As her new album, Shelter From The Storm - Songs Of Hope For Troubled Times, with pianist Laurence Hobgood, is released, vocalist Barb Jungr reflects on how nature has always played a major role in her music. For me, a… Read More ›
Yeah! It’s confusing me too. Wolves are people? What’s this all about? Well, composer, pianist, film fan and general allround action man David Austin Grey is extending his projects from the purely musical to a new multi-disciplinary live show which… Read More ›
The 2016 Frontiers Festival opens in Birmingham today and promises two weeks of creative, experimental and boundary-pushing new music, including more jazz than ever. Rosie Clements is its artistic director. On its publicity the festival uses the sub-heading “Demolishing Preconceptions”,… Read More ›
Last year Andrew Woodward, award-winning pianist/composer and organiser of a fortnightly improv session called Fizzle at The Lamp Tavern in Birmingham’s Digbeth area, included me in a group email to other jazz promoters in the city. Might we all get… Read More ›
(Resonance Records) Weve become familiar with those newly discovered dusty tapes that are released as “recordings of historical importance” some of which, alas, might have been better left on the shelf. But there are also releases which can wear the… Read More ›
Here are the 10 gigs I consider to be the most attractive/exciting/worth-a-listen this month (it’s a strong month so choosing just 10 has been tough): 4 March Young Pilgrims/Fur/Cop Music Pilgrimage/The Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham, 8.30pm, £8 The… Read More ›
(Motéma) A bunch of Parchman Farm prisoners from some time early in the last century sing their work song, Stewball, and beat out that stone-breaking rhythm. Over it swells a thoroughly 21st-century, picante harmony of saxophone and voice against a low… Read More ›
Eric & Ernie, Paul & Art, Stan & Ollie, Don & Phil, Don & Walt… perhaps Clifford & Max is the most appropriate analogy. Sometimes two can achieve so much more than just one. The pair that have done more for… Read More ›
Cockpit Theatre, London 29-02-2016 Jazz On 3 has broadcast for the last 18 years on its Monday night 11pm slot on BBC Radio 3 and has been a leading influence in the development of the UK scene over that period…. Read More ›
We might not know exactly what is replacing Jazz On 3 in the new revamped BBC Radio 3 schedule, though we do know Alyn Shipton will be exec producer and that Puppini Sister Emma Smith might be one of the presenters,… Read More ›
Review and pictures by Garry Corbett The Red Lion, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham UK 26-02-2016 “Atlantic Quartet succeeds with originality, clarity and eclecticism.” So said no less an august body than the New York Times. At the Red Lion on Friday… Read More ›
If a gig goes badly my main worry is, “Will these people come back?” Because that will affect my ability to pay the mortgage but nowadays I don’t really mind what happens, as I think if it all goes… Read More ›
This year’s Bedford Jazz Festival, run by Conscia Jazz, is happening on the weekend of 19 and 20 March, so what better time to be there than in the run-up to the Spring equinox? And Bedford has a pretty special… Read More ›
(ECM) This is a mighty step forward from the double bass player whose previous two ECM albums featured a quartet with Tim Berne on alto saxophone. Berne is here again, this time on baritone, but he and Formanek are joined… Read More ›
(Okeh) I realise that what most people want from a review of a CD or a play or a film or whatever is an “objective” assessment of the work, the experience, some sober and well-balanced assessment of whether it is… Read More ›
(Edition) The Portuguese guitarist has played with a lot of fine musicians, from Lee Konitz to David Binney, and this is his first major international release, previous albums being on his own Tone Of A Pitch label. The band is a… Read More ›
The shortlists for this shindig - a collaboration of the Jazz FM radio station and jazz promoters Serious - have been drawn up and announced this morning. The public gets to vote in three of the categories: Album of the Year,… Read More ›
Find out why we should be listening to Richard Herring podcasts and watching Coen Brothers films. It’s all in Garry Corbett’s last Stolen Moments series. But with whom is Garry stealing this moment? Find out here.
(Mack Avenue) The direction may be new but its foundations are as old as jazz itself, and deeply rooted in New Orleans. The drummer who has been a key player with pianist Ahmad Jamal and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis is proving… Read More ›
The UK’s leading player of the guembri - a three-stringed, skin-covered bass used in Gnawa music from Morocco - is playing at the ORT Cafe in Balsall Heath tomorrow evening. Double Songlines magazine-award nominee Simo Lagnawi - for Best Newcomer and… Read More ›
