You Move Me was a pulsing, steamy number. Feverish à la Lee. Mike Bradley laid down a rock steady beat that got toes tapping in the audience and built a foundation for the others. Dominic Ashworth’s leisurely, loping guitar shadowed Zena’s sultry vocals, until he began to solo with sinewy virility, as insistent as a cop knocking at the door — but a lot more welcome. Zena’s singing floated out over the room, like oil calming troubled waters.

Andy Hamill gave a warm, thrumming heartbeat to Van Heusen and Mercer’s I Thought About You and Mike Bradley began what would prove to be an evening’s masterclass on the use of brushes by a drummer, deploying them here to sharply rhythmic effect. Zena James definitely took us on this romantic revery of a trip on a train, with Dominic providing comping of pointillist minimalism before snapping into an irresistible groove.

Neil Young’s Only Love Can Break Your Heart was an example of Zena James’s killer instinct for choosing the right songs and was a highlight of the gig. The theme was carved out by Andy Hamill and Mike Bradley, and Dominic Ashworth’s fleeting strums had a flamenco inflection. Zena unfurled the lovely lyrics like a priceless carpet. Her timing and sense of the song’s potential were impeccable. Dominic then moved onto a remarkable bebop reinvention of the tune.

That Ole Devil Called Love was a feature for Dominic and Zena until Andy Hamill suddenly revealed his gift for playing heartfelt harmonica. Mike Bradley wrapped things up with a shimmer of brushes and cymbals before displaying his funky rhythmic chops on Two Peas.

Andy Hamill sculpted the melodic shape of Ray Noble’s 1934 masterpiece The Very Thought of You while Zena James lit up the lyrics. And then Andy began to whistle — a perfect period touch. Al Bowlly would have been proud.

The impressive reach and range of Zena James’s taste was shown by the inclusion of Rag and Bone Man’s Human, a dark piece with minatory bass, tense staccato drumming and stormy chords from Dominic Ashworth. The Time Has Come was a Dominic Ashworth original, a mysterioso and turbulent number with a deliberate 007 mood. The brooding roll of Dominic’s guitar theme was accompanied by skittering effects from Andy Hamill on the bowed double bass and Zena’s Bond girl vocals.

My Love Is was another example of Zena James’s immaculate taste in songs. Written by Billy Miles, first recorded by Little Willie John in 1959 and covered by Diana Krall, it’s a gem. It began as a slinky sashay sketched out by Andy Hamill and Mike Bradley, playing the drums with his hands. Zena’s singing gave full value to the superb lyrics, matched by a virtuoso solo from Dominic Ashworth.

A very hip high point in a fabulous evening.

The post Zena James Jazz Groove Quartet first appeared on UK Jazz News.

If there’s jazz royalty in Britain, Claire Martin OBE is definitely ermine clad. Her choice of material is diverse and exemplary and she shines in all kinds of settings, from duo to big band. Her legacy as a live performer and a recording artist is essentially a treasure trove (her work with Richard Rodney Bennett being a personal favourite). And, just in case anyone was inclined to start taking her for granted, she’s conclusively put paid to that by recording a new album that knocks it right out of the ballpark.

Her fourth release on the Danish Stunt Records, Almost in Your Arms is something of a Scandinavian extravaganza, being built around the nucleus of Claire’s touring trio of outstanding Swedish musicians. Martin Sjöstedt plays piano and keyboards and is also responsible for the lion’s share of the world-class arrangements on the album. Niklas Fernqvist is on bass and Daniel Fredriksson on drums.

They’re supplemented by another leading Swedish player, Karl-Martin Almqvist on saxophone with the album’s producer, James McMillan, playing trumpet, flugelhorn, percussion and additional keyboards and arranging two of the tracks (Apparently, I’m Fine and September Song). Joe Locke is on vibraphone. Guitarist Mark Jaimes fashions a dreamy, floating soundscape on one track, Do You Ever Wonder, which is also a showcase for Fernqvist’s bass. And Nikki Iles takes a break from excelling as a pianist to play accordion on Apparently, I’m Fine.

And let’s not forget the star and headliner. From the opening instants of I Feel a Song Coming On, Claire Martin is absolutely in control and at the top of her game,the smooth, husky voice taking the super high speed material in her stride, offering effortless nuanced expression while clearly enjoying herself.

The really remarkable thing about this album is the way the quality of the musicians meshes with the calibre of the songs, which have been curated with immaculate — and exhilaratingly catholic — taste. The first big surprise is This One’s from the Heart, written by Tom Waits for an ill fated Francis Ford Coppola film, and originally sung by Waits as a duet with Crystal Gayle. Here it is a duet by Claire and Charlie Wood, an American singer who once toured as Albert King’s keyboard player. The song is given a slinky film noir mood, beautifully evoked by Sjöstedt’s lonely raindrop piano and Fernqvist’s tenderly judicious drums, with Almqvist’s saxophone providing a third voice to intone this lovely ballad.

Carole King’s Bitter with the Sweet gets a groovy, loping, bluesy interpretation, again revealing Sjöstedt’s virtuosity, ably supported by James McMillan’s horn which is by turns sardonic and punchy. Rufus Wainwright’s The Art Teacher is a lucid and lyrical little tale of love that never was, emphatically underscored by Karl-Martin Almqvist with saxophone lines like charcoal streaks.

Train in the Desert is one of two songs cowritten by Claire’s friend Mark Winkler, and it’s a remarkable James M. Cain odyssey of passion and revenge with Sjöstedt and Fernqvist conjuring the hypnotic rhythm of a railway journey. Joe Locke’s vibraphone adds to the feel of a technicolour dreamscape, as does his brief snatch of narration.

