Kofi is clearly energised and inspired by this project, and he speaks enthusiastically about sitting in on a rehearsal with Donaldson’s band thirty years ago. This was a session that Kofi was fortunately able to record, and a recent return to the tapes lead him to explore the music with his own group. This is the kind of music not heard on the London scene all that frequently (steeped in blues, rhythm and groove, and often directly swinging), so it actually proves refreshing that Kofi’s approach to it in terms of arrangement and execution is reasonably faithful.

The line-up of The Organisation already respects Donaldson’s tendency to work with Hammond organ players such as Dr. Lonnie Smith and Big John Patton, and Cater is a good fit as a drummer for this project, communicating with clarity and a language steeped in jazz and bop history, mostly eschewing trickery. Kofi makes it clear this is early days and the project will develop, but the ensemble already communicates well both with each other and the audience, and they distill a positive, effervescent vibe. Kofi himself projects with intensity and commitment, and Dunachie handles the varied demands of organ playing (bass line, accompaniment, occasional melody and improvisation) with confidence and fluency.

The set draws from Donaldson’s own repertoire, along with associated standards (a dreamlike Polka Dots and Moonbeams) and works by associated composers including Jimmy Smith, and opening with one of Donaldson’s most well known blues pieces Blues Walk. A recreation of Donaldson’s sleek, groovy version of Bobbie Gentry’s Ode To Billie Joe captures the vivid narrative richness of the song’s lyric, as well as its considerable mystery and strangeness. Other highlights include propulsive pieces such as “Alligator Bogaloo”, “Hot Dog” and “Good Gracious”. Guitarist Simon Fernsby both accentuates and supports the groove with some rhythmically assured comping, and there is an emphasis on dance and movemement. It’s a gig where being in the standing room at the back of the Vortex might actually be preferable to being seated in the front row – at the very least, everyone is toe tapping.

In addition to the selections from Donaldson’s catalogue, there are also some connected standards and other composers, including Jimmy Smith (again highlighting the role of the organ) and a dreamlike “Polka Dots and Moonbeams”, which Donaldson himself recorded on the 1961 album Gravy Train. While the music is rendered faithfully and with great respect to the original recordings, Kofi and The Organisation make their individual presences felt through their articulate and often thrilling improvising.

Kofi plays with intensity and commitment throughout and it is possible to see how the delivery of this music might gain more freedom over time with more performance and familiarity. Right from the outset, this is a project providing a personal insight into Donaldson and his work, and an opportunity to revisit and re-evaluate music not all that frequently discussed in contemporary critical and academic circles. It also very clearly connects with an audience…who responded with enthusiasm and joy.

The post Tony Kofi and The Organisation celebrate Lou Donaldson first appeared on UK Jazz News.

It is of course in the tradition of the Proms to programme some examples of challenging contemporary music alongside more accessible work, and it has been encouraging to see some of the programming decisions growing bolder in more recent years. Conductor Ilan Volkov has shown a particular dedication to celebrating contemporary music at the Proms, and tonight’s programme feels particularly important not only for acknowledging the history of jazz (and placing a radical composer such as Anthony Braxton within that lineage) but also for celebrating the significant contribution of black composers to the development of 20th Century music.

These are also three great examples of composer-performers, musicians who balanced their pioneering large scale orchestrations with small group work and solo performances. It feels truly significant that this work can now reach audiences most comfortable with the European and western classical and contemporary canon. If only one small section of the audience could have maintained as open a mind as Volkov, but more on that later…

The brief opening Ellington suite provided the audience with Ellington’s beautiful and thoroughly familiar melodies (alongside Caravan, usually credited to Juan Tizol). The strings, perhaps overused, provided lushness and colour, but Morton Gould’s orchestrations felt somewhat tepid and polite, and some aspects of the performance also seemed tentative. It felt as if there were a degree of uncertainty as to how to handle the rhythmic element of the music particularly and, as a result, this lacked the richness, drama and tension of Ellington’s best big band work.

It feels as if Mary Lou Williams has only very recently been receiving due credit for her early and considerable innovations. Unfortunately, her orchestral arrangement of the Zodiac Suite was performed only once in 1946 before being abandoned, but two recent recordings – one by the Umlaut Chamber Orchestra and another by the Aaron Diehl Trio with The Knights – have revitalised this important work. It is the Aaron Diehl Trio who join the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra this evening – injecting a valuable sense of playfulness and interaction into this performance, including some genuinely swinging moments. Gregory Hutchinson plays sensitively on drums, but without compromising intensity and joyfulness. This performance felt less like a recontextualisation of jazz for an orchestral setting, and more one where the orchestrations and jazz language were more fully integrated. The Zodiac Suite was never composed together as one unit, but rather assembled retrospectively from a series of individual pieces. As a result, while its underlying themes (exploring the Zodiac signs with pieces dedicated to particular musicians) interconnect, its musical ideas feel widespread and disparate. Williams’ orchestrations navigate this deftly, and the journey, full of imaginative detours, is thrilling. Given the idea is to explore the diverse array of personality characteristics associated with each Zodiac sign, the approach would seem appropriate.

In keeping with the freedom of improvised music, Anthony Braxton’s compositional process not only provides the musicians with a degree of autonomy, but there is also considerable independence afforded to the programmer. As a result, Volkov’s 30-minute performance here is actually an amalgamation of extracts from a number of different Braxton pieces, some of which are delivered faithfully to the original intentions and some of which are re-orchestrated (I particularly enjoyed the strings and percussion section of No. 146, originally composed for 12 flutes, 2 sousaphones and percussion). What is fascinating about this arrangement is the way it experiments with textural range, creating individual smaller ensembles within the orchestra and allowing for powerful, dramatic sections involving the full ensemble. Soloisits James Fei (saxophone), Katherine Young (bassoon) and Ingrid Laubrock (saxophones) all seem to have a thorough understanding of Braxton’s music and processes, and the performance ends with Laubrock and Fei in a genuinely expressive duo.

Young and Fei become actively involved in conducting and directing the orchestra, and there are cards with visualisations and numbers held up. Sometimes Volkov appears to take a more gestural approach. Watching this direction (and the musical response) in the moment is genuinely exciting and stirring. It is a shame, therefore, that the steady steam of walkouts don’t even attempt to engage with this. Yes, this music has its own language that is not for everyone, but this also risks being elitist – it is very possible to enjoy this music simply for its range and breadth of sonic possibility – here are musicians creating unexpected sounds with their instruments, and exploring a vast dynamic range. Braxton’s work actually gets more to the heart of what an orchestral ensemble can create than the Gould orchestrations of Ellington did. Unfortunately, this petulant behaviour inevitably has the effect of being distracting, but the larger portion of the audience that remain rightly conclude the performance with rapturous applause, and it feels like we have all been part of something truly eventful.

