New British Jazz

[sidewinder]

't was on the beeb and hence it's out there

Indeed it was. I believe that was the main concert of the tour at the Royal Festival Hall.

[sidewinder]

't was on the beeb and hence it's out there

Indeed it was. I believe that was the main concert of the tour at the Royal Festival Hall.

[A Lark Ascending]

yeah, but then you're not from Workshop either...

I've heard little Sulzmann, but I enjoyed that - is there any "classic" album of his that one should get? Or even better, a recent good one?

I'm from Workshop after a few pints!

Here are some excellent discs featuring Stan strongly from recent years:

Don't expect the 'Saviour of the Saxophone' - but you'll find an engaging, individual voice.

He's not released much under his own name but is on many British discs from the late 60s onwards.

There's a fuller list on his website:

http://www.stansulzmann.co.uk/recordings.htm

Edited April 1, 2008 by Bev Stapleton

[A Lark Ascending]

Two beautiful new solo piano records:

Reminds me of Jarrett c. 'Facing You', before he got too god-bothering. Highly melodic tunes with a folksy edge to them.

[A Lark Ascending]

Nice new Alan Barnes set of less familiar Ellington...and good to see Tony Coe getting onto record. Why is he allowed to hide?

Not remotely innovative, groundbreaking etc. Just marvellous music superbly played by excellent musicians.

I'm sure if Appleby had survived we'd have heard this live. A pity.

[BillF]

Nice new Alan Barnes set of less familiar Ellington...and good to see Tony Coe getting onto record. Why is he allowed to hide?

Not remotely innovative, groundbreaking etc. Just marvellous music superbly played by excellent musicians.

I'm sure if Appleby had survived we'd have heard this live. A pity.

Saw Barnes and Adams recently with a local trio at the Cheadle Hulme Conservative Club!!! They included some Ellington numbers. Their cohesion in ensembles was remarkable.

[A Lark Ascending]

Saw Barnes and Adams recently with a local trio at the Cheadle Hulme Conservative Club!!! They included some Ellington numbers. Their cohesion in ensembles was remarkable.

Sounds good. I must look out for Barnes locally - he seems to be forever working! I miss my annual dose of his impassioned playing...to say nothing of his wonderful dead-pan humour!

****************

Talking of humour, just playing this for the third or fourth time and it's finally clicking:

A million miles from Barnes. Bates continues to follow his bizarre, changing-every-bar, course. Music that sounds chirpy, cheerful and tonal yet is has so much going on, often simultaneously, that it's initially hard to get a grip on. Nothing in the way of conventional jazz soloing, though improvisation is going on the dense textures. The usual mix of jazz, Latin, calypso and oddball vocals (reminding me in places of the Northettes on the old Hatfield and the North albums, though Bates claims the Singers Unlimited as inspiration).

Like a Monty Python episode, a seemingly incongrous mix of sounds that makes sense if you want it to!!

The sort of music I wish Carla Bley was still making.

[A Lark Ascending]

One that seems to have sneaked into the new releases:

1. My Funny Valentine

(Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) 13:21

2. Caravan

(Duke Ellington, Irving Mills, Juan Tizol) 12:46

3. Old Folks

(Willard Robison) 12:13

4. Favela (O Morro Nao Tem Vez)

(Antonio Carlos Jobim) 9:38

5. Love For Sale

(Cole Porter) 10:36

6. Dizzy’s Blues

(Bobby Wellins) 10:25

Total time 69:08

Recorded at Pinner Parish Church, Pinner,

29 September 2007 (Trk1)

Panshanger Golf Complex , Welwyn Garden

City, 4th May 2008 (Trk2)

Darlington Arts Centre, Darlington,

16 February 2008 (Trk 3,4,5)

Millennium Hall, Sheffield,

7 March 2008 (Trk 6)

http://www.triorecords.toucansurf.com/Trio...s_Products.html

I love those venue names. Can you imagine 'Miles in Pinner' or 'Sony Rollins at the Panshanger Golf Complex , Welwyn Garden City.'

Along with the new Ingrid Laubrock, this week's buys.

Edited May 6, 2012 by A Lark Ascending

[BillF]

I love those venue names. Can you imagine 'Miles in Pinner' or 'Sony Rollins at the Panshanger Golf Complex , Welwyn Garden City.'

... or Monk at Hanger Lane Gyratory System Coming back from fantasy to actuality, Lanny Morgan at the Cheadle Hulme Conservative Club took some beating!

[sidewinder]

I love those venue names. Can you imagine 'Miles in Pinner' or 'Sony Rollins at the Panshanger Golf Complex , Welwyn Garden City.'

