Jazzwiseの May 2023 の目次

The Cheltenham Jazz Festival, which runs from 26 April to 1 May, is set to get the spa town buzzing once again with its comprehensive line-up of big names, such as Gregory Porter, Van Morrison and Stanley Clarke, alongside cutting-edge jazz, intimate family-orientated shows and free stage events welcoming in everyone from jazz connoisseurs to first time listeners. The Family Tent, situated in the busy, publicly-accessible Festival Village in the Montpellier Gardens site, will feature a vibrant series of participatory workshops, intended to appeal to jazz-curious parents as well as their children. Saturday 29 April highlights include Jazzlabs, exploring jazz rhythms, sounds and styles, along with fun games in a creative workshop; Bostin Brass, has sounds inspired by music from the streets of New Orleans from second-line to jazz, funk…

Scottish saxophonist/composer Phil Bancroft is to release a new album, Degrees of Freedom, on 5 May – and a new 'artist-focused' music platform, Myriad Streams on the same day. Known for his work with award-winning Trio AAB and his international quartet, Bancroft’s album features Paul Harrison on piano, Stu Ritchie on drums and Aidan O’Donnell on bass, and will be the first of eight albums to be released on Myriad Streams, his brand-new bespoke artist-led web platform. “Myriad Streams is conceived as an antidote to Spotify,” explains Bancroft. “A human not industrial scale presentation of culture, providing a calm place for listeners to get to know one artist – without 100,000 other artists clamouring for their attention.” Five of Bancroft’s other albums will be available on the site: a reissue…

The EFG London Jazz Festival Summer Series returns this year with some heavyweight names visiting the capital in June and July. Leading the pack are Indo-jazz luminaries (and April Jazzwise cover stars) Shakti, who make their only 2023 UK appearances over two nights at the Eventim Apollo Hammersmith on 27 and 28 June; it’s a rare chance to hear the group play new music from their first studio album in 46 years, the forthcoming LP, This Moment. There’s also a striking Blue Note double bill (11 July, Barbican) featuring Nashville-born vocalist/pianist Kandace Springs (right), performing music from her recent LP The Women That Made Me, with an opening set from all-female supergroup Artemis. The latter release their second album for Blue Note on 5 May, In Real Time, which showcases…

Returning after four years off, the Bristol Jazz Festival marks its 10th anniversary from 19 to 21 May, with a busy weekend programme. Taking over the Bristol Beacon foyer space, now known as Bridgehouse, with 16 gigs over three days across a vibrant selection of jazz styles. The festival’s original Patron and staunch supporter, the late, great Pee Wee Ellis (pictured), is celebrated in a gala opening concert in the form of Pee Wee Ellis: A Life of Music featuring some of the top UK musicians who worked with the legendary saxophonist, including guitarist Denny Ilett, drummer Mark Mondesir and bassist/arranger Laurence Cottle. Other bookings include the hard-bopping Jazz Defenders; trumpeter Jonny Bruce’s Bristol Community Big Band; renowned saxophonist Iain Ballamy guesting with rising Bristol-based piano trio Yetii (see Taking…

The NN North Sea Jazz Festival, the world’s largest indoor music festival, has announced its programme for its eagerly anticipated return to the Ahoy Centre in Rotterdam running from 7 to 9 July with a lineup packed with international stars across the worlds of jazz, blues, soul and beyond. This includes: legendary South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim; multi-Grammy Award-winning collective Snarky Puppy; guitarist John McLaughlin with legendary Indo-jazz group Shakti; top US trumpeter and educator Wynton Marsalis with his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, guitar guru Pat Metheny with his Side-Eye trio; iconic Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek; acclaimed composer Maria Schneider who leads The Oslo Jazz Ensemble; contemporary greats Bill Frisell, Hermeto Pascoal and Stanley Clarke, and hot new-jazz stars Yussef Dayes, Ezra Collective and many more. Other heavyweight bookings…

When Tony Coe joined the Humphrey Lyttelton band in May 1957, aged just 22, he had already created a stir in the jazz world, having been in Joe Daniels’ band since his late teens (with a break for National Service). But although his early work had mainly been on his first instrument, the clarinet, his principal role in Humph’s famous eight-piece band was to replace Bruce Turner as the alto saxophonist, and this forged his national and international reputation: “Within a few months of his joining,” said Humph, “Tony Coe was regularly stopping the show with assured and wildly extrovert alto solos.” Even after he left Lyttelton in 1961, he often returned, notably in Humph’s occasional big band. And he followed that with just over a year with John Dankworth.…