But the hairs on the back of the neck really go up for a yearningly beautiful version of This House is Empty Now by Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello. It’s worth the price of the CD for this track alone, with Claire Martin’s vocals swooping, floating, swinging and offering the millisecond precision which bring out all the nuances of this gorgeous, aching contemporary milestone of music and lyrics. (“Does the extinguished candle care about the darkness?”) The rendition here is effortlessly light-touch with Sjöstedt, Fernqvist and Fredriksson following the singer like her shadow.

Tying for first place, though, is a number which could hardly be more different. I’d not heard of Ty Jeffries before, but on the strength of Water and Salt he’s one for the songwriting hall of fame. This track is fantastically, intoxicatingly hip and witty, given full value by MacMillan’s horn, Fernqvist’s plucked bass, Sjöstedt’s bluesy, strolling piano and Claire Martin’s superbly measured vocal, all doing justice to these modern-classic lyrics. “You spun a web, you elegant spider/ Now love is dead, like a wasp in a saucer of cider.”

I can’t stop listening to this CD, and why would I want to? It’s goosebump time in south London, folks…

Almost in Your Arms is a ravishing album — adroit, surefooted and masterful. Jazz vocals — and songs — don’t come any better than this.

PP features are part of marketing packages

ALBUM LAUNCH TOUR DATES

29 Sep Brighton Jazz Festival – Horatios Bar at Brighton Palace Pier
1 Oct Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club
2 Oct Bristol Beacon
3 Oct 2024 Turner Sims Concert Hall Southampton
4 Oct Peggy’s Skylight Nottingham
5 Oct The Stoller Hall, Manchester
6 Oct The National Centre for Early Music, York

The post Claire Martin – new album ‘Almost in Your Arms’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Andrew Cartmel writes: To say that Ross Lorraine writes songs and plays the piano is to seriously understate the case…

He has performed as a keyboard player at jazz festivals (London and Cheltenham), recorded with top singers in the genre such as Sarah Moule and Emilia Martensson and, as he recalls, “Jazz goes back a long way for me. My mother, who was an actor, was very musical and even wrote a couple of songs herself. She loved singers like Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Tormé, and also had some very up-to-date records when I was a kid — people like Thelonious Monk and Jimmy Giuffre. And we had the kind of house where people would come round to sing and play boogie-woogie or “skiffle” (with broom-handle bass!).”

But jazz is just one part of an extremely broad musical spectrum where Ross writes, performs, and very clearly feels at home. Unusually, he also has a distinguished background in classical music, including a long association with Harrison Birtwistle as his assistant and later editor.

Such diversity of influences is clearly to be heard on Ross’s outstanding new album More From the Heart which boasts a potent roster of guest artists, including Claire Martin, who co-produced and provided backing vocals.

This isn’t their first collaboration, having previously worked together on Ross’s debut, Heart of Mine. Like that album, More From the Heart is a collection of songs by Ross, all original and all new — “I’m always writing new songs, so within about a year there was no problem in having enough material. I seem to have caught the song-writing bug now, and there are already a few new ones since More From the Heart! So whatever comes next will probably involve the voice, but in exactly what context remains to be seen.”

The core group of musicians on the new album are Nikki Iles on piano and accordion, Mike Walker on guitar, Laurence Cottle on electric bass, Ian Thomas on drums and percussion and James McMillan (who also co-produced and engineered the album) on trumpet, flugelhorn and keyboards.

This is already a crack team but it’s superbly supplemented by a gang of top guest vocalists including Joanna Eden, Iain Mackenzie, Charlie Wood, Irene Serra, Noemi Nuti and Christine Tobin.

And special mention must also be made of Joe Giddey’s splendidly distinctive contributions on the cello. It’s an unusual instrumental colour in jazz . I asked Ross if the decision to include it derived from his background in classical music and his work with Harrison Birtwistle.

“I like strings: the first instrument I studied seriously was the violin, and I always loved the expressive, almost vocal quality of the cello (Pablo Casals playing Bach Suites, or Jaqueline Du Pre playing Elgar). I do admire Birtwistle’s string writing, especially in his later work. When I was writing more in the world of contemporary classical music, I worked with a great cellist (Anton Lukoszevieze), and I was lucky enough to get a commission to write for the Arditti String Quartet for the Cheltenham New Music Festival.”

The songs themselves are a remarkably strong and varied collection. When asked to name his inspirations, Ross says, “I came of age in the time of singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, and they are huge influences, but I also greatly admire the songwriters of the Great American Songbook such as Jerome Kern, the Gershwins, Hoagy Carmichael, and the more chanson, storytelling style of Jacques Brel. I think Fran Landesman was a great lyricist, as are more recent singers like Tom Waits (and his partner Helen Brennan) and Rufus Wainwright.”

Ross is a gifted arranger and he described the process of making arrangements for the album. “Some songs (like Finding Our Feet) came with piano parts that I wrote in full. Otherwise, it was a question of myself, James MacMillan (who is a very accomplished and versatile musician), Claire Martin and the players all making suggestions and trying things out. Nikki Iles on piano and accordion was particularly helpful in that regard, and I am a huge admirer of her arranging skills. She has recently recorded some superb big band arrangements of her own compositions with the NDR big band (Face To Face).”

