Home//Jazzwise/July 2024/In This Issue
Jazzwise|July 2024Manu Katché, Jazz in the Round, Next Gen Jazz and others complete Love Supreme 2024 line-upThe full line-up to this year’s Love Supreme Jazz Festival has been confirmed, with many additional acts performing across the event’s numerous stages. Running from Friday 5 to Sunday 7 July at Glynde Place, East Sussex, this year the festival features more bands on its opening night to cater for the many thousands of campers who arrive early for a full festival weekend.Friday now sees the South Downs stage host Grammy-winning bassist/singer Meshell Ndegeocello between sets from soulful newcomer Jordan Mackampa and recent Glastonbury headliner, vocalist Mahalia. And the Supreme Standards stage gets going early too with Friday sets from talented Portuguese singer/guitarist Raquel Martins; bass guitar-and-beats man Rudi Creswick; singer Konyikeh; sax-player-of-the-moment James Brandon Lewis (see this month’s feature on page 24); all ahead of late night DJ sets…3 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Editor’s NotePolling day is just over a couple of weeks away from when this issue goes on sale and putting aside all the (exhausting) hyperbole for one moment, this election offers a chance for a fresh start for the arts in the UK. After 12 Tory Culture Secretaries in 14 years, the arts have been more of a political football, used for fighting culture wars, rather than rightly valued as a source of pride and ‘soft power’ capable of lifting the spirits, enhancing and bringing pleasure to so many people’s lives while generating billions of pounds in revenue and thousands of jobs.Yet, as documented in the Guardian on 15 March, Kier Starmer’s visit to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama the day before provided that rarest of things from a…1 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Maria Schneider and Oslo Jazz Ensemble bring Data Lords to the Barbican in ‘25The Grammy Award-winning jazz composer and bandleader Maria Schneider is set to bring her critically-acclaimed 2020 album Data Lords to the UK for the first time for a concert with the Oslo Jazz Ensemble at the Barbican, London, on 2 March 2025. Released in the depths of the Covid pandemic, the album won Jazzwise’s 2020 Album of the Year, and struck a chord with critics across the board for its timely take on the dangers of big data and power of tech companies; as well as the conflicted relationships between the digital and natural worlds.At the Barbican in March 2025, Schneider will be performing with the 19-piece Oslo Jazz Ensemble, with whom she has worked closely for the last 10 years, and who have become intuitive interpreters of her work.…1 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Palle Danielsson: 15/10/1946 – 18/05/24Bassist Palle Danielsson’s playing first reached a broad international audience through his work with Keith Jarrett’s European quartet. The fullness of his tone, particularly in the lower register, and his agility as a soloist across the whole range of the bass was also remarkable, as was his intuitive bond with drummer Jon Christensen. A track such as ‘Spiral’ from Belonging exemplifies his contribution, with its urgent underlying rhythm and its spiky bass solo mirroring the angularity of both Jarrett and Jan Garbarek’s lines.By the time he joined this group, in 1974, Palle had already worked alongside George Russell, played and recorded with Steve Kuhn, as well as singers Monica Zetterlund and Karin Krog. His interest in unusual source material and time signatures had also brought him into the band Rena…2 min
Jazzwise|July 2024“FOR THE FANS”– LIFTING THE LID ON 'LOUIS IN LONDON'On 2 July 1968, Louis Armstrong and what was to be the final line-up of the All Stars, played two concert sets for the BBC in London. The band had come to the UK to play for a fortnight at the BatleyVariety Club, followed by the BBC Television Theatre event, and then four London shows – two apiece at the NewVictoria Theatre and the Odeon Hammersmith. It was a big deal for the band, as Armstrong was reputedly paid $10,000 a week by the West Yorkshire club, a small fortune in the late 1960s, and he was also planning to celebrate what he believed to be his 68th birthday during the Hammersmith shows. He had been featured with the All Stars in two BBC broadcasts in 1965, but the 1968…6 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Billy’s Full Spectrum DominanceI was fired from Mahavishnu,” says drum legend Billy Cobham matter-of-factly. After the band played Detroit on 23 December 1973, the musicians went their separate ways. McLaughlin, chastened by the experience, set about regrouping in early 1974.