“I’m quite adventurous, and also curious,” Mette Henriette reflects. “And when something feels right, I will lean into it, and see what happens.” As the Sámi-Norwegian saxophonist releases Drifting, her beautiful second album on ECM, her memory of meeting the label’s legendary boss Manfred Eicher bears out her questing MO: “We were at the same concert in Oslo, and he actually stumbled over me on a staircase!” she laughs. “We started talking, and he wanted to listen to my music. People around me had a much stronger sense of what ECM meant, and maybe dreamt of it being released on it. I actually didn’t. But it made sense when I met Manfred, because I could tell that he understood the anatomy of my music, from the way he was listening,…

Echoes Rune Grammofon RCD 2231 (2 CD, 3 LP, DL) EDITOR’S CHOICE Mats Gustafsson (bs, f, cond), Johan Berthling (b, el b), Andreas Werliin (d), plus guests inc Anna Lindal (vn), Susana Santos Silva (t), Mette Rasmussen (as, f), Elsa Bergman (b) and many others. Rec. 23–25 March 2022 Talk about epic. Scandinavian free jazz/experimental ensemble Fire! Orchestra open the second decade of their existence with the largest, most sprawling version of their elastic lineup yet – in this case 43 members spanning five continents! Echoes is the group’s seventh record, an expansive triple vinyl (two CD) album that encompasses contemporary jazz but also rock, folk, world, the avant-garde electronic and classical music. For added interest, the project was recorded in the presence of, and mastered by, avant-garde superhero Jim…

The Art of Intimacy Volume 2: His Muse HighNote Records HCD 7351 (CD, DL) EDITOR’S CHOICE Jeremy Pelt (t, v), Victor Gould (p), Buster Williams (b), Billy Hart (d), Chico Pinero (g), Andrew Gri. n, Josh Henderson (vn), Nicole Neely (vla), Susan Mandel (clo) with strings arr by David O’Rourke. Rec. September 2022 The first volume of Jeremy Pelt’s The Art of Intimacy was a soft-focus drum-free trio set, showcasing the trumpeter’s warmth and tonal control. That soft focus remains on Volume 2, but now strings enhance the gentle moods, and the piano trio rhythm section pulses gently with the swish of Billy Hart’s drums. The album opens with Pelt delicately stating the theme of his artfully-composed original ‘For Whom I Love So Much’. Strings enter on the bridge, fade…

Jake Baldwin Misc. Items Shifting Paradigm Records Trumpeter Baldwin’s Minneapolis-based quartet is an effective boundary-crossing mix of acoustic swing-to-avant bop, slacker electric blues-rock and ambient extended sonics courtesy of inventive 1990s downtown-influenced electric guitarist Toivo Hannigan. Elsa Bergman Playon Crayon B. Inspelningar This Swedish acoustic bassist has been working with graphic scores in the field of improve/composed music since 2018, and the cyclical-patterned music here shifts playfully from folk-like sounds (largely from African sources) to avant-cabaret, Stravinsky and abstract art music, and includes a purposeful contribution from the Anthony Braxton-associated Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva. Isabelle Bodenseh Flowing Mind GLM Records A time-honoured classic B3 jazz trio with a difference, that being leader Bodenseh’s Joe Farrell-influenced flute instead of the usual tenor sax; she studied in Germany, US and Cuba…

Treasures: Solo, Trio & Orchestra Recordings From Denmark (1965–1969) Elemental 5990444 (2 CD, 3LP, DL) RECOMMENDED Bill Evans (p), Niels-Henning Ørsted Pederson, Eddie Gomez (b), Alex Riel, Marty Morrell (d) plus the Royal Danish Symphony Orchestra and the Danish Radio Big Band. Rec. 31 October 1965–21 November 1969 I would never pretend to be an Evans scholar, or even expert, but I am an unabashed fan who loves the man’s playing and writing; so every release from the endlessly capacious Evans vaults is eagerly awaited chez moi. This double set (triple if you’re a vinyl nut), released for Record Store Day (22 April) is among the very best of the recent run of archive Evans sets. It shows the great pianist in six different settings, from solo through to orchestral.…

