Please bear with me as I provide the obligatory signpost or two. Tommy Khosla is a sitarist, able to draw upon both Hindustānī music and jazz. JAWARI is multinational and multicultural collective, bringing together in their personalities and tastes the musics of North India, Columbia, North Africa and the Middle East, China and jazz with an ease that belies their years.

Tommy Khosla’s first release, Vignettes, was quite different being essentially a solo affair. Yet, both records share the imagery of movement and travel. Where Vignettes was like a series of short films, ROAD RASA is more a series of postcards from a musical and personalised journey. That sense of meaning and purpose is further heightened through the highly affective and effective use of the spoken poetry of Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay (Nashville’s first Youth Poet Laureate) and the range of instruments, voices and influences that pervade the music. This is a music rich in texture, in every respect.

Now, I could tell you that you will hear the influences of Chinese folk and art music on “or else, wandering 千”(qiān translates to “thousand” in Chinese), as the sounds of guzheng and sitar combine over a steady bass obligato and washes of synth. I could say that I hear both Bollywood and Kurt Weill on “Sakura 桜” ( translates to “cherry blossom” in Japanese) and suspect that Brecht would have loved this record. Fanciful? Wait till you hear it and the way it plays with genre whilst respecting the origins of each element in the music through the care of its creation. But, then, the real point is the whole that combines all these parts so seamlessly. Do I have a favourite track, one that perhaps encapsulates the group and its music? Well, today it’s “moves চলো” (cholo translates to “let’s go” in Bengali) in the way it brings North Indian and Latin American musics and jazz together so perfectly that even these arthritic hips can’t help but sway. Yesterday it was “RASA रसः” for the way its gentle acoustic guitar opening builds to a crescendo behind Khosla’s sitar. Tomorrow, my affections may well be elsewhere, as I listen again.

It has been some time since I felt chills down my spine like this listening to a new release. ROAD RASA should be in every Christmas stocking.

The post Tommy Khosla and JAWARI – ‘ROAD RASA’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

UK Jazz News: How did you come to play the sitar, Tommy?

Tommy Khosla: I come from a mixed heritage, part Indian, part European family. My dad bought a sitar on a trip to India and, when I was 12, I fell in love with it really. Before that I was doing a lot of jazz piano but, when I found the sitar, it was as if it felt connected to the jazz I was doing.

UKJN: You’ve studied with Ricky Romain and Anoushka Shankar. Obviously, I know about Anoushka but not much about Ricky.

TK: He’s an amazing teacher and also a political artist. He was teaching in Devon, an hour train ride from mine and I used to go up and see him. We used to spend the best part of a day together, learning, doing quite intense lessons and we are now very dear friends, still playing together a lot and now I’m learning with Anoushka Shankar as well.

UKJN: So, how did you come to form JAWARI?

TK: In the first instance, JAWARI came about because of a need to perform my music live. When I was approached to do a live gig, people would say “Oh, we really like your jazzy stuff. Can you come and do that live?” I can’t do that live solo. It just doesn’t work. Sitar, as you know, is a solo instrument but it’s kind of monophonic and it’s very difficult to do a satisfying solo show in a sort of jazz sense. Initially, it was just me, Gregorio Merchán, who plays the South American drum called a tambora, and Kenichi Kojima on acoustic guitar. We performed a couple of times under my name but then, in rehearsals we started making all this other music together. We thought, “This is something different” and we started writing more and more music. I got Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay involved on the poetry and then Taylor Frost joined on guitar and Billie Sophoclides on sax and flute and they brought in a more jazz element. Gregorio has brought his cumbia influence as well. It’s still evolving but I feel like it’s more an interdisciplinary collective, mostly focused on Indian classical music and jazz but also Latin American musical roots.

UKJN: Who were the artists who have inspired you?

TK: My main influence is Anoushka Shankar but I was also very inspired by John McLaughlin and Shakti. They were an amazing influence on me. When I heard their albums, I was just mind blown. Then, later on, I was inspired by artists like Badmarsh & Shri, who have this more electronic kind of vibe and, obviously, Nitin Sawney. Those are my main influences in terms of the Indian stuff.

