Innehållsförteckning för May 2024 från Jazzwise

The Love Supreme Jazz Festival has added more international jazz, soul, funk and world names to this summer’s event. Running from 5 to 7 July at Glynde Place in East Sussex, the bill now includes acid jazz outfit Galliano; boundary-pushing young drummer (and bassist Avishai Cohen’s bandmate) Roni Kaspi; vocalist Alicia and bassist Michael Olatuja’s Afrobeat-inflected Olatuja project; Tunisian singer and oud master Dhafer Youssef; UK pianist Andrew McCormack’s Group featuring US bassist Kyle Eastwood; British soul-jazz singer Alice Russell; American saxophonist James Brandon Lewis; and indie-jazz songwriter/guitarist Rosie Frater-Taylor. Also on the line-up is celebrated UK singer Jacqui Dankworth; multi-award-winning US vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant; bassist and singer Meshell Ndegeocello; Scottish pianist and Jazz FM Instrumentalist of the Year) Fergus McCreadie; Japanese piano virtuoso Hiromi with her Sonicwonder band;…

The Swanage Jazz Festival is back from 12-14 July with its biggest line-up since 2018, which includes a second Marquee on Sandpit Field (increasing the festival’s capacity), while Arts Council England and Dorset Council funding has secured a ‘new bands and new audiences’ programme. Among the 50 acts booked are headliners such as multi-award-winning singer and pianist Liane Carroll and her Trio (in their first performance at Swanage for 10 years); prodigious saxophonist and composer Emma Rawicz and her 20-piece Jazz Orchestra with their first gig outside London; top vocal/sax duo Ian Shaw and Tony Kofi paying tribute to Billy Strayhorn (see page 41 this issue), plus Mercury-nominated pianist Zoe Rahman and her heavy-hitting Colour of Sound Octet. Also appearing are bassist Gary Crosby’s Mingus Moves Band; the soulful sounds…

NAME: Yumé NET (Mei Miyazaki Kirby) INSTRUMENTS: Piano/Keys/Electronics EXPERIENCE AND INFLUENCES: Although Yumé NET started out on classical piano at the age of six, her current style is difficult to pin to any specific genre, fluidly melding influences from jazz, experimental electronic music and a myriad of other approaches. In her music she crafts coruscating, glitchy soundscapes that explore what it means to be human in an increasingly online society. Her debut EP, WORSHIP THE FEEDING HAND, comes out later this summer. THIS FUTURE MOVER SAYS: “I love exploring the possibilities of a sonic space and what I can add to it. Could this moment use some harmony? Maybe textures? What if I just leave space? I guess it's quite a playful approach but it's usually very intentional. It's about…

When May 1959 saw the recording of not only Giant Steps and Mingus Ah Um, but also Ornette’s The Shape Of Jazz To Come – and when all three leaders have already been featured in this series – perhaps it makes sense to choose another year. 1949 was also quite a pivotal period, though not in such an immediately successful way. For instance, the increasingly important Capitol label decided, with their big seller Stan Kenton off the road for more than a year, to try and market some adventurous smaller groups. So their in-house, ex-Kenton arranger-producer Pete Rugolo in a single week initiated sessions by bebop vocalist Babs Gonzales; the Miles Davis nonet; and a similar ensemble led by composer Tadd Dameron (using Fats Navarro and then, when Navarro toured…

Jazz has always been associated with funky dancehalls, seedy bars and the sex trade. This is hardly surprising, given its origins in impoverished communities, although the connection with brothels, glorified by the early chroniclers, is now regarded as exaggerated. Only Jelly Roll Morton and the other ‘piano professors’ entertained at the New Orleans ‘sporting houses’, bands did not. Nightclubs, however, have always had a connection with organised crime. Louis Armstrong worked routinely for gangsters during Prohibition, but musicians have often had to take whatever they could get. Indeed, it was often only on the fringes of society that there was a chance to jam. When it comes to postwar London, I’ve already written about two Soho strip clubs where this was the case. The Panama in Great Windmill street (Jazzwise…