We’re not sure why this is specified for Alto, as it would work with any instrument. But there is of course always the overriding bottom line to consider… just think how many more copies you can sell if you package the product under each individual instrument. There are copies for flute, violin, trumpet, the list goes on. The book itself, however, is of good quality, and the songs are presented well in a standard lead sheet with chords, each as a short but complete number. With Real books you get lots of songs - some you have never played or come across (and probably never will!). This book however is the opposite – 101 very well-known and much-played numbers. Our one criticism is the book’s spine, which is stapled. This…

BBC RADIO 2 88-91 FM and DAB Big Band Special (Mon, 11pm), Jamie Cullum show (Tues, 9pm) BBC RADIO 3 90-93 FM and DAB J to Z (Sat 5pm) Samara Joy in concert (29 April) Soul Jazz Summit live from Cheltenham Jazz Festival (6 May) Simon Moullier in session (13 May) The best in jazz – past, present and future (20 May) Lakecia Benjamin in concert (27 May) 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…

This year’s Swanage Jazz Festival in Dorset swings back into action from 7 July to 9 July, with a packed weekend of gigs from leading UK jazz acts. The festival has extended its Friday programme which starts at 4pm, and returns to its traditional home of Sandpit Field, overlooking the sea, while retaining the Mowlem Theatre, providing two 400-capacity venues alongside participating venues in the town. Headliners announced so far include James Taylor Quartet, Claire Martin Quartet, Alina Bzhezhinska’s Hip Harp Collective, Zara McFarlane (right) Sings Sarah Vaughan, Tony Kofi’s Inside Straight, Issie Barratt’s Interchange, Alyn Shipton’s Friends of New Orleans and Chris Hodgkin’s Tribute to Humphrey Lyttelton. Further bookings include Bristol acts Get The Blessing and pianist Rebecca Nash’s Band; plus festival favourites Alan Barnes and Nigel Price, with…

Spring has sprung this month as the return of the Cheltenham Jazz Festival heralds the arrival of jazz festival season once again - and for the first time since the pandemic turned the world on its head (and closed every live event), things are looking busier than ever. Indeed, as we emerge from a long, discontented winter full of negative headlines and political spin, the sheer number of events happening this month and beyond, point to an undimmed appetite among jazz fans for live performances and a wholehearted embrace of music and the arts. The south west gets buzzing with Cheltenham kicking things off, then just down the road in Bristol there’s a busy weekend of jazz to enjoy, before cool Cotswolds town Stroud rounds things off in danceable Bank…

The Jazz Stroud festival returns between 25-28 May for its sixth edition, and once again presents a funky alternative lineup to complement glitzy neighbouring Cheltenham’s big-name event at the start of the month. So far confirmed are leading jazz-soul vocalist Yazmin Lacey (who returns with music from her new album Voice Notes); renowned Manchester-based spiritual jazz tenor and soprano saxist Nat Birchall; saxophonist/vocalist Laura Misch; International Anthem-signed jazz poet/saxophonist Alabaster dePlume and Indo-jazz percussionist/bandleader Sarathy Korwar are all among the headliners. The festival also continues to showcase new young talent from across the region with two rising Bristol acts appearing in the form of piano trio Yetii (see Taking Off this issue) and heavy jazztronica sax-keys-drums trio Hippo. Ten-piece, Leeds-based TC and The Groove Family bring their riotous horn-heavy sound…

Like many major composers, Stan Tracey’s musical personality took a while to emerge fully. Occasional Tracey originals could be found on record from 1952 onwards, but it was 1958 before a whole LP of his own material appeared. Indirectly, this was possible because he was in the middle of a two-year stay with the popular Ted Heath band, being featured on both piano and vibes, and the vibes had been featured on his quartet album of standards recorded the previous year. From two three-hour sessions on 22 and 26 May 1958, Little Klunk was mostly a piano trio with bassist Kenny Napper and the great drummer Phil Seamen, doing eight Tracey originals (the vibes also appear in exchanges with Seamen on ‘Boo-Bah’ and ‘Free’). Often criticised back then for his…

Leeds Jazz Festival returns for its second year from 25-30 May 2023, following the successful inaugural event that ran in June 2022. Celebrating the musicians, venues, promoters, audiences and organisations who are part of the hugely varied Leeds jazz scene, the programme once more presents local, national and international names across jazz, world, improv, electronica, soul and beyond. The first performances announced for the 2023 festival include renowned Malian singer Rokia Koné at Howard Assembly Room; World Island presents Curated by Gilles Peterson as part of Belgrave Music Hall’s 10-year anniversary celebrations; Soft Machine at City Varieties; vocalist Mica Millar at The Wardrobe; saxophonist Matt Anderson Quartet at HEART; and jazz-funk band PYJÆN at Brudenell Social Club. Further bookings include double-drummer-led heavies Vipertime; Hyde Park Jazz Club presents John Cage’s…