UKJN: I have to confess that I struggle with rap but the way Lagnajita’s poetry and voice are used really works for me. It seems to add texture and offer a commentary on the music, almost like a Greek chorus.

TK: I’m so glad you’ve said that because not everyone gets it but that is exactly it. It kind of sits on the music and it is sort of like the Greek chorus in a way. It’s like just posing questions to the listener. It’s almost like another instrument as well, in the way Lagnajita uses the rhythm of her voice. For me, it’s quite emotive. It kind of guides me through the tracks, as well.

UKJN: As someone whose listening to pop, rock and rap has been rather limited, I hesitate to say this but there were three groups who did catch my ear – Massive Attack, Portishead and Arrested Development. ROAD RASA, for me, has that same laid-back kind of groove.

TK: Really? Yeah, that’s very interesting because a lot of those I grew up listening to quite a lot, so it’s always interesting to see what kind of sneaks into the music from what you’ve grown up listening to.

UKJN: How do you relate to the spiritual aspects and elements of Indian music?

TK: I relate quite strongly to them but in my own way in my solo classical sitar practice. For me, there’s a big devotional aspect to it. I don’t subscribe to a particular religion, per se. My Indian family is Hindu, so I’m aware of those beliefs and kind of get on board with some of them. But for me, the main thing with Indian music that I realized this year is a lot to do with prāṇa and the Kundalini energy that comes up from the root chakra and goes up the body.

And I think the whole way that Indian music is structured, if you play authentically, it does cultivate this rise of energy and emotion and power as well. Starting with the slow alap, it gets you into the state of the raga, very steady, held, wide open space. And as you go up to the jhor bringing in the heartbeat, things start to get a bit more constricted but more kind of vibrant. Then, you come to the vilambit, the slow piece and then speed increases with the tabla to the drut and jhalla. Now, there’s more structure, more energy but still being balanced by this rootedness that you began with.

I feel very grounded and increasingly energized as I play and that’s a very real feeling that I get if I’m practicing authentically. And I find that to be very spiritual and I have had quite spiritual experiences whilst playing. Sometimes, though rarely, I have visions or realisations or I feel like some other being is playing.

UKJN: Final question, Tommy. Where does your audience come from?

TK: We’ve got quite an interesting audience, honestly. It’s a real mix. I mean, we’re a London band, and so we have a very eclectic audience. I would say one that really spans young people of all walks of life who are just interested in hearing something like grassroots music that is not really in one of the established genres. I think people are very refreshed to hear that kind of music being made. We get a lot of people coming up and saying, “I’ve been wanting this music to exist for a long time but no one’s doing it in this way.” We have got, obviously, a lot of South Asian diaspora listening in. We get a lot of support from them. But one of our band members is Colombian – Gregorio and some of the tracks are in Spanish. So, we’ve got quite a globalaudience, I would say and that’s what I hope for. I hope that it connects with the people whose music we’re representing, as well as the people who are interestedin world music and jazz as a whole. I also want musicians to enjoy it and I think they do.

Road Rasa can be obtained via Bandcamp, by emailing vadirecords@gmail.com, or by messaging the band directly on instagram @jawariband.

The post Tommy Khosla and Jawari first appeared on UK Jazz News.

A Grand Union Orchestra concert poses a distinct set of dilemmas for a reviewer, issues in some ways exacerbated when it comes to an in-concert film. How can the writer adequately convey the sheer, on-stage spectacle of a band comprising a twelve-piece horn section, six or more singers and a ten-piece rhythm section including kit drums, congas and tabla. And that does not include the cello, sitar, violin and Chines flute and harp? How can the reviewer communicate the joy and ecstasy and celebration of an orchestra where twenty-five nationalities and every continent are represented?

Telling readers that they will hear sounds from India and Bangla Desh, South and West Africa, the Caribbean and South America, China and big band jazz a-plenty can never explain just how seamlessly these musics are all integrated through the creative mind of leader, Tony Haynes. You have to listen and watch. This film is the next best thing to actually being present.

