Innehållsförteckning för October 2021 från Jazzwise

Alice and John Coltrane and Chick Corea remembered at EFG London Jazz Festival This year’s EFG London Jazz Festival runs from 12 to 21 November across the capital and features significant tributes to three of jazz’s most iconic artists. The first of these features rising US alto sax star Lakecia Benjamin, who makes her debut headline London show at Cadogan Hall (13 November) performing music from herwidely praised 2020 album Pursuance: The Coltranes, a star-studded celebration of the music of John and Alice Coltrane. The gig will open with UK-based harpist Alina Bzhezhinska who performs a selection of original pieces and spiritual jazz songs by Alice Coltrane on solo harp and electronics. A further tribute concert comes in the form of Chick Corea’s The Vigil Songbook and features former Corea…

As life in the UK attempts a return to some sort of normality – even if it’s a highly uneasy and uncertain version of it – it’s clear from the astonishing number of festivals and the thousands of music fans rushing to them, that the demand and the desire for real life interaction between audiences and artists is stronger than ever. Yet, international touring remains fraught with obstacles – particularly between Europe, the UK and US – which makes this month’s cover story on Tubby Hayes’ history making NewYork debut 60 years ago even more poignant. As detailed in Simon Spillett’s compelling article, Hayes’ time in the US led to a huge number of collaborations, recordings, gigs, spontaneous meetings and ultimately elevated not just his stature as musician, but inspired…

Woolwich Works is set to open on 23 September and could well become a major London cultural hub with a huge range of music, theatre, dance, visual arts events taking place across its five performance spaces. Formerly known as the Woolwich Creative District, Woolwich Works is the result of a £31m redevelopment that’s converted five heritage industrial buildings into a modern cultural destination. There’s a strong jazz presence across the initial programme with acclaimed pianist Ashley Henry (pictured) leading a quarterly jam session that kicks off on 30 September and will feature special guests such as trumpeter Emma-Jean Thackray. Further jazz nights include Tommy Blaize, Reginald D Hunter and NYJO play Gil Scott-Heron (6 Oct), global-groove crew Soothsayers (9 Oct), the drum-and-horn heavy Afrobeat sounds of the nine-piece Balimaya Project…

With her much-anticipated tourcancelled. last year, leading pianist Nikki Iles is now set to return to the fray, following a lockdown hiatus taking some lessons with Grammy-winning US composer/arrangerVince Mendoza, and working on numerous new commissions for the UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra and Kurt Elling with Tommy Smith’s band. Iles’ Jazz Orchestra is packed with a who-s who of UK players, dates are: Scarborough Jazz Fest (25 Sept); Seven Arts, Leeds (7 Oct); Sheffield Jazz (8 Oct); Sage Gateshead (9 Oct) Pizza Express Jazz Club (part of EFG London Jazz Fest, 21 Nov) and Ronnie Scott’s, London (6 March 2022).More at www.nikkiiles.co.uk/nikki-iles-jazz-orchestra/…

You know you’ve got something when Miles Davis turns up to catch your opening night. Why the famously anti-social trumpet legend had decided to spend his evening off atop a bar stool in a tiny Manhattan club was down to the pull of one man; the stout, cheerful-looking 26-year-old tenor saxophonist squeezed alongside three other musicians onto the venue’s bar-level stage. The Half Note club itself was already becoming a noted New York night spot, its jazz policy having begun four years earlier in 1957. Since then, bands led by Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Bob Brookmeyer and others had been regular attractions, and within a short time the club would become widely regarded as a spiritual home for another saxophonist’s band – the quartet of John Coltrane. But tonight, Tuesday…

Classical Michael Collins and Noriko Ogawa La Clarinette Parisienne BIS BIS2497 Michael Collins and Noriko Ogawa’s survey of French clarinet music interweaves sonatas by Poulenc and Saint-Saëns with four works written around the turn of the 20th century as examination or competition pieces for students at the Paris Conservatoire, where the authorities were anxious to foster a French tradition of playing and repertory that would rival more established traditions in Germany. Debussy’s Première rapsodie (1910), later orchestrated, is the most familiar of the four, though each of the others, in its way, is attractive. The Introduction to Widor’s Rondo (1898) meanders a bit but the Rondo itself has plenty of bittersweet charm. The impetuosity of Messager’s 1899 Solo de concours, meanwhile, contrasts with Henri Rabaud’s altogether more austere work of…

