This is a Scrapbook. It is the only word on the cover, underlined and dropped into the middle of the artwork. Presumably it is the intention to use the word to describe both the album and the band which originally came together in I have always thought of a Scrapbook as a place of personal memorabilia and ideas.
Angus Bayley is a scientific researcher and an inventor of sorts. Buy the album and you will hear the difference the rest of the Scrapbook septet have brought to these initial conceptions. Dave Hamblett, the drummer, has popped up on a number of sessions reviewed on this website. It is plainly obvious why this is the case from one single listen-through of this new album.
John Law's New Congregation - These Skies In Which We Rust
When he is present Mr Hamblett is like glue. Give the guy the opportunity and he holds this rather unorthodox line-up two strings, trombone and trumpet, no reeds together with a funky nonchalance, poking and prodding in all those spare corners. What do I mean? When I heard the opening few bars I thought that minimalism might be the direction of travel which would have been interesting but once the bone and the horn are in it dissolves into a bright contemporary bop thing.
Trippett applies a bass break which lifts it nicely and once Hamblett is in, clicking the ride cymbal, the piece settles down gliding into a light groove. Certainly Henno that follows it allows everybody to caper a bit and that works a treat. Click here to listen to Henno. The previously mentioned Wrioter features trumpet and trombone acting the role of a superior brass band playing a melody which could have been taken from a Charles Wesley Hymnal.
It is extremely upright and English. When Angus Bayley drops in a couple of lone piano solos it gives a focused dynamic. To my mind the standout performance is easily Triads. The title gives the game away as to its construction, which allows the personnel in the Scrapbook line-up to play to their strengths. The Bayley piano is juggling the chords beneath him. The ensemble sound is full, the strings hold a cluster, ironically like a synthesiser. Hamblett is able to get on top of it with Trippett leaving the path free for Kieran McLeod to tuck in a soulful trombone break in amongst those Triads.
At which point they abruptly end. You can almost feel it, Mr McLeod could have let go a fat slice of J. Johnson at this point, but instead Triads stops in its tracks. The final two tracks, Steam and Tides contain melodies poised on the piano. Hamblett shuffles them, Trippett holds on to them; Bayley handles them like precious objects.
I am sure they are to him, but if you are going to form a septet around such compositions they have to be given up and allowed to fracture under whatever the other players can bring to your music. Steam is worthy of another shot at some point in the future. When Angus Bayley produces his own solo it could really pirouette and dazzle but here I feel it tends to get dragged down by the arrangement.
Yes, this is Scrapbook in name and Scrapbook by nature, a depositary of fragments and ideas. And for that I give Angus Bayley credit. I would much sooner someone step forth with fresh thinking than merely trot out the same old, same old. If not all of this music is yet fully formed, there is still a lot here which could blossom under further enquiry. This septet is now currently on tour. By the end of it they may well have a collective understanding of where they want to take this music. I believe they can fashion a future for it. Click here for Angus Bayley soloing on Glide.
This is the second album by the Manchester based big band following on from their recording Big Ideas. The CD comes in a recycled cardboard cover with a paper insert with tiny photographs of the band's 14 members; however it does not include any details of the tracks other than their titles. The band describes itself as a band that has grown big rather than a big band and they all met as students in Manchester and know each other well both socially and musically.
They have been the recipients of many jazz awards and performed in a number of European countries. Click here for an introductory video to the album. A rousing start with a tune called rocky this is not a typo as all the track titles are in lower case. This introductory track is heavy on the percussion front with a rhythmic cacophony using distant snatches of melody all played at a fast pace and ending abruptly.
The next track, pop , again has percussion to the fore with the melody on the guitar moving to a superb muted trumpet from Nick Walters which weaves through the background and then leads into a faster tempo as all instruments join. Foremost on this track is an excellent unusual solo on flugelhorn by Graham South. A very slow start using just percussion which is then joined by bass and brass exploding the pace a little, but is never fast, all concluding in a melodic finale.
The final short track is fairytale which has a tender melody and complementary brass playing and does leave you with a feeling of wanting more. All In was recorded over four days in The breaks between the tracks were very short and therefore one track seemed to blend into the next despite the changes of pace. Click here for details and to listen to all the tracks on the album.
Beats and Pieces are: Even before I listened to this first album from talented Scottish musician Alan Benzie, I felt I might be in for a treat as the artwork on the CD cover was very inspired indeed. Alan Benzie actually started out playing the violin as an 8 year old and in his teens switched to the piano. Benzie was the first winner of the Young Scottish Musician of the year in and went on to study at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, becoming the first British musician to win the Billboard Award.
The album was recorded with the other members of the trio, Andrew Robb, on bass and Marton Juhasz on drums. All the tracks are composed by Benzie and his inspiration was his travels, the landscape of his native Scotland and Japanese animation. The music has its roots in European and American jazz with influences from impressionist piano music, Scottish and Japanese folk and film music. Glass, From A to B and Old Haunts are informed by direct experience and my reflections on them and are grounded in the real world. There are ten tracks on the album some short and others long and Benzie plays on a Steinway borrowed from Neil McLean.
The recording and mixing by Stuart Hamilton and the mastering by Calum Malcolm add to the quality of this production from Castlesound studios in Scotland. As the day starts with dawn, so does this album with a track called appropriately Hazy Dawns. It is a quiet opening with brush work on drums and cymbals from Juhasz and short repeated melodies from Benzie giving an impression of a slow, misty daybreak in Japan. After a stirring bass solo from Robb, the whole piece picks up speed but ends in a quieter lyrical slowing down.