Ingrid Laubrock saxophone
James Fei saxophone/conductor
Katherine Young bassoon/conductor
Chris Lewis saxophone/clarinet
Brandon Lee trumpet
Mikaela Bennett soprano
Aaron Diehl Trio with David Wong and Gregory Hutchinson

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ilan Volkov conductor

LINK: Listen to this Prom presented by Kate Molleson on BBC Sounds

The post BBC Prom 35 – BBCSSO/ Volkov: works by Ellington, Mary Lou Williams, Anthony Braxton first appeared on UK Jazz News.

This mammoth tour, which began early in 2023, has seen Bruce Springsteen a little less flexible in the way he manages his shows, with fewer requests taken from the audience and fewer changes to the set list from night to night. The initial run of the tour featured a curated set from across the band’s career but finding its themes of loss, mortality and resilience best expressed in some selections from 2020’s Letter To You album. For someone interested in improvisation and jazz, the shows had an interest not so much through improvisation in the music itself, but through the sense of throw-caution-to-the-wind spontaneity and the feeling that anything could happen. This spirit largely left the buildings in 2023.

The set has thankfully expanded and become a little less rigid since then, although some of Springsteen’s hardcore fanbase, some of whom spend a great deal of time and money travelling from show to show, may still feel aggrieved at the lack of fan favourite deep cuts to reward their efforts.

The final third of the set, aimed more at the wider audience, has remained resolutely fixed throughout. Nevertheless, any Springsteen show is likely to be an overwhelming experience, and the physicality, commitment and integrity he puts into every show is still very much in evidence.

What is interesting now is how he pairs newer songs and older songs to show ideas developing across his career, and also how he interacts with the most ardent fans in the front row (during Thursday’s show, a sign read ‘my boyfriend will propose if he gets your harmonica’ – the request was inevitably honoured). The centre of the set is occupied by a short speech detailing the beginning of The Castiles, Springsteen’s teenage first band, in 1965, and a rumination on loss and grief following the recent passing of George Theiss, leaving Springsteen the last remaining member of that group. It is followed by a solo rendition of Last Man Standing during which you could hear a pin drop in a stadium. This isn’t just there to give the hardest working band in show business a short break – it heightens the powerful combination of vulnerability and survival instinct in the song. It is always followed by the band returning to play Backstreets, one of Springsteen’s very greatest songs, and one hitherto relatively rarely performed in Europe. It’s an ambiguous song too – is it about friendship or romantic love? Is Terry female or male? Was Terry always a cipher character for George Theiss? The combination of a song about the experience of being older with one about the rush of heightened emotions in youth is masterful, however you might decide to read any subtext.

Given this theme, the shows have so far tended to be focused on Springsteen’s own life (albeit in a way that might resonate with the everyday experience of many in his audience too), without much space for his character studies, social commentary or explicitly political songs. In the context of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the US election campaign, this seems to have changed.

Thursday’s set has a core of songs, none written more recently than 2008, that Springsteen uses to speak to the current moment. Two are full band arrangements of songs from the stark Nebraska album (the story behind which is about to become a film starring Jeremy Allen White, who watched Saturday’s show from the side of the stage), one is an electrified take on a song from The Ghost of Tom Joad album, Nebraska’s mid-90s counterpart. Reason To Believe is turned into a gnarly, distorted blues that, despite having a passing resemblance to Spirit In The Sky, has a turbulent power that even a bit of audience participation can’t quash. Youngstown stares squarely at the effects of post-industrial neglect and economic injustice, and is played both nights with a raging force that belies Springsteen’s age. It is also the perfect vehicle for some daring improvisation from the great guitarist Nils Lofgren. The last of this run of songs is Long Walk Home from the Magic album – a lament for small-town decline that finds the sweet spot where Liberal and small-c conservative values intersect, written in challenge to the Bush administration, but also a perfect metaphor for what might need rigorous defending in November. It is introduced as ‘a prayer for my country’ and is again played both nights. In a new arrangement featuring both the horn section and the backing vocalists, it now has a distinctive new edge.

The set now tends to have a feeling of a carefully curated grab bag of memories of previous tours. The pairing of Hungry Heart and Spirit In The Night in Thursday’s show, during which the crowd can get fully involved, harks back to the set lists of the Wrecking Ball tour in 2012, opening both shows with Lonesome Day looks back to The Rising tour of 2003, the version of Reason To Believe and Long Walk Home are drawn from the Magic tour of 2007-8. While Thursday’s set still includes the more recent cornerstone songs of Letter To You and Ghosts (the latter also reflecting on George Theiss but in a more vibrant and weirdly uplifting way), by Saturday’s show, Springsteen has almost entirely forgotten about the newer material, instead opting for Candy’s Room and a scorching Adam Raised A Cain (replete with bonus additional guitar solo) from Darkness On The Edge of Town, and two songs he always relies on to energise the crowd (Death To My Hometown and Darlington County).

In both shows, Springsteen continues to command the stage with an authoritative presence, leading the band with exaggerated gestures and walking down amongst the crowd at key moments. But this show is also a celebration of the E Street Band, from its oldest members to its newest.

Drummer Max Weinberg (whose extraordinary physical endurance is in many ways as impressive as Springsteen’s) and new percussionist Anthony Almonte have a sparring duel during the unusually groovy E Street Shuffle. Jake Clemons is repeatedly celebrated for his channelling the spirit and strength of his uncle (and embraced by Bruce at the end of both shows) Nils Lofgren is at last given more than one song (the now hoary Because The Night and the aforementioned Youngstown) to demonstrate his dexterity and broad musical language. Steve Van Zandt is inevitably regularly cued to share the vocal mic with Springsteen in a hammed up camaraderie that still proves irresistible. The backing vocalists step into the spotlight for a cover of The Commodores’ 80s soft soul gem Night Shift (not in fact completely incongruous – the song celebrates fallen soul heroes Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson in keeping with the show’s theme, and the song featured on Springsteen’s most recent album of soul covers, an album he is otherwise perhaps wisely ignoring on this tour).

