Table of contents for June 2023 in Jazzwise

The first wave of artists announced for this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival – which runs from 10 to 19 November – has expanded to include some exciting headliners. The return of the astonishingly on-form 85-year-old Big Sur sax icon Charles Lloyd follows his widely praised tryptic of Trios albums last year, and he’s back with his Ocean Trio that features longstanding collaborators, guitarist Anthony Wilson and pianist Gerald Clayton at the Barbican on 17 November. Another notable Barbican booking is high-intensity Japanese piano star Hiromi – who brings her new Sonicwonder four-piece group to the UK for the first time, with young Brooklyn-based trumpeter Adam O'Farrill (grandson of Chico O'Farrill), French bass guitarvirtuoso Hadrien Feraud and rising US drummer Gene Coye (13 Nov). Bass boss Ron Carter makes an…

This summer sees the 50th anniversary of ‘Jazz Seen – The Face of Black Music’, an exhibition of photographs by Jazzwise contributor Val Wilmer, held at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London in 1973. This was the Museum’s second show of work by a living photographer and was accompanied by a series of concerts in the garden, featuring Albert Nicholas, Steve Lacy and the Brotherhood of Breath. The anniversary coincides with the opening of the V&A’s Photography Centre on 25 May. The inaugural exhibition, ‘Energy: Sparks’ from the Collection includes one of Wilmer’s photographs from her original show, of American gospel singers Inez Andrews and Elaine Davis (see photo, right). Wilmer celebrates another anniversary in May. This marks the founding of Format (1983-2003), the all-women photographic agency created by herself…

Having opened just six months ago, Klang Tone has made a big impression with South African-born owner Sean’s maverick mix of regular experimental music performances every Saturday afternoon on this shop’s small mezzanine balcony, and his passion for all things jazz and left-field. Artworks are also exhibited above the racks lending the shop an ‘arthouse-cum-performance-space’ vibe. Roe explains his love of jazz and what’s in stock: “Quite sincerely, given the choice I would only stock jazz, experimental and Outernational Music, but it would be impractical for me as a bricks and mortar store in a smallish town like Stroud – I wouldn’t last more than six months! I do have a sizeable selection of rock, punk and contemporary music etc within each genre and I aim to select artists who…

The InterMission Festival is a brand-new one-day event taking place in Birmingham at Digbeth’s The Mill on Saturday 22 July, and brings together an eclectic bill of jazz, Afrobeat, world, electronica and hip-hop names. Chief among the jazz acts so far announced are South London groove-collective Steam Down, and horn-heavy 10-piece TC and the Groove Family. Having kick-started the surge of new UK jazz over five years ago via their weekly jam sessions in Deptford, South London, Steam Down have become a festival-ready band fronted by saxophonist Ahnansé (Wayne Francis) combining jazz solos with heavy funk and African influenced songs. TC and the Groove Family were formed in Leeds and embrace a panoramic mix of styles including broken beat, jungle, jazz and grime. Driven by drummer Tim Cook they are…

New albums by leading British pianist Zoe Rahman (pictured right) and Dutch vocalist Wilma Baan are among the first projects to be handled by a new collaborative artist-focused company, ECN. Created by experienced industry figures Elaine Crouch, Claire Martin OBE, Emma Perry and Nadja von Massow, they aim to “support artists as they navigate their careers in an ever-evolving industry” via career consultation, administrative tasks, marketing and PR, production, distribution and funding advice. Explaining the partnership, Claire Martin said: “The four of us have worked together in the past and have often seen that artists lack the guidance they most need when presenting their music. ECN Music aims to create a safe space for artists to develop. This could be through design, marketing, funding applications or simply advice.” Due for…