AustraLYSIS Dualling Earshift Music EAR085 (CD, DL) Roger Dean (p, elec), Phil Slater (t), Sandy Evans (saxophones), Greg White (computer, elec, b, d) and Hazel Smith (text, v). Rec. December 2021 Sam Anning Earthen Earshift Music EAR075 (CD, DL) Sam Anning (b, comp), Mat Jodrell (t), Carl Mackey (as), Andrea Keller (p, Wurlitzer), Theo Carbo (g) and Kyrie Anderson (d). Rec. 2023 Callum Allardice Cinematic Light Orchestra Earshift Music EAR087 (CD, DL) Callum Allardice (comp, arr, cond, g) plus the 27 piece Cinematic Light Orchestra. Rec. 2023 Madison Carter Polymorphic Earshift Music EAR089 (CD, DL) Massillon Carter (d, vb, perc, celeste, el p), Niran Dasika (t, picc t, synth), Flora Carbo (as, bcl), Jessica Lindsay Smith (f, perc) and Imogen Cygler (vn). Rec. date not stated As I have previously…

Anthropods Abundant Shores Klanggalerie GG469 (CD, DL) Mark Holub (d), Irene Kepl (v), Clemens Sainitzer (clo), Susanna Gartmayer (bcl) and Jakob Gnigler (ts). Rec. date not stated Blueblut Lutebulb Janka Industries JI004 (CD, LP, DL) Pamelia Stickney (Theremin, v), Chris Janka (g, loop, samples), Mark Holub (d, perc, v). Rec. date not stated Two Vienna-based bands, each featuring Led Bib drummer Mark Holub–but that’s about it for commonalities. Acoustic quintet Anthropods was Holub’s lockdown project bringing together elements of neo-classical composition with vigorous elements of improvisation. Sophomore album Abundant Shores was conceived as a single continuous suite of eight ‘pieces’, a sequence of passages flowing and swerving through unstructured bursts to sudden tight rhythmic or melodic themes. At one point a kind of randomised canon is tossed between instruments using…

Don Byas Classic Don Byas Sessions 1944-1946 Mosaic MD10-277 (10 CD) Don Byas (ts), Hot Lips Page (t, v), Charlie Shavers, Emmett Berry, Jesse Brown, Joe Keyes, Shad Collins, Frankie Newton, Dizzy Gillespie, Bill Coleman, Benny Harris, Joe Thomas, William Johnson, Talib Dawud, Felix Barboza, Loyal Walker, Dick Vance, Buck Clayton, Roger Jones, Joe Newman, Shorty Rogers, Neil Hefti, Harold ‘Money’ Johnson, Henry Glover (t), Trummy Young, Vic Dickenson, Benny Morton, Tyree Glenn, Alton ‘Slim’ Moore, Shorty Haughton, George Washington, JJ Johnson, Henry Wells, JC Higginbotham, Sandy Williams, Claude Jones, Dicky Wells, Charles Johnson, Al Grey, Henderson Chambers (tb), Tony Scott, Eddie Barefield (cl, as), Hank D’Amico (cl), Floyd ‘Horsecollar’ Williams, George Johnson, Rudy Williams, Earl Bostic, Kirt Bradford, Charlie Parker, Johnny Bothwell, Porter Kilbert, Jewel Grant, Bill Stegmeyer, Jimmy…

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FRISELL FOR TWO UK SHOWS AND ORCHESTRAS BLUE NOTE ALBUM Guitarist Bill Frisell is back in the UK for two live shows following the release of his large-scale string-laden new album, Orchestras, which is out on Blue Note on 15 April. Touring with his longstanding bandmates, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston (both of whom feature on the album), the trio appear at the Islington Assembly Hall on Wednesday 15 May and then in The Bradshaw Hall at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on Friday 17 May. The latter concert is the first international date for Brum-based imprint Stoney Lane’s ‘Live’ performance series. See page 36 for a review of Orchestras. For more info visit www.billfrisell.com WOMAD ANNOUNCES LONDON AFROBEAT COLLECTIVE, LAURA MISCH, AND AMADOU AND MARIAM FOR 2024 LINE-UP The…