I am not the biggest fan of concert videos, jazz or any other music. All too often, there is just too little happening to sustain interest. I must make an exception here for Grand Union’s 40^th Anniversary Film recorded at the Hackney Empire. The film-makers – Àkàndá Productions – have done a remarkable job here in communicating the magic of this orchestra on stage. Thirty minutes into the film, “Song of the Four Seasons” offers a perfect illustration of that magic and of what Grand Union are or were and why that matters. Beginning with Chinese harp, the folk melody morphs into big band jazz with Ruijun Hu on Chinese flute duelling with Australian Louise Elliott on flute before Gerry Hunt’s guitar solo punctuated by big band horn riffs. It is one of those moments of perfect transcendence.

Existing fans of the orchestra will welcome Jonathan André’s trickster performance of GUO perennial “Can’t Chain Up Me Mind” and the wonderful Lucy Rahman’s showpiece “The Mother, The River”, a mother’s prayer for the safety of her sons during Bangla Desh’s war of independence. But perhaps the most powerful section comes with “Collateral Damage” and its dramatisation of the impact of conflict on innocent individuals and communities. It climaxes with an outpouring of solos over Basie-like big band riffs from Chris Biscoe, Byron Wallen, Claude Deppa and Tony Kofi. The show closes as ever with “Raise the Banner”. Recorded in May 2022 at the Hackney Empire, the 40^th Anniversary Film and its themes of war, displacement and imperialism acquire added resonance through more recent events in Ukraine, Gaza and the West Bank. Music might not have the capacity to halt the crimes of the powerful but it can put a human face on the victims.

As an accompaniment to the concert film, Àkàndá Productions release Song of Many Tongues, a 30 minute backstage documentary about the orchestra. Featuring interviews with a small (inevitably) cross-section of the company, it offers valuable insights into the orchestra’s ethos and what made it such a vital force. What comes across most clearly is that this was a company of friends, driven by what united them rather than those aspects that might otherwise have divided. That it was led by the remarkable energy and vision of Tony Haynes is true but it was given flesh by its members.

This film tells Grand Union’s forty-plus year story and tells that there was never anything else like it. The orchestra celebrated jazz and the musics of the world and those who make it. Spend these 105 minutes in their company and maybe you’ll realise that a better world is possible.

The post Grand Union Orchestra first appeared on UK Jazz News.

How do you tell the story of a truly momentous but misunderstood and misrepresented historical event? Seventy-five years ago this June, the HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury with some five hundred Caribbean migrants, many of them WWII veterans. They, those that followed and those who came from the Indian subcontinent changed Britain and its culture in so many ways. Sometimes resented and even despised, often patronised but rarely celebrated, they persisted in the face of such trials, just as their forebears from West Africa survived the brutalities and indignities of slavery.

For forty-one years, from their base in London’s East End, Tony Haynes and the Grand Union Orchestra have celebrated the cultural contribution of those first migrants and their heirs in shows that are as visually kaleidoscopic as they are musical. This June, the orchestra celebrates the Windrush anniversary with a series of events culminating in a newly-devised show, Unforgotten Voyages, at the Hackney Empire on Sunday 25 June.

“It is a week-long festival featuring different aspects of Grand Union’s work,” Haynes explains, “including social and community events with our Youth Orchestra and Re:Generation Band all with the commemoration of the arrival of the Windrush as its lynchpin. For me, the main thing is to use the Windrush to celebrate that event in 1948 but also to show how that is part of a long history that includes the slave trade that took African people to the Caribbean 500 years ago. The show puts the Windrush in the context of the history of the African diaspora.”

As with all their shows, Unforgotten Voyages will draw on the musics of the Caribbean brought to these shores in 1948 and all the other musics that collide together in the East End and brought together in a Grand Union performance.

“It starts off with its feet in the Caribbean,” Haynes says, “but then broadens out with a new song called “Mr. Never-Smile” – he is the border guard, reminding us that not all were as fortunate as the Windrush in getting even a grudging welcome. Then there are songs of defiance and at the music’s heart is a five-strong drum ensemble of quite different traditions from Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Angola and Zimbabwe.”