Even without any album outtakes or material from the fan feted Tracks box set, the show takes a remarkably long time to get to the point where it might reach those in the audience simply attending through curiosity. The final stretch of the show and the encore string the big songs together (The Rising, Badlands, Thunder Road, Born In The USA, Born To Run, Bobby Jean, Dancing In The Dark and a James Brown-inspired Tenth Avenue Freeze Out in which the expanded E Street Band is introduced in full). The encore is, as always, performed with the house lights up, initially disorientating, but a masterful way of bringing a 90,000 strong community together, whether you are a travelling fan or a one time only attendee.

Saturday’s show has a weekend party sense of fun, and also benefits from the presence of Springsteen’s wife Patti Scialfa, otherwise largely taking a leave of absence on this tour. She joins for a version of Tougher Than The Rest every bit as affecting as the one performed at Wembley in 2016.

Thursday’s show, more serious and sombre, may have the edge by virtue of some stunning performances of some of his very best songs. Land of Hope and Dreams always seems to elevate a show to an even higher level, while the devastating Racing In The Street carried through the air with its beautiful, lingering coda featuring Roy Bittan’s exquisite piano playing.

After the usual goofy run through of Twist and Shout, both shows end as every show but one on this tour has, with a solo acoustic performance of I’ll See You In My Dreams, a poignant opportunity for reflection, to remember absent friends, and an acceptance that in spite of Springsteen’s age-defying three hour plus shows, this inevitably must come to an end sooner rather than later. Not quite yet though. On Saturday he adds “we’re not quitting either!” To the speech preceding Last Man Standing, and ends the show with the words the superstitious among us long to hear: “We’ll be seein’ ya”.

The post Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band at Wembley first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Garland, Rebello and Locke will play two rare concerts together, one with an accompanying workshop at Birmingham Conservatoire on 18 January and one at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London on 19 January, the same venue where Garland and Rebello launched their duo album Life To Life earlier this year. The London event serves both as an opportunity to mark the first anniversary of that album launch (LINK), and also to celebrate the unique rapport between three musicians who all remain at the top of their game.

Garland, Rebello and Locke have worked closely in separate configurations during those 23 years and beyond. Garland’s working relationship with Rebello goes back over 30 years (with Rebello having played on Garland’s 1996 album Enter The Fire and on a Lammas album in 1993). More recently, Rebello played a crucial role in Garland’s quartet One and also as part of the ensemble that recorded Return To The Fire. The two frequently emphasise their ability to learn from each other, with Rebello citing Garland’s compositional and melodic strengths, and Garland highlighting Rebello’s “very particular groove feel – he could just play up and down a major scale and you’d think, ‘that’s a Jason major scale!’”. Garland and Locke collaborate frequently, most recently on Locke’s album Mayam but also as the trio Storms/Nocturnes with Geoffrey Keezer, a group that has released three albums of haunting and beautiful music.

Garland and Rebello’s magnificent duo album Life To Life will act as the focal point of this new set, with music ranging from the intensely grooving ‘Two To Go’ to the reflective and deeply moving ‘This Morning’. Garland describes Locke as being “so electrifying as a player, but with a real sensitive touch and a penchant for playing ballads.” He also suggests that Locke already has a deep understanding of the Garland-Rebello duo approach and sound. With this in mind, both Garland and Rebello thought Locke would be the ideal addition for the ambience and acoustic of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

While much of the material will be drawn from Life To Life, the trio will also perform some of Locke’s work, as well as a new composition entitled ‘A Prayer For Winter’, on which Garland is currently hard at work. His website hosts the first part of a blog about the composition process for this, with part 2 due to follow before Christmas. With this piece, Garland has a specific aspiration to focus on melody: “It sometimes takes quite a bit of courage to break music down to something as fundamental as a melody and to hone and craft something which is so linear. It’s great to flex your muscles as a composer by writing for a big band, but there’s something absolutely irreducible about getting a great melody.”

When thinking about working with Rebello and Locke, Garland references the pioneering duo of Chick Corea and Gary Burton. Given that vibraphone and piano can occupy a similar sonic space, it is remarkable how well this particular combination of instruments can work. “It’s all about the players,” Garland explains. “You’ve got two very percussive players with Chick and Gary – they were so together when they played. But the virtuosity and the things which might impress were all in the service of something greater. The music is flamboyant, playful, extremely virtuosic – but if you think of a piece like ‘Love Castle’ (a version of this features on The New Crystal Silence live recording, and Garland has himself orchestrated it for a larger ensemble), what speaks to me is this irrepressible joy which is transcendent.” Garland initially sounds conscious of that word’s potentially religious implications, but still suggests it is a good word to use. “It doesn’t matter how low you are that day – you put that track on and you’ll feel better afterwards. That’s what I want to do!”

While Garland is careful not to make too direct a comparison with Corea and Burton, he is keen to emphasise both the proficiency of Locke and Rebello as individuals, and the collective rapport between all three of them: “When you get the level of virtuosity and masterful control that Joe and Jason have got, then it’s easy for me to be the third voice over the top.” Garland also remembers the trio’s working relationship as being relaxed and enjoyable. “I just remember the constant laughter,” he explains.  “When you come from that state of playfulness, that’s exactly the kind of situation where you can go off-piste. You want to use the music as a springboard.” Garland also reflects on a story about Ralph Towner and John Taylor rehearsing together, with Towner rushing over to the piano to try and pin down one of Taylor’s distinctive chord choices. “I want to be like that when I’m at that age,” Garland says, before adding wryly, “well now I am at that age, almost!”

Garland feels that respect, inquisitiveness and curiosity between the musicians is what translates well to an audience, and is something he has with Locke and Rebello, finding delight in the music’s nuances and details. “It’s important for the audience to feel as if they’ve come to the right place,” he states emphatically. “They’ve already been through all kinds of things trying to get to there that, by the time they sit down, you already owe them a good concert! It is wonderful as an audience member to know that it’s worth investing in what you are hearing.”

As an audience member recently, Garland has noticed a greater openness and honesty when musicians talk about their music, something that has perhaps in part come out of the collective experience of lockdown. “I have noticed the amount of the music generated out of empathy and solidarity,” Garland observes. “Music is particularly good at being a soothing balm for people of all persuasions – it has that non-linguistic, powerful, vibrational message that can take oneself out of one’s own narrative into something greater which is shared.” Here, Garland seems to have neatly defined an experience of music that can be common to both the musicians on stage in the moment, and to the audience as they hear the results. The combination of musicians and setting at St Martin-in-the-Fields promises to yield such an experience. Garland describes the venue as being “like a band member” in this context: “It’s not often you get to play in a massive great church!”