It’s good to catch up with Cheltenham Jazz Festival Director Ian George, because his 21-year association with the event, from when he took on the marketing in 2003, gives him a long view. Back then, concerts were only in the Town Hall (on the main stage or the smaller Pillar Room) and at the Everyman Theatre, and a casual visitor to the town might have no idea there was a festival on. Ian’s challenge was to get it better noticed. “Yes, it’s always been well regarded in the jazz world from the start,” he says, “and we’ve always had some of the biggest names in the music, but getting people through the doors to those magical concerts wasn’t easy. That had something to do with perceptions of the genre, but…

Cyrille Aimée À Fleur de Peau Whirlwind Recordings WR4820 (CD, LP, DL) Cyrille Aimée (v, g, uke) plus various personnel including Jake Sherman (p, ky) and Abe Rounds (d, perc). Rec. 2018-2023 Although she’s been composing for years, the French singersongwriter Cyrille Aimée refers to her latest album À Fleur de Peau as being her “real birth as a songwriter”. Teaming up with New York multi-instrumentalist and producer, Jake Sherman, the album’s soulful melodies, heartfelt lyrics and ear-catching arrangements take flight with a rare blend of sincerity and allure. From the warm embrace of ‘Beautiful Way’, a bilingual love letter to her adopted home of New Orleans, to the tender introspection of ‘Back to You,’ dripping with nu-soul vibes and poignant nostalgia, each track is a window into Aimée’s musical…

Orchestras Blue Note 588374 (2 CD, 2 LP, 3LP, DL) EDITOR’S CHOICE Bill Frisell (g), Thomas Morgan (b), Rudy Royston (d), Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, Alexander Hanson (cond), Umbria Jazz Orchestra, Manuele Morbidini (cond) and Michael Gibbs (arr). Rec. January 2022 Bill Frisell has been conjuring an inspired solo soundscape for electric guitar for so long that the world has grown accustomed to that most downhome of axes being technically and electronically transformed into a big band. Now with the Brussels Philharmonic and Umbria Jazz orchestras, the chance comes to hear where his imagination takes him when the big backdrop is being painted by others. Frisell is joined by regular partners in bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston - but the most important long-running connection here is the guitarist’s 50-year…

BIGHEADMODE Return! Of The Hellcat Self-release Multi-instrumentalist brothers Ewan and Robbie Moore’s highly listenable debut album explores scuffed-up 1970s funk and fusion grooves. Replete with shuffling break beats and melodic lofi keys, the fired-up playing propels this above similar Spotify-friendly jazz releases. (MF) Brian Bromberg LaFaro Be Squared Productions Bass maestro Bromberg leads an all-acoustic salute to the genius of Scott LaFaro and his masterful innovations with Bill Evans. Bromberg’s commanding central performance is note-perfect, but the trio lack the interactive frisson of the original. (MF) Satoko Fujii Tokyo Trio Jet Black Libra Records In cohorts with bassist Takashi Sugawa and drummer Ittetsu Takemura, the great Japanese pianist has created a powerful acoustic trio album for the 20th century. Unselfishly, Fujii takes something of a back seat here, allowing her…

At The Showcase: Live in Chicago 1976-77 Jazz Detective DDJD-013 (2 CD, 2 LP, DL) RSD RELEASE Sun Ra (p, ky), John Gilmore (ts), Marshall Allen (as, f, kora), Danny Davis (as, f), Eloe Omoe (as, bcl), Danny Thompson (bs, f), Michael Ray, Ahmed Abdullah, Emmett McDonald (t), Vincent Chancey (frhn), Dale Williams (g), Richard Williams (b), Luqman Ali (d), Eddie Thomas (perc), James Jacson (ob, infinity drum), Atakatune (cga), June Tyson, Wisteria and Cheryl Banks-Smith (v). Rec. 21 February 1976, 4 and 10 November 1977 Pink Elephants On Parade Modern Harmonic MH-8304 (LP) RSD RELEASE Sun Ra (p, ky), June Tyson (v) and uncredited musicians. Rec. 1985-90 Two very different Record Store Day releases from the Saturnic Mr Ra, both featuring previously unheard music and both revealing divergent sides…