Click here to listen to Glass played at a live performance. From A to B follows on without much of a gap and I nearly thought it was part of the previous track but the tempo changes to softer piano and brushes with occasional bass interventions. Piano solos from Benzie abound and the complementary playing by the other members of the trio gives excellent support. Click here for a video of the Trio playing From A to B. Leaf Skeletons is a beautiful short and lightly played piano solo from Benzie. Old Haunts has an old fashioned, old world feel, and cascading notes on the piano along with the excellent accompaniment by bass and percussion give the tune a laid back evening atmosphere.
Western Embers is a short track with a slow piano solo and a haunting melodic line which leads directly into a longer track called A Wandering Mist. This track has lovely cymbal and bass playing which highlights how well these musicians play as a trio, each musician having small feature sections which are worked into the overall composition. The last track is Stony Shore and this has to be the most Scottish sounding of all these tracks. The cymbal work gives the impression of the waves with the rise and fall of the piano melodies flowing over and round the stones on shore and Robb on bass providing timely deeper movements.
For some, this album may be a bit light on improvisation, but for me this has to be one of the best debut albums for some time from a young musician Benzie is still only The other members of the trio are classy too and they do all work well together; they must be great to see and hear at a gig. This is a session, a quality session, though a session nonetheless. Putting together a one-off session in the studio with really top-draw players can occasionally produce stunning results. I am reminded of Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section , an album of such scorching excellence it should be in every serious jazz collection.
With minimum preparation he proceeded to charm a fabulously brilliant recording out of the uncertainty of the situation. Blade has got him marked. Another standout moment is the beginning of Past Progressive.
MOBY DICK;
By the time the horns bring forth their own contribution the bassist has already dictated the conditions on which this melody operates. She has set the scene for them; alto, soprano and tenor place the colour and finish the picture. This is unselfish group music. A crucial aspect of this session is that David Berkman decided to play it with three reeds. Some sessions stick in the mind. Billy Drewes is again in good company though here he is the one who provides the abstraction part. Dayna Stephens has an album just out under his own name, Reminiscent.
He is a classic mainstream American tenor player; splitting hairs with the changes, tearing up the ground before him. His solo on Up Jumped Ming is a gear changer opening space for Brian Blade to pile in a drum solo that counts maths straight out the window. I particularly like the end of this drum dance. There is a brief pause, as if calm is restored, then the tenor takes the band to the last bar and it is over.
Interestingly the final track on the album is called Psalm. Jazz is always going to be in the moment however tight or otherwise the preparation. Old Friends And New Friends is tight, perhaps too tight in places for my taste, arranged beyond the necessity to do so.
I have a sense that the importance of this recording for David Berkman will be determined by where it leads to. Track 6, No Blues No Really No Blues , is a short pithy piano trio version of the same piece played collectively on track 2. Meanwhile there is quality stuff happening. She has got to be among the most interesting keyboard players in the USA right now. It is an extended miniature built on a slow four note refrain; I played it several times before moving on to the rest of the album.
The pacing, the poise, the undercurrent beneath the violin and piano from the bass and drum kit percussion is so exact, though the freedom is tangible. It takes around three minutes for Sarah Bernstein to fall into the first solo — literally as if she simply lets herself go free, not in any frenetic sense, just this simple slipping away, bowing something that sounds like a gentle, precise conversation. The track that follows, Paper Eyes , maintains this feeling of explorative meditation. This is the opposite of doing nothing, but what you do do is done without hurry; violin and piano play off each as if they are a pared down chamber orchestra devoid of a score and left simply with intention.
Music like this speaks slowly yet dives deep and leaves a mark. I understand why there is a significant number of European musicians who have chosen to go to Brooklyn and embrace the Downtown Scene in New York. Downtown jazz is still fed by little basement gigs which percolate creativity. Hey, Ornette Coleman spent decades as a hidden inhabitant. Downtown works because there is a well developed serious scene; what maintains the momentum comes from the willingness on the part of audience and musicians alike to keep things fresh.
The result generates a pool of people who are available to sustain an organic approach to music making. The Sarah Bernstein Quartet feels formed but still very flexible. The track Cede is the most conventional piece on the album. It snaps along to what is clearly a pre-written arrangement with violin and piano strung out in unison, bass and drums time-signaturing the parts on a melody line. Then come three neat solos one after the other. They spring from the arrangement allowing each musician to take a throw of the dice.
Bernstein goes first, a brief tight inscription which is then picked up by Kris Davis who riddles the content with all kinds of comment and possibilities; she is pianistic. Both of which I take to be improvisations, though there might be some written material tucked in there somewhere. In the final analysis it comes down to how you hear them not how they were conceived.
But we cannot leave this Sarah Bernstein recording without referring to the penultimate track, Jazz Camp. It cunningly uses a spoken text descriptor throughout the ten minute duration; literally questioning the motivations for making music: I have not got the space to detail this project, though you can click here for an excerpt of the opera on You Tube.
The fascinating thing is Anthony Braxton has his own history of combining text and improvisation. Back in I initially struggled with his Composition and Composition , both of which use a commentary superimposed into an abstracted soundscape. It was my problem not his. Intriguing, and yes, a humorous departure from the rest of the album. I can lighten up. Click here for information and to listen to a sample. Click here for Sarah Bernstein's website. Trombone, three trumpets, a couple of sax, a sousaphone instead of double bass and a funky drummer; some may think a trio of trumpets excessive but in my view it counts as a lean machine line-up.
I like the whole notion of a portable little big band — no worrying about dodgy pianos, no humping a stack of amplifiers, if the others help Mr Norden with the drum cases, this crew can tour by train. The recording is a little short on time, it only clocks in around 30 minutes. Nevertheless, in the spirit of 'small is beautiful' I too will try to write a straight unfussy review.