... or Monk at Hanger Lane Gyratory System Coming back from fantasy to actuality, Lanny Morgan at the Cheadle Hulme Conservative Club took some beating!

Not to mention 'Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh Live at Whitley Bay'

That one actually exists ! I thought the places up there only did grab-a-granny nights and not cutting edge jazz

[sidewinder]

Of course, 'John Coltrane Live In Kilburn' is also an unlikely reality (the Gaumont, I think).

[BillF]

Of course, 'John Coltrane Live In Kilburn' is also an unlikely reality (the Gaumont, I think).

Glad you redressed the North/South balance with that one, sidewinder

[coreymwamba]

What do people think about the collectives that seem to have sprung up over the last couple of years? Namely F-IRE, the Loop Collective [of whom I know very little other than Jim Hart's in it] and LIMA?

[A Lark Ascending]

I've followed a fair bit of F-IRE and really enjoyed what they've done - great big band a couple of years back (which is doing a short tour soon). I'm especially fond of Oriole who do a beautiful melange of Brazil, Mediterranean and cinematic music.

I've not taken to the punkish direction of Acoustic Ladyland of late - very well played and quite fun live but I've never returned to their last CD. Hope its getting interest in the 'indie' world but it's all too quick and condensed for my ears. I've not heard the new Polar Bear - when I last saw them live the electronics irritated me. Again, may be for a different audience.

I've seen some of the bands from some of the other collectives live - Fraud, Outhouse - and enjoyed them but not enough to want to buy a CD. Outhouse did a great gig with a group of African drummers earlier this year; I wasn't captured enough by the band itself to want to hear more. But the percussion was fantastic.

Ingrid Laubrock who plays with F-IRE but is more wide ranging is the one who interests me most. Her new album has taken her into completely free regions. Still absorbing that one.

[sidewinder]

I saw that F-IRE big band tour led by Barak Schmool and even bought the T-shirt !

A bit of a mixed bag - some of it worked better than others - but good to see new music being tried out and some good, enthusiastic new players coming on-stream. At the time, Finn Peters and Ingrid Laubrock impressed me in particular.

[A Lark Ascending]

Coming soon:

Django Bates in rare piano trio format playing Charlie Parker tunes:

1. Scrapple From the Apple

2. Hot House

3. Puntuat-i'on

4. Star Eyes

5. My Little Suede Shoes

6. Laura

7. Chi Chi

8. Now's the Time

9. Plasticity

10. Moose the Mooche

11. Billie's Bounce

12. Ah-Leu-Cha

Won't sound remotely like any other 'Bird' tribute, I would imagine!

[A Lark Ascending]

And here are five recent UK releases that have kept a smile on my face:

A mixture of jazz trio and solo with some almost Third Stream-ish duets with cello.

A band I expected to be besuited beboppers but turned out much more interesting.

Ornettish contemporay band linked up with drummers from Ghana.

Utterly brilliant reconfiguring of the quartet - got me listening much more sympathetically to the original band.

Yarde is one of the UK's best kept secrets. So good to hear him in full flow on this superb duo disc.

Edited February 26, 2010 by Bev Stapleton

[sidewinder]

Coming soon:

Django Bates in rare piano trio format playing Charlie Parker tunes:

1. Scrapple From the Apple

2. Hot House

3. Puntuat-i'on

4. Star Eyes

5. My Little Suede Shoes

6. Laura

7. Chi Chi

8. Now's the Time

9. Plasticity

10. Moose the Mooche

11. Billie's Bounce

12. Ah-Leu-Cha

Won't sound remotely like any other 'Bird' tribute, I would imagine!

He's performing this project at the Lighthouse, Poole later in March. I'm tempted !

[A Lark Ascending]

Here's another interesting new one:

For All We Know

Nica's Dream

The Sound of Music

I concentrate on You

Ruby My Dear

Monk's Dream

Sarabande

Joy Spring

Henry Lowther has only recorded a few solo records so it will be good to hear him...especially doing Julie Andrews!

Also nice to see a new release on Andy Cleyndert's Trio Records - they seemed to go quiet for a while.

Edited March 4, 2010 by Bev Stapleton

[A Lark Ascending]

Don't know why I left this thread lapse.

Let's get some recent goodies up here. Alex's records deserve pride of place but we don't want to embarrass him!

Here's one I've been enjoying in recent months:

Bought it initially for James Allsopp - a tenor/bass clarinet player who I've seen and been hugely impressed with in several units (Kit Downes, Fraud, Django Bates).

But very much enjoyed Sam Leak, the pianist here. Very strong Jarrett influence and some almost English pastoral moments. Not nearly as drippy as that sounds. Muscular but melodic music.