“It was time for me to be gone,” continues Cobham. “Even though I was told I was going to be in the band, the next thing I knew my last cheque bounced, and I got a message saying, 'you’re no longer with us'; that’s the way management works, and still does today I guess.”It was a strange ending for a band whose music had, in the space of three short years, redefined the possibilities of jazz-rock. While guitarist John McLaughlin brought a stunning technique and a deep harmonic understanding to the music – “I…12 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Coming at life from a very different angleWhat might be known as ‘the Great Alternative Songbook’ has significant entries. Counter-standards, songs played far more seldom today than, say, Jerome Kern’s ‘Yesterdays’, have come from the pen of writers who have not had the highest of profiles for any number of reasons. Playing in a way that bucked convention puts them on the fringes, as does the knack of writing themes that beguile. But that singularity is exactly why they matter.Herbie Nichols, the 'swing into bebop and beyond' pianist who made visionary music in the 1950s, is a prime example. Vocalist Fay Victor recalls that it was a shock to the system when she first heard him: “A lot of the compositions went way over my head, except for ‘House Party Starting’, that was the one that immediately…6 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Chick Corea/Béla FleckRemembranceThirty Tigers 83830 (CD, LP, DL)EDITOR’S CHOICEChick Corea (p) and Béla Fleck (bjo). Rec. 2019By the time a teenage banjoist called Béla Fleck had become entranced by Chick Corea’s music in the 1970s, the piano star had already been anointed by Miles Davis, and become an emerging force in rock and Latin fusions with jazz. Fleck was a quarter-century older and a multi-Grammy-winning legend of bluegrass and a swathe of jazz, classical and global crossovers before the two finally played together in the 2000s. As the millennium turned, they began guesting on each other’s projects, and by 2007, they had become an enthrallingly compatible duo.After Corea’s death in 2021, Fleck pondered some unreleased 2019 duo concert recordings, and sound files the pair had exchanged in the lockdowns, and Remembrance is…1 min
Jazzwise|July 2024John EscreetThe Epicenter of Your DreamsBlue Room Music (CD, DL)EDITOR’S CHOICEJohn Escreet (p), Mark Turner (ts), Eric Revis (b) and Damion Reid (d). Rec. date not statedJohn Escreet’s latest album, a sax-and-rhythm quartet, balances trenchant acoustic modernism with the avant-garde and conjures strong emotions with angular musical shapes. Saxophonist Mark Turner is on board, and the rhythm section is the same one that made Escreet’s recent piano trio album, Seismic Shift, such a success. Bassist Eric Revis, long-term mainstay of the Branford Marsalis Quartet and drummer Damion Reid, whose multiple credits range from Steve Coleman to the Robert Glasper Trio, embellish and underpin each rhythmic twist. Turner, playing with harder-than-usual edge, dives into the rhythmic intrigue and solos with vigour.The album opens with 'Call it What it Is', a blast of…1 min
Jazzwise|July 2024David MurrayFrancescaIntaktCD422 (CD, DL)EDITOR’S CHOICEDavid Murray (ts), Marta Sanchez (p), Luke Stewart (b) and Russell Carter (d). Rec. 26-27 November 2023At Kahil El Z Bar’s concert at the Flagey Jazz Festival in Brussels at the start of the year, David Murray was an illustrious special guest. He played with such impassioned brilliance that anybody of the opinion that he was not as relevant to the contemporary scene as he was in his 1980s heyday would have had to think again. This fine new album with an excellent quartet comprising younger players finds him on stellar form, making the perhaps overlooked point that the 69-year-old saxophonist has always been a strong composer as well as improviser.Here the melodies are alternately joyous and romantic, keeping alive the flame of swing era heroes Don…1 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Alex SipiaginHorizonsBlue Room Music BRM1014 (CD, DL)Alex Sipiagin (t), Chris Potter (ts, ss), John Escreet (p), Matt Brewer (b) and Eric Harland (d). Rec. June 2023The tight themes, rich sonics and compact improvisations of trumpeter Alex Sipiagin’s second release for the NewJersey-based Blue Room record label reflect continuity and mutual respect. Saxophonist Chris Potter played on the trumpeter’s debut release, Images, which was released in 1998, and has gone on to appear on nearly a dozen more. And though this is only the fourth album with this particular rhythm section – the first, Balance 38-58, was released on Criss Cross in 2015 – the band members have been rubbing shoulders on the New York jazz scene for more than a decade.Sipiagin’s music gives contemporary modern jazz a left-field twist, which is…2 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Albums: Reissues/ArchiveJohn Abercrombie/Dave Holland/Jack DeJohnetteGatewayECM Luminessence 1061 (LP, DL)RECOMMENDEDJohn Abercrombie (g), Dave Holland (b) and Jack DeJohnette (d). Rec. March 1975Abercrombie had debuted as a leader in his own right on the ECM label in 1974 with a trio comprising DeJohnette and Jan Hammer on keyboards (who a matter of months before had been a