Sandy Brown Jazz
You most definitely should. Crack goes the ending as crisp as a thin chip. I bet this stuff beats the heat at a sweaty club gig. God Bless The Child 3. When I saw it on the list I wondered whether this was a wise move. The way I hear it, Sharleen Linton handles the lyric and the sentiment with all the dexterity and honesty both demand.
At the crux of the Billie Holiday phenomena is that she was a diamond diva and a Black Renaissance woman who had nothing come easy to her. In her heyday she had the voice and the humanity to turn words blue. Even later when she became frail, that artistry and truthfulness was always present. Sharleen Linton cannot help but come from a different place and The Big Shake-Up provide her with a current context.
This is a contemporary yet classic reading of an important song in the jazz canon. Giant writers and vocalists like Joni Mitchell and Cassandra Wilson, through to new singers on the block such as Becca Stevens. On The Move It feels like an intense case of the blues. It's true, string bass is a more flexible instrument, but in a brass context, with all that air-through-metal sousaphone sound, the deep bottom draw sic is adding a colour that any band would want to have. Poyer is a dark undertone throughout; inside On The Move he broods, really complimenting the texture.
Click here for a video of On The Move. Bhangra And Mash 7. The Big Shake-Up create a clear dynamic into the composition; they roll with it. There could be something of the Jimmy Knepper about him if he gave himself a little more groove space. Click here for a video of Bhangra And Mash. I enjoyed the album; it is as the title implies a real snazzy blast. I just hope next time in the studio they give themselves some more length. I look forward to catching what comes next. Click here for the band's website. And yes, the violinist Peter Evans is a friend of mine.
I am not exactly impartial, I realise that. So, maybe on the strength of my non-relationship with Mr Turner and only a passing handshake with Mr Anderson I can claim a degree of objectivity regarding this new album, The Phantom Power Awakens. Happy Birthday Bill does not play about. It slams your ears to the ceiling and they stay there.
There is fierce content in this performance, which the Architects compress into a massive blast: Mr Standon is a formidable guitar player yet here he chooses to dedicate a tune to another guitarist by leading the action on alto saxophone. This album stacks up as one extended power driven epic experiment. The band passes through wholly improvised sections, like the cathartic Impending And Unexpected , to tightly composed cliff hangers such as I know why people go to Switzerland.
Then you come up against a thin sliver of something called Structural Damage which is less than a minute long. And in that brief passing is contained delicate violin transformed into electronic noise, feedback, boom-bass, scattered percussion. It is debris smeared into sound; a spoiling of processed anarchy so harsh it frays its own state of play.
But because these guys are Architects they then recycle the content into the introduction to Furlongs Dash , a key composition. For me, this is the crux of the architecture on offer here; it has literally been refined detail by detail over decades. Furlongs Dash always was a tricky task, a tricky ask. The version on The Phantom Power Awakens is introduced by a sophisticated guitar part rather than their usual violin. The Bird Architects' music has needed time and to their credit, that is what these four guys have invested in.
Click here for the band playing Furlongs Dash. An album like The Phantom Power Awakens should not only shake up the phantom but everyone else as well. We pause for music and listen, despite those who would have us close down our ears to creativity. So, how come The Bird Architects have arrived at their particular bend in the road? Since they have played regularly together yet only played a handful of gigs. They bizarrely turned up on the Isle of Wight supporting Hawkwind at their annual HawkFest and got a great reception, then disappeared.
They played the improvisers holy grail, the Vortex in London, spooked the audience into shocked exhilaration and were gone. In they released an album called Gone on Slam Records. All the time they are regularly rehearsing, literally underground, only to resurface, present a new portfolio and disappear again. Aaron Standon is in my view one of the top five alto saxophone players in the UK.
On The Phantom Power Awakens his saxophone turns Switzerland into sonic sorcery yet overall his sax is not on display as much as his guitar playing. Sometimes one instrument gets more prominence than another. Then of course there is, Peter Evans, truly an electric violin player. We are not merely talking about an amplified violin. You can find other contexts to hear him play the acoustic instrument, but it is as an electric player that he transforms beyond his peers.
To hear his 5 string cut-out solid bodied violin spring the trap on the Happy Birthday Bill riff is to aurally witness the real meaning of fusion. Here are seven tracks recorded on a digital two track, literally basement tapes from Bristol bursting with exuberance. Even if that is not quite your bag, you still might want to give them a listen. Adam Birnbaum is a pianist based in New York.
For the past six years, he has been an integral part of the Al Foster Quartet. Birnbaum has recorded several albums under his own name. Born in Boston in , his first interest was classical music. He graduated from Boston College with a degree in computer science but spent much of his time practising piano — increasingly, jazz piano. So, no more learning your trade in sleazy night clubs or dingy theatres. No more endless practising in the woodshed.
Jazz is now very much part of the Academy with degree courses, fellowships and formal competitions. Above all, he can write a good tune. One of his most intriguing compositions on the album is Dream Song 1: The opening track on the album is the upbeat Binary which has a distinctive rock rhythm and develops nicely to make a satisfyingly cohesive whole. This is followed by Dream Waltz , a slower but still gently swinging piece with more than a touch of Bill Evans about it. Click here to listen to Binary. Thirty-Three is an angular blues piece with a complex theme and a nod to Thelonious Monk.
