Guardian gives jazz article a full page!

[BillF]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jan/27/gwilym-simcock-interview?INTCMP=SRCH

[Tee]

Thanks for the link! Finally a new pianist to follow. Checked him out on Youtube. Sounds great!

Kalli

[sidewinder]

First time I saw Gwilym was with that Kenny Wheeler 75th tour (where he fitted into John Taylor's shoes quite nicely) and then the fine commission he did a few years ago at Cheltenham.

Sounds like he's become quite a hit on the continent !

[JohnS]

Perhaps I've just been unlucky but the few things I've heard by Simcock have left me cold.

[sidewinder]

Perhaps I've just been unlucky but the few things I've heard by Simcock have left me cold.

I hear you !

[A Lark Ascending]

I've had mixed reactions.

Saw a thrilling concert at Cheltenham a few years back; and I really enjoyed his last album.

But his classical roots show through and he can be quite florid.

An interesting player and one I'll keep my ear on(I have his recent solo to listen to later today), but hardly the next big thing in UK jazz! But then journalism likes next big things.

[And given that a lot of the current 'next big things' in UK jazz seem to be of the Ayler meets Nirvana variety, I think I'm a bit happier with Simcock!)

Edited January 29, 2011 by A Lark Ascending

[sidewinder]

Florid - yes. 'Flowery' was the term I was thinking of.

That Cheltenham performance of the suite (commissioned for the Lichfield Festival?) was very fine indeed. That was in the Everyman Theatre, I think?

[BillF]

not too excited, subtitled 'basey to beethoven'......Wonder what author John Fordham thinks of that piece of subbing?

Stuck out like a sore thumb, didn't it? They were obviously able to remove it from the online edition, but it remains there in all its glaring awfulness in the newspaper!

[A Lark Ascending]

Florid - yes. 'Flowery' was the term I was thinking of.

That Cheltenham performance of the suite (commissioned for the Lichfield Festival?) was very fine indeed. That was in the Everyman Theatre, I think?

I think I'm thinking of something different. It was in the Pillar Room with Stan Sulzmann on reeds. A broiling, high energy performance. I think he'd just come from a performance with Lee Konitz.

I also saw him at Appleby one year on electric piano doing a very 70s, fusion set. Not something you notice by his recorded output.

[A Lark Ascending]

Played 'Good Days at Schloss Elmau' earlier today.

Good record - think Jarrettin his Facing You days; with a strong early 20thC classical influence.

Won't appeal to those who need a strong blues content or Cecil Taylor like abstraction.