Vivienne Aerts Typuhtâng Self-released/Bandcamp (CD, LP, DL) Vivienne Aerts (v, composition), plus 100+ musicians and singers. Rec. date not stated New York-based Dutch singer Aerts’ third album exists in a parallel dimension to most releases, exploding with extra-musical ambition. Aerts has had parallel careers as a clinical psychologist and choir conductor, and creates chocolate-based art with her pastry chef husband, a CV which has led to this album being sold with chocolate bars which benefit the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Femmes du Virunga female cacao farm collective, and helps replant its rain forest. It was, meanwhile, recorded remotely with a mind-blowing assembly of over 100 female musicians from more than 40 nations, with the intention of battling the music business’s gender imbalance. Even sans chocolate bar (and an LP booklet…

The Last Quiet Place Pyroclastic Records PR24 (CD) EDITOR’S CHOICE Ingrid Laubrock (ts, ss), Brandon Seabrook (g), Mazz Swift (vn), Tomeka Reid (clo), Michael Formanek (b) and Tom Rainey (d). Rec. September 2019 Inspired by the Pulitzer-prizewinning writings of environmental journalist Elizabeth Kolbert, much-lauded German saxophonist/composer Ingrid Laubrock composed most of the music for The Last Quiet Place in solitude and outdoors - but if she was feeling that the imagination might be the last quiet place as humankind noisily erodes a fragile natural world outside, this powerful album confirms she wasn't intending a music of tranquil withdrawal. Laubrock's ever-expanding compositional vision forms a genre-fluid super-sextet here, all six members capable of shifting seamlessly between free-jazz, avant-rock, and delicate classical-strings textures. The subtly-structured, jazz/classical 'Anticipation' epitomises the album's broad palette,…

Music for Betty April Records APR105CD (CD, DL) EDITOR’S CHOICE Nana Rashid (v), Benjamin Nørholm Jacobsen (p), Martin Brunbjerg Rasmussen (b) and Lasse Jacobsen (d). Rec. 17-19 January 2022 This hugely impressive debut album from Danish vocalist Nana Rashid follows her well-received four-track EP, Sorrow in Sunlight, which she released in 2016. A judicious mix of standards and originals, the Rashid opener ‘Poor Blue Betty’ possesses a smouldering intensity which sets the tone for the entire album. A sorrowing tale of unrequited love, the hauntingly beautiful ‘Goodbye My Love’ is a standout with the understated, hypersensitive accompaniment of the Danish jazz piano trio Little North adding greatly to the intimate atmosphere. Written by Peggy Lee and Victor Young, and the title track of the 1954 film of the same name…

Cannonball Adderley Quintet In Concert SteepleChase SCCD 36505 (CD) Cannonball Adderley (as), Nat Adderley (t), Victor Feldman (p, vib), Sam Jones (b) and Louis Hayes (d). Rec. 13 April 1961 Here’s another of these rewarding SteepleChase concert recordings from Copenhagen’s Falkoner Centret, with Cannonball, post Miles Davis, presenting his very lively group for its first-ever European tour, the British expatriate Victor Feldman coming in for the departed Bobby Timmons. And how well he acquits himself on both piano and vibes, these eight selections including four Feldman compositions. He’s fleet on vibes on Randy Weston’s ‘Hi Fly’, Jones’ bass lines like a trunk route through the harmonies, and is given full rein on piano on his own ‘Serenity’, the horns sitting out. It’s his zippy ‘Exodus’ which opens the concert, its…

Nick Mason Nick Mason’s Fictitious Sports Harvest SHSP 4116 (LP) Nick Mason (d, perc, prod), Carla Bley (ky, comp, prod), Steve Swallow (el b), Mike Mantler (t), Gary Windo (ts, bcl, f, bv), Gary Valente (tb, bv), Howard Johnson (tba), Chris Spedding (el g), Terry Adams (p, hca, cvt), Robert Wyatt, Karen Kraft (v), Carlos Ward, D Sharpe, Earl McIntyre and Vincent Chancey (bv). Rec. October 1979 Despite their (early on, at least), reputation for weirdness and freakery, Pink Floyd’s individual members all had fairly straightforward and mainstream musical tastes. Except for drummer/motor racing nut Nick Mason. The affable Mason, whose hero was (and remains) the great Chico Hamilton, also had a liking for the avant-garde and some of the more outré fringes of jazz. Fictitious Sports, the drummer’s first…