With a team like this, More From the Heart was always destined to be something special. The first cut on the album, Down on My Knees is a bold, silken opening statement, sung by Joanna Eden with hip nimble electric guitar by Mike Walker. Scissor Papers Stone showcases wonderful use of cello by Joe Giddey and seductive singsong piano from Nikki Iles. It conjures an enchanting, haunted sense of nostalgia, with vocals by Noemi Nuti. Iain Mackenzie sings the swift, rhythmic, What You Got a sardonic little gem which is reminiscent of Dave Frishberg or Blossom Dearie in their prime. More ironic wit is plentifully in evidence on Downtime, sung by Charlie Wood, the loping grooviness of the song underlined by a tasty, sinuous trumpet solo courtesy of James McMillan. Sleep My Darling is a work of heartrending loveliness which stirs the hairs on the nape of the neck — the mark of true art. It features delicately beautiful piano by Nikki Iles and subtle, beautiful cello playing from Joe Giddey, the melancholy contours of which really make this song. “I wrote the cello lines on the album that Joe plays so beautifully,” says Ross.

Kudos to them both.

More From the Heart is released on Ross Lorraine Records in association with ECN Music today, 2 August 2024.

The album launch concert will be at Piano Smithfield in London on Wednesday 18 September 2024

The post ‘More From the Heart – Songs of Ross Lorraine’ – new release first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Tucked into the pebble-beached coast of Kent, the seaside hamlet of Herne Bay isn’t perhaps as well-known as its western neighbour Whitstable (think Tipping the Velvet, oysters, Somerset Maugham and all that) — indeed Herne’s Bay chief claim to fame for many years was for serving as the location of Ken Russell’s cheeky end-of-the-pier debut feature, French Dressing back in 1964. All that changed, though, during 2017 when the town became home to its very own full scale jazz festival.

Jazz festivals tend to be founded by entrepreneurs (think Alain Simard/Andre Menard and Montreal), fans (Claude Nobs and Montreux) and even critics (Ralph Gleason and Monterey). But for one to be created by a practising musician is a rarity…

And currently gearing up for its seventh annual outing, the Herne Bay Jazz Festival is exactly that sort of rarity. It is the brainchild of singer, songwriter and band leader Kai Hoffman.

The jazz bug bit Kai fairly early in life. “When I was sixteen, one of the tutors at a summer music club gave me a cassette mix tape with Ella Fitzgerald’s Ella in Berlin album on one side and Lamberts, Hendricks and Ross on the other. I was absolutely hooked and listened to that tape so often I memorised the whole thing. There was something incredibly joyful about Ella’s performance — and the wild, bebop phrasing of Lamberts, Hendricks and Ross was like nothing I’d ever heard before.

“Alongside legends like Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker and Mel Torme, I would have to say that my jazz heroes include many contemporary performers and bands on the UK scene. There is so much talent coming out of our jazz community it is absolutely astounding and continues to amaze me. Herne Bay Jazz is very much about introducing this music to an audience that might not otherwise check out jazz, or indeed think that “jazz” is a dirty word (!), as well as appealing to the afficionados.”

Kai has performed everywhere from Boston (her hometown) to Bangladesh, but she is now a firmly established expat in the UK with a long running residency at Ronnie Scott’s. She is also a multi-instrumentalist admitting to playing the French horn “very well” and the banjo “very badly”. She has her own band, Kai’s Kats, runs her own record label, Broadreach, and has taken two one-woman shows to the Edinburgh Fringe featuring thirty original songs.

All this apparently wasn’t putting enough demands on her time, though — hence Herne Bay Jazz.

When I asked Kai whatever possessed her to launch a jazz festival, she laughed. “As Pete Long said to me once, ‘You have to be crazy to run a big band.’ I would say that the same goes for founding a jazz festival. Both are undertakings which require a huge amount of passion, determination and tenacity. Being slightly mad helps! You have to be able to imagine what could happen next, who’s going to sound good where, what’s going to appeal to the audience… and enjoy filling in forms, lots of forms… I originally started the festival because I found there were many similarities, to me, between the beautiful east Kent coast and the classic film Jazz on a Summer’s Day at the Newport Jazz Festival. I could see bands perching on rocks… or on the Pier Stage, with the beach huts and the sunset behind…”

The 2024 Festival

Herne Bay Jazz is headlined this year by the Ronnie Scott’s All Stars, Ray Gelato and the Giants (with whom Kai has toured and recorded), Snowboy and the Latin Section and the Swiss-Albanian singer Elina Duni accompanied by the fantastic guitarist Rob Luft. Other acts include Emma Rawicz, Leon Foster Thomas, Steve Waterman, Jo Fooks, the Ginger Bennett Quintet and The Big Smoke Family (endorsed by no less than Booker T. Jones: “This band is the bomb!”).

Kai’s own combo, Kai’s Kats takes a more modest billing than these performers, nestling on the festival poster along with the next tier of luminaries, including such goodies as the Kent Youth Jazz Orchestra, Frances Knight, Big Sound Collective, the Dulcie May Moreno Sextet, harmonica player Katie Bradley, singer and pianist Eriko Ishihara and Samba Ya Wantsum — Thanet’s only samba band!

The festival is a glittering array of treasures, aiming to bring as much music as possible to as many people as possible without allowing money to become any kind of a barrier. Indeed, many of the festival events cost nothing to attend (“Just turn up!”) and the festival itself is non-profit. (Did we mention that a festival created by a musician was a rare thing? Well, one founded on such altruistic principles is rarer still.)