October 21 Radio BBC RADIO 2 88-91 FM Big Band Special (Mon, 11pm), Jamie Cullum show (Tues, 7pm) BBC RADIO 3 90-93 FM J to Z (Sat 5pm) Concert highlights from Alice Zawadzki (pictured above), live at Snape Maltings (25 Sept) Hiromi shares her inspirations (2 Oct) Joey Alexander home session for J to Z (9 Oct) Alyn Shipton’s musical inspirations (16 Oct) The best in jazz – past, present and future (23 Oct) The best in jazz – past, present and future (30 Oct) 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…

In one of the major John Coltrane discoveries of recent years, a long-lost second live performance of his masterwork, A Love Supreme, has surfaced and will be released by Impulse! on 8 October. A Love Supreme was originally recorded in December 1964 and released in January 1965. Until now the only full performance known to exist was from the Festival Mondial du Jazz Antibes, Juan-Les-Pains, France, July 1965, which was issued as part of A Love Supreme Deluxe Edition in 2002. This second full performance was recorded on 2 October 1965 and is from his week-long stay at The Penthouse, Seattle from 27 September to 2 October 1965. While Impulse! previously released a posthumous live recording in 1971 from this gig, John Coltrane featuring Pharoah Sanders Live In Seattle, it…

Apreviouslyunreleased 1961Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers live concert gets an official CD and LP release next month (8 October) via Blue Note Records. Art Blakey – First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings captures drum legend Blakey with a classic line-up ofThe Jazz Messengers featuring: trumpeter Lee Morgan; tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter; pianist Bobby Timmons, and bassist Jymie Merritt. It was recorded on 14 January, 1961 at the Hibiya Public Hall in Tokyo during the band’s first-ever tour ofJapan (other dates on that tour have been released on multiple bootlegs over the years). The deluxe 2-LP 180g vinyl edition and 2-CD package come with elaborate booklets featuring rare photos from the Blakey family’s personal archives and Japanese photographers Shunji Okura and Hozumi Nakadaira, as well as images from…

1 Close to the Edge by Yes “The album that changed my life! I first heard this as a teenager and it inspired me to become a professional musician. The title track blew my mind on first hearing. Relayer or Going for the One also come close to being on my list. It is this album that speaks to me the most. A sonic masterpiece.” 2 Romantic Warrior by Return to Forever “The combination of acoustic piano, synths and jazz-meets-prog is a huge influence on my compositional style. Chick Corea’s Minimoog solo on the track ‘Dual of the Jester and the Tyrant’ is an all-time favourite. Return to Forever at their peak.” 3 Heavy Weather by Weather Report “One of the first albums I heard in my life! I used to dance…

Enjoy Jazz, Germany’s biggest festival, will be running into its 23rd season, taking place from 2 October to 13 November, with over 70 events focusing on jazz, but also bordering classical music, pop, rock, hip hop and electronica.Staged in the cities of Heidelberg, Mannheim, and Ludwigshafen in southwestern Germany, it’s been aptly dubbed the ‘Festival for Jazz and More’, Enjoy Jazz features world-class stars alongside aspiring newcomers each year. This year the event welcomes Angel Bat Dawid, Tigran Hamasyan, Theo Croker, Jazzmeia Horn (pictured), Ben Wendel, Silje Nergaard, Lakecia Benjamin, Kassa Overall, Irreversible Entanglements, Jaimie Branch, Makaya McCraven, and Vijay Iyer among others. For more information visit www.enjoyjazz.de…

If last year was an artistically fulfill in gone for performer, composer, educator (NYU/The New School) and concert curator, Brandee Younger – awarded Rising Star Harpist in DownBeat magazine’s 2020 Critics Poll, she also released her critically acclaimed fifth album Force Majeure – then 2021 looks set to build on this success with the release ofYounger’s major label debut on Impulse! Records (in its 60th anniversary year), Somewhere Different. “It’s pretty sick. It’s really cool to be a part of the label, especially at this time,” Younger tells me in a Zoom call from her home in NYC. “I do so many things for different people – different genres – and then when it comes to my own stuff I keep it very safe, I keep it right here. So…