Trumpeter, producer and founder of Gondwana Records, Matthew Halsall is set to play his biggest UK gig to date when he headlines the Royal Albert Hall on 21 September, ahead of the release of his forthcoming new album An Ever Changing View. While Halsall is well known for his deeply meditative spiritual jazz albums such as Fletcher Moss Park, When The World Was One, Into Forever and Salute to the Sun, his live shows can be explosive affairs with his long-form pieces driven to new heights, such as his incendiary performance at the 2022 Love Supreme Jazz Festival that drew several thousand fans. His touring band includes Matt Cliffe (saxophone & flute), Alice Roberts (harp), Jasper Green (piano), Gavin Barras (bass), Alan Taylor (drums) and Sam Bell (percussion) with special…

Festival Director Paul Kelly is not one to rest on his laurels for long: onwards and upwards seems to be the motto for him. Given the success of the 2022 Festival which had resumed after the Covid hiatus, he looked at what needed to be improved or expanded and fixed it. For those of us who are long-term Swanage-ites, the good news is that he has reinstated the Sandpit Field Marquee. It’s now back as the principal location for contemporary bands, centrally placed on the grassy hillock (aka Sandpit Field) that directly overlooks the alluring Swanage Bay. The 32nd Festival in a long-established series and now badged as ‘Jazz By The Sea’, its other main performance venue, the 400-seater Mowlem Theatre also fronts on to the ocean. Add in the…

Magnus Öström A Room For Travellers Jazzland 1079557JZL (CD, LP, DL) Magnus Öström (d, perc, v, ky), Daniel Karlsson (p, ky), Andreas Hourdakis (p, ky) and Thobias Babrielson (b, syn b). Rec. 2022 Easily the best album so far by Magnus Öström. While previous albums under his own name were perhaps guilty of overthinking, and strained somewhat for effect A Room For Travellers flows. More to the point, there is a transparency and clarity, simplicity even (the bass line in ‘Flowfly’) that engages the listener. The music is far more relaxed than his previous albums, perhaps reflective of the inner man finding himself, and maintains a mood of quiet reflection and melancholy, prompted perhaps by Öström’s frustration with mankind’s lack of respect for nature. The compositions are well crafted –…

Bobby Previte Empty Suits Gramavision GV 79 447-2 Bobby Previte (d, el d, perc, mba, ky, g, v), Robin Eubanks (tb, elec), Steve Gaboury (org, p, ky), Jerome Harris (b, g, lap steel, v), Alan Jaffee (g); plus guests Roberta Baum (v), Carol Emanuel (hp), Marty Erlich (as), Elliott Sharp (g), David Shea (turntables) and Skip Krevens (pedal steel). Rec. May 1990 NewYork’s Downtown scene of the 1980s/early 90s – chronicled last issue – did not lack for interesting bands, original approaches, and a level of creativity that took American critics by surprise, yet by the time everyone had caught-up with it, the scene had moved on. Among some of the most interesting music to emerge from this explosion of talent was that created by drummer Bobby Previte which, for…

Kansas City Jazz Con Chapman Equinox HB £40.00 Novelist/playwright Con Chapman’s initial foray into the world of jazz literature came with Rabbit’s Blues, his well-received biography of Duke Ellington’s star altoist Johnny Hodges. My review appeared in Jazzwise 247 (December 2019) and it was important to recognise that this was the first such consideration of this important musician. Here, for his second incursion into jazz, Chapman has chosen a rather more crowded field, his publisher stating that this new volume is ‘the first comprehensive work on the subject for over 15 years and that it draws on new research’. Maybe so, but Chapman’s endeavours inevitably rest on the secure foundations built by Ross Russell (1971), Nathan W. Pearson (1988) and most tellingly, by Frank Driggs and Chuck Hendrix with their…

Snark has recently launched an all new rechargeable version of its popular clip-on tuner, which is suitable for acoustic, electric or bass guitars and can either be attached to the front, or hidden behind the instrument’s headstock. There are no buttons or switches on the Snark Air, just tap the face of the device to switch it on and you’re ready to go. It’s easy-to-read display head revolves through a full 360 degrees, thus making it possible to see the face of the unit from almost any angle. Available battery power appears to the side of the rotating head and is shown by three white dots when fully charged reducing to one white dot on minimum charge. With zero turbulence tuning software, response speed and pitch accuracy is excellent. The…