The Notebooks of Sonny Rollins Edited by Sam VH Reese New York Review Books PB £16.99 Hard on the heels of Aidan Levy’s gargantuan (and at 784 pages, somewhat indigestible) biography of Sonny Rollins, comes this more slender, but equally rich, insight into the great saxophonist’s life. Beginning in 1959 at the time of his self-imposed break from public performance and practice sessions on Williamsburg Bridge, Rollins started to jot down his thoughts on a regular basis and several boxes of these jottings are in his archive at the New York Public Library. Although, in this distillation from them, the subject matter roams far and wide, as would be the case with anyone noting their daily thoughts, some key themes emerge. There is plenty of material about the saxophone –…

BBC RADIO 2 88-91 FM and DAB Jamie Cullum show (Tues, 9pm) BBC RADIO 3 90-93 FM and DAB 'Round Midnight (Mon-Fri 11.30pm) Jazz Record Requests (Sun, 4pm) 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 Danielle Perry, 2pm-6pm Afternoon drive with Simon Philips, 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 Late Night China Moses. (Tues) 9pm-10pm Jazz Travels with Sarah Ward, 10pm-Midnight Late Night China Moses. (Weds). 9pm-10pm The Big Easy with Lil’ Koko. 10pm-Midnight Late Night China Moses. (Thurs) 9pm-10pm True Brit with Helen Mayhew.…

From the late 1940s until his death in 2017, John Jack had his finger firmly on the pulse of Soho's jazz and bohemian scene. From playing trombone and working at Dobell's from 1956; promoting early be-bop gigs at Lichfield Street's Cottage Club and other Soho haunts and running Ronnie's Scotts Old Place; to managing Mike Westbrook and co-running the Cadillac and Ogun Record labels, John Jack was dubbed the 'Zelig of British Music' by his colleague Mike Gavin, and was invariably in the right place on the right day. One short-lived haunt was Club Bohemia, a Saturday jazz all-nighter during 1957 in Russell Quay's basement Skiffle Cellar at 49 Greek Street. A main draw at Cafe Bohemia was alto saxophonist Bruce Turner, a softly-spoken man with a huge love of…

“I never thought I could do anything as good as Gods of Apollo. So Gemini seemed like a real miracle when it came”. Rob Cope is a soprano saxophonist and bass clarinettist based near Manchester. His first record on Ubuntu Music was titled after the 1960s US Apollo space programme and featured experimental saxophone improvisation over sampled spoken audio from the NASA archives. Five years later, the title of his recently released album Gemini continues this association with the Cold War space race while also signalling the ancient Greek word for ‘twins’. This reflects the unique format of his four-piece ensemble, which is viewed better as two coexisting duos rather than a traditional jazz quartet. The first duo is comprised of Cope alongside tenor saxophonist Andy Scott, his former teacher who…

In 2019, under the Keychange programme, Dr Sarah Raine reported on "ways forward for equal gender representation at jazz festivals," because in previous years Cheltenham (in common with other UK festivals) had not achieved a 50/50 representation. This year’s event, with headliners Dee Dee Bridgewater and Lakecia Benjamin, as well as some of the great names of the UK scene including Norma Winstone and Elaine Delmar, has clearly taken that message on board. Director Ian George says: "In this and the other Cheltenham Festivals, including Literature and Science, it’s become baked into our thinking". So, leading off the programme on 1 May with Dionne Warwick in the Big Top is a strong signal of how far the festival has come. As well as Dionne’s fellow soul legend Bettye LaVette, keep…