member of the Mahavishnu Orchestra); that LP, Timeless, was an album of its time, of fire and passion, but elegance too, replete with exciting and wholesome jazz improvisation while revealing a more lyrical side of Hammer not heard in Mahavishnu which has stood the test of time.Gateway, by contrast, is a more laid-back affair, with four of the six tracks composed by Holland. These tend to be functional, to set tempi and keys, and in the…13 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Nina SimoneBlackbird: The Colpix Recordings 1959–1963SoulMusic Records/Cherry Red QSM8CR5218BX (8 CD)Nina Simone (p, v), Al Shackman, Phil Orlando (el g), Jimmy Bond, Chris White, Lisle Atkinson (b), Albert ‘Tootie’ Heath, Bobby Hamilton, Montego Joe (d), The Malcolm Dodds Singers (v) and other uncredited musicians. Rec. 1959–63Colpix Records, founded in 1958, was a subsidiary of film company Columbia Pictures-Screen Gems. Most of its output consisted of pop songs by movie stars; novelty (Yogi Bear!) and comedy records (Woody Allen’s stand-up debut was released on the label); plus spoken word and documentary albums.The label did however have one bona fide musical superstar – a young Nina Simone. Colpix was the pianist/singer’s first major label after her short and unhappy stint at Bethlehem, which produced a mega-hit in ‘I Loves You Porgy’ but no…2 min
Jazzwise|July 2024BooksJelly Roll BluesElijah WaldHachette HB £27.98Subtitled Censored Songs & Hidden Histories, American music historian Elijah Wald uses long-suppressed recordings Jelly Roll Morton made with Alan Lomax in 1938 for the Library of Congress as a launchpad to investigate what might be called “the filth and the fury” that the pioneers of early jazz and blues were steeped in.The “suppressed” recordings Morton made found him singing graphic sexual content – employing what’s often known as ‘the dozens’: rhyming boasts and insults (yes, a precursor to rap!) that he’d learnt in the bordellos of Storyville. Lomax encouraged Morton to sing such ditties, fascinated as he was by African American vernacular culture; but knew that obscenity laws meant they could not then be made publicly available.Times change, and when Rounder issued a box-set…4 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Live ReviewsCheltenham Jazz FestivalVarious venues, CheltenhamCheltenham continued its deft balancing act of star jazz names such as Courtney Pine, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Brad Mehldau alongside the overtly commercial – Sophie Ellis-Bextor and UB40 packing the Big Top.Yet it was the Parabola Arts Centre (now co-curated by Alexandria Carr and Tony Dudley-Evans) that gave the event its deep jazz angles, kicking things off with young pianist (and milliner) Sultan Stevenson’s trio. Influences acknowledged included McCoy Tyner and Bheki Mseleku, most evident in Stevenson’s strong left hand, but the elaborated gospel hymn ‘He Has Made Me Whole’ also showed a fund of lyrical ideas. Drummer David Ola’s Lukumi Project – a festival commission – brought jazz horns together with a trio of steel pans for a themed suite telling the story of…9 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Neil Cowley Trio return with new album EntityPianist Neil Cowley has confirmed the return of his widely acclaimed Trio – with bassist Rex Horan and drummer Evan Jenkins – after a seven year hiatus working as a solo artist exploring a highly personal electroacoustic soundworld. They released their first single ‘Adam Alphabet’ on 5 June – that’s taken from their forthcoming (20 September) album Entity – while the band are also confirmed for a headline show at Earth, Hackney on 19 November as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival.Entity sees the trio pick up where they left off, with some of the band’s earlier kinetic jazz-rock riffing replaced with a more emotive set of songs, notably derived from a purely acoustic set-up. Commenting on the album the pianist says: “In contrast to the machines we are…1 min
Jazzwise|July 2024New online global jazz radio platform One Jazz launched by broadcasters Chris Philips and Jez NelsonA new 24/7 global online jazz radio platform, One Jazz, has been launched by lifelong friends and award-winning jazz radio stalwarts Chris Philips and Jez Nelson. The station features a wide range of programmes, presented by leading broadcasters, musicians and journalists on what is a not-for-profit, volunteer-led organisation.Confirmed presenters (and shows in quotes) include Paul Bradshaw (Straight No Chaser), Götz Bühler (JazzAhead! from Germany), Marco Cafolla (Mama Terra), Nicola Conte (from Italy), Anthony Dean-Harris (‘The Lineup’ from USA), Ruth Fisher (‘Four Corners’), Mike Flynn (Jazzwise ‘Editor’s Choice’), Haseeb Iqbal, Mari (Gondwana Records’ ‘Our World Session’), Kasia Konstance (Heads Up), Kyri (‘Other Ways Of Being’), Kevin Le Gendre (‘Now’s The Time’), Gerry Lyseight (‘Near Enough For Jazz’), Toshio Matsuura (‘Tokyo Moon’ from Japan), Jez Nelson, Matti Nives (We Jazz from Finland),…1 min