Rockport Moon is an elegant, beautifully played ballad. Stutterstep is foot tapping piano trio jazz at its best though it is a shade too long and exhausts itself before the end. Kizuna is another upbeat tune with a slight Latin feel. The two pieces not composed by Birnbaum are by Al Foster. Ooh, What You Do To Me , the final track, romps along very satisfactorily with drums more to the fore than on the other pieces. Weiss and Foster give unobtrusive support throughout. They play some short solos but they are heard to greatest effect in some marvellous interplay between all three musicians.
This takes the form of imaginative call-and-response sequences, or passages when no one voice is to the fore but all three blend seamlessly and satisfyingly together. The interplay on Dream Waltz is particularly memorable. That sort of group improvisation can only come from musicians who are used to playing with each other night in, night out. It is the most distinctive feature of the whole album and can sound spookily psychic at times — three of a mind indeed. Click here for a video of the trio playing Three For One not on the album live in Israel. Whirlwind Recordings - Reviewed: Samuel Blaser is a Swiss trombonist.
On Spring Rain , he is joined by three other musicians: The trombone, of course, has an honourable history in jazz. Spring Rain is a tribute to the music of the late Jimmy Giuffre, an American jazz musician and composer prominent in the s and s. But Giuffre also had a keen interest in free jazz and, in the sixties, led an experimental trio with himself on clarinet, Paul Bley on piano and Steve Swallow on bass.
The trio were particularly interested in exploring forms of group improvisation. It is this free jazz, group improvisation side of Giuffre that Blaser wants to honour on Spring Rain. Steve Swallow himself makes a contribution to the liner notes. Many of the tunes are played in a slow and measured — even quiet — way.
It is often difficult to tell when composition ends and improvisation begins. So, listening to the album is a satisfying and interesting experience but a jazz fan might ask — is it jazz or modern classical music? And then a supplementary: It clearly does not matter to Samuel Blaser who says: Most of the twelve tracks on the album are Blaser compositions and they tend towards the contemporary classical music end of the spectrum.
A track like Homage , for example, sounds like the sort of test piece a young aspiring trombonist might play on BBC Young Musician of the Year. It is a short piece for solo trombone which allows Blaser to show off his considerable virtuosity. The title track, Spring Rain , has all four musicians contributing to a sound picture of rain in all its manifestations: Of the other Blaser compositions, Missing Mark Suetterlyn is a passionate, tumultuous piece with a slight blues feel to it which builds to a satisfying conclusion. Umbra is a joint composition with Russ Lossing and is a short duet for piano and trombone where the trombone plays wistfully against more ominous notes from the piano.
You can tap your feet to it for a start. Counterparts is a jagged, urgent piece with some neat interplay between trombone and drums. There are three Giuffre compositions on the album. Finally, there are two Carla Bley compositions. Bley is the ex-wife of Paul Bley and the current partner of Steve Swallow, all of which serves to emphasise the Jimmy Giuffre connection.
Temporarily is definitely jazz, rhythmically and melodically. It has a South African township jazz feel to it and some vigorous and effective acoustic piano work by Lossing. Jesus Maria is the last and longest track on the album. It is also probably the most conventionally jazz piece with the bass being much more prominent than on other tracks. It is a quiet, thoughtful piece which develops in a very satisfying and absorbing way. Click here for a promotional video from Whirlwind Recordings introducing Spring Rain. You can see Samuel Blaser playing Cry Want live if you click here. May Label - Leo Records: Steve Day voice, Thai drum, rattle, bells, pebbles, Hpercussion , Keith Tippett piano , Julie Tippetts voice, rattle , Aaron Standon alto saxophone , Peter Evans 5 string electric violin , Julian Dale double bass, cello, singing bowls , Anton Henley drums, percussion special guest Bill Bartlett flute on tracks 3, 5, 6, and Steve Day is a writer and a poet.
His published books include Ornette Coleman: Listening to Improvised Music. He reviews new albums regularly for this website and is currently writing a book about the Russian jazz group, the Ganelin Trio. For this album he has, once again, brought together a formidable group of jazz improvisers including the internationally respected Keith Tippett and Julie Tippetts, the outstanding saxophonist Aaron Standon and violinist Peter Evans, and on some tracks the flute of Bill Bartlett.
Julian Dale and Anton Henley provide their completely empathetic contributions to the work and I particularly like the way Julian Dale's bass has been used and balanced in the mixing. If you search for 'Blazing Flame' and 'Murmuration' you will probably find it categorised under the 'Avant Garde' label, whatever that might mean these days. One thing is certain, it should not be labelled 'Easy Listening', the work requires your attention.
The music is improvised around Steve Day's poetry. Thankfully the words are provided with the album and you will need to read and think about them to grasp their meaning. In the past, his voice has been likened to that of Tom Waites, but as the album progresses you recognise is distinctiveness and it works well in conjunction with the gifted voice of Julie Tippetts. The album opens with Off The Coast of Fukishima. Steve Day appropriately describes Keith Tippett's piano break after the first verse as being 'like a sudden thunder storm and it hangs there rumbling as if time has stood still.
Bed Of Straw is a short track that has Julie Tippetts's great voice weaving its way above the violin.
Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville.
As Steve Day says: It certainly doesn't have anything like a 'blues' form though the effect is the same. Julie brings her own power to the song, which is about the fragility of safety.. Child And Adult at track 3 has Steve and Julie above bass and drums telling of the streetwise child - 'Age is never an excuse, it is merely a milestone. Sometimes the wisdom of children dissipates as people grow older'.
Murmuration , the title track, is based on the word given to the swarming of starlings above the Somerset levels. It opens with an interaction between piano, bass and violin that I find completely effective in describing the gathering and swooping of these birds and when Julie Tippetts's voice enters it too floats and soars until the piano, bass and violin again gently close the piece. Edgehill, the first battle of the English Revolution in which it is believed 1, people were killed, is a reflection on the horror of that battle with marching drums under Steve's words and Bill Bartlett's flute.
