Tabla de contenidos para April 2022 en Jazzwise

For the latest breaking news visit www.jazzwise.com Douglas/Baron Duo, Myra Melford all-star band, STRATA and Shake Stew line up for Cheltenham Festival The Cheltenham Jazz Festival returns for its 25th edition, from 27 April to 2 May, with a line-up packed with the festival’s trademark mix of popular headliners and emerging talents across jazz, world, funk and blues plus the cream of the cutting-edge scene from home and abroad. The quarter-century celebrations kick off in style, with Guy Barker leading both his Big Band and the BBC Concert Orchestra in a premiere of a unique symphonic celebration commissioned by the Festival. The massed big band and orchestra will support a star-studded line up of guest singers including Gregory Porter, Paloma Faith, Imelda May and fast rising newcomers Adeline and Georgia…

Back with ourApril 1997 launch issue our aim was true: to reach the places other jazz magazines simply didn’t go to. With jazz magazines mostly looking backwards, the scene deserved a mouthpiece that looked towards tomorrow as much as it reawakened and celebrated jazz’s glorious and richly radical past. And maybe we could do it in colour too! Now 25 years later our aim is still true, though the world is an entirely different place and, as we write, is facing its darkest days for over 75 years. But Jazzwise has always been about more than just the music, digging deep into the myriad personalities that are allowed such free expression through jazz and the social and political circumstances against which the music is created. And just like stepping onto…

Saxophonist and composerTrish Clowes is set to release her fourth solo album, A View with a Room, on trumpeter Dave Douglas’ Greenleaf Music label on 22 April. The LP features her jazz-rock-edged My Iris quartet of Ross Stanley (piano/Hammond organ), Chris Montague (guitar) and James Maddren (drums), on music mostly composed and developed on livestreams during lockdown – which in turn fed into the subject matter of the album, as Clowes explains: “Many of the tracks make direct reference to issues created and exacerbated by the pandemic, personal loss and creativity as solace, the climate and migrant crisis.” The band also head out on a UK tour: Jazz Hastings (5 Apr); Bracknell Jazz (8 Apr); The Blue Room, Lincoln (9 Apr); Ashburton Arts Centre (21 Apr); Lighthouse, Poole (22 Apr);…

It is 2008, and I’m sitting in a Central London pub with John Cumming of Serious, the company that produces the London Jazz Festival, listening to him enthuse about Charlie Parker’s Savoy recordings. "‘Parker’s Mood’," he smiles. “You’ve got to hear it. The first notes of it’ll just stand your hair on end.” I’m listening to John Cumming enthuse about Charlie Parker because The Guardian has commissioned me to write a feature: can their chief rock critic – who knows nothing of jazz beyond the handful of Miles Davis and John Coltrane albums every rock critic owns and never actually plays – get into it [jazz] in six weeks, with the guidance of musicians, critics and enthusiasts? It turns out I can’t, although it’s not for want of trying. And…

Jazz musicians, by and large, prefer looking ahead to the next project rather than to the past. Their evolution as an artist normally comes first so revisiting early work is a no-go area in many cases. With that in mind, the trumpeter-composer Marquis Hill could be said to have taken an unusual step in deciding to re-examine his 2012 debut for new release New Gospel Revisited. Recorded ‘live’ at his hometown Chicago’s Constellation club, he takes the project to London’s Ronnie Scott’s this March as part of Jazzwise’s 25th anniversary celebrations. “This particular set of music will always have a special place in my heart” he explains over an online call. “New Gospel was my first time trying to sit down and actually compose a full set of music. Subconsciously…

Landmark Recording  Excellent  Good Average Disappointing Quentin Angus The State Of Things Outside In Music (CD, DL) Quentin Angus (g), Michael Mayo (v), Can Olgun (p), Desmond White (b) and Nate Smith (d). Rec. date not stated Jazz musicians have long exercised the right not to make jazz, and Australian guitarist Quentin Angus, previously noted for his wily technique and tasteful performances, has made what is essentially an accomplished left of centre pop album in which the voice of Michael Mayo and several original melodies which have a calm composure are well to the fore. An excellent band well anchored by drummer Nate Smith and bassist Desmond White ensures an artful blend of drive and restraint, which resonates vividly with the finer shadings of Mayo’s falsetto, especially when he opts…