Authenticity and attention to detail are the keys to how Haynes and his musicians approach the creation of shows like Unforgotten Voyages. These are musical and historical journeys that do not just tell these stories from a white, even liberal or leftist perspective. They talk with the voices of other cultures, here notably through the West African Yoruba religion that emerged as Santería in Cuba, Candomblé in Brazil and Shango in Trinidad and Tobago. As Haynes notes, “It’s about paying tribute to the indomitable spirit that somehow kept their traditions alive through years of enslavement in the Americas.” And at the centre of those religions and of the massed instruments and voices of the Grand Union Orchestra is rhythm. Few ensembles in jazz can dance like Grand Union.

Does Haynes feel that the UKs jazz establishment has ignored Grand Union’s contribution to jazz in the past? Has the orchestra been too eclectic for its own good?

“Jazz is an attitude rather than a genre, in my view” Haynes replies. “It’s an approach to music-making that can be replicated in lots of different forms and circumstances  I feel we follow directly in the footsteps of say Jelly Roll Morton, which is how I discovered and fell in love with jazz as a teenager. But it also tells dramatic stories, related to the world today, or reflecting on historical or political issues; hence this Windrush project! Grand Union doesn’t pretend to be in the mainstream of the jazz tradition. It uses the techniques of jazz but also draws from other musical traditions and from other performance disciplines like theatre.”

In a sense Grand Union is very much in the jazz tradition. Think about the things it has in common with the music created by Morton, Ellington and Mingus. Morton conjured up quaint vignettes of New Orleans life, Ellington was adept at combining the popular songs he wrote with suites like Black, Brown and Beige and a Mingus performance was a thing of high drama. Miles Davis was the most theatrical of performers and anyone who has seen the Art Ensemble will know exactly what I mean. Haynes and his orchestra restore, revive and extend the jazz tradition.

After all, as Duke Ellington once said, “There’s simply two kinds of music – good music and the other kind!”

LIST OF OTHER EVENTS

Grand Union Orchestra AllStars play Caribbean, Latin and African dance rhythms – Mildmay Club, Stoke Newington: Saturday 17 June, 8-11pm

Grand Union Youth Orchestra, Caribbean Music Masterclass Workshop FREE – Rich Mix, Shoreditch: Sunday 18 June – 10am-1.30pm

Grand Union ReGeneration Band, Voyages in Music: The Caribbean Connection – Hoxton Hall: Sunday 18 June – 7.30-10pm

Shoreditch and Hoxton Community Orchestra, Open Workshop in Caribbean Repertoire – FREE Shoreditch Town Hall:  Monday 19 June – 6.30-8.30pm

Grand Union Orchestra AllStars with the Shoreditch and Hoxton Community Orchestra, FREE – National Windrush Day Celebration dance and BBQ – Hoxton Gardens: Thursday 22 June – 5:00-8:00pm

The post Grand Union Orchestra – “Unforgotten Voyages” first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Critics often miss the wit and humour present in the Westbrooks’ art. It’s as if the high seriousness of Marching Song or The Westbrook Blake means they don’t know how to have fun. Well, Rossini Re-Loaded has that in abundance – there’s back-slapping, roustabout fun aplenty alongside moments of poignancy and passion.

It was good to see saxophonist Pete Whyman in the band. Whyman played the original concert in 1984, appearing on both HatArt “Rossini” albums, and his snake-charmer clarinet was a highlight of the “Overture” from The Barber of Seville. The Thieving Magpie appeared twice – once as a slow march in the first set but as a wild, Latin-jazz romp in the second, with the finest rhythm section money can’t buy (Marcus Vergette, Coach York) on great form.

“Lindoro” (The Barber of Seville) is the longest section in the show with Kate Westbrook singing several of the parts from the sequence where Count Almaviva serenades Rosina. With Kate singing as well as I’ve ever heard her, this section always works even better live than on record. Its gorgeous, limpid piano opening from Mike Westbrook himself was a reminder of the trio of solo piano records he has released in recent times. But it is the way that he creates from Rossini’s original composition a musical narrative to parallel Kate’s singing of the libretto that makes this so successful as music and as theatre. It is tender and charming but its comic disruption by the band and blistering tenor solo from Alan Wakeman is pure burlesque, as is the rustic, village band sequence from “Country Dance” (William Tell).