Portrait Of Dora Maar is a reflection on the portrait of the photographer painted often by Picasso. Steve and Julie's voices trade lines and Aaron Standon paints in saxophone colours. In Darkness begins quietly with Julie Tippetts's voice above the bass and with Keith Tippett's piano making statements, and Peter Evans's violin weaves its way into the closing bars. Aaron Standon's alto flies into Jay at track 8 with Steve and Julie staccatoing the lyrics with drum, piano and violin: The Ripple Effect begins with ripples and with violin and bass introducing Steve's poem.
Stone Circle is another take on a previously recorded track and it opens with a nice alto solo above percussion and Steve and Julie's voices tell of stone circle, druids, solstice, equinox and the passage of time until they hand back the track to saxophone, violin, bass and percussion. Now Put On The Pink is a brief, unaccompanied piece for two voices, an affirmation towards the LGBT community, whilst the final track, Ceremony , has an atmospheric, satisfying closure to the album from piano and violin. Vittorio, reviewing the album for the Italian Music Zoom says: The words and music make for a hard impact which is out of the ordinary The atmosphere is charged with tension, giving an additional depth to the lyrics.
Considering how rarely the Blazing Flame musicians come together, I think that Murmuration shows a natural affinity between them. On this album the group has achieved a compatibility between words and music, between the musicians themselves and through the mixing that makes the album well worth spending time with.
Click here for details. Click here for Steve Day's website. Album released - 26th January Label - Leo Records: Helen Bledsoe is a classical flute player with credentials, she plays with the renowned ensemble Musikfabrik who are based in Cologne. If you are interested in contemporary music and composition — Harry Patch and beyond, you are likely to have come across Musikfabrik, they did dates in the UK last year. Helen Bledsoe is a virtuoso flutist with a vast technical vocabulary. I am assuming that the seven tracks presented on Ghost Icebreaker are in the order they were performed live in concert.
The first piece, Snow is an introduction. The forty minutes in-between these two pieces offer an intense, brittle foray into the possibilities of the piano and flute. If-you-will, a conversation using breath, finger placement, precise dexterity, tuned percussion on black and white keys, scale, melodic fragmentation, enquiry and imagination; what you build up you breakdown, what is broken down is reformed, give and take, backwards and forwards.
For me, the real treat in listening to Bledsoe is the tremendous control she has over her instrument, one that is notoriously difficult in all dynamics. That control gives both her and Lapin a vast pallet for improvisation. Helen Bledsoe and Alexey Lapin are not asking for anything from us other than open minds. Give Icebreaker a break; thank goodness some sounds still make us shiver with pleasure. Click here for Ghost Icebreaker on Leo Records. Click here for a video of Helen Bledsoe demonstrating flute technique.
Click here for Helen Bledsoe's website.
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I still have the album in two formats. Nevertheless it is as the revised title says, absent of the original melody line. Today, a long, long way down the line, the same cannot be said of Early Americans. Jane Ira Bloom plays the soprano saxophone exclusively, and nearly thirty years on from Mighty Lights she has fashioned through sheer determination a language exclusive to herself.
The mercurial Steve Lacy did the same on the same horn. And for many years, so did Dave Liebman. The way into this session is through Song Patrol.
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And it is a little gift from the gods of power and light. I am a great admirer of musicians who can take just three minutes out of a moment and tell the full detailed story. Click here for a video introduction to Early Americans. Despite the title, Dangerous Times is a lovely thing. It begins with a beaters on a snare drum with tambourine rattling on the skin; underneath, a low bowed bass holds the air for a soprano refrain which is light and lucid. Bloom seems to present her instrument as a messenger of hope. Next up is a short acappella soprano recital entitled Nearly for Kenny Wheeler.
There are actually two unaccompanied short tracks on Early Americans. This of course is a subjective opinion and should not detract from the overall quality of this recording. Singing The Triangle is literally as the title suggests. Things soon open out and what we find is a trio coaxing conversation from each other — the straight horn sonically in-and-out of variants on the melody, then a masterclass bass solo underpinned by interactive drums. It is all over in a jiffy, but in the process it feels full of purpose and control. Click here for a video of a live performance of Singing The Triangle.
Now for a very different design, Mind Gray River is probably my favourite track. Yesterday I was choosing another track, a fine performance called Gateway To Progress. A brilliant angular thing which contains a curve with edges twisting around the trio like bent wire. But no, it cannot be otherwise, the River is where I must rest my case. A river flows, but the Mind Gray River almost falls, falls as slow as a southern wind, as if the drop is to the very bottom of brain power.
How can I explain it? Ms Bloom gets to the top piercing register of her horn whilst Mr Helias enters into the depths of his double bass. And they leave Bobby Previte to balance his percussion like a man bereft of a map to lead him forward. The hi-hat coming together in odd-time, white-water cymbals splashing on the rocks, the toms tuned tight and pulsing occasional sporadic beats. Bobby Previte has spent time with the arch-duke of the unexpected, John Zorn. It is a brittle spare, shallow accompaniment to a saxophone which seems to mourn its own being with tricky blues inflections which pay no mind to a bar count yet are so starkly in the right place.
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- Haïti ou Saint-Domingue : Tome 1 (Autrement mêmes) (French Edition).
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And in the going down we must all understand that some things cannot be made known to us. There is a track here entitled Big Bill. I suppose I was hoping there might be a link between the common debt to the blues shared by the old tradition of Britjazz and contemporary New York new millennium-jazz. Maybe Evan Parker, but he inhabits a different space.