Looking ahead for the rest of 2024, Garland is set to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Lighthouse (his trio with Gwilym Simcock and Asaf Sirkis), and has a big double release with the Britten Sinfonia due out in May. But for now, the focus is firmly on these two concerts, not least because they are such a wonderful and rare opportunity to see these three musicians
performing together.

The post Tim Garland, Joe Locke and Jason Rebello – Birmingham + London first appeared on UK Jazz News.

A live recording from 2019, “Capturing Spirits”, finds the Jonathan Kreisberg Quartet (albeit in a different iteration from the group touring in the UK, with Kreisberg and drummer Colin Stranahan as the two consistent members) playing with intensity, fluidity and occasional restraint. While the album features Martin Bejerano on Piano and Matt Clohesy on Bass, the quartet touring Europe includes Marko Churnchetz and Phil Donkin, a bass player well known to UK jazz audiences. This is a small ensemble line-up of exceptional quality and depth. Kreisberg, well known for his contribution to excellent bands lead by Hammond B3 legend Dr. Lonnie Smith, Joe Locke and Ari Hoenig, is also now firmly established as a bandleader, bringing a thorough knowledge of jazz, depth of experience on the New York scene and an open minded approach evident in his writing and improvising. 

Kreisberg has been a wide ranging and versatile musician over the course of his career, having worked with a progressive rock group (Third Wish), performed 20th Century works with the New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas, released an excellent solo guitar album (2013’s “One”) and built a longstanding musical relationship with nylon string guitarist Nelson Veras. His own work as a leader sounds confidently contemporary, but also draws from the jazz tradition, and Kreisberg is not averse to including standards and well known jazz compositions in his track lists (Capturing Spirits ends with a version of “Body and Soul”, he has recorded “Stella By Starlight” more than once and his 2004 trio album “Nine Stories Wide” includes an engaging take on “Summertime” rearranged in 5, later reprised as a solo piece on “One”). 

Much of Kreisberg’s own music is kinetic, often both supported and enhanced by his quick witted rhythm sections, with an agility to the music’s rhythm and movement. Kreisberg’s intuitive and interactive musical relationship with drummer Colin Stranahan is now cemented through a variety of line-ups, and Kreisberg has also recorded with two excellent trios. One of these unites Kreisberg with the great Larry Grenadier and Bill Stewart, another with Gary Versace and Mark Ferber. While there is clearly a strong emphasis on rhythm in his work, the results never sound cluttered, bustling or frantic, in large part due to his judicious use of form and space. The original compositions included on “Capturing Spirits” have a feeling of being at once both a science and an art – there is both an internal logic and an elegance to the writing, perhaps most clearly heard in the compelling, richly melodic “Relativity”. 

“The Lift” moves from an inistent, memorable riff at an exciting pace to a lightly swinging section to support a piano solo, via some knotty and intricate lines from Kreisberg. By way of contrast, the beautiful Everything Needs Something is a slow grooving ballad, with a hint that Kreisberg may enjoy contemporary R&B, and with considered use of space. 

Indeed, this use of space informs even the brisker tunes, as Kreisberg’s improvising is characterised with thoughtful variation in pacing and the in the shape and length of his phrases. On the excellent Trust Fall, he plays a lyrical and fluid guitar solo than has plenty of breathing space within it, even as his lines start to cascade with a sense of effortlessness. Kreisberg has said that he is in large part inspired by horn players in the way that he constructs his lines. 

On the release of the album “Wave Upon Wave” in 2014 (with Will Vinson featured on saxophone and Kevin Hays on piano, alongside Kreisberg and Stranahan), Kreisberg’s explantion of the title said much about his approach to jazz: “Relentlessly breaking on the shore, and each bringing forth the codes of the past…But also from the depths comes something new.” Kreisberg’s music does not necessarily sound as if he is attempting to reinvent the wheel, or be part of any particular trend or modish development. He is unshowy in style, but his melodies and his playing clearly demonstrate a commitment to understanding the history of the music. Yet there is also a sense of development, of finding the elements of a distinctive voice. 

Kreisberg has an ability to reshape and refashion recognisable elements and influences into something innovative, nuanced and textured. On this European tour, the band proposes to play material from across Kreisberg’s catalogue, alongside pieces from “Catching Spirits” and some brand new compositions. It will be fascinating to get a small sense of where they are heading next. 

London Jazz News also has a prize draw copy of the Capturing Spirits CD for a weekly newsletter subscriber. 

BAND+

Jonathan Kreisberg – guitar
Marko Churnchetz – piano
Phil Donkin – bass
Colin Stranahan – drums

Jonathan Kreisberg England tour dates: 

Sunday 5 November. 
STAPLEFORD GRANARY, Cambridge
Stapleford Granary, Bury Road, Stapleford, Cambridge CB22 5BP.

Monday 6 November. 
NQ JAZZ, Manchester.
The Yard, 11 Bent Street, Manchester M8 8NF.

(Tuesday 7 November in Dublin /  Arthur’s Pub, Thomas St. Dublin 8 / Two sets – Bookings)

Wednesday 8 November.

PIZZA EXPRESS JAZZ CLUB, London.
Pizza Express Jazz Club, 10 Dean Street, London W1D 3RW

The post Jonathan Kreisberg Quartet Tour first appeared on UK Jazz News.

The drawing of a clear line between Dayes’ previous releases and this album does make a degree of sense. Black Classical Music is very much a studio creation, utilising the tools of production as well as performance, and veering between a range of styles and approaches across its dense and sprawling 19 tracks. If variation in texture does not always happen within individual tracks, it is certainly occurring between them. There is also a wide range of influences on display, from a knowledge of the development of contemporary jazz through to the jittery influence of electronic music on some of Dayes’ more intricate drumming patterns. There is also a sense that Dayes is making a statement about the nature of jazz as a broad church, constantly expanding through engaging with the contemporary music of the day more than being an easily defined genre category. Dayes has also emphasised the importance of education and the next generation, hence perhaps we hear a sample of his young daughter, but also the clear sense he has of connecting this approach to the music with a musical and cultural lineage and history.

The opening title track has a propulsive drive and urgency suggesting that Dayes has engaged not just with the imposing vibe of Kamasi Washington, but also with hard bop, Latin grooves and composer performers such as Kenny Garrett. It is not, however, completely representative of the album as a whole. If there is a coherent line running through most (perhaps all) of Black Classical Music, it’s an exploration of the relationship between drums and bass guitar in creating an engaging groove.

