This evening’s free Birmingham Jazz gig at The Jam House was supposed to be the Levi French Trio, but then the pianist was called out on the road by pop band McFly, so stepping up to deliver is singer Sara Colman and her Quartet. Sara has an excellent new CD in the racks called Ready, and will be playing this material. Added bonus is that saxophonist Chris Bowden will be sitting in. The music starts at 9.30pm, so you have time for supper first.
Laurence Hobgood: When The Heart Dances (Naim NAIMCD112)
There have been many pleasures discovering the singing and recordings of Kurt Elling, and one of them is discovering his pianist and musical director, Laurence Hobgood.
In some ways, the arranger brain and ear for beauty he revealed in his accompaniments reminded me from the start of Alan Broadbent, pianist and often arranger with Charlie Haden’s Quartet West, so it feels rather neat that for this new disc under his own name Hobgood is partnered by Haden.
They open with a tune you know – or do you? You have to go to the cover to confirm that it is, indeed, Que Sera Sera, so fresh, dark and rich are the chord voicings Hobgood has chosen that the bright, shiny Doris Day tune seems rather trite by comparison (although, as she sang it in a Hitchcock film, you could say the darkness was inherent).
The range of the pianist’s own compositions here is broad indeed, with Sanctuary sounding like it could be a solo jazz piano of a rock hit you had forgotten, while the title song has a cascading loveliness and thoroughly apt, lightly tripping tune. It already sounds like a standard.
The finale is particularly well chosen – Hobgood clearly shares with the late Don Grolnick a taste for mixing flavours of blues and soul in with the jazz, and The Cost Of Living is one of Don’s finest compositions.
Oh, and there’s a guest, too. Mr Elling pops into the studio to wrap his larynx around Haden’s First Song, Stairway To The Stars and Ellington’s Daydream. His sliding and swooping around and into the notes of the Haden song must have delighted no end the veteran bassist, whose solo here is the musical equivalent of exquisitely carved and elementally weathered granite.
There are many other delights here, which you will discover for yourself. The sound of the recording is as effortlessly natural as we have come to expect from the Naim label, and this is also a disc which goes on revealing new insights and nuances with each listen.
Dave O’Higgins Quintet: Sketchbook (JAZZIZIT JITCD0950)
There’s something about twin tenor albums that makes the heart swell and prompts the hand to reach for a spirit-filled tumbler. The other tenor in this band is special guest Eric Alexander.
The man who brought them together is drummer Kristian Leth, while James Pearson is on piano and Arnie Somogyi is on bass. The band had played three nights at Ronnie Scott’s and then went straight into a studio and did this live. As a result there is great energy and a directness that too much preparation would have spoilt.
The tunes range from originals to ones by Rollins, Tyner and Gillespie. Each tenor gets a solo slot, and they are suitably eloquent, but it is, of course, the jousting numbers which get the listener jumping round the room.
Both men are great at speed, Alexander having the slightly hoarser tone and a great facility in playing with the tone of differently fingered notes, while O’Higgins just bubbles over with the joy of playing and isn’t averse to a little tricky fingering himself. Just try Frith Street Blues for that real twin tenor intoxication.
It’s tempting to overlook the rhythm team on a date like this but Pearson, especially, is in cracking form.
Wynton Marsalis: He And She (Blue Note 10331)
The trumpeter muses on the courtship between men and women and the waltz in his characteristically timeless fashion, going back to Ragtime New Orleans, taking inspiration from how Elvin Jones would play 3/4 time and a whole lot of stations in between.
He introduces many of the pieces with short bits of his He And She poem, stressing that “it’s a man talking, but the person who delivers the universal truth of the matter is a woman”, before he draws it all together in a final declaration of the whole.
The music is, naturally, often startling – just try the sticks on side of snare interplay at the end of Schoolboy – and ranges stylistically far and wide, back and forth.Walter Blanding is on saxophones, Dan Nimmer on piano, Carlos Henriquez on bass and Ali Jackson on drums. This being a time signature-linked set, Jackson is linchpin and a perfectly oiled one he is, too, bringing great subtlety to the beats which move effortlessly between waltz and shuffle.
Marsalis continues to search out new and original paths and then throws himself and his band down them with such a whole-hearted sense of adventure. I can’t help feeling that the more intimate sessions he has been doing since he joined Blue Note might just be looked back on as some of his best ever.