The revels commence on Thursday August 15th with an Improv and Creativity Workshop under the aegis of Nina Clark and from here things rev up with a drumming workshop on August 16th and with Nina also providing a children’s workshop on the 17th. Admission for all these is free of charge as — amazingly — is much of the music. In fact, 27 of 32 events at the festival are free…

..and that includes the Ginger Bennett Quintet, Steve Waterman, Leon Foster Thomas and the Elina Duni Quartet with Rob Luft. These are all on Sunday August 18th at the Pier Stage. Don’t miss the Festival’s first ever New Orleans Mardi Gras style parade heading for the pier with local Nola experts The Native Oysters band plus Samba Ya Wantsum (meetup at 11:30).

Also free of charge is the festival’s professional livestream, free to view, on YouTube @hernebayjazz streaming Sunday 18th August 2pm until 10pm. “All thanks to Arts Council England,” says Kai. “For this we even have to create our own Wi-Fi signal 200 metres out in the sea! The quality is brilliant, so if you can’t make it along in person watch online. Or listen on our local radio, available online at cabin.fm.”

The festival’s music is wide ranging and high calibre, from jump blues to bop, swing to afro-jazz, and New Orleans to the Caribbean, taking in Latin, showtunes and the Great American Songbook along the way. It would be a privilege to hear musicians of this calibre at any time and in any place, but in an idyllic summertime seaside setting, for free, is almost too good to be true.

Jazz fans of every stripe, including everyone who loves fine music and everyone who loves an irresistible bargain, should be making a note in their diaries to make tracks for the coast this August.

Apologies to the spirit of Ken Russell, but Herne Bay now has something really special to be celebrated for culturally. Save me a seat for Elina Duni and Rob Luft please. And maybe an ice cream, too…

FULL PROGRAMME LISTINGS / FOR ALL DETAILS AND BOOKINGS CLICK HERE

Thursday, August 15th 2024
5:00 PM – Improv & Creative Workshop with Nina Clark (FREE)
7.:00pm The Yard @ She Rose, Festival Opening Pop Up

Friday, August 16th 2024
11:00 AM Drumming Workshop for All Ages & Abilities Location: The King’s Hall Time:
3:00 PM Mike Austin & Dan Banks Duo at The Ship
4:30 PM Andy MacLean Band feat. Diane Dunn
7:00 PM Katie Bradley Blues Band The Ship Inn (FREE). Please support the venue with food / drinks purchase.
7:30 PM The King’s Hall presents Ray Gelato & the Giants / Kai’s Kats / DJ Reverend Boogie (Ticketed). #

Saturday, August 17th 2024
10:00 AM Baytastic Market @ Wimereux Square
10:10 AM: Children’s Music Workshop at Wimereux Square with Nina Clark (FREE).
11:00 AM The Clock Winders Trio – Family Concert at Wimereux Square
12:10 PM: Maiuko Quarteto at Wimereux Square (FREE).
1:00 PM: Ellie Laine & Roger Lewin Duo at The Ship FREE. Please support the venue with your drinks/food purchase.
1:30.pm: Kent Youth Jazz Orchestra at Wimereux Square
3:00.pm Big Sound Collective at Wimereux Square
4:00 pm: Adrian Hackford & Friends at Pier Ceylon. FREE. Please support the venue with your food & drink purchases.
4:00pm Dulcie May Moreno Sextet, Upstairs @ The Ex-Serviceman’s Club. FREE. Please support the venue with your 4: 4:10pm Steve Nathan Big Band @ Wimereux Square FREE
5:00pm Sketch Jam with the Jo Doolan Trio at Beach Creative. Sketch Jam at Beach Creative – Live Jazz for artists to Draw / Paint / Sketch / Listen with Jo Doolan Trio featuring Richard Rozze guitar. This is event is ticketed at £6pp as spaces are very limited. Booking essential.
7:00 pm Eriko Ishihara Trio at Pier Ceylon. £10 music only/or £45 incl. 3-course meal. Booking essential.
7:30 pm The King’s Hall presents Ronnie Scott’s All Stars / Emma Rawicz Sextet. TICKETED event.
7:30 pm Geoff Mason with Dave Robinson Trio at Pettman House . FREE.

Sunday, August 18th 2024
11:30 am Mardi Gras Parade with The Native Oysters & Samba Ya Wantsum. Start/Meeting point: King’s Hall Steps. Destination: Central Parade by the Pier.
12:00pm Ian East Trio at Pier Ceylon. FREE. Please support the venue with your food/drinks purchase.
1.00pm: Sarah-Jane Hassell & Mick Bishop Duo at the Ship Inn. Cost: FREE. Please support the venue with your food/drink purchases.
2:00pm onwards: Livestream & Radio Broadcast from the Pier Stage ALL DAY
2:00pm Jo Fooks Quartet at the Pier Stage
3:00pm Team GB: The Ginger Bennett Quintet at the Pier Stage. FREE. Just turn up!
4:10pm: Steve Waterman at the Pier Stage
5:20pm Leon Foster Thomas at The Pier Stage
6:30pm: Rob Luft and Elina Duni Quartet at the Pier Stage
7:45 pm Snowboy and the Latin Section at the Pier Stage
9:10 PM Big Smoke Family at the Pier Stage (FREE)

PP Features are part of marketing packages. Andrew Cartmel is a playwright and the author of the Vinyl Detective and the Paperback Sleuth novels series. Once upon a time, he was script editor of Doctor Who.

Herne Bay Jazz Festival gratefully acknowledges sponsorship for 2024 from Arts Council England, Herne Bay Festival Charity and Canterbury City Council Levelling Up fund in conjunction with Cabin FM – and is always looking to welcome more sponsors.

The post Herne Bay Jazz Festival 2024 – 15-18 August first appeared on UK Jazz News.