Even when the bass lines are relatively minimal, as on “Gelato”, it can still feel like the bass is a frontline instrument. At times, Black Classical Music feels as much like dance music or even dub in the way in which it is constructed. What happens above the core of drums and bass shifts and changes, with a range of different keyboard sounds, and with melody sometimes foregrounded and sometimes largely eschewed. The music works best when the arrangements are lush and detailed, such as on “Raisins Under The Sun”, on which Shabaka Hutchings makes a significant guest appearance. Another highlight is “Chasing The Drum”, driven by a West African groove and featuring a subtle and graceful melodic line. The patient unfolding of “Tioga Pass” seems to combine many of Dayes’ interests into one simmering epic.

Dayes’ drum parts are sometimes complex and agitated, such as on the tremendous middle section of “The Light”, where the influence of drum and bass artists is clear. At other times, his playing is notably and admirably restrained – on the atmospheric “Bird Of Paradise”, the drums sit back and simply support the mood. While there is a sense that the central rhythm tracks at least have been recorded as a unit, sometimes the produced nature of this work feels a little stifling, and there are times when it feels like the music should take flight. Some listeners might yearn for a little more explicit interaction and intensity at times. There is also, however, something refreshing about Dayes’ emphasis on groove and mood, and it is clear to see how well this connects with an audience. There is an immersive, perhaps even mesmerising quality to this music.

The post Yussef Dayes – ‘Black Classical Music’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

As Event Curator at the Verdict club in Brighton, Tristan also takes not just an interest, but a genuinely pro-active role in helping to maintain and build the grassroots jazz scene.

Drummer and composer Tristan Banks understands that View From Above, his debut album as a bandleader, has a specific quality. “It has a certain vibe”, he says, “you’re not going to put it on if you want to chill out.” He also describes it as “quite full on”. From the opening title track onwards, the album explores a range of material that is mostly propulsive rhythmically, from the Latin influenced pieces such as Cidade Alta, Tempesta and Capelinhas to more funk and rock influenced pieces such as Ex Machina. Whilst Banks is keen to emphasise the challenging nature of the material, he also suggests that it avoids some of the common preoccupations of contemporary jazz. “It’s not super polyrhythmic, or tricksy drummers music”, he says. Instead, the challenges seem to come in part from Banks’ long-standing interest in Brazilian and Cuban influences, and he assembled a group of musicians well placed to handle those styles.

Banks grew up in a musical household in Brighton (his father was a bass player who played with Mike Westbrook) and has a long career of over 30 years as a performing musician. From a young age, he was working with bands such as Cubano Bop and Batu. He moved to London in 1997, and became part of a hugely successful acid jazz and Latin scene that also involved some of the musicians who play with him on View From Above. An interesting question is why he waited until now to record his first album based on his original compositions? “I had always wanted to be more into composition, and a better band player”, he suggests. “But maybe it’s taken me this long to actually be able to play the music!” It seems that a combination of different factors came together, from a simple feeling that it might be the right time to the fortunate availability of Wincraft, Steve Winwood’s recording studio in the Cotswolds (Banks was due to join Winwood on the joint headlining shows with Steely Dan in the US, until Covid intervened).

It is also intriguing that Banks decided to focus around an acoustic jazz quartet format on this album, particularly as someone used to playing in larger ensembles playing very arranged music. He is honest that “part of it is the economic side” in having a project that can tour without incurring too many costs, but also “the intimacy of having a smaller project – I wanted to have that more stripped down quartet sound”. Banks suggests that the idea of having trio improvisation plus lead voice (in this case Paul Booth on mostly tenor saxophone or flute) was a key factor in the album’s creation. “The way most of the music is written”, he explains, “is that there’s often a very rhythmic or chordal element.” As a drummer, does he tend to start with this? “I’ve worked in lots of situation where you start with a groove but I would often try to pare it down to melody and harmony first”, he says, although he also admits to sometimes being unaware of how his music first begins.

Another crucial element in the album’s fluidity and sense of purpose is the strong connection between the musicians. “Even though we don’t play together consistently, when we do, there are reference points and it’s easy – like an old shoe”, Banks suggests. He also emphasises the rapport and humour between them: “People who have seen the band can see that communication, and we don’t have to rehearse that too much”. Banks thinks he first met pianist John Crawford on a Snowboy gig, and they both subsequently played in a band called Vida Nova. Banks explains that Crawford has “a vast knowledge of Latin piano”, as well as a strong understanding of jazz harmony, making him the perfect pianist for Banks’ music that incorporates elements of both. Banks played with bassist Davide Mantovani in Cubano Bop, and both have also worked alongside Paul Booth in his Bansangu Orchestra. Banks and Booth have known each other since the mid-90s.

The album also affords Banks, as leader, plenty of space for improvising on the drum kit, often involving extended soloing alongside or around written riffs (there’s some particularly exciting interaction on “Dust Devil”). While Banks states that he is “mainly interested in playing grooves”, he also considers the importance of the drum kit having a role at the front as well. “I do sometimes think that British jazz avoids the drum kit in terms of expression – the drum kit is built for jazz! It’s 100 years old and has this great history.” Perhaps the key is the need for the drummer to be able to both improvise expressively and support others. Banks highlights the role of Steve Gadd on “Three Quartets”, the 1981 Chick Corea album in doing exactly this.

While Banks’ own performing career has been diverse and not focused exclusively on jazz, it seems that he has been exploring the contemporary jazz world more closely in recent times. Part of this has been his role in reopening The Verdict jazz club in Brighton, beginning with live streamed gigs during Covid lockdowns and now back to in person live performances with an audience. He sees the work as “dutiful in some ways”, in helping to make sure that at least some grassroots venues can continue their important work after the significant setbacks and challenges that came with the pandemic. He is clear that it has influenced him musically in addition to this: “It’s definitely made me have one more foot in the jazz camp”. Banks seems excited by the range of music offered by younger jazz musicians. “There’s a whole new generation of artists coming through – Shabaka, Camilla George, Emma Rawicz. Projects like The Comet is Coming (Shabaka Hutchings’ collaboration with Soccer 96) opens the genre up to different listeners. If we don’t reach younger people, we’re not cultivating the next generation of players or listeners”. While he may have waited a while to step out as a bandleader, Banks is clearly still driven to keep things new and to connect with a wider scene.

