Monthly Archives: October 2010

The week ahead in gigs

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Antonio Forcione - at Warwick Arts Centre tomorrow

Tomorrow night is one of those Fridays filled with choices.

The early evening is easy – just head for the Symphony Hall foyer bar and let Big Man Clayton do the rest. The barrelhouse pianist and singer adds his Birmingham Blues Friends for this gig, which runs from 5.30pm to 7pm and is free.

Then the choices are yours: big band swing, more big band swing or virtuoso world guitar.

In the Town Hall, the BBC Big Band is joined by clarinettist Ken Peplowski for a concert celebrating the master of the licourice stick, Benny Goodman. It’s called Sing Sing Sing, and Peplowski really is the right man to do that.

“When you grow up in Cleveland, Ohio, playing in a Polish polka band, you learn to think fast on your feet”, is the way he describes his formative years. Since then he has proved a fancy stepper on both clarinet and saxophone.

He will be joined by Clare Teal for this Radio 2 Big Band Special recording. It starts at 7.30pm, and tickets are from £12.50. Book on 0121 780 3333 or at www.thsh.co.uk

Over in the Lichfield Garrick Theatre Benny Goodman’s music is also being celebrated, along with old favourites from the Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw and Billy May band books.This time it’s the Syd Lawrence Orchestra doing the playing, or, more accurately, Chris Dean’s Syd Lawrence Orchestra, since Dean took over the helm from Lawrence in ’96.

This also starts at 7.30pm, tickets are from £17.50, and you can book on 01543 412121 or at www.lichfieldgarrick.co.uk

For those of us who prefer to live in the present, the guitarist Antonio Forcione is at the Warwick Arts Centre with what he calls his Greatest (Almost) Hits concert. The Italian brings all manner of music to life through his acoustic guitar: jazz, flamenco, bossa, African music… it’s all there, played with astonishing virtuosity.

The gig starts at 7.30pm in the theatre, tickets are £16 and can be bought on 024 7652 4524 or from www.warwickartscentre.co.uk

The Supersonic Festival also starts tomorrow but specific jazz interest is on Saturday when pianists Steve Tromans and Dan Nicholls revive the wild and free Fender Rhodes duo that enlivened the CBSO Centre foyer at the Harmonic Festival earlier in 2010.

This time they are at the Custard Factory, but a specific time I am unable to give you. Just head for Supersonic and look out for them among such other performers as Wizzleteat and Necro Deathmort. More at www.capsule.org.uk/supersonic

The last Wednesday of the month means it’s Jazz Club at the Rainbow in Digbeth and to celebrate the event’s fifth birthday there’s Golden Age Of Steam, the trio of James Allsop on saxophone, Kit Downes on organ and Tim Giles on drums. It starts at 9pm; tickets are £4 on the door. More at www.birminghamjazz.co.uk

Congrats to Empirical – good win!

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This just in from Kerstan Mackness at Riotsquad Publicity. It needs nothing more except a big HURRAH!

Multi award-winning jazz sensation Empirical have won the MOBO Award in 2010’s Best Jazz Act category for their album Out ‘n’ In (out now on Naim Jazz).

“Big Thanks To Mobo for recognising British jazz, it’s our honour. Thanks to everyone who voted for us” Empirical

British post-bop pin-up boys Empirical made a swift ascent to the heights of the UK jazz scene in April 2007, with their Courtney Pine endorsed eponymous debut album (also produced and released on Pine’s Destin-E record label). The band harvested critical acclaim at every corner and quickly amassed accolades including BBC Jazz Awards Best Ensemble, MOJO Jazz Album of the Year and Jazzwise Album of the Year. Every live performance ensured a rigorous demonstration of pure talent; justifying the fresh-faced, smart-dressed boppers’ rapid and hype-free rise to success. Their achievements took them to the USA, where a rare standing ovation at the Newport Jazz Festival awaited. Whilst on the cusp of breaking infamous American preconceptions on new British jazz music, conflicting aspirations began to drive the band apart. In 2009 the band changed line-ups with Tom Farmer (bass) and childhood friends Shaney Forbes (drums), Nathaniel Facey (alto sax) recruiting bright eyed Trinity College student Lewis Wright (vibraphone). Inspired by legendary saxophonist/clarinettist Eric Dolphy Empirical began to cultivate a cerebral edge in their original compositions and a barn-storming live performance saw them win the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund’s Peter Whittingham Award, which allowed the band to enter the studio and complete their latest record Out ‘n’ In.Released on Naim Jazz, Out ‘n’ In recieved wide-spread critical acclaim and Empirical have spent 2010 spreading their musical blessings across the European festival circuit. Empirical play Peter Parker’s Rock n’ Roll Club as part of London Jazz Festival on Tuesday 16th November. www.londonjazzfestival.org.uk

 

Concert review: Downes/Rogers/Sanders

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Downes/Rogers,Sanders (Picture: Russ Escritt)

CBSO Centre, Birmingham UK
19-10-10

A woman who had spent a lot of time in the Arctic told me that it was sometimes so cold that a sneeze would be followed by a high tinkling sound as the droplets of mucus hit the ice, having instantly frozen on the way down. I thought of that last night as Kit Downes leaned under the piano lid to pluck the top strings of the piano, sending out showers of bright sparkling notes.