In the meantime there can be nowhere better to get acquainted with them than this album. Listen carefully, in Mind Gray River there is a very deep pool. Blum followed Initiation with his vocal debut, Commitment, in Listening to him is always interesting, and I wanted to emulate his emotional range in my musical homage. Blum spent the next 18 months practising it, together with several other Peterson solos, for six to eight hours a day, learning the pieces by ear instead of transcribing them.
Blum and Stinnett first began collaborating over three years ago while Blum was still a student at Dartmouth College, and Blum describes their relationship thus: Working with Jim has been a growing experience technically, emotionally and mentally because he always believes that I can do anything, even before I believe it. Having him around gives me the confidence to pursue my goals. Of particular note are the breath-taking note-for-note runs on Tristeza.
Jim Stinnett contributed two of his original compositions to the album, i. Click link to sample the album He asserts that he is less interested in the genre of his music, more in the emotion it arouses: Click here for Michael Blum's website. June Bastable is the wife of the late jazz musician, Johnny Bastable. The dazzling guitarist Joshua Breakstone not only has an instrumental style as distinct as his own fingerprints, he has also perfected a unique ensemble sound he can now call his own.
Plucking the cello pizzicato style, Richmond, in effect, becomes the horn for Breakstone to both interact and play off. One track was composed by Breakstone which is the last on the album called, 2nd Ave: Click here to listen to Blues For Imahori. On Home , we have repeated chords on guitar overlaid with the cello until the guitar takes on the lead.
It also features solos from all musicians. Track 4, I Wish I Knew , is slow in tempo with relaxed playing by Breakstone, for that late evening feel. It has a break in the middle for more pizzicato cello from Richmond which provides contrast to the other interchanges between the musicians. The title track is the last on the album, and has neither a fast nor slow pace to it. Breakstone plays throughout the length of the track, which has lots of percussion and bass giving a resonant backdrop to the guitar. So a good track to finish on. It is still rare to hear a cello in jazz though not unknown as mentioned earlier.
This album needs listening to on a number of occasions and in doing so, you can peel away the layers, each giving a different and enjoyable veneer on superb musicianship. Click here for a video of the Quartet playing Baubles, Bangles and Beads not on the album. This is not an album made by a guitarist with a household name. No matter, such goings-on can be dismissed as trifles, what we are dealing with here is a discreetly confident force of nature in command of his own technical power.
If you picked up on 2nd Avenue you must already be running out of patience in anticipation of The title refers to the number of keys on a full piano keyboard as well as being the moniker of the only track written by Mr Breakstone. The choice of tunes is original and I sure like the idea that a leader of a quartet who could be said to be substituting cello for piano in his own line-up, takes the decision to tip the hat to pianists. Having cello in a small group jazz setting is still comparatively rare. Exactly how you place the cello in a quartet can be done in a variety of ways a second soloist; a string trio component; a top extension of the bass function etc.
The bright, ringing tone of the Carl Barney custom built guitar continually creates the centre of the action. None of this presents a problem for me, not a bit of it. Joshua Breakstone is a fabulously exciting player to listen to. I guess what I am saying is, even though he obviously values the undoubted strengths of the other three quartet members, he is the dominating conquering spirit. But hey, the guy is a whirlpool of ideas all serving his phenomenal technique, of course he is going to be charging straight down the middle of things.
Did anyone expect Charlie Parker to occupy a tight role in a reeds section, impossible! So too Joshua Breakstone, he may want to be generous to his fellow compatriots but really, he has no choice; he gives a little bit of ground as best he can but he has to spiral those long lines from the frets. Each of the nine tracks on 88 is a stunning Breakstone epic irrespective of the original composer. His unassuming quartet come shuffling onto the stage balancing the theme like a prize possession as if the melody was especially commissioned for guitar; after which the guitarist designs a thread of liquid lines that fully circumnavigate the structure and harmonies.
It is model music, this is how to do it if you really believe you have something new to say. And that can be the only reason to take on a tantalising theme like Lulu. There is nothing about this nine minute performance that sounds like any conventional string section.
The true merit of this piece is that there, right in the centre of things, is one Muhammad Ali of a guitar player who knows exactly what he wants to do, and he has three musicians with him who respond. Black begins with a pensive Lisle Atkinson bass statement which drops carefully from the fingers as if the bassist is creating a lullaby; not so.
Sometimes it comes down to this; a musician has seen the open road which he, personally, has to travel. For me, Joshua Breakstone sounds like an individual who has to impose himself on these proceedings, that is how it is going to be. The album is a tour-de-force. Good luck to you, Mr Breakstone. Click here to listen to the title track Click here for a video of the Quartet playing Baubles, Bangles and Beads live in not on the album. Lake Records introduces their latest collection in this series and once again we should be grateful to them for preserving this legacy of jazz from the UK.
In particular, I think we should recognise that they not only include the bands whose names drop off the tongue, but others that made their contribution but get mentioned less often. They are playing Ice Cream , that number that was so popular with live concerts by the Barber band - not only was it good for dancing, but like Les Oignons , it had that catchy phrase that everyone joined in "Ice cream, you scream, everybody likes ice cream I'm not sure who takes the rasping vocal but Hugh Rainey gets his spotlight on banjo. The track shows how strong a combined leadership came from Ken and the brothers.
This is with one track, Sing On , together with an introduction, coming from a radio broadcast and the other You Tell Me Your Dream from the last session recorded by the Cranes - Ken Colyer had been to New Orleans with the Merchant Navy and was now leading his Jazzmen. Paul Adams at Lake Records has written comprehensive liner notes for this album together with full personnel lists and dates and including a plethora of information about the UK scene in which these bands played.