Enrico Pieranunzi/Marc Johnson/ Joey Baron: Dream Dance (CamJazz PCM 7815-2)
A piano trio every bit as eloquent as the Jarrett Standards crew, and with a healthy back catalogue by now.
Pieranunzi seems to be able to do everything – from hard swinging, to Evans-like dreamy reflection, to sunshiney southern Italian, to neoclassical formalism. Johnson, who played with Evans, knows just how to complement a pianist, and Baron has always been the most musical of drummers.
This is a programme of all Pieranunzi tunes and they cover many moods and emotions. The strength of the material, the individual prowess of the players but most important of all, the near-telepathic interplay which unites the band, make this a rich listen indeed.
There’s a lot to get excited about in the English Midlands in the next few weeks and if you are faced with the Sunday evening blues, the best way to compensate, I find, is with some ticket purchasing.
Here are some recommendations:
This evening is a jam-packed one for Birmingham jazz lovers with an outstanding European band playing the early evening session at the Symphony Hall foyer bar and Motown getting the Jazz Jamaica treatment in the Town Hall later on.
The Rush Hour session in the SH bar every Friday at 5.30pm is a constant in Birmingham’s jazz life that can very easily become taken for granted by virtue of its regularity. It is remarkably eclectic in flavour while maintaining an exceptionally high quality, so a large hurrah to co-promoters Symphony Hall and Birmingham Jazz for that.
This Friday the boundaries get pushed in exemplary fashion by the Cologne-based quartet Shreefpunk, led by trumpeter Matthias Schriefl. That second part of the band’s name does indicate a certain anarchic spirit in their music, but don’t for a minute underestimate their jazz credentials. Schriefl himself has played with everyone from Phil Woods, Lee Konitz and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band to the legendary Peter Brotzmann. The band’s new disc on the ACT label, Live In Koln, features guest Django Bates.
A Rush Hour with a difference, then, and as always it’s exceptional value for money – all you pay for is your drink. Schreefpunk are in the Symphony Hall foyer bar from 5.30pm to 7pm this evening.
Jazz Jamaica really is a star-studded outfit, with Gary Crosby on bass, Alex Wilson on piano, Denys Baptiste on tenor saxophone and Abram Wilson on trumpet. For their 50th anniversary tribute to Motown Records, the band wheels out its popular Motorcity Roots programme, with Zara McFarlane, Baby Sol and J’Nay adding the vocals.
Motown’s greatest hits are infectious enough as they are – but add the brilliantly conceived reggae-jazz of Jazz Jamaica and it really is impossible to witness this music sitting down. Motorcity Roots is in the Town Hall, Birmingham, from 7.30pm tonight. Tickets are £16.50 and £18.50 available from thsh.co.uk or on 0121 780 3333, plus on the door.
You don’t need me to tell you that browsing around a good little record shop is one of life’s treasured experiences. And you also don’t need me to tell you that such experiences are in the “risk of extinction” category.
Now we can do something about it, but it does mean resisting the temptation to do the old one-click at a certain website named after a feisty bunch of women, or a river, and, instead, getting off our arses and down to the high street – yes, it won’t be just any high street, but who’s fault is that?
Saturday 18 April 2009 has been designated Record Store Day – it’s an annual thing and started in 2007, it is masterminded by over 700 record stores in the US and also has countless shops in other countries taking part.
Yes, there are all sorts of extra goodies – exclusive releases, perhaps even a Tom Waits, available only on the day and from some of the participating shops – in order to tempt you, but that is really not the point. There is already enough to tempt you – real people behind the counter, who know an awful lot about music, a lot of which you might not know about.
And then there are all the actual discs, both digital and vinyl, in the racks that you can pick up and hold and take to the counter and ask to hear a bit of…
If you are anyway within driving distance of, or on a train line to, or at a bustop for Birmingham in the West Midlands in the United Kingdom of Great Britain, my suggestion is that you head for a suburb called Kings Heath, a road called York Road and a shop called The Polar Bear (yep, co-incidently they are also fighting for survival in this crazy world). There you will find Steve and Nathan. They will help you to exchange money for music in the nicest possible way. And you will be doing your bit for the little men in the industry and for your local community as well.
Find out more about Record Store Day here, and about The Polar Bear here.