At this point in their trajectory through the cosmos, the Arkestra (the Intergalactic Infinity Arkestra, as it was styled around this time) was well into its first decade of world tours and a couple of years away from its residency at the Squat Theatre in New York. Sun Ra was himself still in his vigorous prime and the line-up of the band was nothing short of stellar — John Gilmore on tenor, sax Marhall Allen and Danny Davis on alto, Richard Williams on bass, to name just a few. (Sun Ra and Gilmore are on particularly outstanding form here.)

News of such live recordings unearthed after nearly half a century provokes a mixture of jubilant excitement and fingers-crossed wariness — excitement for the potential musical treasures on offer, wariness about the quality of the tapes after all those years. So, not to keep you in suspense, it’s a relief and delight to report that these recordings sound superb, with great presence and immediacy, providing an exhilarating sense of being present at the creation of some terrific performances.

View From Another Dimension features scorching futurist electronics from the keyboards of Sun Ra, but the real electronica excursion is Calling Planet Earth & the Shadow World , a free jazz excursion with excoriating horns and reeds, notably Ahmed Abdullah’s trumpet, Marshall Allen’s alto and Eloe Omoe’s bass clarinet, all of which are not for the faint hearted. (It’s interesting to speculate what club owner Joe Segal, devotee of straight ahead jazz and opponent of the avant-garde would have made of this.) Moonship Journey is a classic space march of the kind the Arkestra had been playing for decades and would continue to provide for decades to come, while the misleadingly soft-sounding Velvet is actually a whirling dervish of a chase.

For a live set, with all the hazards of recording on location in a busy venue under less than ideal conditions, At the Showcase possesses impressive transparency and clarity, with the musicians well balanced and beautifully presented — the microphone placing is excellent, thanks to Richard Wilkerson who recorded all the gigs. At the same time the sense of the spontaneity of the occasion has been carefully preserved — though personally, I could have lived without the generous slab of applause, trumpeter Ak Tal Ebah speaking in tongues (he doesn’t actually play trumpet on any of the selections here) and Joe Segal announcing future gigs. But there’s no question that these evoke the time and place.

In addition to the fine work of Wilkerson recording the original performances, credit is also due to Michael Anderson, Sun Ra’s audio archivist who had access to state of the art recording equipment from the radio station WRTI and who transferred the original tapes from these concerts, assembling performances from a wide range of dates to form a coherent and compelling set. These were remastered by Joe Lizzi and mastered for vinyl by Matthew Lutthans. And speaking of vinyl, this is a particularly lavish double LP set, with a 12 page booklet featuring perspectives on the music by the likes of Jack DeJohnette, Reggie Workman, David Murray and Marshall Allen himself.

There is no shortage of Sun Ra recordings on the market but this set, painstakingly curated by Zev Feldman and offering a generous helping of the Arkestra, beautifully recorded and in top form, is one for the permanent collection.

LINK: Buy At the Showcase from Presto Music
2023 interview with Zev Feldman by Morgan Enos

The post Sun Ra – ‘At the Showcase, Live in Chicago 1976-1977’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Mark Winkler is a singer and songwriter based in Los Angeles. One might also allude to his more than 250 songs performed by the likes of Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Liza Minelli; the awards, and the off-Broadway shows which have been running for decades; not to mention the comparisons with the likes of Hoagy Carmichael, Dave Frishberg and Mose Allison…

Gifted and canny, Winkler’s keenly aware that he has a place in a long and honourable lineage — he teaches songwriting, and he’s recorded albums devoted to the work of Bobby Troup and Laura Nyro. But his centre of gravity is always jazz, which he clearly both loves and understands deeply: “My mother was a big band singer and I heard a lot of singers in the house. I remember particularly liking Sarah Vaughan and Judy Garland. But I didn’t really turn on to jazz until I went to high school and it mostly had a Black student body — my friends threw away my Lesley Gore records (I did like her) and gave me Nina Simone albums. I also had a teacher who’d play us Ahmad Jamal records and we’d have to write about how his music made us feel. So that’s where I started digging jazz.”

His new album is The Rules Don’t Apply. The title is from a song with lyrics by Lorraine Feather, whom Winkler regards as one of the three best jazz songwriters currently operating on the scene (just for the record, the other two are Gregory Porter and René Marie). “I would love to do an album of Lorraine Feather tunes. I’ve done her tunes on my last two albums. I just think she’s brilliant as a lyricist.”

From the opening moments of the first cut on the album, Sunday in LA, Winkler communicates a jazz sensibility tinged with sardonic intelligence which brings to mind Donald Fagen. An impression confirmed almost immediately by the second track, IGY (What a Beautiful World), a bracing arrangement of the Fagen composition by John Beasley, which brings out more poignant nuances in the song than in the original. Among players who set a consistently high standard, George Doering’s plangent guitar and Bob Sheppard’s adroitly tender tenor sax deserve special mention here.

The Rules Don’t Apply combines five covers with eight original compositions (like Sunday in LA), showing the range and intensity of Mark Winkler’s musical convictions. Among the originals, the wonderfully titled If These Walls Could Talk (They’d Swing) is dedicated to the Capitol Records Recording Studios in LA, that iconic cylindrical edifice like a pile of stacked records situated just north of Hollywood and Vine. The song is an intoxicating blast of nostalgic love conveyed in neatly lyrical imagery: “Nat Cole’s Steinway is on my right…Sinatra used to sing from there… I’m not alone, there are giants in the room… All the finest players in town/Johnny Mercer talking changes with Ray Brown”. Winkler wrote these lovely lyrics in collaboration with Shelly Nyman and Bill Cantos. The music was composed by Greg Gordon Smith, who also arranged it.