Jazzwise|July 202465 YEARS AGO – John DankworthWith British jazz these days even gaining respect in the States, it’s hard to remember when European musicians mainly aspired to rather lacklustre imitations of their favourite Americans. It takes an effort, then, to appreciate the achievement of John Dankworth on his band’s only US tour, including gigs alongside Louis Armstrong’s All-Stars and an appearance at Birdland, while on 3 July 1959 their bus pulled into the Newport Jazz Festival (photographer Burt Goldblatt witnessed the road manager calling out “Chaps! Chaps! Don’t wander off!”).Their set was preserved on a long-forgotten LP, London To Newport (released in the US as Bundle From Britain, and briefly reissued on CD as Britain’s Ambassador Of Jazz). Repertoire is straight-ahead, with an old Basie tune, three Ellington-related ones, and three originals in the same vein.…1 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Northern Lights Are ShiningI'm from the Nordic north, and Matt [Roberts] is from the north of England," says Liselotte Östbloom, the Swedish vocalist fronting Boreal Sun, a fast-rising London crew with a love of groove and improvisation, plus a remit to change the world for the better. "We feel our music flashes with ideas, which relates to light, insight, a sense of perspective. It’s like warm sun on your face in a cold climate."Östbloom had arrived in London from Stockholm in 2018 to study for an MA at the Royal Academy of Music, where her tutors included Norma Winstone and Pete Churchill, when she met multi-instrumentalist and arranger/orchestrator Matt Roberts at a friend’s rounders match in Regents Park.The two found common ground in their shared musical influences: Roberts in particular was a fan…4 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Billy Cobham: The 'lost' 1980 interviewBilly Cobham was at an interesting career juncture by Spring 1980. By far the most forward looking, technically advanced and influential jazz-rock fusion drummer of the time, with a top-drawer CV encompassing Horace Silver, Dreams, Miles Davis, Mahavishnu Orchestra, CTI label sessions and a string of inventive and successful solo albums for Atlantic and Columbia, he refused to be pushed in an overtly commercial direction – like a number of fusion players in the late 1970s – and was returning to the directions opened up the hard jazz-rock edge of his landmark album release, Spectrum.He'd just arrived in the UK from his base in Switzerland for three sold-out drum clinics following a gruelling five days demonstrating the Tama brand drums he endorsed and explaining the developments in quality and construction,…8 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Jazz-loving penfriends, new Orleans joysI was 13 when I ran on to the pitch at Crystal Palace to get the goalkeeper’s autograph, and 14 when I waited for Richard Burton outside the Old Vic stage door. Around the same time, I found a book about jazz in the local library and cut out some of the photographs, formal portraits of black men in suits; King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton. Shameful, I know, but the purloined prints served as backdrop to a life-altering correspondence with a musician who had played in the bands of both leaders, and with other great names in New Orleans jazz.The postwar revivalist movement, spearheaded in part by the 're-discovery’ of trumpeter Bunk Johnson, was still in full swing when jazz reached out and discovered me. From the monthly Jazz…8 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Albums: New ReleasesAccording To The SoundPitchLosen LOS2902 (CD, DL)Adam Parry-Davies (p), Patrick Case (g, syn), Jim Barr (b), Gary Alesbrook, Nick Malcolm, David Adewumi, Mike Rodriguez (t), James Morton (as), Sam Shotaka, James Carter (ts), Jim Barr, Kaisa Mäensivu, Pasquale Votino (b), Otto Hashmi, Alex Hutchings (el b), Jared Schonig and Justin Brown (d). Rec. date not statedAlthough for obvious reasons remote recording took off during the pandemic, it is thankfully no longer the only option. But Birmingham’s Parry-Davies and Bristol’s Case have retained it as a working process on their third outing for the Losen label. The duo’s method is to compose a huge number of tunes through improvisation, select the best of the bunch, then add Bristol-based musicians like Morton and Alesbrook, plus New Yorkers such as Carter and Rodriguez.