Things are gearing up for a very special week of gigs for Jazzwise’s 25th Anniversary Festival at Ronnie Scott’s from 21 to 27 March, which features an all-star line-up across seven nights celebrating the diverse range of sounds and styles that have come to define the magazine’s jazz coverage. With headliners and late shows confirmed, an additional Sunday Lunchtime session will feature the hard-swinging virtuosity of renowned multi-reedist Alan Barnes and top UK trombonist Mark Nightingale. They combine with a fine rhythm section of pianist Graham Harvey, bassist Jeremy Brown and renowned drummer Ian Thomas on a set dedicated to the music of George Gershwin (doors 12 noon, Sunday 27 March). Also added to the line-up is Parliamentary Jazz Award-winning broadcaster Chris Philips who will be DJ ing during the…

Elemental Music, the label dedicated to newly discovered archival jazz releases, is to release Revelations: The Complete ORTF 1970 Fondation Maeght Recordings, the first comprehensive issue of free jazz icon Albert Ayler’s last great concert appearances, as a limited edition five-LP, four-CD Record Store Day release on 23 April. Transferred from the original ORTF tape reels, the vinyl edition of 1,200 LP sets – mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and pressed by GZ Media in Germany – will be followed by a deluxe four-CD edition, limited to 500 copies, on 29 April. Both sets will feature 100-page CD and 16-page LP booklets with essays by Ayler expert Ben Young, saxophonist Jeff Lederer, and Pascal Rozat of INA France; new interviews with bassist Steve Tintweiss and drummer Allen Blairman,…

Brighton’s premier jazz club The Verdict reopens to the public from late March with a vibrant spring programme of established and rising star names throughout April and May as the club celebrates its 10th anniversary year. The programme is being curated by renowned Brighton-based drummerTristan Banks following his successful series of Lockdown Sessions in 2021. A number of new initiatives also kick off with a weekly Jam Session on Thursdays; masterclasses with visiting names and the introduction of a club membership scheme. Dates are: Alessio Menconi/Nigel Price Quartet (above) plus masterclass (25 March); Hexagonal (1 Apr); Jazz Jam (7 Apr and every Thursday); Paul Booth Quartet (8 Apr); New Gen Jazz present Emma Rawicz Quintet (14 Apr); Soul Immigrants (16 Apr); Laurence Cottle Trio (22 Apr); Alex Hitchcock Dream Band…

Singer Cleveland Watkiss MBE – also a recent recipient of the 2021 Ivors ComposerAward For Innovation – is back with one his most personal projects to date with his new album The Great Jamaican Songbook, which is released on 22 March and followed by a series of live dates from spring onwards around the UK. This roots-reggae orientated showcase, interpreted via his virtuosic jazz technique and deep love of Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown and Burning Spear, hidden gems from labels such as Studio One, Coxsone Dodd and Tuff Gong, producers like King Tubby and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry in a unique blend of jazz and reggae.Joining Watkiss on the album and tour will be a band who feature a who’s who of leading UK jazz, pop, reggae and funk including multi-instrumentalist…

The jazz community was shocked and saddened to learn of the death of longserving ECM press officer David Fraser in early February. He had been suffering with cancer for the past year but had been making a recovery. Born in Aberdeen on 25 November 1951, he bucked the family tradition of a career in medicine by pursuing his love of music, his early career including work for the Scottish National Orchestra, Macrobert Arts Centre in Stirling, Scottish Opera (where he worked with his future wife, Rosemary) and Scottish Chamber Orchestra before working as a press officer for the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. Further roles led him to work for the BBC including Radio 3, editing the Fairest Isle: BBC Radio 3 Book of British Music (1995) and PR forThe Proms…

