There is a moment in The ‘Pretty’ Road, a piece from the Maria Schneider Orchestra’s 2007 recording Sky Blue that never fails to make me catch my breath and experience a little surge of joy like an overdue homecoming. Gorgeous, [...]
As the extended summer of 2023 edged into Autumn, something stirred in South London and a new release appeared by Zoöphyte, the brainchild of author and singer Peter Jones and producer Trevor Lever. If the cover art-work (above) is alarming, [...]
The chances are we’ve all heard music composed and arranged by Paul Mottram. His career as a composer stretches back to the 80’s and has resulted in an encyclopaedic CV of TV and Film credits. Seven Ages of Man sees [...]
A packed 606 club welcomed Byron Wallen to the stage on the final Saturday of the 2023 EFG London Jazz Festival with a new musical venture. Wallen is a musical adventurer and singular voice on the UK scene, and his [...]
It’s five years since Nikki Iles premiered her Jazz Orchestra at the Vortex in Dalston in the 2018 EFG London Jazz Festival. On that occasion she thanked the venue for her ‘first gig’, albeit she already had a formidable reputation [...]
‘What kind of magic is this?’ That was the question in this listener’s mind half way through the epic Charles Lloyd Trio set at the Barbican. After a moment of pin drop silence, Lloyd raises his sax and wispy phrases [...]
Joshua Redman’s latest release chalks up a couple of firsts: His first release on the Blue Note label, and his first under his own name working with a singer. For close followers of Redman who soaked up the recent reunion [...]
The first notes of Marc Copland’s new release Someday are instantly, warmly, familiar and slightly unsettling as harmony is recast on the hoof, and melody weaves and distorts to complement it. The treatment of Someday My Prince Will Come is [...]
In the latest of our series where musicians write about their inspirations and idols, pianist and writer Mike Collins writes about Bobo Stenson I’m not sure which came first in my personal voyage of discovery in jazz; the realisation that [...]
The fifth edition of the Ambleside Days Contemporary Music Festival confirmed the staying power of the event and alchemical properties of the approach to programming, orchestrated by director and animateur of the festival, Derek Hook. Each year, a shifting cast [...]