Landmark Recording  Excellent  Good Average  Disappointing Mose Allison The Complete Atlantic/Elektra Albums, 1962-1983 Strawberry Records QCRJAMBOX003 (6 CD) RECOMMENDED Mose Allison (v, p), plus various personnel. Rec. 1962-1983 This outstanding 6-CD set from Strawberry Records chronicles 20 years of NEA Jazz Master Mose Allison’s long and distinguished career, featuring 10 albums recorded for Atlantic Records between 1962-1976 (including the 1966 live album Mose Alive! plus his acclaimed 1968 album I’ve Been Doin’ Some Thinkin’), plus a further two albums he made for Elektra in 1982 (Middle Class White Boy) and 1983 (Lessons In Living) respectively. A droll, keen-eared and occasionally world-weary songwriter and one of the music’s singular stylists, the eight-track Swingin’ Machine saw the Mississippi-born Allison expand his customary trio setting with the addition of trombonist Jimmy Knepper and…

The Lady Swings: Memoirs of a Jazz Drummer Dottie Dodgion and Wayne Enstice University of Illinois Press PB £17.99 The title immediately poses the question: how many ‘lady drummers’ can you think of? Terri Lyne Carrington and, er... yes, there are quite a few now, mostly younger than Carrington, but before her it was all very different. Apart from the lack of opportunities to learn, there was the same prejudice that female horn players still encounter, but even more so. Dorothy (Dottie) Dodgion, born in 1929, is alive and well at this writing, and had a career that included playing and sometimes recording with such choosy leaders as Ruby Braff, Wild Bill Davison, Marian McPartland and Benny Goodman. Marrying and divorcing two name jazzmen – bassist Monty Budwig and saxophonist…

The nominees for the 2021 Jazz FM Awards have been announced, with the winners set to be revealed at an ‘in-person’ awards ceremony on 28 October at West London venue Under The Bridge in Chelsea. The Awards show will be presented by Jazz FM DJ Anne Frankenstein, with the categories reflecting Jazz FM’s on-air mix of jazz, soul and blues, as well as recognising the live sector with venues, festivals and more recently online innovations (particularly in lockdown) to be honoured plus three special categories, the Gold Award Impact Award and Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be announced in the coming weeks. The nominations are as follows: Blues Act Of The Year: Eric Bibb, Marcus Bonfanti and Ruthie Foster. Breakthrough Act Of The Year: Jas Kayser, Nathaniel Cross and Secret…

The postponed Scarborough Jazz Festival is set to make its eagerly anticipated return from 24 to 26 September at its longtime home in The Grand Hall at Scar-borough Spa. The packed programme of leading UK jazz names includes two stellar big bands in the form of Hans Koller’s Bird Migration Big Band – a celebration of the centenary of Charlie Parker – and the star-studded Nikki Iles Jazz Orchestra; while high-calibre smaller groups include the Dave O’Higgins and Rob Luft Quartet; propulsive Swiss Trio VEIN with special guest Stan Sulzmann; Karen Sharp Quartet; Jean Toussaint Allstar 6tet and the John Pearce/Dave Newton duo. Top jazz singers appearing include Zoe Gilby (pictured), Ian Shaw and vocal group Rafe’s Dilemma, while the Julian Joseph Trio and Fergus Mc-Creadie Trio and the Oxley/Meier…

Flipping through the pages of Melody Maker from 6 April 1960 one’s eyes are immediately drawn to a gig advert for Brighton’s Chinese Jazz Club, held in the Aquarium Winter Gardens. Started in November 1959 by boater wearing ‘Uncle Bonny’ Manzi, this orientally-themed club caught the attention with its Chinese lantern and joss stick ambience and Manzi’s terrible catch phrases, of which ‘Chop chop, velly, velly good’ was used interminably on adverts and announcements. Appealing to both Trad jazz ‘ravers’ and modern jazz fans, Manzi’s oddball humour extended to offering crocodile sandwiches on the menu and encouraging punters to wear ‘rave gear’, including bear skins, bowler hats, bikinis and pyjamas. Amazingly the club lasted until 1967 when Manzi switched to booking to R&B and blues, but without the bikinis!…

Who can say when West Coast Jazz was born? Its popularisation coincided with the first recordings of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet in 1952, or even the live concert albums of Dave Brubeck a few months later. But on 8 October 1951, the 10-inch LP Shorty Rogers And His Giants was produced by disc-jockey and concert-promoter Gene Norman, and sold to Capitol Records. Along with Mulligan’s 10-piece of January 1953, also produced by Norman and similarly released on 10-inch, this Rogers debut album was packaged in the CD era as Birth Of The Cool Vol.2. A cheeky rebranding with more than a grain of truth, since Rogers’ octet used both French horn and tuba in a way that was reminiscent of the famous Miles Davis recordings of 1948-50. But Shorty’s writing…