Muneer Nasser Vertical Visions Press PB £17.99 A term such as ‘the bassist’s bassist’ might be glib, but it is not meaningless. Jamil Nasser is one of the great exponents of the instrument in the history of modern jazz who still remains largely unknown (outside of fellow four-string warriors and audience members who paid particular attention to who was really making a band sound good). This timely, well-written memoir, rendered in the first person by Jamil but compiled from extensive notes by his son Nasser, shines a light on the man who will nonetheless be familiar to fans of three piano legends, Phineas Newborn, Randy Weston and Ahmad Jamal. Between the 1950s and 90s Nasser played with all of them, in addition to other pace setters such as Eric Dolphy…

“I am always trying to blur the lines between the trained and untrained musician,” says Jay Jennings. “I have so many beautifully talented friends who never studied music, yet it seems to be pouring out of them. I also have friends who are obviously talented, and have studied music most of their lives, but nothing creative ever pours out of them. I always try to be somewhere in the middle.” I was curious as to whether music was part of the Jennings family DNA? “I have been told that the answer to that question is yes. However, it all happened before my time. Apparently, there were bluegrass/country jam sessions in Texas at family reunions before I was born,” Jennings answers. “I was lucky enough to have a piano in my…

We’ve yet to meet a saxophonist who carries a tool kit around with them, so this little device could be seen as being a very useful bit of kit. At only 20mm across, this clever little tool has a large flat side for the thumb rest and large guard adjustments, and a small part for the post and rod screws. Our first thought was that it would get lost in the case, However, KeyLeaves clearly had similar concerns, so have provided a sticky magnet the same size as the driver to put in your case, so that it doesn’t go walkabout and fall out. Most ingenious! www.key-leaves.com…

Brad Plays… Zappa?! I enjoyed Selwyn Harris’ article and his enthusiastic review of Brad Mehldau’s Plays The Beatles album. (Jazzwise, March). An even more rewarding listen would be an album of solo piano interpretations of some of Frank Zappa’s haunting and challenging compositions. I hope Brad will consider tackling this one day. I’d certainly buy a copy! Dave Taylor, Purbrook, via email Croydon Calling! I am writing to ask if could you include this letter in the next issue of Jazzwise. One of your writers, the excellent Val Wilmer, has been most helpful in supporting my enquiries. I am a writer currently researching the concert that the Ornette Coleman Trio gave at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon, England on 29 August 1965. This was the first time British audiences had…

Union Music store manager Del Day explains their ethos: “We took over Union five years ago, and changed it from an Americana music shop into a varied new and pre-loved vinyl-only store. We also have a second store based at The Sound Lounge in Sutton. "Our goal is to create a purely curated environment for people to not only buy records but feel comfortable chatting, discussing, recommending and enjoying all things music and the arts. We cover most genres, but only with albums we love and feel inspired by. We are as excited about great new reissues as we are about those obscure, hard-to-find gems. Jazz is a key component of what we do and we are very proud of our sizeable collections and rarities. We put on in-store shows,…

1 State of the Tenor by Joe Henderson “Henderson, aka 'probably your favorite tenor player’s favorite tenor player', delivers his grand masterclass on the art of playing trio. This live album, recorded in 1985, epitomises Henderson’s shockingly complex, textural playing style. He hardly plays any of his own compositions, instead, exchanging them for standards like 'Stella by Starlight' and 'All The Things You Are'. If you’ve ever questioned Henderson’s standing next to the other two giants of modern tenor playing (John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins), this album will end all debate.” 2 Crescent by John Coltrane “I couldn’t not include at least one record by him. Despite the fact that 'Bessie’s Blues' doesn’t really fit the character of the album, this is still arguably Coltrane’s best and perhaps most beautiful.…

