up the road from the Hare & Hounds, and he had managed to get a good sized audience in for the gig.

It was an impressive gig and the interaction between the three players was nothing less than outstanding with each one listening to the other two, responding to what they were doing and generally contributing to spontaneous creation.  Perhaps occasionally a feeling creeps in that the format of a trio lacks a certain dynamism and range, but the patterns created in the improvisation more than compensate for this.  Mark Sanders was in excellent form on drums and John Edwards was his normal powerful and inventive self on bass.  Evan himself played tenor saxophone throughout and there was no sign of his soprano sax.  I found this refreshing and it was stimulating to be able to listen to his playing on the tenor over an extensive period of time – the group played two full sets – and I realised that I really like Evan’s rather gruff tone on the instrument.

Evan seemed in relaxed mood chatting to many members of the audience before the gig, during the interval and afterwards.  He recalled his student days at the University of Birmingham where he managed to get through two years of the Biology course before deciding that jazz was to be his life.  As noted in Ian Carr’s Music Outside  (Carr, 2008)*, Evan continued to live in Birmingham, to be precise in Rotton Park Road, for some years and it was his base until he moved to London.

*Ian Carr (2008)  Music Outside: Contemporary Jazz in Britain London: Northway Publications  

US stars at the Drum tonight

Posted on
1

The Live Box, the Sunday evening sessions at The Drum in Birmingham, welcomes a particularly strong band tonight. It’s a quintet co-led by bassist Michael Janisch and drummer Pete Zimmer, with a special guest in the form of fellow US player, Joel Frahm, on saxophone. Completing the line-up are Jim Hart on vibes and Alex Garnett on saxophone.

Frahm has made records with his old friend Brad Mehldau, and his latest CD, We Used To Dance, has him fronting a band which includes Kenny Barron, Rufus Reid and Victor Lewis. So, we are talking top-rank here, and you can hear all this for just £5.

The gig is in the Drum Studio, doors open at 7.45pm. You can book here, you can read an interview with Michael Janisch here, and should you not be able to make it to the Drum tonight, you can hear the gig live, courtesy of Rhubarb Radio,  or listen again here.

A saxophonist like no other – really

Posted on
1

Evan Parker is one of the most astounding saxophonists you will ever hear. One performance is indelibly marked on my memory.

He played a stream of notes, patterns and phrases on the soprano saxophone, using circular breathing to give it an unbroken line, and not one note was in the conventional range of the instrument – all were harmonics and overtones, achieved by a fearsome technique, decades of dedication and a determination to start his musical explorations in a realm others have not even entered.

Yes, it might seem wilfully contrary behaviour, but it’s a contrariness that, when you hear it, can be overwhelmingly exhilarating, like the most daring high wire act.

You might not hear anything like that soprano solo tonight at the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath, when Evan Parker appears in a free (as in unstructured) jazz trio with drummer Mark Sanders and bassist John Edwards, but you will have your ears opened to the exceptional and the extraordinary.

Full marks to Polar Bear, the record shop just round the corner from the Hare & Hounds for putting on this gig. Tickets are £10 on the door and it starts at 8pm.