Further liberties are taken with “Funkin’ Cinderella” (La Cenerentola) with a free duet between Whyman on tenor and Chris Biscoe on alto that is built almost instrument upon instrument into a full band work-out. Westbrook’s setting of “Once Upon A Time” (La Cenerentola) was another highlight with just Kate’s voice and Karen Street’s accordion. In fact, Westbrook’s use of Street’s accordion and Frank Schaefer’s cello throughout did more than add texture and colour. Rather, these instruments coupled perfectly with the rhythm section as if adding a running commentary on proceedings, while the band’s fine brass section added a righteous, hymnal quality to the music.

And so came the finale! It was here that the trumpets and ‘bones led by Graham Russell really came into their own. “Tutto Cangia (Hymn to Liberty”) (William Tell) was as inspiring and uplifting as it was relevant to these times and then it was the final gallop and stirring of the blood into the main theme of the “William Tell Overture”. Rossini’s message was obvious – tyrants always fall for all their wealth and might. All it takes is one little arrow!

PERSONNEL: Kate Westbrook (voice), Mike Westbrook (piano), Ben Cottrell (musical director); Graham Russell, Robin Pengilley, Andy Hague, Sam Massey (trumpets);
Pete Whyman, Chris Biscoe, Sarah Dean, Alan Wakeman, Ian Wellens (saxophones);
Joe Carnell, Sam Chamberlain-Keen, Stewart Stunell, Ashley Nayler, (trombones);
Karen Street (accordion), Frank Schaefer (cello), Marcus Vergette (bass), Coach York (drums).

SET LIST: “Overture A” (William Tell), “Overture B” (The Thieving Magpie), “Lindoro” (The Barber of Seville), “Fête Champêtre” (William Tell), “The Barber” (The Barber of Seville), “Funkin’ Cinderella” (La Cererentola), “Magpie” (The Thieving Magpie), “Once Upon A Time” (La Cererentola), “Idyll” (William Tell), “Country Dance” (William Tell), “Willow Song” (Otello), “Hymn to Liberty” (William Tell), “Gallop” (William Tell).

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Koller’s latest project grew out of a 2016 commission, Twelve Reinventions for George Russell, and focuses on the work of the great African-American composer. With Russell’s centenary falling in 2023, this superb set at the Vortex – heard last Saturday by two packed houses – should be viewed as the opening salvo in next year’s celebrations of Russell’s life and work. Hopefully, there will be many more outings for this remarkable band and Koller’s take on Russell’s music.

The band packed a massive amount of music into their hour-long set. They opened with Bird’s “Billie’s Bounce” featuring eloquent but concise solos from trumpeter Alex Polack and Tom Challenger on tenor backed by contrasting riffs from the brass and Monkish fills from the piano. Koller’s own bluesy tribute to the great man, “On Great Russell Street” was followed by Russell’s “Knights of the Steamtable”, that belied Koller’s claim to have “just fleshed out the arrangement a bit”. 

For me, the acid test for any jazz composer lies in their ability to write for trombones. Here and throughout, Koller met that test with the three trombones adding a sonic gravity to proceedings that Russell would have loved. In fact, the sound of Olivia Hughes’ bass trombone coming through the mix was one abiding memory of the night. This was big city jazz echoing with the sounds of Russell, Gil Evans and Ellington.

On “Parker’s Mood”, Koller used the woodwinds and brass to excellent contrasting effect as they swapped riffs and counter-melodies. Young trombonist, Matt Seddon damn near stole the show with his solo, his use of vibrato suggesting the wonderful Ellingtonian Lawrence Brown. However, on an evening of stellar performances it was Josephine Davies’ lyrical, flowing tenor solo on Russell’s “Ye Hypocrite, Ye Beelzebub” that really grabbed the plaudits and captured the essence of Koller’s Latin-inflected arrangement. This was so good, it made one wish that Koller would take on take Russell’s “Cubana/Be-Cubano Bop” and “Manhattan-Rico”.

John O’Gallagher’s alto graced Koller’s witty, sparkling “Ducks in a Row” and the band closed with a near complete deconstruction of “Ezz-Thetic” featuring a series of cadenzas and duets between the horns. This was a music rich in colours and textures but with unusual, angular juxtapositions particularly from the horns but powered by the rhythm section of Calum Gourlay and Tim Giles. I reckon George was up there smiling.

