One of my favourite bands is on Jazz On 3 on BBC Radio 3 this evening from 11pm. The Julian Siegel Trio, with Greg Cohen on bass and Joey Baron on drums, were recorded in performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall last November during the London Jazz Festival and it’s being aired tonight. Even better, it will be on Listen Again for a week as well.
Here is the link to the programme.
The Remote Viewers: Sinister Heights (RV 6-7)
As the numbers above in brackets suggest, here are CDs number six and seven on their own label from this now 14-strong British collective. The first five were released as one package, called Control Room, and there were another near half dozen before that on the Leo label.
At the heart of the band are saxophonists David Petts and Adrian Northover. For this double disc – the first CD called Time Flats, the second Mirror Meanings – all the music is composed by Petts. The first is moderately funkier and enlivened by drums, the second darker and percussionless. Both rely for their power to entice and intrigue upon long-held woodwind notes, overlapping and continually shifting harmonies. There are electronic hums and throbs, as well as some thrilling double bass playing (from John Edwards).
This is strangely compelling instrumental music sitting in the kind of no man’s land between jazz, contemporary classical, alternative rock and ambient where once upon a time, and in a very different context, there existed the music of Soft Machine and Robert Fripp and Henry Cow. Texture, timbre and harmony rule, especially where rhythm is axed from the equation.
The players can include, variously, Rip Rig and Panic, God, the Fall and Evan Parker’s trio in their CVs. Which makes perfect sense when you listen to Sinister Heights. No huge range of style or mood – more a singular path taken for the length that’s needed. And, although The Remote Viewers have been around for a while longer, given fresh context and connection by the emergence of bands like Led Bib and Get The Blessing, whose multitudinous fans should check the Viewers out.
Each week photographer Russ Escritt sends me his favourite picture of the week, or perhaps one from his extensive archive. Here is saxophonist Gilad Atzmon from the CBSO Centre on Friday, with bassist Yaron Stavi. Russ has been shooting (in the nicest possible way) local and visiting jazz musicians for a good few years now. In fact, he has recently compiled a book of the ones he likes best. Here is the cover:
You can order a copy here, or if you want to check out more of Russ Escrit’s superb pictures, go here.
Birmingham based pianist and composer Steve Tromans takes his Debop Band – Miles Lewin on drums, Chris Mapp on bass and Aaron Diaz on trumpet – down to Stratford-upon-Avon this evening for a session of original quartet material and rearranged standards, courtesy of Stratford Jazz. This is a most rewarding band to listen to, with a cooking rhythm pair and soloists both lyrical (Diaz) and percussively powerful (Tromans).
It’s at the new home of Stratford Jazz, The Chapel at No1 Shakespeare Street, and it starts at 8pm. Tickets are £6 on the door, and if you get there earlier you can take advantage of the special two- or three-course meals offered by The Chapel specially for jazz fans who don’t feel like cooking on a Sunday.
The Hive in Shrewsbury plays host this evening to the John Turville Trio – John on piano, Chris Hill on bass and Ben Reynolds on drums – who have just embarked on a Jazz Services supported tour of venues in England, Scotland and Wales.
Turnville is an experienced classical pianist turn jazz fiend with great technique and a style very much in the classic jazz piano tradition. He also plays in Tim Garland’s Lighthouse Trio and with Tim Whitehead (he hasn’t confirmed that he is willing to play with just any saxophonist called Tim).
You can find out more about John Turville here, and there is more about the gig and the venue and the fact that it’s put on by Shrewsbury Jazz Network here. What it doesn’t appear to tell you is what time it starts. I think it’s 8pm.