…44 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Tomeka Reid3+3 And ThenCuneiform RUNE525 (CD, LP, DL)EDITOR’S CHOICETomeka Reid (clo), Mary Halvorson (el g), Jason Roebke (b) and Tomas Fujiwara (d). Rec. 20-21 August 2023Aside from her work with Nicole Mitchell and Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Tomeka Reid has staked a claim as a key figure among the relatively small number of cellist-composer-bandleaders in improvised music. She is an excellent soloist, as commanding with pizzicato as she is arco, but she also has a gift for writing melodies that can be as charmingly nostalgic as they are seductively unsettling.Reid’s thematic material is abundantly rich and her longstanding quartet is an exemplary vehicle for bringing it to life, partly because of the astute choice of instrumentation, in which Reid’s cello, Jason Roebke’s double bass and Mary Halvorson’s guitar form a kind…1 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Shortcuts: CD New ReleasesPaul BryanWestern ElectricSelf-releaseIf slacker jazz is a thing, then in-demand session bassist/synth player Bryan has nailed it here with this downbeat but detailed electro-trio album. Also featuring drummer Jay Bellerose (Diana Krall) and saxophonist Josh Johnson (Makaya McCraven), this freewheeling set is perhaps best summarised as Boards of Canada meets Sonny Rollins. (MF)Nicola CaminitiVivid Tales of a Blurry Self-PortraitSelf-release/BandcampA very promising debut from this talented young Italian alto and soprano saxophonist and his bass-drums-piano rhythm section. The 11 tunes, which seem to focus on the composer’s experiences as an immigrant in New York, are all Caminiti’s own, and demonstrate a remarkable degree of sophistication and maturity. One to watch. (KW)Max ClouthEntelecheiaBellaphonGerman guitarist Clouth is a dab hand at ethnic texture – here he incorporates Indian, Persion and west African music…3 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Duke’s secret after-hours bonusDuke EllingtonCopenhagen 1958 (Bonus: After Hours 1950)Storyville 1018540 (CD, LP, DL)RECOMMENDEDDuke Ellington (p, cond), Cat Anderson, Harold Baker, Ray Nance (t), Clark Terry (t, flhn), Britt Woodman, Quentin Jackson (tb), John Sanders (vtb), Johnny Hodges (as), Russell Procope (as, cl), Paul Gonsalves (ts), Jimmy Hamilton (ts, cl), Harry Carney (bs, cl, bcl), Jimmy Woode (b), Sam Woodyard (d) and Ozzie Bailey (v). Rec. 7 Nov 1958; plus Ellington (p), Hamilton (cl) and Don Byas (ts). Rec. 31 May and 6 June 1950This is by no means the first collection released posthumously from Ellington’s 1958 European tour, and the opening two-thirds of the album may not be the best example of that period. It has its good points, including a live version of the band’s mid-1950s arrangement of ‘My Funny Valentine’…2 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Classical & World Music ReviewsClassicalBROUGHT TO YOU BYL’Arpeggiata/Christina PluharWonder WomenEratoThe booklet notes to this release open with words by Maddalena Casulana, the 16th-century composer, lutenist and singer, something of Renaissance wonderwoman; but instead of wearing a cape, she plays a lute.On the evidence of this disc, L’Arpeggiata director Christina Pluhar is cut from the same cloth as Casulana. We’re told that the album is a tribute to female composers of the 17th century as well as a celebration of ‘all aspects of womanhood, and women with all their talents’. And so it is.There’s music, as you might expect, from now-household 17th Century names Francesca Caccini, Barbara Strozzi and Isabella Leonarda. But there are also wonderful surprises thrown into the mix, including traditional songs from Mexico and Italy – and seven arrangements by Pluhar. Much…4 min
Jazzwise|July 2024LINLEY HAMILTON”I think there is something magical about putting a mouthpiece into a trumpet and setting it on your face,” says Linley Hamilton. “Once the connection is made, it is at one with the body – the breathing system, diaphragm, airstream, lips and then the throwing of the air through the instrument and through the bell."The instrument, to all intents, becomes part of the body and we are at one as we make the music, project the sound and generate the narrative to what we play: musically, dynamically, emotionally. It’s quite a feeling! It’s personal.”Hamilton picked up a school trumpet in primary school when he was nine: “It was a learner’s model, but within the first six months of playing I got a Yamaha model, medium bore, which kept me going…4 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Gig Guide JULY 24MONDAY1 Michael Young TrioEngine Room, High Street West, Sunderland1 Will Barry606 Club, 90 Lots Road, London SW101 Sam Braysher QuartetPizza Express Jazz Club, 10 Dean Street, London W11 Ronnie Scott’s Jazz OrchestraRonnie Scott’s, 47 Frith Street, London W11 Pete Allen Band with Denny Illet JrThe Conservative Club, Radway Place, Sidmouth1 Joabe ReisWorld Heart Beat Embassy Gardens, 3 Ponton Road, London SW11TUESDAY2 Enrico Tomasso QuartetWatermill Jazz, Betchworth Park Golf Club, Dorking2 The London Vocal ProjectPizza Express Jazz Club, 10 Dean Street, London W12 Arturo O’Farrill Afro Latin Jazz QuintetRonnie Scott’s, 47 Frith Street, London W12 Magpie TrioEast Side Jazz Club, 2 Harvey Road, London E11WEDNESDAY3 Adam Glasser TrioSwansea Jazz Club, Cu Mumbles, 7 Castleton Walk Arcade, Newton Road, Swansea3 Claire CopeJazz at the Lescar, Sharrowvale Road, Sheffield3 Endea Owens and the…12 min