While he was so employed, drummer Mark Sanders was bringing his melodic inclinations to bear upon wooden blocks, tiny cymbals and a four-pronged combination cowbell.

And between them, bassist Paul Rogers was doing extraordinary things with his seven-string double bass, a bow and harmonics. The resulting sounds reminded me of what amplified insect chattering might sound like, of a bee struggling to find a way out of a window, of radio static, of inter-terrestrial white noise…

The evening was split in two, each half consisting of one continuous free improvisation. Rogers began the first, Downes the second, and the range of interplay explored was wide, each player using so-called conventional and unconventional ways of eliciting sound from their instrument.

As  is usually the case with this kind of music, I found that the individualism of the players and this band was more clearly defined when the pace was slower, the textures more sparse, the interaction more exploratory; while there is no denying the excitement that is generated at the more exuberant and intense moments, as the slow build has culminated in the climax, with each player busy, busy,busy, so this free improv climax risks sounding very much like the last free improv climax I heard, and the one before that. (I don’t see this as a criticism of the musicians, I hasten to stress, but more a limitation of this kind of music. Or, to issue my mea culpa in advance, a limitation of my ears.)

And the visceral nature of this kind of music got me thinking, too, that maybe the analogy is in sexual climax. And, lovely though they are, isn’t one orgasm pretty much like any other orgasm? Gosh, on reflection that sounds as jaded a thought as might be had by the singer of Lush Life!

In fairness, I think I realised last night that there is one musician who is capable of making his busy, busy, busy different from everyone else’s and probably from every other climax he has built to, and that man is Paul Rogers. He is, I suggest, a member of a very small group of almost superhuman musicians – shall we call them the Band of Iconoclasts? – who bring together a complete mastery of their chosen instrument, a completely unique sound, an extreme originality of musical vision, a deep passion and a single-minded dedication. Evan Parker is on saxophone, Derek Bailey is on guitar, Cecil Taylor is probably on piano, and Rogers is on bass. I’ll leave it to you to suggest who should fill the drum chair, and any other guest spots…

The whole Kit and caboodle

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(Picture: Garry Corbett)

“I’m lucky enough to be playing piano… alongside two of my favorite improvising musicians – Mark Sanders on drums and Paul Rogers on bass,” writes pianist Kit Downes on his blog, and we’ve been given only three chances to hear the results.

The trio’s mini-tour – a grand name for three gigs – opened at the Vortex in London last night, comes to the CBSO Centre in Birmingham this evening and hits Leeds tomorrow, where Downes will be playing organ instead of piano.

It might be a mingling of jazz generations, but it’s certainly going to be a meeting also of adventurous and challenging musical minds. I am guessing that Sanders and mulit-stringman Rogers will be playing very much in their established free improv style and that Downes will be challenging himself to match them in that milieu. But maybe I’ll be surprised…

One thing is for certain, Downes is equal to the challenge, his own solo and trio work suggesting his desire to break out of the structures when the mood is right.

Downes/Rogers/Sanders is the name, the CBSO Centre in Berkley Street is the place, 8pm is the time and £12 is the price of a ticket. You can book online at www.birminghamjazz.co.uk

CD review: Tim Whitehead

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Turner's Colour Beginnings

Colour Beginnings
Home Made HMR052

Tim Whitehead, as the first musician to become an artist in residence at Tate Britain, stood in front of works by JMW Turner and responded to them with his saxophone. He then turned those spontaneous improvisational reactions into compositions and that’s what you find on this disc.

Do you need to know that? Not necessarily, though it does help to add context to the music, I suppose. What is clear, though, is that this music stands on its own, independently of the paintings.

Whitehead explained in an article in the Guardian: “It was in his watercolour sketches, particularly the Colour Beginnings, that I found the real DNA of his vision: the thumb smudges, the fingers dragged across the sky, the scraping and paint flicking, the wet-on-wet diffusion of pigment that still radiates a newness and, better still, an improvisational edge nearly 200 years on.”

And that certainly helps to elucidate Whitehead’s approach. The opening of this disc, for example, features his saxophone sounding quite vulnerable, the breath slightly tentative and searching, the notes not quite solid, somehow, but airy and unfixed… smudges of notes, perhaps? It soon firms up and is joined by the band. There are Latin rhythms at times, and some great rhythmic drive from all involved. It’s also richly textured music.

There are quite a few solo saxophone sections, but these are mainly group performances with Liam Noble on piano, Milo Fell on drums and either Patrick Bettison on electric or Oli Hayhurst on acoustic bass. Some of it is recorded live at Tate Britain, some in the studio. There are also some fabulous bits where Whitehead leaves the saxophone aside and responds to Turner with his voice. high, worldless  and rapturous.

The saxophonist’s sound has always done it for me – strong, full-bodied, with a rough edge when he chooses – and his improvisational style, rooted in melody, has always floated my boat, too. It is a fascinating album, with fine instrumental interplay and some of the best solo work Whitehead has produced to date.

It’s just quite difficult to express in words – now, if only I could paint a response to the music…