"Don't worry what music is called," is the sage advice that was offered to this month’s cover star, Donny McCaslin, from the late great ever-evolving musical chameleon that was David Bowie. And listening to McCaslin’s fire-breathing new set, I Want More, it’s clear the saxophonist is channelling his energy into expressing the fullness of his 'authentic voice' rather than searching out what to label his music. Having just returned from a busy weekend of gigs at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, it’s clear this attitude is spreading among all of those trying to make sense of the world through (mostly) instrumental music. It’s obvious jazz musicians are increasingly happy to embrace a huge range of influences, and share them with their willing audiences. Two telling performances summed this up: young tenor…

UK reissue and Afrobeat specialist Strut Records has announced the first fruits from a brand-new catalogue deal with legendary South African musician and anti-apartheid activist, Julian Bahula. On 26 May, in partnership with Bahula, Strut will be reissuing Malombo Jazz Makers’ Malompo Jazz (1966) and Malombo Jazz Makers, Vol 2 (1967) on vinyl for the first time since their original release. The two albums have been recognised as landmarks of South African jazz. According to Strut: "the two forthcoming releases will go a long way in bringing international recognition to Malombo Jazz Makers". An influential collective active at the height of the antiapartheid movement during the 1960s and 70s, they were formed in Mamelodi township near Pretoria and first rose to fame in 1964 as Malombo Jazz Men with guitarist…

What became the MJQ was originally the rhythm-section of the Dizzy Gillespie big band (Milt Jackson, John Lewis, Ray Brown and Kenny Clarke) and, as well as playing intermissions for Gillespie, they recorded under Jackson’s name from 1948 onwards. It was only in 1952 that Lewis became de-facto musical director and Percy Heath replaced Brown (touring with his then-wife Ella Fitzgerald), while the group renamed themselves the Modern Jazz Quartet. Record labels were initially slow to reflect this, with some of their first Prestige sessions in December 1952 shown as by the 'Milt Jackson Modern Jazz Quartet'. The second date, on 25 June 1953, produced one of the most distinctive early Lewis compositions, called ‘The Queen’s Fancy’. Reissue annotator Chris Sheridan confirmed that the title was indeed a nod to…

Guiting Music Festival returns from 21-30 July at its idyllic Cotswolds locale of Guiting Power, with a high-calibre line up of jazz and classical names. Among these are award-winning jazz vocalist and much-loved Radio 2/Jazz FM broadcaster, Clare Teal (21 July) and her band, with a new show celebrating the hits and hidden gems of the Great American and British Songbooks, plus contemporary covers and originals. Also appearing is flamenco jazz guitarist Antonio Forcione and his Quartet (22 July) who’s joined by cellist Jenny Adejayan, bassist Matheus Nova and percussionist Jansen Santana for what’s sure to be a virtuosic mix of global jazz sounds. The weekend’s open-air concert gets into high-gear on Sunday 23 July with funky alto-saxophonist Alex Bone’s band playing music from his acclaimed album Falling On Infinity…

Tomorrow’s Warriors has announced that its multi award-winning alumna and tenor saxophonist Nubya Garcia will perform alongside the shapeshifting Nu Civilisation Orchestra (NCO) for an exploration of Stan Getz’s 1962 masterpiece, Focus, at the Royal Festival Hall, the Southbank Centre on 15 September. This will be a rare chance to hear Garcia on stage with the NCO’s 32-piece string orchestra which makes its debut for this special concert. Getz was already a heavyweight on the jazz scene with a 25-year career to his name when he approached acclaimed arranger and composer Eddie Sauter and commissioned him to write a string-led suite for him in what would become a ground-breaking collaboration. Sauter recognised Getz’s prowess as an improvisor and wrote the music for string orchestra and rhythm section that left space…