Jazzwise|July 2024THE 100 JAZZ ALBUMS THAT SHOOK THE WORLDONLY £14.99The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World is an exclusive 100-page definitive guide to the most important and influential jazz albums that have gone on to change and shape the course of the music from the 1920s to the present day. Print-only, premium quality, publication edited and conceived by Jazzwise’s editor-in-chief Jon Newey The first time a fully annotated top 100 jazz album countdown from 100 to No.1 has been published in book form Includes new in-depth editorial on each album from Jazzwise’s acclaimed team of writers, plus in-depth features on the making of the top three albums, a look at the albums that almost made the cut and a guide to buying the featured titles on LP and CDOrder online at magsubscriptions.com/music-shop or call +44 (0)1722 716997Price…1 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Milton Nascimento and Esperanza Spalding to release Brazilian jazz album with all-star line-upBrazilian vocal legend Milton Nascimento and multi-award winning bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding are set to release a new album, Milton + esperanza, on 9 August on Concord Records.It’s Spalding’s first major album since her recent more experimental releases (2018’s 12 Little Spells and 2021’s Songwrights Apothecary Lab). Concord claims it also finally realises the duo’s creative chemistry that was first heard on ‘Apple Blossom’ on Spalding’s breakthrough 2010 album Chamber Music Society.The new album features 16 tracks that celebrate and reimagine five of Nascimento’s best-loved classics, plus newly written originals by Spalding, alongside interpretations of The Beatles’ ‘A Day In The Life’ and Michael Jackson’s ‘Earth Song’ among other works exploring the music of Brazil and beyond.Guest appearances include Paul Simon, Dianne Reeves, Lianne La Havas, Maria Gadú, Tim Bernardes, Carolina…1 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Glasgow and Edinburgh Jazz Festival line-ups get Scotland swingingWith its native jazz scene currently enjoying a resurgence, Scotland’s two major summer jazz festivals have announced their 2024 line-ups.First up is Glasgow Jazz Festival which returns from 19 to 23 June, with more than 20 events across the city. Performances include the return of US sax great Bobby Watson, who is back at the festival for the first time in 30 years with his Quartet, while newer names to look out for include spiritual jazzers Mama Terra who salute Herbie Hanco*ck’s jazz-funk classic Head Hunters; vocalist kitti delves into her Caledonian Songbook, paying homage to songs in the Scots tradition; Winner of 2023 BBC Radio Scotland Young Jazz Musician of the Year, pianist Ben Shankland also performs; and the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra reunite with vibes virtuoso Orphy Robinson. Further…2 min
Jazzwise|July 2024JACQUI DANKWORTHTAKES 51 Look To The Rainbow: Live In Berlin by Al Jarreau (1977)“The album Look To The Rainbow had a huge impact on me as a young person. It is so full of joy and the musicians are all so utterly brilliant. The whole album, recorded live in Berlin, is intoxicating. I love the energy of the record and Jarreau’s virtuosic performances shine-so full of hope and stunning musicianship all round. I felt heartbroken when he died. The end of an era.”2 Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell (2000)“A masterclass in vocal storytelling. Mitchell does a lot of the old “standards” plus some of her own songs which have become standards of today, all with truly breathtaking arrangements by Vince Mendoza. The band is unbelievably wonderful and the album was recorded…2 min
Jazzwise|July 2024David Sanborn: 30/07/1945 – 12/05/2024Despite having one of the most immediately recognisable alto saxophone sounds in jazz, David Sanborn always played down the idea of having a ‘signature sound’. Initially influenced by Hank Crawford, Sanborn also studied with tenorist JR Monterose, but was equally influenced by David ‘Fathead’ Newman, and the phrasing and attack of fellow altoist Phil Woods.Initially taking up the saxophone after an attack of polio, he quickly became stunningly proficient. By his mid-teens he was playing with Albert King, and at the age of 22 he joined the Butterfield Blues Band and played the legendary Woodstock festival.But blues (and soul) were not his only interests. Born in Florida, with a childhood in Kirkwood Missouri, he settled in St Louis, and regarded that as his home city. There he was drawn into…2 min