The next original, Jazz Swings, observes that “Ella didn’t learn to sing in school” and is beguilingly structured around Bob Sheppard’s alluring clarinet. The lyrics are by Winkler set to music composed and arranged by Rich Eames. Mark Winkler appreciates high quality arrangements. “My first mentor was a wonderful arranger — Jimmie Haskell who did Ode to Billie Joe and Bridge Over Troubled Water. I met him in high school and he really started me writing. His arrangements are great. Of course, I love Johnny Mandel’s Shirley Horn album Here’s to Life and Nelson Riddle’s work with Frank Sinatra and so many others. And also Claus Ogerman — I love the stuff he did with Tommy LiPuma.”

There’s no arranger needed on Here’s To Jazz, a stripped down trio number featuring Jamieson Trotter on piano with Gabe Davis on bass and Clayton Cameron on drums. It’s an affectionate, knowing tribute to Winkler’s beloved music. Trotter’s playing has an exploratory dexterity and wit, but it’s not as witty as the lyrics: “Here’s to flatted sevenths and altered elevenths… To Satchmo and Bird/And chords seldom heard… For Ella and Prez/For Diz in his fez.”

While these new songs offer an immediate appeal with their humour, musicality and warmth, it’s the covers which really reveal the extent of Winkler’s artistry because they provide the listener with the chance to compare a new interpretation with the familiar original version. Paul Simon’s Something So Right is particularly beautifully and affectingly done and is potently impressive in the way that Winkler’s vocals, supported by Doering’s ghostly guitar and John Beasley’s warmly preaching piano, extract colours and emotions that go even beyond Simon’s version.

The song has a subtle New Orleans feel which comes explicitly to the fore in Randy Newman’s Mama Told Me Not To Come where Brian Swart’s trumpet is supplemented by a crack horn section including James Ford on trumpet, Errol Rhoden on tuba, Danny Janklow on reeds and Scott Whitfield warbling ecstatically on trombone. The Crescent City interpretation even extends to Mark Winkler namechecking “Stella” in the lyrics. Shades of Streetcar…

Lessons I’ve Learned is a showcase for Grant Geissman on guitar amd Jamieson Trotter’s spare and lyrically percussive piano but also serves as summation for the singer. “The knowledge I’ve gained as the years have explained… I keep looking ahead to the future.”

Looking ahead to the future, Mark Winkler’s excellent album is released in the UK on 28 June, and he is performing at Pizza Express Soho to launch it in the company of Claire Martin on 9 July. Don’t miss it.

The post Mark Winkler – new album ‘The Rules Don’t Apply’ / Pizza Express Soho, 9 July first appeared on UK Jazz News.

All of which goes to explain why a wealth of lost recordings from the same musicians in the same club in the same year provokes a considerable degree of excitement. Released on the Resonance label, Maximum Swing doesn’t feature exactly the same line up as Smokin’ throughout; Paul Chambers only appears on one date (24 September 1965) consisting of three tracks. But when he’s being deputised by musicians of the calibre of Ron Carter, there’s no grounds for complaint. The other bass players sitting in for Chambers are Herman Wright and Larry Ridley.

Chambers plays on Laura which is laid back with a light touch and begins with a sub aqua feel — a watery shimmer to the chords — and also on Cariba, Wes Montgomery’s own composition which possesses an infectious, driving energy and must have propelled punters onto the dance floor of the club back in September ’65.

Dizzy Gillespie’s Birk’s Works from the 12 November (Larry Ridley) session is a high speed highlight, intricately and beautifully interpreted by Montgomery. Ridley is also the bass player on Cherokee, a breathless chase that puts Wes Montgomery on his mettle and draws out Wynton Kelly’s explosive dexterity. It’s worth mentioning that Cherokee is one of five tracks from an unknown date — “Late 1965” is as precise as anyone can be. As it says in the (detailed and beautifully presented) notes for the album, “The exact provenance of this final set is undocumented… likely semi-professionally made (at best).” And these recordings are also generations away from the original tape. While Matthew Lutthans and his team as The Mastering Lab have made heroic efforts to present them in the best possible sound, they remain decidedly lo-fi. But as Luthans says, “We hope you enjoy the music, despite the inherent recording flaws.” Well, I certainly enjoyed Cherokee. And, listening to Star Eyes, another one from this selection, I couldn’t help feeling they made the right decision to include these tracks.

Fortunately the finest sounding (to my ears) cuts correspond with Ron Carter joining the band. This 5 November 1965 session is beautifully recorded, with great clarity and immediacy. Impressions has an intoxicating velocity and really does achieve maximum swing. The other tracks from this date, No Blues and Montgomery’s own composition, aptly titled Mi Cosa, are also outstanding musically and sonically, possessing a big, fat intimacy and a hefty impact. They are all presented in superb sounding mono because, although they were originally recorded (and broadcast on the radio) in true stereo, somewhere over the years they were converted into fake (electronically reprocessed) stereo. Who knows why? (As Matthew Lutthans says, it’s “anybody’s guess”.) But for my money they have even more presence and power than the true stereo tracks. And the fact that this beautiful sounding gig coincides with Ron Carter sitting in on bass is one of the more lovely bits of synchronicity in jazz history.