Dr Duncan Heining is the author of Stratusphunk, The Life and Works of George Russell. (LINK TO INTERVIEW)

Personnel – Hans Koller (piano), Tim Giles (drums), Calum Gourlay (bass), Olivia Hughes (bass trombone), Matt Seddon, Malcolm Earle-Smith (trombones), Robbie Robson, Steve Fishwick, Alex Polack (trumpets), John O’Gallagher, Zhenya Strigalev (altos), Josephine Davies, Tom Challenger (tenor) 

Set list – “Billie’s Bounce” (Parker), On Great Russell Street (Koller), Knights of the Steamtable (Russell), Sixteen (Koller), Parker’s Mood (Parker), Ye Hypocrite, Ye Beelzebub (Russell), Ducks in a Row (Koller), Ezz-thetic (Russell) 

This performance was part of the Vortex Jazz Festival, which received support from London Borough of Hackney

The post Hans Koller Big Band at the Vortex first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Award-winning editor and filmmaker Cath Longbottom’s film of Howard Riley is a delight. Just thirty minutes in length, it succeeds in capturing something of the essence of this remarkable musician and conveying what it is that makes his work so special. One could talk for hours about his wonderfully sensitive, pianistic touch at the keyboard or of how his improvisations continually surprise and yet somehow sound so complete and coherent. To listen to Howard Riley is to be drawn into his sound world and he is no less eloquent in conversation.

Some years ago I was asked to review The Complete Short Stories 1998-2010 (NoBusiness Records 2011), a six CD boxset of his solo improvisations. The prospect of listening to and assessing so vast a collection might seem daunting. In Riley’s case, it was a labour of love. I listened to the set pretty much straight through. It was like one of those rare books that you could not put down and, when finally forced to do so, you resent being dragged out of that world of the imagination.

As well as insightful interviews with Riley himself, the film features extracts from a concert with fellow pianist and friend, Keith Tippett at the Pizza Express in 2016 and a trio performance at the Vortex with bassist Barry Guy and drummer Lucas Niggli. These snippets leave one wanting more but that is a sign of a good film.

At one point in the film, Riley talks about the session with Guy and Niggli, almost offering a summation of his art of surprise,

“We ran through the pieces this afternoon but always on the understanding that if something develops you went along with it. My pieces are written like that. You can take them fairly straight or you can distort them a little. So, we were distorting quite a lot tonight, when we got into it.”

The London premiere of “Howard Riley – Cheerfully Beyond Category” at the Vortex on Sunday, 4^th September will also feature a separate film of Riley and Tippett’s 2016 concert. Both pianists played brief sets separately and then in duo at the end. Longbottom’s second film is of their duo.  I was present that night and reviewing the gig for All About Jazz. It was an evening of contrasts but also of a meeting of minds. As I wrote at the time,

“If Tippett builds from the foundations upwards, the sense with Riley is more forensic. He works from the outside of each idea, exploring ever deeper, peeling back layer after layer, drawing out every possible nuance of his songs. Inevitably, there are blues to be revealed in all their primal glory and Ellington and Monk, too. But all has been absorbed. He closes with “Round Midnight,” a performance so beautifully weighted and measured to make grown men cry into their Peroni.”

Sadly, Keith Tippett is no longer with us – another example of God taking the best from us, while the Devil fails to hold his end up. Thankfully, Howard – despite suffering from Parkinson’s Disease – is still here and playing, a triumph of the will in itself. Cath Longbottom’s twin films do more than preserve the music of two titans of improvised music and jazz, though that would be achievement enough. She reveals both Riley the man and Riley the musician. He is quietly spoken, reflective and totally immersed in his art but, unusually, amongst musicians capable of talking about it elegantly and eloquently. That comment, of course, applies with equal force to a Howard Riley performance.