The post Tristan Banks – new album ‘View from Above’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Drummer/percussionist and jazz educator Enzo Zirilli has established an enduring and impressive career within both his native Italy and in the UK. This has included substantial long-term collaborations with a wide range of musicians (listed in a footnote below). These include Jim Mullen and Ian Shaw (albums with both), Jason Rebello, Antonio Forcione, Quentin Collins, Brandon Allen, Liane Carroll, and a long-standing working relationship with Gilad Atzmon as part of his Orient House Ensemble. Zirilli has also worked for more than two decades with Dado Moroni and Pieranunzi, and plays as part of Peppe Servillo’s Italian Portraits project to celebrate the Italian popular songbook.

As a bandleader, he is now releasing Ten Past Never, his third album with his ZiroBop ensemble. This continues a humorous title format that follows on from its predecessor Ten To Late. The story here is that on one of their early gigs with Zirilli as bandleader, the drummer became nervous and tongue-tied. Someone asked him “What time are we on?” “Ten”, he answered. But then, to the question “What time is it now?”, instead of reassuring his bandmates with the right answer (“Ten to ten!”), Zirilli came back with a slightly panicky, meaningless “Ten to LATE!”. The rest of the band understood intuitively exactly what he meant, but also couldn’t help laughing. It was a moment that became part of the band’s folklore.

Zirilli sees the two albums to be closely related, and in more than just name: the new recording solidifies a connection between the band members in musical interaction and in “sharing feelings”. Both albums were recorded in the same studio near Turin, with engineer Carlo Miori, who has captured the band’s compelling sound very well. Zirilli cites the piece Gangway as another point of connection, as it continues a dedication to one of his musical mentors Andrea Allione that began with the group’s first album, ZiroBop. “I’m glad that a lot of English listeners can discover his music through this interpretation”, Zirilli explains, “and that Rob (Luft) and Misha (Mullov-Abbado) fell in love with his music.” Another important mentor who is remembered here is the late Pino Daniele. “He became a kind of icon for many generations in Italy,” Zirilli says. “It is really important to remember people who have had a big impact in our lives”.

Looking at the tracklist for Ten Past Never on paper (it includes pieces by Charlie Mariano, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Keith Jarrett and Charles Mingus alongside three originals), it might appear as if Zirilli is attempting an overview of the history of jazz music. While Zirilli obviously has tremendous respect for the lineage of the music (“I always tell my students that it is very important to look back – then you can go forward”), this is not an attempt to compile or summarise. “It’s from a pure desire to play songs that we like”, Zirilli says. “It’s not just me – I’m the leader and the elder, but everyone is putting something on the table.”

With two guitarists (Luft and Chiappetta) alongside bass (Mullov-Abbado) and drums, ZiroBop has an open and unique sound. Zirilli first met Luft and Mullov-Abbado when both were still teenagers and was impressed by their musicianship. And as regards Alessandro Chiappetta, Zirilli says: “I realised Alessandro is a great guitarist and I always love to play with him – instead of doing two different trios with Rob and Alessandro, I thought why not do a proper band with both?”. The idea of the “proper band” as a sound and approach is clearly at the heart of ZiroBop’s music. “The first gig I ever went to was Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, when I was ten years old”, Zirilli remembers. “They really play as a rock band in terms of power and dynamics.” He also cites Duke Ellington’s ensembles, John Coltrane’s quartet and the Miles Davis quintet as similar examples.

“I tried to transfer this feeling when putting this band together”, he says. As for the unusual line-up with two guitars, he concedes that there are some precedents, including Paul Motian’s Electric Bebop Band (Brad Schoeppach and Kurt Rosenwinkel) and Peter Erskine’s Bass Desires (Bill Frisell and John Scofield). Given that there are not many, Zirilli can feel glad that “it’s pretty exclusive”. He explains that “the band sounds quite hip because we cover a large spectrum of music – from early jazz to avant garde and African, Indian and South American influences. All the guys are very open minded and it allows you to play in any style at any time.”

Zirilli and the band often seem to have picked music that might most readily be associated with the instrument of its composer – Keith Jarrett’s The Wind Up always feels like a particularly pianistic piece of music. “A pianist’s composition is often the perfect way to somewhere different”, he suggests. “And I like to be a little provocative”. Zirilli also discusses New Lands, an Enrico Pieranunzi composition that the band tackles with great flexibility on Ten Past Never. He explains that Pieranunzi was “really excited” to hear his composition played in this way with two guitarists. Zirilli also emphasises the rhythmic qualities of some of the other composers the band interprets. “Monk was the number one drummer – if you play what Monk plays on a drum set, it sounds like a drum solo. Charlie Parker also played so rhythmically. These guys were drummers in disguise!”

One of the most important qualities Zirilli looks for in musicians he works with is the desire to explore. “Musicians have to be curious”, he says. “When we play, it’s like having many, many doors. You can dip inside one door and then go through another. Jazz is the house of all music – a discipline of freedom and a freedom of discipline.” Zirilli developed his own musical freedom as a young musician in part by practising as quietly as possible late into the night. Like many young drummers, his connection with the instrument began after his mother recognised that he “was playing in the kitchen with everything, on the table”, but the home environment, with many others around, did not necessarily lend itself to constant noise.

As he pursued music more seriously, this need for control over volume became a rigorous approach for Zirilli. “I worked a lot at night, instead of during the day”, he explains. “I was trying to play softly, even with sticks, and if no one complained, I was doing well! Then when you play strong, you really play strong”. This approach can be clearly heard on Ten Past Never, which encompasses the longing romanticism of Zirilli’s own composition Valzer per Silvia (dedicated to his partner), the Latin influences on Mullov-Abbado’s No More Booze, the driving grooves of Rob Luft’s arrangement of Mariano’s Arun, and the interpretation of Monk’s In Walked Bud.

When Zirilli first arrived in the UK, he “didn’t know a single musician personally”, but he quickly established a network. Initially, he worked with Antonio Forcione and Giorgio Serci, and then went to jazz jam sessions where he met established musicians such as Brandon Allen, Quentin Collins and Ross Stanley. Living a transient existence (“in fifteen years living in London, I don’t think I actually stayed in London for more than two weeks at a time”), and admiring the standard of musicians in the city, Zirilli wondered why he had never seen them on the bandstand in Italy.

This became the impetus for his musical exchange programme Radio Londra. Zirilli is frustrated and saddened by the complications Brexit has caused for this kind of endeavour, but remains determined to continue with it. He remembers the shock and sadness all of ZiroBop felt on the announcement of the referendum result (the band were on tour in Italy at the time), but he remains positive, applying the same inspiring principles that inform his music to his promotional and network building activities. “I believe in the human powers in sharing emotions and sharing beauty, so I will keep going.”