The career of saxophonist Alan Skidmore, a legend of UK jazz since the early 1960s, is being anthologised on a 6-CD box set from Confront Recordings entitled A Supreme Love. Virtually everything on this limited-edition box of treasures has never been released before. Drawn from Skidmore’s vast private archive and from every stage of his professional life, there are radio, concert and studio recordings; beginning in 1961, with Skid’s radio debut, aged just 19, playing with his father Jimmy. This was also the year he witnessed John Coltrane’s famed appearance in Walthamstow: Trane’s impact was immediate, and Skid’s love and respect for him has lasted a lifetime (hence the set’s title). Thus throughout the recordings, we hear how Skid absorbs Coltrane’s music and transforms it into his own. The box…

Aberdeen Held Together Aberdeen Records Professional YouTuber-cum-bassist Adam Neeley and drummer Antonio Sanchez fire up a big band that mixes power jazz with mainstream indie rock and while the sledgehammer approach, highlighted by heavy electric guitar chords and fat brass charts, can be both direct and rousing, it also lacks some real substance. Genevieve Artadi Forever Forever Brainfeeder This new LP from singer and one half of Knowerwith Louis Cole (who’s one of the drummers here), has its own enigmatic, trippy charm and sounds something like a post-hiphop contemporary jazz version of low-fi band Stereolab with Brazilian overtones from guitarist Pedro Martins. Michael Blake & Chroma Nova Dance of the Mystic Bliss P&M Records The 58-year-old Lounge Lizards saxophonist-flautist Blake has had a hugelyversatile careerwhile always remaining curious and inventive;…

BROUGHT TO YOU BY GRAMOPHONE Classical Calefax An American Rhapsody Pentatone PTC5187 046 Calefax is preeminent among reed quintets, with An American Rhapsody surveying a typicallywide variety of music from the past century. Not even its devotees can have imagined Gershwin’s trailblazing masterpiece Rhapsody in Blue so envisaged, but Raaf Hekkema’s arrangement is nothing if not idiomatic, not least the degree to which the piano part has been sublimated into the overall texture, a failure to up the emotional ante at climaxes being the only drawback. But the highlight here is surely Barber’s adept evoking of ‘regional American idioms’ in ‘Excursions’ whose origins for solo piano are barely even hinted at in a transformation byJelte Althuis that proves as characterful as it is understated. His arrangement of the first…

BBC RADIO 2 88-91 FM and DAB Big Band Special (Mon, 11pm), Jamie Cullum show (Tues, 9pm) BBC RADIO 3 90-93 FM and DAB J to Z (Sat 5pm) Lakecia Benjamin live from the Jazz Cafe + Seb Rochford’s inspirations (27 May) A tribute to Ahmad Jamal (3 June) The Euroradio Jazz Orchestra in concert, with Emma Rawicz (10 June) Manchester Jazz Festival highlights (17 June) Jazz Record Requests (Sun, 4pm) Freeness with Corey Mwamba (Sat, Midnight) BBC RADIO 6 MUSIC DAB Gilles Peterson, Sat 3pm JAZZ FM DAB, Sky, Alexa, smartphone, tablet and online at jazzfm.com (Mon – Fri) 6am-6.30am Business Breakfast, 6.30am-10am Jazz FM Breakfast with Nigel Williams, 10am-2pm Midmornings with Danielle Perrys, 2pm-6pm Afternoons with Jamie Crick, 6pm-7pm Jazz FM’s Greatest with Mark Walker, 7pm-9pm Dinner Jazz…

The 21-year-old rising-star saxophonist Emma Rawicz – who is still studying on the Royal Academy of Music’s Jazz Course - has been making waves since her self-released debut Incantation and a series of sold-out headline shows at London’s Jazz Café and Ronnie Scott’s jazz clubs. Despite her young age, Rawicz has already achieved an enormous amount of acclaim winning a Parliamentary Jazz Award, being nominated for a Jazz FM Award and as a finalist at the 2022 BBC Young Jazz Musician Competition. Rawicz’s ACT debut Chroma features her quintet of top UK players including pianist Ivo Neame, bassist Conor Chaplin, guitarist Ant Law and drummerAsaf Sirkis with guest vocals from Immy Churchill and will be released on 25 August. Rawicz is one of several new ACT Music signings, including Ghanaian…