Allsopp can be heard in a gruffer setting on this:

And guesting here:

Edited May 6, 2012 by A Lark Ascending

[A Lark Ascending]

And on a more political note. Did the fizz go out of the most recent Brit jazz revival?

I suspect I have a distorted view - in the noughties I was going to three festivals, full of young groups whereas I've not been to so much recently.

My perception is that the likes of Polar Bear and Acoustic Ladyland ultimately failed to deliver on the initial promise.

For me a blind alley developed trying to link up jazz with a punk/indie-rock aesthetic - I've seen one too many acerbic grunge-jazz bands at my last few festivals! But that is likely to be just my old codger perspective.

Still lots of great music out there but that sense of 'something's coming' seems to have dissipated - Alex seems to have put his finger on it at the start of the thread, referring to the 'hype' around the up-and-coming bands.

[sidewinder]

Nothing new I guess. Remember the hype in the late 80s when Loose Tubes, Tommy Chase, Steve Williamson and Courtney were given the big marketing treatment (with TV adverts full of hard bop-ish tunes). It lasted about a year and then died a death (circa June 1990) when the sales figures bombed.

Looks like the same thing is going on at Cheltenham right now - but this time they have ditched all the jazz and just put Paloma Faith, Melody Gardot etc. under a 'jazz' umbrella to make it sound good to the "aspirationals" and lure in the $$.

Edited May 6, 2012 by sidewinder

[A Lark Ascending]

Nothing new I guess. Remember the hype in the late 80s when Loose Tubes, Tommy Chase, Steve Williamson and Courtney were given the big marketing treatment (with TV adverts full of hard bop-ish tunes). It lasted about a year and then died a death (circa June 1990) when the sales figures bombed.

Looks like the same thing is going on at Cheltenham right now - but this time they have ditched all the jazz and just put Paloma Faith, Melody Gardot etc. under a 'jazz' umbrella to make it sound good to the "aspirationals" and lure in the $$.

Agree about the 'cycles' of popularity. Next one should be due about 2017. The difference between the 80s thing and the 'something in the air' of the noughties was that there was little or no major label interest - I think one or two got brief contracts with leading indie labels associated more with rock. It's not so much lack of wider popular interest as (to my ears) a diffusion of what initially seemed like a degree of commonality of direction. A lot of these bands seem to have reverted (probably for reasons of making a living) to a focus on their local base - and that is usually London.

I think Cheltenham is something different - the classic company expansion to a point where it stops doing what it does best because it is responsible to so many outside interests. A bit like that point around 2000 when record shops started to 'diversify' into selling mobile phones.

I was talking to someone a while back who works in the rock festival service industry - he said they are expecting an imminent collapse of interest. They're all starting to look so similar and there are so many of them that a glut point is approaching. With the more middle class type festival (jazz/folk/arts) the attempt to appeal to all tastes rather thinly stands the risk of doing exactly the same.

[sidewinder]

I think Cheltenham is something different

No kidding - hardly the same festival now from the ones in which I saw Bennie Maupin, Ornette, Claudia Quintet, John Hollenbeck, Ingrid Laubrock, Pat Martino and myriad other interesting shows.

I happened to catch Jamie C.'s Radio 2 show yesterday afternoon in the car (Cheltenham feature) and apart from a track by Abram Wilson it was a jazz-free zone. Craig Charles' show right afterwards was 200% better.. (Average White Band's 'Pick Up The Pieces' which opened the show had me thanking God that real music was back ).

Edited May 6, 2012 by sidewinder

[A Lark Ascending]

This morning exploring some UK jazz lurking in my collection from recent years:

Superb - the 11 minute version of 'Embraceable You' at the end is heart-stopping!

Pianist Alcyona Mick with John Blease and Asaf Sirkis (drums), Phil Donkin (double bass), Robbie Robson (trumpet) and Mark Hanslip (tenor sax).

Again excellent - very Monkish in the themes.

And now onto:

With...wait for it...a guest appearance from Jamie Cullum. Leader Rory Simmons (a jazz musician from Bodmin!!!!) has played in his band. Don't panic - this band sounds more like Lennox Berkeley than Jamie!

Rory Simmons- trumpet; Tori Freestone- flute; Robin Fincker- clarinet; James Allsopp- bass clarinet; Kit Massey- violin; Natalie Rozario- cello; Jasper Hoiby- bass; Ivo Neame- piano; Ben Reynolds- drums; Elisabeth Nygaard- vocals; Andrew Plummer- vocals + Jamie Cullum- guest on Play it once more.