This year’s Manchester Jazz Festival runs from 19 to 28 May at venues and sites across Manchester, including a spectacular opening weekender at one of the famous city’s most vibrant new neighbourhoods, First Street, (located between Oxford Road and Deansgate), under the banner ‘mjf2023@First Street’ featuring live music, as well as food and drink. The iconic Band on the Wall venue packs in a whole host of names from 25 to 28 May including Jazz FM Award winning vocalist Mica Millar (pictured left); guitarist/singer Rosie Frater-Taylor; a BOTW triple bill with newcomers Robocobra, Romarna Campbell and Marcus Joseph; harpist Julie Campiche’s Quartet and Buena Vista Social Club guitarist Eliades Ochoa. Further names confirmed are rising alto-saxophonist Donovan Haffner’s Quintet (22 May); Jazzwise cover-star and leading jazz harpist Alina Bzhezhinska (23…

NAME: Rūta Sīpola INSTRUMENT: Flute EXPERIENCE AND INFLUENCES: Having started the flute at age seven, Rūta has already worked with Jas Kayser, Jay Phelps, Nicola Guida and Emma Rawicz. She has performed with, and is being mentored by Shabaka Hutchings and is now in her third year at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. THIS FUTURE MOVER SAYS: “Roy Hargrove once said that if you take care of the music, the music will take care of you. I believe that if you take care of the people around you, they will take care of you too. The most accessible way for me to express emotions is through music. I wish on passing love to people who listen to me, and if they can feel it, I hope that they will share…

● COLECTIVA AND KITCHMAN FOR ELGAR ROOM’S LATE NIGHT JAZZ Following the sold-out winter season of Late Night Jazz in the Elgar Room, the Royal Albert Hall has announced the second series of the year across an eclectic range of performances. Among the highlights are latin-jazz influenced group Colectiva who have been making waves with their jazz tropicalente sound; guitar prodigy James Kitchman plays music from his well-received recent album First Quartet, and drummer Mackwood, aka Harry Ling, shows off his distinctive blend of jazz improv and electronica. Dates are: Colectiva (7 May); Earl Okin (18 May); Mackwood (25 May); James Kitchman Quartet (1 June); Relaxed: Michèle Drees’ Tap Project (8 June); and RCM Junior Department (29 Jun). Jazzwise is media partner. For full details visit www.royalalberthall.com/aboutthe-hall/the-elgar-room ● NU CIVILISATION…

The 2007 edition of the Barbados jazz festival was a 'past, present and future' affair. A young pianist called Robert Glasper made a splash with music that captured the imagination of hip-hop millennials, while vocalist Anita Baker brought the island’s 1980s soul massive to its feet. But the gig that knocked punters sideways was by Stanley Clarke, the shape-shifting bass legend who first came to prominence back in the 1970s. At Farley Hill National Park, an old plantation with a stage for open air concerts, Clarke finished a raucously funky set by stepping on to a small runway that launched out to the adoring masses. A casually dressed Moses, he parted the sea of people. Such was the engulfing noise that the crowd seemed to ascend to groove heaven itself.…

Downtown New York is vibrating. It’s a hot day and music from loft spaces, hired cheaply by musicians, is drifting across streets. Car parks, basketball courts and street corners have been co-opted into impromptu performance spaces, attracting crowds who stop, stand and listen. It’s the Downtown music scene of the early 1960s. The music is hypnotic and dubbed 'Minimalism' – the performers out in the streets, in the car parks and in the lofts include names such as Steve Reich, Phillip Glass, Terry Riley and LaMonte Young. Fast forward 25 years, and it’s almost as if history is repeating itself – musicians are back playing in parks, cafes and on street corners. Impromptu performances spaces opening up and run by musicians last a few days, a few weeks, and then…

The Winds of Change Mack Avenue Records MAC1200 (CD, DL) EDITOR’S CHOICE Billy Childs (p), Ambrose Akinmusire (t), Scott Colley (b) and Brian Blade (d). Rec. 14-16 May 2022 The title track was originally written for Roy Hargrove and a large accompanying orchestra, but Childs' mission on this album was to rediscover his jazz roots and turn the trio of himself, Colley and Blade into a compact orchestral force to interact with the trumpet wizardry of Ambrose Akinmusire. The result is not just the vibrant reimagining of that track, but an entire album that is a triumph of improvisational and compositional interaction and musicianly interplay. From the first notes of the opener, Chick Corea’s ‘Crystal Silence’ our attention is grabbed and held. Akinmusire’s trumpet line fragments extraordinarily toward the end…