1 Come Away With Me by Norah Jones (2002) “This was the album that made me want to become a singer! I was 14 years old, and it just grabbed me like nothing else had. The greatest part is, I got to meet her and tell her what an impact she had on me. And now we’re friends. Still hard to believe!” 2 Songbird by Eva Cassidy (1998) “This is an album that I playwhenever I’m stressed, and it always puts me in a beautiful mood. I mean, somewhat of a sad mood, but a wonderful mood. Sad maybe because she’s not with us any longer, and she should be. But we have her voice, and it’s SO beautiful!” 3 When I Look In Your Eyes by Diana Krall (1999)…

NAME: Donovan Haffner INSTRUMENT: Alto Saxophone EXPERIENCE AND INFLUENCES: “I started playing saxophone when I was 10 years old and have already had the opportunity to play with some incredible musicians including Shane Forbes, Moses Boyd, Rod Youngs and Jay Phelps. I am also currently in my third year at the Royal Academy of Music studying jazz.” THIS FUTURE MOVER SAYS: “I love jazz music because when it is played well, it feels like a conversation where I can have fun and express myself musically to the fullest. In the future I hope to play and learn as much as possible from the greats both here in the UK and on the US scene.” See Donovan Haffner play: Ronnie Scott’s Future Movers Late Shows on 12 and 13 May, led by Phil…

THIERRY MAILLARD TURNS SUPERTRAMP INTO MOOG MUSIC French jazz composer and pianist Thierry Maillard brings his adventurous electronic jazz take on the greatest hits of UK rock band Supertramp as heard on his new album, Moog Project, featuring his trio of drummerYoann Schmidt and fellow keyboardist Amaury Faye on piano, Fender Rhodes and synths. Also paying homage to the jazz-rock keyboardists of the 1970s (Hancock, Corea, Zawinul), Maillard had the idea of arranging several Supertramp’s hits, based on an instrumentation with synthesisers, acoustic piano and a live drummer. You can hear the band in full effect at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, London on 27 June and Watermill Jazz, Dorking on 18 July. For more info visit www.moogproject.com/en SNAZZBACK HIT THE ROAD Bristol band Snazzback (see Taking Off this month) are…

British saxophonist Duncan Eagles returns with his melodically-charged new album, Narrations, released 19 May on US imprint Ropeadope. Featuring seven original compositions, Narrations finds the tenorist exploring a mix of spiritual swing, polyrhythmic funk and reflective ballads showcasing his love of a wide range of musical styles. “This is a slightly different album to previous records I’ve written in that there is not one theme that unifies the music,” explains Eagles. “This is a collection of individual pieces that stand together which is how the album title came about. It’s a collection of individual stories.” The album features Eagles’ new acoustic Quartet that includes rising Polishborn, UK-based pianist Tomasz Bura and Londonbased Brazilian drummer Zoé Pascal as well as longtime friend and collaborator Max Luthert on double bass. “The music…

With the legendary Marquee club back in the news, courtesy of the new Marquee record label and a long-awaited book about the closed venue (see review p53), return with us now to early June 1961 at the club’s first location beneath the Academy Cinema at 165 Oxford Street, where Saturday night kicked off with trumpeter Bert Courtley’s Sextet. Nowadays a lesser-known figure than that week’s other bookings due to his early demise, Bert came from the late 1940s dance band scene before joining saxophonist Kathy Stobart’s band, and later marrying her. His clear striking tone was much admired, leading to more prominent live and recording work with John Dankworth, Tubby Hayes, Jazz Today with Don Rendell and Woody Herman’s Anglo-American Herd, where it’s said his solo work shone brighter than…

By the beginning of 2020, it would have taken a lot to halt the rise of Snazzback. The seven-piece collective came together in 2017 to busk around Bristol, dragging heavy duty batteries and PA gear out to parks or setting up in the city centre. The non-committal informality of busking let them evolve a distinctive sound drawing on an eclectic mix of worldbeats, modern dance music and jazz to unleash their uninhibited jamming. Meanwhile, their popular weekly indoor residency at barvenue The Gallimaufry let them pick a fresh musical focus each time – maybe a rhythm culture from Brazil or South Africa, or a hero like Curtis Mayfield – alongside invited musicians and rappers. Dubbed ‘NewWave dancefloor instrumentalism’ this experimentation fed into increasingly impressive live performances around the city’s hipper…

