It seems a fair bet that the voice was the first instrument, and ever since humans began to sing, music, language, and musical language have been mixed together. They remain hard to disentangle. We turn to music to express what [...]
This was one of those gigs where it all comes together. The enthusiastic buzz of the audience beforehand, the smiling musicians stepping onto the stage and most of all the instant chemistry between them when they start to play. Julian [...]
This was not just a really special evening of music, it was a happy occasion too. At World Heartbeat in Nine Elms, the music is so close you’re almost in it. No, I’ll correct that: you *are* in it (*) [...]
Effra, Misha Mullov-Abbado’s fourth album as bandleader, is in many ways a love letter to Brixton: the London neighbourhood that he calls his home. So it might seem slightly ironic that the composer and double bassist would play the album’s [...]
If someone stated the opinion “man, woman or child, Ella’s the greatest” it might well be dismissed as outrageous press agent hype. But the words were uttered by Bing Crosby, a man who knew a bit about the art of [...]
Arnaud Dolmen’s lively French Caribbean rhythms brought great cheer to his Ladbroke Hall audience on a dreary and drizzly Friday evening. The Guadeloupean drummer’s Adjusting Quartet (with pianist Leonardo Montana, acoustic bassist Samuel F’Hima and tenor saxophonist Francesco Geminiani) performed [...]
Spondance is a 1986 octet performance of a jazz suite written by the pianist Jim Doherty, featuring his close friend Louis Stewart on guitar, plus six Los Angeles musicians: Bobby Shew (trumpet, flugelhorn), Bob Sheppard (alto sax), Gordon Brisker (tenor [...]
Anna B Savage has moved on considerably since last seen at Cafe Oto in June 2015, supporting Jenny Hval. That memorable solo acoustic performance made an impact with the powerful, reverberating quality of her voice and the incision of her [...]
What a pleasure to hear and see this band of top-class musicians so obviously enjoying themselves, playing the music they love with colleagues whom they so clearly respect and want to play with! This was so much more than a [...]
“A Year in the Life celebrates the joy of making music in London, with each track telling a distinct story”, according to the press release for the album. And for its composer and arranger Tom Smith, “…the band sounds like [...]