CD RELEASE

As well as these two films, NoBusiness Records have released Journal Four, a CD of the full concert. All in all, this is an embarrassment of riches for fans of Riley – and Tippett. I will simply say that the music is a tour de force and the duo set – 45 minutes in length – a masterclass of empathic music-making. If there is also an undoubted sadness in watching and hearing these two musicians together – Keith Tippett, so engaged and present in the moment – it is a powerful reminder of the healing power of this music.  Copies of Howard Riley/Keith Tippett Journal Four will be available at the screening of “Howard Riley – Cheerfully Beyond Category”. 

NOTE: The London Premiere of Howard Riley – Cheerfully Beyond Category will be at the Vortex on Sunday 4 September – booking link below. The full programme for the event is:

• 3.15pm – Documentary film screening “Howard Riley – Cheerfully beyond category”
• 3.45pm – Q&A with director Cath Longbottom
• 4.20pm – Concert film – “A Conversation Between Two Pianos” (film of 2016 concert, see text of film review. )

RELATED REVIEWS:

• Geoff Winston’s interview with both Howard Riley and Keith Tippett prior to their 2016 concert
• Geoff Winston’s LJN review of the 2016 Riley/Tippett Concert
• Geoff Winston’s LJN review of Riley/Guy/ Niggli in 2017
• Duncan Heining’s review of f the 2016 Riley/Tippett Concert
• Duncan Heining’s extended review/essay of the 2013 album Live with Repertoire

The post ‘Howard Riley – Cheerfully Beyond Category’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

In the sixties and earlier, jazz musicians such as John and Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Randy Weston and Charlie Haden embraced the indigenous musics of the Indian sub-continent, of Africa and Latin America. Grand Union’s music is in that rich tradition but goes even deeper. Perhaps “Country & Eastern” might be a good descriptor.

On this wet Sunday afternoon, the melody and words of “If Music Could” hang suspended, a reminder of wars raging in Ukraine and Yemen. But this is no sugar-coated Lennon-esque fantasy. It’s a point certainly not lost on GUO’s enthusiastic audience. Grand Union’s encore – “Raise the Banner” – makes clear that only struggle can “down-strike the torturer’s arm” or “bring justice to the oppressed”. Music can’t, but it – and jazz – can and must be part of that struggle.

GUO’s journey takes in Santería chants, West African and Caribbean rhythms and even an Old Testament Psalm – “The Waters of Babylon”. So, the notes and rhythms of “Rag Mishra Kafi” played by violinist Jyotsna Srikanth and Yousuf Ali Khan on tabla lead seamlessly to three Chinese folk songs with Chinese harp (Zhu Xiao Meng) and flutes (Ruijun Hu) and an unexpected and free solo from Jason Yarde on soprano before a duet between Louise Elliott on concert flute and Hu. 

The two longest sections in this retrospective came from the 2009 touring show, On Liberation Street, and songs taken from The Rhythm of Tides (1997) and If Paradise (2011). The first set saw “The Mother, The River”, sung by wonderful Bengali singer Lucy Rahman. One of the orchestra’s most poignant works, it tells of the struggle for independence of Bangladesh through a bereaved mother’s eyes but set to music by turns expressive of mourning and, through bhangra, angry and determined. The second section links Portugal’s imperialist wars and the West’s disastrous interference in the Middle East. It also provided one of the show’s two highlights in “Collateral Damage” with its sax and trumpet duel between trumpeters Claude Deppa and Byron Wallen and saxophonists Jason Yarde and Tony Kofi on altos. The other showstopper was newcomer Joshua Brandler’s performance of “Can’t Chain Up Me Mind”, its defiant lyrics underpinned by irresistible Caribbean dance rhythms.

Throughout the two-hour show GUO’s audience follow each step with enthusiasm and rapt attention. A Grand Union Orchestra audience is untypical of those habitués of the West End one finds on the South Bank or at the Barbican. Mixed by race, colour, class and age, this audience speaks to GUO’s greatest success – creating music that draws upon and reflects the lives and communities of those who live in London today. “If Music Could…” It can’t but Grand Union’s message is – we could!

“Can’t Chain Up Me Mind” is released as a single and taster of the forthcoming album of GUO ‘greatest hits’, Made By Human Hands. [listen]

The post ‘Disproving Kipling’ – Grand Union Orchestra 40th Anniversary Concert first appeared on UK Jazz News.