Ubuntu is an ancient African word which means: “I am because we are”. Essentially, we are all connected in this world and what one person does in life will, in some way, affect us all. A prominent South African business partner and friend introduced the Ubuntu concept to Martin Hummel, who was so profoundly moved by its meaning and implications that he decided he would one day name his company Ubuntu. That time arrived when Hummel founded Ubuntu Music. Born in 2015, Ubuntu Music is a recorded music label that is committed to bringing quality, accessible jazz and related music genres to increasingly wider audiences. Its approach includes collaborative efforts with an array of performing artists who have a passion for their music and who possess unique and diversified talents.…

By the mid-1980s, there was a buzz about British jazz. The London scene was enjoying its healthiest complexion since the 1960s. A new generation of musicians were banishing the weary resignation of older musicians with a liberal application of youthful energy and optimism. When Courtney Pine’s debut album, Journey to the Urge Within, was released in 1986 following his highly-publicised signing to Chris Blackwell’s Island label, the moment had come for this youthful brand of jazz to make a breakthrough. Selling as no new jazz album had ever done before in the UK, Pine became the man of the moment. It had to be him, it was his time, and suddenly the broadsheets, Sunday supplements, the NME and the style magazines that had written jazz off as old hat long…

Cassie Kinoshi was just eight years old when she wrote a fictional sci-fi series about a boywho would disappear through hidden portals – clandestine doors, backs of cupboards, a space in the woods – into parallel worlds populated by robots. ‘The Adventurous One’, she called it, a title that seems all the more portentous now. “I like learning, exploring, experimenting and improvising,” says Kinoshi, 29, of her questing, multi-hyphenated career. “I don’t want to be stuck in a box.” Best known to most as an alto-saxophonist and leader of seed. (formerly SEED Ensemble), her 10-piece band with its six horns and a four-piece rhythm section - whose 2019 debut album Driftglass was nominated for the Hyundai Mercury Prize - Kinoshi is involved in a veritable multiverse of side-projects. She is…

John Taylor Sextet Eye To Eye: Live 1971 British Progressive Jazz (DL) John Taylor (p), Kenny Wheeler (t, flhn), Chris Pyne (tb), Stan Sulzmann (as, f), Chris Laurence (b) and Tony Levin (d). Rec. April 1971 Don Rendell Sextet The Odysseus Suite British Progressive Jazz (DL) Don Rendell, Stan Robinson (s, f), Peter Shade (vib, f), Michael Garrick (p), Jack Thorncroft (b) and Trevor Tomkins (d). Rec. October 1970 John Dankworth Orchestra Composition With Colour: Live 1971 British Progressive Jazz (DL) John Dankworth (as, cl), Martin Drover (t), Kenny Wheeler (t), Henry Lowther (t), Mike Gibbs (tb), David Horler (tbn), John Jenkins (tba), Tony Cook (hn), Don Fay (s, fl), Duncan Lamont (s, fl), Stan Sulzman (s, fl), Bruce Graham (p), Chris Spedding (g), Tony Campo (b), Kenny Clare (d)…

“My father was crazy about sound, just as he was crazy about music,” Andreas says. “He always thought that great music should be as well-recorded as possible. He loved to experiment, to play with the equipment. And because of his engineering background he knew what the best machines were, and how to set them up. The studio was one of the very best in the world when it was built in the 1950s – Telefunken tape machines (pictured below), Neumann mics and so on. Musicians appreciated the care my father took when recording them.” So, how did HGBS manage to persuade musicians of the calibre of Peterson to record in his front room? “He was very persuasive, a good salesman!” laughs Andreas. “But musicians respected him, he was knowledgeable and…