Arbenz x Krijger x Osby Conversation #9: Targeted Hammer Recordings (CD, LP, DL) Florian Arbenz (d), Greg Osby (ts, ss, as) and Arno Krijger (org). Rec. 1 May 2022 The ninth of Swiss drummer Florian Arbenz’s ongoing 12-album ‘conversations’ project re-unites him with American saxophonist Greg Osby and adds Arno Krijger on Hammond B3. Arbenz and Osby’s 2020 duet album, Reflections of the Eternal Line demonstrated their simpatico approach to music and the same focussed logic is on show here. Dutch organist Krijger, leaning more towards Mahler and prog rock than Jimmy McGriff, adds dense voicings and portentous beats. But it is Osby’s oblique lines and sustained trains of thought that stand out. The set opens with Osby spinning magic in a single key on Eddie Harris’ “Freedom Jazz Dance”…

Kenny Barron Lemuria – Seascape Candid CCD32052 (CD, LP, DL) Kenny Barron (p), Ray Drummond (b) and Ben Riley (d). Rec. 17 January 1991 About to celebrate his 80th birthday this month, Kenny Barron has been busy professionally since he was 18 and is still active with recent releases. Depending on the state of the jazz industry at various times, he has also been very prolific, including the period of this reissue dating from when Alan Bates purchased the Candid catalogue and was busy commissioning new recordings of American musicians. In its typical programme, Barron covers the ground from a handful of old standard songs, a couple of new standard-type originals (written by Rufus Reid and one of Barron’s piano students), a Monk tune, a slow blues, a calypso (Blue…

Michael Blake Combobulate Newvelle LP/DL This beautifully-recorded, exquisitely-packaged LP by the Canadian tenor/soprano saxophonist Michael Blake (who also plays flute here) sees him teaming up with drummerAllan Mednard, trumpeter Steven Bernstein, trombonist Clark Gayton and two tuba players (Bob Stewart and Marcus Rojas) for a powerful session that features a superb version ofJohn Lurie’s ‘Bob The Bob’. Yaron Herman Alma Naïve 2 LP This ‘improvised piano solo journey’ was favourably reviewed on CD by Brian Priestley in Jazzwise 280. Herman plays a varied one-hour solo programme of 17 pieces, ranging in length from less than 90 seconds to more than seven minutes, evoking Ravel, Fauré and Satie as well as Jarrett and Evans. Now it’s on LP, and it sounds gorgeous. Jan Gunnar Hoff Home 2L Records SACD/Blu-ray/LP/DL The Norwegian…

This is a first that we really couldn’t pass on, and we’re still not sure what to make of it! Indeed, when we opened the case, we thought that we’d either been sent the Crown Jewels, or that we were having our proverbial leg pulled! Neither, as you might expect, was the case. The body of this tenor saxophone is completely encrusted with ‘gems’ (we’ll come back to this later) that are set out in patterns and motifs all over the surface of the instrument. There are five unique designs for each individual collection, with this particular horn having a skull image on the bell and a star on the crook. Imagine a lizard or snakeskin that reflects light and you begin to get the picture. The ‘gems’ are in…

Dave Brubeck’s Dutch dates Apparently, there is some confusion about the recording of the first concert of the Dave Brubeck Quartet in the Netherlands. In the review by Stuart Nicholson (Jazzwise, March 2023), 26 November 1958 is mentioned as recording date. This date is also mentioned in the liner notes of the CD. However, on the penultimate page of the CD booklet, the recording date is mentioned as 26.II.1958. In this case the month is written in Roman numerals and is confused with 11, hence November. A part of the concert after the intermission was broadcast live on the Dutch radio. So, the recording date is definitely 26 February 1958. The complete concert was recorded by Dutch radio and other parts had been broadcast later that year, but those dates…