Jazzwise|July 2024GETTIN’ DOWN ON THE FARMIf you study the touring itineraries of international jazz musicians for this year, chances are that you’ll find there’s a new Northern Ireland venue appearing on their routings.Southern Ireland has a legendarily rich musical culture, but apart from some notable festivals, jazz has been rather sparsely represented on the Ulster landscape. Enter stage right the dynamic duo of Linley Hamilton (see also The Player, page 56) and award-winning poet Maggie Doyle, and their remarkable joint project Magy’s Farm. It’s a real farm, owned by Maggie’s family for generations, out in County Down within sight of the famous Mourne Mountains, and now featuring a compact but perfectly equipped 40-seat performance venue. But Magy’s isn’t just a venue: it’s also a project and a mission statement.Linley Hamilton is best known as a…4 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Real Earth SongsLaura Misch is a London-based singer, saxophonist and producer who cannot be easily pinned down. Her debut EP, Shaped by Who We Knew, released in 2016, is an atmospheric mix of neo soul and jazz along the lines of Hiatus Kaiyote and Moonchild, whereas her latest album Sample The Earth veers more towards stripped-back chamber jazz. Along the way, she’s made forays into leftfield pop and electronic music, with a collection of critically-acclaimed releases. It’s clear, on interviewing Misch, that her career has been a journey of exploration, navigating her relationship towards sound, with all its infinite possibilities. When asked about her musical beginnings, the artist is contemplative: “What came first? I guess materially, the voice, because you're not born attached to a saxophone, or any production software. I kind…4 min
Jazzwise|July 2024MAN ON A (MUSICAL) WIRECall it the rigours of the road. Many hazards can trip up an artist on tour, from the woe of homesickness to the blight of fatigue and the curse of illness. Above all, time, a very precious entity for improvising musicians, is hard to control. James Brandon Lewis proves as much, arriving late for our interview at London’s Vortex club, where his quartet has a hotly-anticipated gig in just a few hours. He is up against the clock.“For whatever reason, the plane didn’t land ‘til later than planned, then there’s going through customs, getting all the luggage, so by the time you get on the bandstand you’ve probably gone through more than a construction worker in a day,” he says, still looking fresh following a flight from Mantova, Italy. “And…9 min
Jazzwise|July 2024TURNINGPOINT“I always think the music reflects the person. What you are comes out in the music”“The big moment for me was in high school, when I was around 16. I was playing clarinet in the concert band and blues and R&B guitar with my friends. On the clarinet, everything was intellectual, reading the parts. But the guitar was another side of my brain, and playing it was all about the interaction with my friends – which is pretty much what it still is now! Theywere organising an all-school talent show including girls doing a dance routine to a record; and the song they put on was ‘Bumpin’ On Sunset’. I’d never heard Wes Montgomery. The band director knew I played guitar, so he brought me Tequila and said, ‘Do you…4 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Christie DashiellJourney in BlackCrehz Music (CD, DL)Christie Dashiell (v), Allyn Johnson (p), Shedrick Mitchell (org), Marquis Hill (t), Romeir Mendez (b) and Carroll ‘CV’ Dashiell III (d). Rec. date not statedBorn in Washington, DC and raised in Greenville, North Carolina, vocalist Christie Dashiell honed her skills at Howard University (where she now teaches) and the Manhattan School of Music. A recipient of DownBeat magazine’s Best College Graduate Jazz Vocalist and Outstanding Soloist awards in the jazz vocal category, Dashiell possesses a sumptuously rich timbre, a powerful storytelling gift and the ability to craft songs which lodge immediately in the heart.Her second album Journey in Black brings together seven fabulous originals and a brace of adroitly reimagined covers. The imposing album opener ‘Ancestral Folk Song’ begins with a thunderous, free time clarion…1 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Zara McFarlaneSweet Whispers: Celebrating Sarah VaughanEternal Source Of Light ESOCD/LP4 (CD, LP, DL)EDITOR’S CHOICEZara McFarlane (v), Giacomo Smith (cl, ss), Gabriella Swallow (clo), Joe Webb (p), Ferg Ireland (b), Jas Kayser (d) and Marlon Hibbert (steel pan). Rec. date not statedIn the world of vocal jazz, few names command as much reverence as Sarah Vaughan. Known as the ‘Divine One’, Vaughan’s incomparable artistry and pioneering spirit have inspired generations of singers, including the multi-award-winning singer-songwriter, Zara McFarlane. To celebrate the centenary of Vaughan’s birth, McFarlane pays tribute to her musical muse with Sweet Whispers: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan, a captivating album that breathes new life into some of the timeless songs that defined Vaughan’s illustrious career.From a swinging ‘Tenderly’, Vaughan’s first solo hit, to the sublime tenderness of ‘September Song’ (from the…1 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Julius RodriguezEvergreenVerve 653767 (CD, LP, DL)Julius Rodriguez (p, ky, syn, d, b, g, cl, prog), Luke Titas, Brian Richburg (d), Nicole McCabe (as), Nate Mercereau (syn, g), Philip Norris (el b, b, d), Jermaine Paul (b), Emilio Modeste (s), Alonzo Demetrius, Keyon Harrold (t), Declan Miers (b), Chris Lewis (ts), Jay Adlher and Georgia Anne Muldrow (v). Rec. date not statedDrummer, pianist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and (since he’s still only 25) wunderkind Julius Rodriguez has spent several years as a sideman for some ofAmerica’s brightest: Kurt Elling, Keyon Harrold and Wynton Marsalis among them. As a long-time member of Isaiah Barr’s Onyx Collective he’s collaborated with A$AP Rocky and members of the Wu Tang Clan, and has cited influences – Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk – passed down by his…1 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Louis Armstrong All StarsLouis In LondonVerve 6554369 (CD, LP, DL)RECOMMENDEDLouis Armstrong (t, v), Tyree Glenn (tb), Joe Muranyi (cl), Marty Napoleon (p), Buddy Catlett (b) and Danny Barcelona (d). Rec. 2 July 1968EveryAll Stars concert for many years began with ‘SleepyTime Down South’ and this one is no exception (the version here coming from the first set at the BBC Television Theatre). Then came ‘Indiana’ – so predictable that when Barney Bigard rejoined the band after a five-year period away, he wrote ‘it was still ‘Indiana’! But this final line-up of the All Stars plays it with conviction and freshness.When Louis came back on stage for the second BBC set in July 1968, after another opening “Sleepy Time’ he dropped ‘Indiana’ as his second number and produced a fine version of WC Handy’s…2 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Back in the ESSR…Various ArtistsGroove Of ESSR: Funk, Disco, Jazz From Soviet Estonia Vol I (1974-1988)Funk Embassy FER-003RP (CD, LP, DL)Vol II (1973-84)FER-008 (CD, LP, DL)Collectively featuring Gunnar Graps, Uno Naissoo, Marju Kuut, Jaan Kumani, Collage and others. Rec.1973-88As the annual Jazzkaar festival shows, Estonia has both an eager audience for jazz as well as an impressive contemporary talent pool. These two brilliant compilations shine a light on the historical depth of the latter. Covering a pivotal period, from the early 1970s to the mid ‘80s, when the country was still part of the Soviet Union, the material has a unique blend of local folk and international flavours, making the point that black music, evolving through jazz, soul and funk, found its way to the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (ESSR), where bands and…1 min
Jazzwise|July 2024Instrument News & ReviewsTechra Donati 5B and X-Carb 7A carbon fibre drumsticksMany moons ago, we tested a carbon fibre double bass bow, the results of which were not exactly positive; so it was fascinating to see how these new Techra carbon fibre drum sticks would perform when compared to the standard wooden sticks. As with the carbon fibre bow, the physical make-up of carbon fibre is in complete contrast to that of wood, so we were interested to see if there were any sonic differences; and if so, how marked and positive or negative they would be.The Italian company sent Jazzwise the signature Virgil Donati 5B and an 'X Carb' 7A model. Both models are hollow, and at 61.6 grams come in at around 20% lighter than the equivalent wooden stick. A small…4 min
Jazzwise|July 2024AirshotsBBC RADIO 2 88-91 FM and DABJamie Cullum show (Tues, 9pm)BBC RADIO 3 90-93 FM and DAB'Round Midnight (Mon-Fri 11.30pm) Jazz Record Requests (Sun, 4pm)BBC RADIO 6 MUSIC DABGilles Peterson, Sat 3pmJAZZ FM DAB, Sky, Alexa, smartphone, tablet and online at jazzfm.com(Mon – Fri) 6am-6.30am Business Breakfast, 6.30am-10am Jazz FM Breakfast with Nigel Williams, 10am-2pm Midmornings with Danielle Perry, 2pm-6pm Afternoon drive with Simon Philips, 6pm-7pm Jazz FM’s Greatest with Mark Walker, 7pm-9pm Dinner Jazz with Mark Walker. (Mon) 9pm-10pm The Performance Series with Ruth Fisher, 10pm-Midnight Late Night China Moses. (Tues) 9pm-10pm Jazz Travels with Sarah Ward, 10pm-Midnight Late Night China Moses. (Weds). 9pm-10pm The Big Easy with Lil’ Koko. 10pm-Midnight Late Night China Moses. (Thurs) 9pm-10pm True Brit with Helen Mayhew. 10pm-Midnight Late Night China Moses. (Fri) 9pm-10pm…3 min
Jazzwise|July 2024LettersIs jazz being used to ‘culturewash’?I was dismayed to read that UK jazz musicians (among them YolanDa Brown and Kokoroko) had been involved with the first Riyadh International Jazz Festival – an event described in some of the more questioning sections of the media as possible ‘artwashing’ on behalf of Saudi Arabia.The music we love was created by men and women to articulate their defiance of oppression and produce both awareness of their struggle and an almost infinite capacity for various kinds of beauty from instruments and the human voice.Since the brutal murder of the journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi; and the innumerable oppressive actions against Saudi citizens (especially women and the gay community), there has been a concerted effort by that regime to whitewash its reputation by pouring vast…5 min