“Did I leave?” Peter Ind wondered, asked by Jazzwise last year about yet another uprooting in a wandering odyssey of a life. “Or did I just keep moving?” Unreflectively, stubbornly, this giant among English bassists ploughed his own chosen course, ignoring obstacles and fashion’s vagaries. He was almost the last bop veteran standing, an oak you could sometimes believe would never fall. By 1949, he had already left Blitz-scarred Middlesex to join the likes of Ronnie Scott on the Queen Mary, playing for his passage and the reward of nights in Manhattan’s 52nd Street clubs, just as bebop was born. Bird nodded his approval when Ind played with Miles, and in 1951 he moved to New York, where he taught classical, high-necked technique to Mingus, who treated him as a…

Bassist and bandleader Ferg Ireland is in a quietly optimistic mood as our meeting over a morning Zoom link prompts him to reflect on the impact of 18 months of online-only gigs. “I did so many livestreams over the lockdown and it was great to keep playing but it’s just not the same without an audience: it makes you realise how important it is to have a two-way conversation. I finally had a full capacity gig with James Copus at Ronnie's, and another at Jazz Cafe with Kansas Smitty’s, and without wanting to sound cheesy the experience was really life-affirming” It’s hard to generalise, he says, when the impact of Covid-19 has been so unequally distributed, but there have been some positive outcomes for artists and audiences inasmuch as there…

Pingdemic pandemonium hit Ronnie Scott’s club, London, this summer. To the crushing disappointment of both eager fans and journalists, Robert Mitchell’s August concert was cancelled at the eleventh hour, and as the pianist points out the unwanted domino topple went far and wide. “Tom [Mason, bassist] had a positive test just 48 hours before so that meant we had to isolate,” he says. “That had a knock-on effect with pretty much everyone in the group on other work, so that’s definitely tough.” Planned to mark his 50th birthday celebrations, the gig was a double bill that featured Mitchell’s Epiphany 3 (with Mason and drummer Saleem Raman) and special guest, cellist Shirley Smart, and his new ensemble, True Think, in which the same rhythm section is joined by guitarist Zayn Mohammed…

Landmark Recording Excellent Good Average Disappointing Patricia Barber Clique Impex Records IMP83303 (CD, SACD, LP, DL) Patricia Barber (p, v), Jim Gailloreto (ts), Neal Alger (g), Patrick Mulcahy (b) and Jon Deitemyer (d). Rec. January 2019 This new all-standards album from Patricia Barber features tunes that she has frequently performed as encores throughout her career, honed at her home gig at Chicago’s Green Mill and on the road. It also provides a welcome counterpart to her first all-standards album, Nightclub, released in 2000. Barber yet again proves herself to be especially adept at casting new light on this repertoire, whether in the moment of catharsis which lights up the instrumental section of Lee Hazlewood’s ‘This Town’, or the subtle iridescence she brings to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘Shall We Dance?’ The…

Oliver Nelson The Blues and the Abstract Truth Impulse!/Analogue Productions A-5/B0033428 01 (LP) Oliver Nelson (as, ts, comp, arr), Bill Evans (p), Freddie Hubbard (t), Eric Dolphy (as, f), George Barrow (bs), Paul Chambers (b) and Roy Haynes d). Rec. 23 February 1961 Has there ever been amore impressive line-up on one jazz record than on Oliver Nelson’s 1961 masterpiece? Perhaps… but more importantly, has such a strong lineup ever been used to greater effect? Probably not. The Blues and the Abstract Truth is, from the opening soon-to-be-a-standard ‘Stolen Moments’ onwards, outstanding in every way, and one of the greatest jazz albums of its time, if not ever. It’s been reviewed countless times, and is a cornerstone of any serious collection, so let’s concentrate on other mattes, as the quality…

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Opportunities taken in a crisis It’s been fascinating to read, in almost every interview, the different ways in which jazz musicians have responded and adapted to The Plague in making their new records – yes, even Evan Parker! At the risk of seeming like a complete Pollyanna, I wanted to celebrate some of the other ways in which, through hard work and ingenuity, people have created unexpected benefits out of the crisis. I’ve been able to see some great jazz gigs, via streaming, across the world (special shoutout to Jazzclub Unterfshrt in Munich, who have offered several performances every week) - and now they’ve sorted out filming, sound and (most importantly, for those doing the work) systems for selling tickets or taking donations, with a bit of luck this will…