The Crane River Jazz Band was a rough and ready band which gradually improved There was a lot of flak from 'proper' musicians and the dance band jazzmen, but like true pioneers they ploughed on regardless Of the bands that are less familiar to me, trombonist Pete Dyer's band included John Shillito on trumpet and their recordings from have It's A Long Way To Tipperary; Lord, Lord, Lord and Dallas Blues - Dallas Blues introduced nice and slow with piano and clarinet with the trombone holding the pace and taking a worthy solo.
I quote Paul Adams: Ken Colyer had time for Keith Smith and had a proper regard for his playing. Keith depped for Ken in the Colyer band when Colyer was ill. Colyer himself maintained that, with regard to 'Contemporary New Orleans', there was "no such thing" I had a tape from Keith Smith with the instruction 'if it's any use, use it'. In the end it seems that the recording comes from the Richmond Jazz Festival where organiser Harold Pendleton had asked Ken Colyer 'to provide a New Orleans parade band.
It seems an appropriate way to close an album full of memories. Click here for details and to sample the album when it becomes available. Click here for details at Lake Records. The main man on this recording is a very versatile Uruguayan violinist Frederico Britos. In addition to these 6 there are a further 16 musicians who guest on a number of tracks on this recording. Click here to listen to Dark Eyes from the album. The music that has been chosen will be familiar to all those people who have been brought up on the music that was played and recorded by "Le Quintette du Hot Club de France", but the Latin Americans have put their own interpretation to it.
As an example, there was no piano on most of the original recordings, but it has been put to good use on this recording. However, what some people will miss is the lack of a powerful guitarist in the Reinhardt mould. That is not to say that the guitarist on this recording is not very good, he is a fine player, but there are too few solos and not very much interplay with the violin. Click here to listen to The Sheik Of Araby.
I found the music enjoyable, and also sufficiently different to the original so that it had a fresh sound to it. Having said that, it is probably a recording that people who love Latin American music would prefer to dance to, rather than sit and listen to. Glasgow Based drummer and composer, Stu Brown, released his critically acclaimed debut album, The Stu Brown Sextet, Twisted Toons — The Music of Raymond Scott in , a tribute to the maverick bandleader, composer, inventor and electronic music pioneer.
Most of this music has never been recorded or performed live since the original cartoons were made. Stu Brown spent many hours watching cartoons, listening to soundtrack reissues and painstakingly transcribing some of his favourite scores. There are 17 tracks on the album; some pretty short, but still enjoyable as you can be taken back to when you first heard these in your youth at the cinema or when they were repeated on television.
The CD, in keeping with the music, has a cartoon look with notes on each track and short biographies of the original composers, Carl Stalling and Scott Bradley. I will not critique each track, some of which are mere snippets of toon, but here is a complete track listing:. Powerhouse Carl Stalling Style ; 3. Carl Stalling Jungle Medley; 4. Like Strange Music cue from Ren and Stimpy ; 5. Goblins in the Steeple; 6. Holiday Playtime Ren and Stimpy again ; 7. Creepy Walking Theme; Zoom and Bored Roadrunner Score ; Hawaiian Beach From Spongebob Squarepants ; Tales From The Far Side; Dixieland Droopy Droopy Score ; Happy Go Lively Ren and Stimpy ; Porky in Wackyland Porky Pig Score ; An unusual example is Goblins In The Steeple which has a quirky yet catchy rhythm with some lovely keyboards, sax and brass sections standing out and an exceptional clarinet section.
Rabbit Fire is another quirky melody broken by some lovely sax and keyboard solos. Zoom and Bored belies its title as there is nothing boring about this fast paced atmospheric track featuring violin, trumpet and clarinet to great effect. Tales From The Far Side even features the voice as an instrument with some very haunting violin passages mounting to an edgy mid-section and yet a gentle finish. Dixieland Droopy is a rollercoaster of fast Dixieland passages broken by slower dance sections and these changes of pace were beautifully interspersed.
Needless to say, Porky in Wackyland is just that! The first track and last track are both short and bookend the album nicely with a well-known rousing intro and a very well-known finish too. All in all, this is an entertaining and clever album which gives the mistaken impression that you are listening to a whole orchestra rather than the band listed above.
This is fun with a great variety of quick change rhythms and pace from all the instruments featured. The studios are a 'state-of-the-art' education facility and the recording was undertaken by students at the Institute. There are occasional problems with the mixing, but overall, this is a relaxed, straight ahead album. It feels like the band is warming up as Van Heusen's It Could Happen To You opens the set and they are more settled as they move into an enjoyable take on the traditional C. Rider with a nice opening from Alexander Hawkins before Alvin Roy states the tune.
Alvin has a lovely clarinet tone, honed over years of playing with his various bands through which have passed many UK musicians including Alan Littlejohn, Ray Crane and Tony Milliner. His playing is imaginative, across the register with trills and flourishes and the occasional reference to other tunes. Alexander Hawkins has mainly played to the setting of the session but here he gets low down and dirty in a steady, driving solo.
Click here to listen to Sombrero Sam. The liner note says that the band 'got together to record these tracks just for the fun of it I hope you will enjoy listening to the numbers as much as the musicians enjoyed recording them. It will probably suit the customers at The Bully in between bands. This album reflects that Marmite moment where some like it and others don't. The back story is interesting, so we'll leave the decision to you. It wasn't up his street. This album was a disappointment to me. To be sure the band are well rehearsed competent musicians, but I feel there is no passion or feeling in their music.