As mentioned, most of these tracks were recorded for radio broadcast and DJ Alan Grant makes frequent appearances (his catchphrase “Stay beautiful” perhaps begins to outstay its welcome) but neither this nor the variability of the recordings lessen the importance of this collection. It is magnificently presented here by Resonance Record on three vinyl LPs with Zev Feldman’s usual loving attention to detail and a lavishly illustrated and annotated in-depth booklet.

The post Wes Montgomery & Wynton Kelly Trio – ‘Maximum Swing’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

The first session took place on 10 April 1979 at VARA Studio 2, in Hilversum, North Holland, with Baker’s then current touring band, consisting of the American Phil Markowitz on piano, Belgian Jean-Louis Rassinfosse on bass, and another American, Charlie Rice, on drums (Rice had recorded with Chet Baker before, in New York in the mid-1960s).

The second session was recorded in the same studio on 9 November with a complete change of line up. This time Baker used a local pick up band formed of Dutch musicians Frans Elsen on piano, Victor Kaihatu on bass and Eric Ineke on drums.

Wayne Shorter’s Beautiful Black Eyes has a laid-back, bossa nova groove with Phil Markowitz providing rich runs on the piano then becoming sweetly selective and sparing. Baker sounds like he’s taking pleasure in his own playing here, loosening up and also speeding up as the song develops. Burke and Van Heusen’s Oh, You Crazy Moon features Chet singing which, at this late date, tends to make the listener — or at least this listener — tense up and brace for the worst. But he’s in remarkably good shape, only occasionally evidencing the years and the damage they’ve inflicted. What’s more, his scatting is engaging. In fact it borders on the enchanting — beautifully recorded and putting him in the room with the listener, alive and well (well, alive anyway) after all these years.

Baker’s own Blue Gilles begins with him sculpting the themes out of silence with his incisive, articulate solo. Then when Markowitz’s piano comes in, underpinned by some subtle and delicately judged bass by Jean-Louis Rassinfosse, we begin to realise what a fine partnership this is. Charlie Rice imperceptibly insinuates himself into the proceedings with muted cymbals. And although this is Baker’s composition it’s a showcase of Markowitz who makes beautiful use of space in his solo. Baker plays like a man with lots of time — all the time in the world. Which sadly was not the case (nine years left at this point).

Nardis is perhaps even better, with a sort of majestic intensity and a darker tone; maybe Baker is on his mettle handling a composition by Miles Davis, a trumpeter who could outgun him (and everybody else in the world). Markowitz plays with a hypnotic, repetitive urgency here and Rassinfosse enriches the colours. It ends with a dreamy feel of loss and heartbreak.

Blue Room, a Rogers and Hart classic, is measured and lazily lyrical, extending over 16 minutes. Markowitz’s playing is notable on this — percussive, adroit and exploratory. And he draws out the best in Baker, who sounds warmly engaged. Down by Miles Davis is way too cool to openly swagger but strongly giving that feeling throughout. Candy reaches back to swing and the early Tin Pan Alley days of jazz and then goes on a long and engaging odyssey, featuring a plump and pleasing bass solo by Victor Kaihatu along the way. It does also feature Baker singing some rather collapsed vocals. But he’s back in surprisingly good voice on My Ideal and there are flashes here of the singer who knocked the girls out of their Bobby socks.

On Luscious Lou Baker’s eldritch elegant trumpet wonderfully introduces the song, spare and beautiful, and ends up engaging and intimately confiding. And Old Devil Moon is warm and breezy — a sort of California beach interpretation with Chet Baker’s high speed sign off sounding paradoxically laid back and relaxed: the work of a master.

The original recording engineers — the fantastically named Jim Rip, assisted on the second session by Jan Stellingwerff — clearly knew what they were doing here. The sound quality is first rate, clear, warm and transparent. And crucially they capture Chet Baker on fine form, making this album essential for Baker fanatics and well worth the attention of everyone else.

(*) Andrew Cartmel is the author of the Vinyl Detective series. Titan Books are about to publish Volume 7 in the series

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The Canadian Jazz Collective is effectively a supergroup formed around the core of Derrick Gardner on trumpet and flugelhorn, Lorne Lofsky on guitar and Kirk MacDonald on tenor sax. Supporting them — although all the other players are such outstanding performers in their own right, they go well beyond a supporting role — are Virginia MacDonald on clarinet, Brian Dickinson on piano, Neil Swainson on bass and Bernd Reiter on drums. Bernd, an Austrian, is the only non-Canadian in the line-up.

The brainchild of manager Judith Humenick, the CJC formed in 2022 and toured Europe, culminating in a night at Ronnie Scott’s. While they were in Germany the group made a pilgrimage to the renowned MPS studios in the Schwarzwald to record their album Septology (appropriately subtitled The Black Forest Session). This studio was a favourite destination for another Canadian jazz star, Oscar Peterson, who recorded many of his classic albums for MPS there. Indeed the benign shadow of that great pianist looms large over the CJC.

Lorne recalls, “When I was first getting into the jazz scene in Toronto I started playing as a sideman at George’s Spaghetti House with a really great trombonist, Butch Watanabe, who was a childhood friend of Oscar Peterson. And Oscar came down one night and heard us and he was very complimentary. And then a short time later out of the blue he called and asked me if I would like to do a record for Norman Granz’s label Pablo.” The resulting album, appropriately titled It Could Happen to You, came out in 1981, produced by Oscar Peterson, and Lorne would go on to play in Peterson’s quartet in the 1990s.

