Collective biographies should happen more often than they do. They afford escape from fetishising individual achievement, a richer portrayal of a milieu. And they demand a discipline that biographers of individuals – serving up doorstep-sized volumes stuffed with detail in [...]
Some years ago, a London magazine commissioned a piece describing the Jewish contribution to jazz from journalist Mike Gerber. As he explains in the introduction to his new book, he diligently went in search of high quality leads, and rang [...]
Chuck Israels certainly hasn’t rushed to give us his recollections and notions about jazz in America. Now aged 87, the New York-born bass player usually described as a “living legend” has had lengthy, overlapping careers as player, composer/arranger/organiser and college [...]
Here’s a lovingly made invitation to dig into the work of half a dozen important contributors to new music in the UK. Duncan Heining, a notable jazz biographer, offers a skillful summary and appraisal of six key figures not treated [...]
The most recent of Nik Bärtsch’s albums for ECM is “Entendre” for solo piano (review below). Bärtsch – who has four UK dates next week in London, Manchester and Norfolk (listed below) – has also published the sheet music. Writer/pianist [...]
Neil Ardley was a major figure in British jazz in the 1960s and 1970s who combined his activities as a jazz composer and arranger with the writing of science and information books. He also acted with his first wife, Bridget [...]
In the Summer of 1967 Henry Threadgill, saxophonist and tyro composer, was asked to arrange a medley of national songs for a US army band. The result, he recalls, had some “angularity and dissonance” from his study of Monk and [...]
Roger Farbey’s newly-revised third edition of his Ian Carr omni-source sees an admirably clear and not uncritical listing of the late trumpeter, composer and author’s work. The accompanying CD gives a good insight into Carr’s work, especially in his early [...]
One might imagine that pianist Brad Mehldau, one of this generation’s outstanding musicians, has dedicated his entire life and being to furthering his musical abilities and many-faceted output. Indeed, the serious nature he portrays on the bandstand would support this. [...]
Ivor Cutler was a singular talent. He was an author, poet, songwriter, humourist and performer of material that could have come from no other source; and yet, Cutler wasn’t without kindred spirits. One of the things Cutler took most delight [...]