Shiver Shiver Meets Matthew Bourne Volume 2 Discus Music DISCUS170CD (CD, DL) Matthew Bourne (p, syn), Andy Champion (el b), Joost Hendrickx (d) and Chris Sharkey (el g). Rec. 17 July 2021 Paula Rae Gibson featuring Matthew Bourne Loving In Real Time 33 Xtreme 33Xtreme022 (CD, DL) Paula Rae Gibson (v), Matthew Bourne (clo, Dulcitone, har, syn, p). Rec. date not stated Matthew Bourne’s extensive hunger for collaboration was starved during lockdown, and the second of two summer days playing with Northeastern trio Shiver at the pianist’s Yorkshire Dales home, stove lit and tunes and yarns shared at night, has a happy intensity. Bourne switched between piano and the radically rebuilt, polyphonic analogue MemoryMoog synth he debuted on moogmemory (2016), while Shiver guitarist Chris Sharkey electronically processed the quartet live,…

Ian Shaw & Tony Kofi An Adventurous Dream - The Music Of Billy Strayhorn And Duke Ellington (At Pizza Express Live in London) PX Records PXRCD1010 (CD, 2 LP, DL) Ian Shaw (v), Tony Kofi (as), Barry Green (p) and Dave Green (b). Rec. date not stated It’s fascinating to compare this powerful collaboration, and it is a real double header with Kofi and Shaw sharing credits, with Dave Douglas’ Gifts. Douglas likewise visits Ellington material with a special focus on Strayhorn songs. But he consciously eschews saxophone on the Strayhorn material. In contrast, Kofi and Shaw celebrate the vibrant relationship between Johnny Hodges’ alto, Strayhorn’s material and the elusive magus who brought them together, Duke Ellington. Kofi is an assured stylist: his Another Kind of Soul was a brilliant…

Cannonball Adderley Burnin’ in Bordeaux: Live in France 1969 Elemental 5990448 (2CD, 2LP) RECORD STORE DAY (RSD) RELEASE Cannonball Adderley (as), Nat Adderley (cl), Joe Zawinul (p, ky), Victor Gaskin (b) and Roy McCurdy (d). Rec.14 March 1969 Poppin’ in Paris: Live at L’Olympia 1972 Elemental 5990449 (2 CD, 2LP) RSD RELEASE Cannonball Adderley (as, ss), Nat Adderley (cnt), George Duke (p, ky), Walter Booker (b) and Roy McCurdy (d). Rec. 25 October 1972 The Adderley brothers stayed true to each other, touring and recording together as a quintet under Cannonball’s leadership until his untimely death at the age of 46 in 1975, a mere three years after the second of these concert recordings. As with all these ‘new-find’ Elemental albums, sound quality, provenance, and presentational content are of a…

Jan Garbarek Quartet Afric Pepperbird ECM Luminessence 1007 (LP, DL) Jan Garbarek (ts), Terje Rypdal (g), Arild Andersen (b) and Jon Christensen (d). Rec. September 1970 Keith Jarrett and Jan Garbarek Luminissence ECM Luminessence 10049 (LP, DL) Keith Jarrett (comp, arr), Jan Garbarek (ts, ss), Strings of the Sudfunk Symphony Orchestra of Stuttgart and Mladen Gutesha (cond). Rec. 29 and 30 April 1974 John Taylor/Norma Winstone/Kenny Wheeler Azimuth ECM Luminessence 1099 (LP, DL) John Taylor (p), Norma Winstone (v) and Kenny Wheeler (t). Rec. March 1977 I’m sure it has been mentioned before, but this Luminessence series of classic ECM re-releases are actually better than the original releases. One reason is that albums originally released in the 1970s and early 1980s were affected by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries…

Write in to us here at Letters Dept, Jazzwise Magazine, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB or email letters@jazzwise.com A biz insider’s view on CDs and the vinyl resurgence… First off, let me state that I am wholeheartedly in favour of the current vinyl resurgence (a word I prefer to ‘revival’). But I must also bring a cautionary note to the table. Your recent letters from Peter Ryan (issue 291) and Steven Tulip (issue 293) both had salient points to make. I take on board the fact that the prices of LPs today can certainly seem prohibitive, but I also think that the vinyl resurgence is not simply a case of the media – TV in particular – telling us what to like (I certainly don’t let them…