KlangWeltReligion LUXMM25 LC04994 (CD, LP, DL) Heribert Leuchter (s, comp, text), Kurt van Herck (s), Karl Farrent, Christoph Titz (t), Mark Godfroid (tb), Gero Körner (org), Jürgen Sturm (g), Lothar Galle-Merkel (b), Manfred Leuchter (acc), Arup Sen Gupta (tablas), Stefan Kremer (perc) and Kate Westbrook (v). Rec. October 2020 Marcus Vergette Tintinnabulation Nonclassical NONCLSS056 (LP, DL) Marcus Vergette (bells, b, Time and Tide bells – sculptural instruments which create sound as sea levels rise), Roz Harding, Harry Fulcher (s), Mike Westbrook, Matthew Bourne (p), Frank Schaefer (clo), Kate Westbrook and Neil Hubbard (v). Rec. date not stated Two albums from strikingly individual artists, but the golden thread between them is the talent and influence of Kate and Mike Westwood. Commissioned by the Hanover World Fair, Leuchter has composed KlangWeltReligion, a…

Billy Valentine & The Universal Truth Billy Valentine & The Universal Truth Flying Dutchman AJX CD/LP681 (CD, LP, DL) Billy Valentine (v), Larry Goldings (p, el p), Je. Parker (g), Immanuel Wilkins (ts), Claire Daley (bs), Theo Croker (t), Joel Ross (vb), Linda May Han Oh (b), Pino Palladino, David Piltch (el b), James Gadson, Abe Rounds (d), Alex Acuna (perc), Owen Thiel, Jane Miley, Will Wheaton, Jason Morales, Bridgette Bryant (bv), Rob Moose (strings) and Bob Thiele Jr (prod). Rec. date not stated One half of the Valentine Brothers, the duo behind the seminal 1980s anti-Reagan funk anthem ‘Money’s Too Tight To Mention’, Billy Valentine is in fine voice in his senior years, appearing to be positively invigorated by this new project. Collaborating with Bob Thiele Jr, son of…

Blue Room Jazz Detective/Elemental DDJD 007/008 (2 CD, 2 LP, DL) RECOMMENDED Chet Baker (t, v), Phil Markowitz, Frans Elsen (p), Jean-Louis Rassinfosse, Victor Kaihatu (b), Charlie Rice and Eric Ineke (d). Rec. 10 April and 9 November 1979 As Jazzwise readers will know from many a review, recordings from Chet Baker’s latter period from 1969 to 1988 are quite a mixed bag. There have been some less than good ones, but also (notably the Live in London sessions) some excellent ones. I’m pleased to report that the jazz antennae of co-producer Zev Feldman have successfully winkled out a pair of fine Dutch radio recordings from a time when Chet’s chops were in good shape and he had two first-rate accompanying groups. There’s little to pick between the backing bands,…

Classic Jazz At The Philharmonic Jam Sessions (1950-1957) Mosaic MD10-275 (10CD) Harry Edison, Roy Eldridge, Charlie Shavers, Dizzy Gillespie (t), Bill Harris, J.J. Johnson (tb), Buddy DeFranco (cl), Benny Carter, Willie Smith, Sonny Stitt (as), Flip Phillips, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Illinois Jacquet, Stan Getz (ts), Lionel Hampton (vb), Hank Jones, Oscar Peterson, John Lewis (p), Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis (g), Ray Brown, Percy Heath (b), Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, JC Heard, Louie Bellson, Jo Jones, Connie Kay (d) and Ella Fitzgerald (v). Rec. 16 September 1950–9 October 1957 Jazz At The Philharmonic was a huge commercial phenomenon in its day, as well as a gateway drug for many listeners (such as a certain Clint Eastwood) to get into more ‘serious’ jazz. Concert producer Norman Granz built a…

Classical BROUGHT TO YOU BY Frank Dupree/Berlin RSO/Dominik Beykirch Kapustin Piano Concerto No 5 Capriccio C5495 The astonishing Frank Dupree here continues his Kapustin odyssey with the fifth of the composer’s six piano concertos, and two works for two pianists. Those familiar with the Ukrainian composer will know what to expect in terms of the musical idiom: to make a fairly crude shorthand comparison, the piano-writing resembles a notated jazz improvisation by Oscar Peterson. For Dupree, conquering Kapustin’s dizzying flights are a jog in the park. The fluency and rhythmic élan on display throughout are the kind that make you smile and shake your head in disbelief. The Piano Concerto No 5 is a five-movements-in-one affair lasting just short of 21 minutes. The ideas come so fast and furious it…