The April 2022 issue Four covers to collect Jazzwise magazine is delighted to celebrate its 25th Anniversary with an extra-large April issue that will feature four individual covers in a unique collector’s edition – with four leading lights of the current UK scene: Courtney Pine CBE, Claire Martin MBE, Bill Laurance and Cassie Kinoshi. All four will be performing at Jazzwise’s 25th Anniversary Festival at Ronnie Scott’s from 21 – 27 March as part of a talent-packed line-up over seven nights at the world-famous jazz venue, and the issue will feature in-depth exclusive interviews with each artist. Each cover is available to order separately for £6.95. If you are a current subscriber, you can save 10% on any additional covers you wish to order. Find all the details at www.magsubscriptions.com/jazzwise-25th-anniversary Exclusive…

April 22 Radio BBC RADIO 2 88-91 FM Big Band Special (Mon, 11pm), Jamie Cullum show (Tues, 7pm) BBC RADIO 3 90-93 FM Helen Sung’s Inspirations (26 March) Binker & Moses in session, Marquis Hill’s inspirations (9 April) Omar Sosa’s Inspirations (16 April) The best in jazz – past, present and future (23 April) Jazz Record Requests (Sun 4pm) Freeness with Corey Mwamba (Sat, Midnight) BBC RADIO 6 MUSIC DAB Gilles Peterson, Sat 3pm JAZZ FM DAB, Sky, Alexa, smartphone, tablet and online at jazzfm.com (Mon – Fri) 6am-6.30am Business Breakfast, 6.30am-10am Jazz FM Breakfast with Nigel Williams, 10am-2pm Midmornings with Deb Grant, 2pm-6pm Afternoons with Jamie Crick, 6pm-7pm Jazz FM’s Greatest with Mark Walker, 7pm-9pm Dinner Jazz with Mark Walker. (Mon) 9pm-10pm The Performance Series with Ruth Fisher, 10pm-Midnight…

The bassist selects the five albums that had a profound effect on his formative musical outlook that he still loves today 1 The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady by Charles Mingus “I came across this album in my late teens and it completely rocked my world. It was like the music was talking, even shouting out at me as I listened. As a bassist and composer, Mingus has been one of my biggest teachers and influences in terms of how to express life’s passion through one’s music, both as an instrumentalist and composer/bandleader.” 2 Flight of the Cosmic Hippo by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones “I was (and still am) a massive fan ofVictorWooten when I first got into electric bass and used to spend hours transcribing all his…

Coleman Hawkins was far from the only American jazzman to spend years in Europe in the 1920s and 30s. But he was different because, by thetime he moved initially to England in 1934, he was already the leading soloist on tenor saxophone, and one of the most prominent on any instrument to follow the example of Louis Armstrong in furthering the art of improvisation. During his European half-decade, one of his most inspiring record sessions was done in Paris on 28 April 1937 under the name of “Coleman Hawkins and his All Star Jam Band”. Initiated by writers Hugues Panassié and Charles Delaunay (who later feuded bitterly over bebop), it put Hawkins with colleagues worthy of his stature, starting with the rhythm-section: though barely heard in solo, Django Reinhardt was…

1 New York All-Stars – ‘Incazzato (live)’ Album: Live Encounter NYC A-List: Eric Alexander & Seamus Blake. ‘Album of The Year’/LA Jazz Scene 2 Roy More - ‘After the Real Thing’ Album: After The Real Thing Journey from Jerusalem to NY and Tel Aviv. /BBC Music Magazine 3 Rob Barron - ‘Pure Imagination’ Album: From This Moment On Piano trio’s optimistic view on life. /BBC Music Magazine 4 Reuben Fowler Big Band-‘Black Cow’ Exclusive charity single A big-band nod to the Steely Dan classic from Aja. “So outrageous”/Ubuntu Music 5 James Copus - ‘From the Source’ Album: Dusk Trumpet ace’s stellar debut album. ‘Album of The Year’/TDF 6 The Darius Brubeck Quartet - ‘Earthrise (live)’ Album: Live in Poland Retracing Dave Brubeck’s legendary 1958 tour. ‘Album of The Year’/DownBeat magazine…