NOTE: Zirilli’s musical collaborations in the UK include work with: Antonio Forcione, Jim Mullen, Quentin Collins, Brandon Allen, Ian Shaw, Liane Carroll, Stan Sulzmann, Hamish Stuart, Omar Lye-Fook, Tina May. Gilad Atzmon (as a member of the Orient House Ensamble), Sarah Gillespie, Ross Stanley, Jason Rebello, Matteo Saggese, John Etheridge, Chris Allard, Johnatan Gee, Giorgio Serci, Nikki Iles, Russell Oliver Stone, Marcus Cliffe, Trevor Jones, Gareth Williams, Mike Gorman, Alex Garnett, Nigel Hitchcock, Mark Nightingale. Terry Pack, Mark Edwards, Tony Kofi and Frank Harrison.

In 2013 Zirilli formed his band, ZiroBop, with guitarists Rob Luft and Alessandro Chiappetta and bassist Misha Mullov-Abbado. There have released the following recordings: ZiroBop (2014) and Ten to Late (2017). Following his appointment as professor of Jazz Drums and Percussion Chair at the Conservatory G.Verdi in 2020, Zirilli returned to his home town, Turin.

ALBUM LAUNCH DATES: Italy

24 February – Smalls (Cuneo)

4 March – Round Midnight (Fisciano, Salerno)

UK: Planned but not yet fixed

The post Enzo Zirilli – new album ‘Ten Past Never’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

The fact that saxophonist and composer Aaron Liddard is about to release his debut studio album under his own name belies the vast number of brilliant stories he has amassed as a result of years as a professional musician. These range from the slightly strange video shoot request that initiated his six months working with Amy Winehouse (‘be ready for the taxi at 6am with a baritone saxophone and your pyjamas!’) to working weeks of 12 hour days adapting intricate Norman Connors productions and assembling a 13-piece band for live work with Michael Henderson. In the case of the Winehouse video shoot, it was perhaps unfortunate that Liddard did not have any pyjamas. Fortunately, he is able to improvise (‘I had an Indian one piece thing’, he explains).

The moment Liddard describes as ‘the highlight of my musical life’ came onstage when none other than Prince asked most of the band to drop down so he could fully enjoy the horn section of which Liddard was a crucial part. Liddard had been opening for Prince at his legendary O2 Arena residency with Beverly Knight, and the band had been invited to play at a couple of the late night after show parties at the smaller Indigo venue. Of his career as a performing musician and bandleader, Liddard says ‘I’ve had a lot of good fortune, but it’s not only that. There are 100 hours of hard work behind every hour of good fortune’. No doubt Liddard was surprised to get a call back from Michael Henderson requesting he organise the band for some shows in London seven years after first working with him, but it can only be because Henderson was impressed with that earlier experience at a soul weekender in Blackpool (at the time an annual event for Liddard).

The title of Liddard’s forthcoming album, Nylon Man, cannily combines the three cities which Liddard claims to have ‘most fed my soul’. These are New York, London and Manchester. Liddard spent his early career in Manchester, then moved to London where he feels he ‘evolved’ professionally. ‘I was well known in Manchester…I had a killing band playing original music, but I’d go to Leeds or Liverpool and no one would know who I was. London has given me a good kick up the bum!’ As many as 15 visits to New York further inspired him to find his own voice (‘if you play from your heart a bit, suddenly the doors are open’), and he describes New York as ‘one of the most challenging cities musically, but also uplifting’. Liddard also identifies USA audiences as uniquely engaged. ‘People will come out even if the band has done very little promotion and then they will queue up to buy the merchandise’, he says, still sounding somewhat staggered. ‘Jazz is less marginalised there’, he explains, ‘but the flip side is that we have a social care system and they don’t. So you have to make it there! The way they make music is very committed’.

The influence of a wide range of musical styles makes itself present on Nylon Man, which is a diverse and often surprising album. The music takes numerous twists and turns, often within the space of individual tracks. Liddard also likens the music to nylon itself: ‘I think the music is really flexible and, as a saxophonist, I’m quite hardy!’. This is not to suggest that Liddard necessarily set out to bombard the listener with stylistic shifts and ideas. He suggests his writing process is more a matter of chance and the recording often involved a lot of trial and error. ‘My belief is that musical ideas are already in existence somewhere and occasionally they’ll choose a person. In this case, they chose me and I could turn them into something people could hear’.

Realising the depth and range of his music took a total of 42 musicians. ‘I’d like to say that this is because the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy claims the meaning of life is 42’, Liddard jests, ‘but really it’s because I needed bebop players to play the bebop moments, players from Latin America to work on the Latin tunes, soul players to be able to play soul’.

Just to cite a couple of examples, Omar Puente guests on violin on the brisk but relaxed Latin tune Manana and Chicken Soup was recorded in Brazil with a rhythm section of Du Gomide (guitar), Felipe Cortes (bass) and Mauro Martins (drums). Sometimes he did have particular people in mind at the writing stage (Thru Your Eyes was written for singer Giulia Marelli), but at other times, recording involved single ideas being developed and extended through working with a live band. Again, he extends the materials analogy: ‘You can tease a bit of fabric out of the ether, and if you’re gentle with it, you can get a bit more’. A number of the compositions date back a number of years (earlier versions can be heard on a live album recorded with his band Aaron & The Argonauts) but these studio recordings clearly capture considerable further work, and a greater emphasis on production values (engineers Nikolaj Bjerre and Tim Bazell were on board throughout). Indeed, Liddard emphasises editing as being a crucial part of the process. There is a brightness and clarity to the sound throughout the album.

While Nylon Man certainly covers a lot of musical ground, it is not scattershot. Liddard claims that ‘the combining factor is balance – between fast and slow, intense and relaxed, electronic and acoustic.’ Upon listening to the album in full, Liddard says he feels ‘calm and blissed out’, even though the work has its fair share of intense and kinetic passages. The opening section of the brilliantly discombobulating ‘My Kinda’, for example, is particularly punchy, perhaps resembling Acoustic Ladyland in their punk jazz guise. The piece as a whole then runs the gamut of a turbulent relationship, travelling between a range of musical styles without much in the way of signposting. Balancing this is the lush and unconventional groove of Thru Your Eyes or the intriguing combination of memorable melody, Carleen Anderson’s exquisite vocal delivery and engaging groove on Frisco.