No improvisation or flamboyance. I have always felt uplifted listening to traditional jazz but this left me feeling it is just dull. There is enjoyment in the version, unlike the Feetwarmers rendering which I found mediocre. Click here for a video of the band playing in Scotland in So who are the California Feetwarmers and what do others think? Tindal, alike with me by GOD accurs'd; In vice and error from his cradle nurs'd: The Devil is not come to fetch you now. Once I was young, nor wanted female charms, When I lay panting in your curling arms: Turn then, Barbarian, turn thy lovely eyes; Survey me well: Old Epicurus to Lucretius bow'd, Young, witty, learn'd, vain, impudent, and proud: Fain would I merit more!
But give me leave as I'm in duty bound To pay thee, Satan! Tell me, ye Gods of Erebus and Night! Merit like thine does all reward excel. I hate his Son, as much as you, or more. Oh, were my will but once Britannia's Law! God made the Monarch when he made the Man. Notions, I own, that have been reckon'd good, But wondrous old—I think—before the flood. Doctrines, too low for thy erected race! Would they but publicly my doctrines own, The Monarchy had long ere this been down: Who can enough thy politicks admire?
I'll teach you, every bullet-headed wight, To drink all day, and fornicate all night. And the Three Creeds, my Liege, can ne'er be right: That little trifling particle—that NOT! Or if expung'd—'twould be no mighty blot. All contracts, where one party 's over-aw'd, The Civil Law, I think, deems null and void. Load them with Malice, Slander, every where. Stab them, my Ruffian! How fares on earth the Jus Divinum? Do the Patricii the Plebes dread?
Then, if they dare but what you'd have them teach, Let them, like Paul, at their own charges preach: You cannot but remember gentle Eve; To me—the wheedling of the ladies leave. But thou 'rt confirm'd the Darling of the Skies. Are they too guarded by Supreme Decrees? Merit like thine to meet with no reward! Ye guardian powers of Vice, 'tis wondrous hard!
Emes from the dead. In half this time Pryn ruin'd Church and State. Pr'ythee reach hither, Matt! The younger Bobart who was an old man in collected a Hortus Siccus in twenty volumes. All our campaigns at once are done: No flatteries thence are to be fear'd, Nor hopes encourag'd of reward. To peace, my friend! The valleys laugh, the rivers play, In honour of the God of day.
Thou, next to him, art truly great: On earth his mighty delegate: Receive the homage that we bring: Which limits but in vain control. From thee the Gods no knowledge hide, No knowledge have to thee deny'd: The rural Gods of hills or plains, Where Faunus, or Favonia reigns. And, now thy toils of war are done; Anna! Minerva's gardens are thy care; Bobart! The noble founder of the garden was created by king James I. He obtained leave of the king in to convert St. His royal orders to receive, To grow, decay, to die, or live: His brethren, trembling at his fate, Thy dread commands with reverence wait: Bobart, to Kings thy rules commend, For thou to Monarchs art a friend.
Pope by the Editor of the "Additions to Pope's Works. SEE, Sir, here 's the grand approach, This way is for his Grace's coach; There lies the bridge, and here 's the clock: Lie heavy on him, Earth! Tadlow in the "Additions to Pope," vol. Yalden's, two of which are particularly no ticed in Dr.
Strow lilies here, and myrtle wreaths prepare, To crown the fading triumphs of the fair: Who knows; and teaches what our clime can bear And makes the barren ground obey the labourer's care. Heaven kindly exercis'd his youth with cares To crown with unmix'd joys his riper years. Or a fit offering to her altars bring? In joys, in grief, in triumphs, in retreat, Great always, without aiming to be great. On the death of Dr. See King's "Art of Cookery," ver. For thus I fall, and thus fell Phaeton. THE lovely owner of this book Does here on her own image look: Then when his youthful veins ran high, Enflam'd with Love and Poetry: Love 's a thing for age alone: Love 's a God, and you 're too young.
Years will countenance your flame. He was contemporaty and chamber-fellow with Mr. He took the degree of M. May 16, ; B. He was appointed preacher of St. Andrew Holborn given him by the Queen. We find by Swift's Journal to Stella, Jan. Then well-fed lambs thy plenteous tables load, And mellow wines give appetite to food. What cannot poets do? And now, my Signior Strugge Perhaps the baboon introduced in this opera. He took his degree of M. The character of Dr.
Parnell is admirably pour trayed by Dr. It is not Chloris: But I will to my Chloris run, Who will not let me be undone: By Swift's Journal to Stella, Dec. Swift, who introduced Parnell both to Oxford and Bolingbroke. See, my genius goes To call it forth. There all the graceful nymphs are forc'd to play Where any water bubbles in the way: Strange injudicious management of thought, Not born to rage, nor into method brought. And O great grief! Were 't not for us, thou Swad! And he, good man! At length, quoth he, "Ellis, thou art A fellow of courageous heart, Yield now, and I will take thy part hereafter.
He cries for water. In the mean, One calls up Madge the Kitchin-quean; To take and make the baby clean, and clout it. Ellis, the glory of the town, With that brave Captain of renown: And thus I end this famous Coun- ter-Scuffle. How caught, how mouz'd, and what they are, This picture lively doth declare.
Nothing, but light rhymes, Not tun'd as are St. Lay, Hocus-Pocus King's Juggler. If not, fley off his cloak or hat! Sorrow has made me dry: Thus then they met, and hold thus late Their drillings. How did they this? Here's law in lumps. The Two-penny ward Leapt up, and fell a-dancing hard: Quoth he, "Being met by a mad crew. We, but for thee, had been undone: The Rats into the trap that fell This night were few: Seventeen of his plays are enumerated by Jacob.