The closing track on singer/songwriter and pianist Joy Ellis’s 2022 album Peaceful Place is called ‘Begin Again’, a highly appropriate sentiment for the spring of 2022 as we hesitantly contemplate moving on after two years of stasis. “I’d had a bit of an existential crisis at the beginning of the pandemic,” Joy recalls. “It was, ‘now what do we do?’. You still play because you enjoy it but we had no gigs, so what do we practice for?” Having launched her second quartet album Dwell at the Vortex in December 2019 she had already begun writing for an ambitious bigger group project planned for 2020 “but the pandemic put paid to that”. Times would prove even harder as Ellis’ mother became seriously ill, eventually passing away in 2021, but throughout…

If Claire Martin’s legions of fans had to wait patiently to hear her on record in an orchestral setting – the outstanding Songs and Stories, released on Stunt Records in 2020 – the good news is that they won’t have to wait too long for a follow-up. Martin’s next album, a collaboration with the US conductor and pianist Scott Dunn and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, will pay homage to her dear friend and mentor, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, with whom she made three acclaimed recordings, When Lights Are Low (2005), Witchcraft (2011) and Say It Isn't So (2013). The forthcoming album will feature 10 of his songs – from ‘I Watch You Sleep’ (the love theme from the 1979 film Yanks) to ‘Let’s Go And Live In The Country’ which…

Michael Bardon The Gift Of Silence Discus Music The active Leeds-based bassist for cult band Shatner’s Bassoon goes solo, but skilfully extends the concept with extended techniques, microtonal, sonically avant garde anti-diatonic traditions, overdubbing and a meditative use of space. SH Pat Bianchi Something To Say – The Music Of Stevie Wonder Savant Records A largely successful and enjoyable attempt to convert mostly lesserknown Stevie Wonder songs into classic lounge soul-jazz/B3-guitar trio anthems by a maestro of the format. SH Andrew Boudreau Neon Fresh Sound New Talent This Brooklyn-based pianist debuts with his acoustic quartet focussing on a kind of oblique post-bop with a dark centre, and while it can feel unwelcoming to the listener, there’s some persuasive performances especially from Boudreau and tenor saxophonist Neta Raanan. SH Eli Degbiri…

The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World is an exclusive 100-page definitive guide to the most important and influential jazz albums that have gone on to change and shape the course of the music from the 1920s to the present day. JUST £12.99 ■ Print-only, premium quality, publication edited and conceived by Jazzwise’s editor-in-chief Jon Newey ■ The first time a fully annotated top 100 jazz album countdown from 100 to No.1 has been published in book form ■ Includes new in-depth editorial on each album from Jazzwise’s acclaimed team of writers, plus in-depth features on the making of the top three albums, a look at the albums that almost made the cut and a guide to buying the featured titles on LP and CD Order online at magsubscriptions.com/jazzwise or…

The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire – Second Edition Ted Gioia Oxford University Press HB £30.00 Standards are a rite of passage for jazz musicians, and remain a default setting for many, whether it’s a heartfelt rendition, a launchpad to the cosmos or deconstruction into guessinggame levels of perplexing uncertainty. As an aspiring pianist and educator in earlier years, award–winning writer and jazz historian Ted Gioia himself struggled with the standards repertoire: “I had my own embarrassing situations with unfamiliar standards during my youth,” he informs us in the introduction to this new, expanded edition of his highly-acclaimed 2012 book The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire. “I soon realised what countless other jazz musicians have no doubt also learned: in-depth study of the jazz repertoire is…

Curtain call Bob Lamb’s letter (Jazzwise 271) about the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble, and their album Live Opus Sechs, brought back happy memories of the first jazz concert I went to, when I saw UJRE, touring that album, at Durham University’s Elvet Hall in October 1984. And very good they were too. The next jazz event at the same venue was also memorable, but for all the wrong reasons. The first Durham Jazz Festival, in spring 1985, saw a bill of mostly local musicians, but with a duo of Stan Tracey and John Surman topping the bill. Stan and John hit the stage at around 10:10pm, only to find the sound cut off and the house lights up, mid-performance. The hall’s jobsworth security staff had been told the event…