Liddard wrote Frisco overnight in a hostel after attending a hip hop opera in San Francisco. The original melody can be heard in the bristling jazz sections, but after sharing the tune with Carleen Anderson, Liddard ended up subverting it (‘they say that sometimes you have to butcher your babies’, he says mischievously). Anderson had actually spent a year living in San Francisco before returning to the UK, and together he feels they have captured the sound of that city. Liddard describes Anderson as ‘the UK Queen of Soul’ and suggests that ‘there is a nobility about the way she sings…she expresses the message purely and with an amazing amount of heart and passion’. Alongside the contributions of Giulia Marelli (who tackles some of the more knotty melodic material with real agility) and Miss Baby Sol (who appears on Beautiful, a bold ballad), vocalists have a strong and powerful presence on Nylon Man.

Liddard feels that listeners became more open minded around the turn of the millennium, and are now more open to albums that may surprise. He also goes at least partially against the current consensus on streaming too. While many voices are pretty critical of the role algorithms can play in influencing listening habits, Liddard seems to think that streaming has left more space for individual approaches, with people less concerned with following fashion and more keen and more able to seek out the music they actually want to hear. All this seems to shape a broader philosophy that assumes few limits to the possibilities of contemporary music. It helps that his experience as a saxophonist playing in lots of different genres, ‘sometimes with real masters in those styles’, has given him the foundations for converting such an ambitious approach to music making into tangible results.

The release of Nylon Man (7 October) will be supported by a run of UK live dates:

Thursday, 29 September – Manchester, Matt & Phred’s

Thursday 7th October – Darwen, Sunbird Records

Friday 7 October – Berkhamsted, Arty Barn

Saturday 8 October – London, Temple of Art & Music (TAM)

Thursday 20 October – Newcastle, Hoochie Coochie

Friday 18 November – Abegavenny, The Melville Theatre

The post Aaron Liddard – new album ‘Nylon Man’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Sounds of Denmark presents a small cross section of an intriguing and engaging jazz scene, featuring some names that will already familiar to UK jazz audiences and some that will most likely be new.

The 2022 event begins with a double bill of two duos (Svaneborg Kardyb and RKDIA) at Turner Sims in Southampton. It is notable that this also comes with two schools concerts attached, providing an excellent opportunity for young people to experience this music. (BOOKING LINK BELOW)

The showcase then moves to the Pizza Express Jazz Club in London for two nights, with Svaneborg Kardyb performing on Thursday 15 September and performances by Bevort3 and RKDIA on Friday 16 September.

It is certainly correct that the event should be named Sounds of Denmark in the plural. This is not an attempt to establish a spurious Danish national sound or musical character. Instead, even with a limited number of artists involved, it exhibits an impressively wide range of musical approaches and sound worlds. Svaneborg Kardyb and RKDIA are both duos drawing from both contemporary improvised music and electronica, but that may well be where the comparisons end. Bevort3 are a high quality acoustic trio (saxophone, bass and drums), emphasising interaction, texture and creative expression.

Svaneborg Kardyb combine the skills of Nikolaj Svaneborg (Wurlitzer, Juno, piano) and Jonas Kardyb (drums and percussion). The pair perform facing each other, demonstrating the importance of interaction in their music, although their light, lush and spacious sound seems to be as reminiscent of atmospheric electronic acts such as Air or Zero 7 as it is of subtle, quietly melancholic modern jazz groups such as the late Esbjorn Svensson’s trio. The sound is equally as informed by the textures of percussion as it is by the inherent qualities of the Wurlitzer or Juno keyboards. Jonas Kardyb makes frequent use of hand percussion as well as the rims and shells of his drums. His disciplined restraint and delicate touch ensure a sense of relaxed control. Svaneborg uses loops and sustain effects to enhance the atmosphere, over which he often explores the upper register of the keyboard, creating a shimmering sense of cautious discovery. The resulting whole is beguiling and mesmerising.

Saxophonist Pernille Bevort is a graduate of the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, although the music she makes with her trio does not overly focus on rhythmic tricksiness. Rather, it feels like a fresh and contemporary update on some of the core, enduring values of modern jazz. There are driving grooves, intricate melodies, fleet and graceful improvising and, perhaps most refreshingly, plenty of trading with the drums. In a trio without a chordal instrument, bass and drums of course have an even more fundamental role, and Morten Ankarfeldt and Espen Laub von Lillienskjold frequently create tension and excitement. The trio is also deft at handling ballads, and ‘Theme For Ernie’ is one example of Bevort’s striking and memorable compositions.

The two members of RKDIA, drummer Anton Eger and keyboardist Morten Schantz, are already well known musicians in the UK. Audiences will know Eger through his work with Phronesis and Marius Neset and immediately recognise his peerless movement and dexterity around the drums, alongside a frightening degree of accuracy. His ability to use this technical facility to create musical tension and propulsion is what makes him such an exciting musician to watch. Morten Schantz’s album Godspeed came out here via the Edition label in 2017, introducing his delight in exploring the possibilities of keyboards and synthesisers. RKDIA come with neon branding and illustrated avatars that hint at a retrofuturist love of arcade games, animation and pop culture, Eger has co-created something very different from the other musical ensembles in which he participates. As with Svaneborg Kardyb, the sound is in part defined by the nature of the synthesisers and keyboards that Schantz deploys, but the results here are not simply bright, but effervescent sometimes to the point of being dazzling or garish. There are genuinely infectious pop songs (‘Iris’), but also some exploration of the precise kind of intricate hits and rhythmic organisation admirers of Marius Neset will enjoy (‘Shelter’).

Sounds of Denmark 2022 presents a fascinating and wide-ranging line-up that should appeal to open minded listeners. While there is an obvious contrast between Bevort’s acoustic trio and the more keyboard-oriented sounds of the two duos, a consistent thread running through all three acts is the possibilities for broader orchestration within small groups. Seeing how each act approaches this in live performance will no doubt be thrilling.

For those seeking to explore a broader interest in the development of jazz in Denmark, there is also the excellent and detailed Dangerous Sounds podcast series (LINK HERE) – now available in English at and through a variety of platforms.

Sounds of Denmark is a cooperation between JazzDanmark, PizzaExpress Jazz Club and Sue Edwards Management with support from the Danish Embassy in London, the Ministry of Culture and the Danish Arts Foundation.

The post Sounds of Denmark first appeared on UK Jazz News.