The tunes on Septology are all originals, written by Derrick Gardner, Lorne Lofsky and Kirk MacDonald. Among these, Lorne’s ‘Waltz You Needn’t’ is delightfully Monkish in both its title and content. I mentioned that this was particularly impressive coming from a guitarist. “Well, I think Thelonious Monk is hugely influential on people of all instruments,” said Lorne. “You don’t have to be a piano player to be into Monk.”

‘Silent Voices’, a Kirk MacDonald composition, has a kind of Miles Davis and Gil Evans feel, notably in Derrick Gardner’s horn playing. Of course, Evans was another Canadian jazz genius and his influence seems to have been deeply assimilated by the CJC. The resourceful richness of Evans’s writing for small combos and gift for unusual line-ups is evident in the supple purity of the CJC’s arrangements and in their clever addition of the clarinet to provide an intriguing extra voice.

“We thought it would be an interesting idea to have players that would add another colour to the band,” said Lorne. “So adding Kirk’s daughter, who is a really great clarinet player, makes for a very unconventional front line. A standard Art Blakey kind of front line would have been tenor saxophone, trumpet and trombone.”

I asked him who did the arrangements for the group. “We each arrange our own pieces. On the other hand, when we do a standard we usually pick something just before the gig and it’s not arranged. We have a kind of a jam session, flying by the seat of our pants. It’s a welcome change and a contrast to our own compositions, that are charted.”

We talked about great Canadian jazz artists. Besides Oscar Peterson and Gil Evans, Paul Bley and Maynard Ferguson are names that come readily to mind. Lorne would like to add another to that list. “For my money, Ed Bickert is a jazz guitarist extraordinaire. Ed was a mentor of mine and he played on landmark recordings with Paul Desmond. Ed was a huge influence on me as a player and I had the great fortune of playing with him.”

I made a note of that name. But if the CJC continues to record and play at their current standard, it looks like several more will be added to that list of luminaries.

The Canadian Jazz Collective begins its 2023 European tour on 4 May at the Bix Jazz Club in Stuttgart, reaches Ronnie Scott’s on 13 May and concludes at Espace Vauban in Brest on 21 May.

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With the huge success of The Martian by Andy Weir and — dare one say it — Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James, the self-published novel as a form has become not only legitimised but actually widely celebrated. Now with the arrival of The Old Familiar Places, we have an example of a jazz novel in the field. Indeed, as soon as the reader learns that the hero Sonny is named not for Sonny Rollins but Sonny Clark, we know we’re not just in the hands of a writer familiar with jazz, but a connoisseur who really knows his stuff.

That writer is Sam Emony, actually a pseudonym for Neil Hughes, a well-known figure on the British jazz scene. He is an experienced promoter who has worked on the Buxton International Festival and the Southport Jazz Festival and who founded the Cinnamon Club in Manchester some twenty years ago.

But he also studied English and Drama at university and always nurtured the ambition to write. Dickens’ Great Expectations was a powerful formative influence so it’s not surprising that Sam Emony (I’ll use Neil Hughes’ nom de plume here) has chosen the coming of age story as the subject of his first novel — although to me, more than Dickens, it calls to mind Somerset Maugham’s novels of self-discovery such as Of Human Bondage.

Described as “a love letter to the music that moves me the most”, The Old Familiar Places (great title) is the account of Sonny Jackson’s rite of passage as he voyages through the 1970s towards adulthood and professional status as a pianist. In some ways that tale is the wish fulfilment dream of every aspiring musician, as Sonny falls in with (and falls in love with) a beautiful well-heeled young widow who rents a flat in Mayfair for the two of them. With a piano.

But Ruby, the widow, is a complex and shaded character — “a control freak but her heart is in the right place” — and Sonny’s journey, through jazz college in the capital en route to Juilliard, is far from easy or straightforward and often, as in real life, marked by real tragedy.

The novel is bookended by two funerals, beginning with the service for Ruby’s husband, jazz trumpeter Freddie. Freddie was a serious muso: how the hell did he get a copy of Blossom Dearie’s Rootin’ Songs (Joe Harrell, piano) in his LP collection? I was insane with jealousy when I read this. Sonny is a friend of the family and ends up playing at an impromptu gig for Freddie’s wake. In a very adroitly deployed surprise, it turns out that the jazz loving drummer playing with Sonny is none other than Charlie Watts. Syd Lawrence and Eric Haydock are also part of the jam.

This use of real musicians in the novel is one of its most distinctive aspects (when Tommy Flanagan turned up on page 81, the author had my full attention). It lends gravitas to the story as well as a sense of reality, making the era come to life, as when Sonny visits New York and catches Donald Byrd and the Blackbyrds in full flight.

Sam Emony has a sense, shared with the notable realist novelists of the past, of the momentous ebb and flow of events in even the most mundane life — and Sonny Jackson’s is far from mundane. There is a constant awareness of how music informs life, and vice versa: “That’s the easy bit, playing. Existing is so much harder.” And Sam Emony can write deftly and effectively as when Sonny and Ruby finally, inevitably, end up in bed together: “Her smile drops for a moment as she notices a bedside photo from her wedding day. She leans over and her breasts brush my face as she turns it over.”

The novel builds up considerable suspense when it looks like Sonny’s shot at Juilliard is going to be sabotaged by a jealous rival. I won’t reveal the outcome here, but I will say the novel ultimately moves forward decades for a coda where we learn the fates of the characters. And Charlie Watts puts in another subtle warm spine-tingle of an appearance at the very end.

Sam Emony will be on the Robert Elms BBC Radio London show on 17 February.

Andrew Cartmel is a playwright and the author of the Vinyl Detective and the Paperback Sleuth novels series. Once upon a time, he was script editor of Doctor Who. Twitter

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