Tabla de contenidos para October 2023 en Jazzwise

For the latest breaking news visit www.jazzwise.com A further clutch of new names and extra dates have been announced for the EFG London Jazz Festival which runs from 10 to 19 November. High demand has resulted in a venue upgrade for popular funk-fusion band Scary Pockets, who now perform at The Troxy on Friday 17 November having sold out their KOKO show, while extra dates have been added for Mayra Andrade at Union Chapel and Ron Carter at Cadogan Hall. Samara Joy’s performance at the Barbican has already sold out with concerts from Marcus Miller, Hiromi and Sergio Mendes on course to sell out too. Awelcome new addition to the festival’s lineup comes in the form of UK guitarist, bandleader and highly acclaimed producer Dave Okumu who will be performing…

It’s extraordinary to think it was 2004 when I first visited the ManchesterJazz Festival to hear bassist Jon Thorne’s thrillingly poetic trio with drummer Luke Flowers and keys man Steve Brown… even then there was a post-dance music, trip-hop influenced sound that permeated much of the jazz that was being forged in this Northern musical powerhouse – yet it wasn’t about gimmicky samples or hiding behind technology – but an earthy, big hearted, welcoming attitude to creating music on a broader sonic canvas. Which is certainly where we find this month’s cover star, trumpeter Matthew Halsall, and not just for his own widescreen take on jazz, but that too, of his hugely successful Gondwana imprint, which is reaching a global audience with its feet-on-the-ground, head-in-the-stars aesthetic. As Halsall explains in…

NAME: parthenope INSTRUMENT: saxophone, voice, flute EXPERIENCE AND INFLUENCES: Originally from Leeds, parthenope writes and performs "jazz-influenced, danceable songs that incorporate improvisation and jazz harmony with catchy melodies and introspective lyrics". Her highly anticipated recording debut was released as a part of the Blue Note Re:imagined Vol.2 compilation album, combining ‘today’s finest artists in UK jazz’. With more releases in the works, parthenope is one to watch. THIS FUTURE MOVER SAYS: “I like to think listeners hear honesty and vulnerability in my approach to music and playing. I have learned so much while working behind the scenes with musicians who are already hugely acclaimed and this year I am really excited to have started to show the world my voice in the forefront.” See parthenope play Ronnie Scott’s Future Movers…

There’s a strong selection of autumn series of gigs at Piano Smithfield, in Barbican, London, as part of this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival’s club programme. Running across the festival week from 10 to 19 November, highlights include top Brit jazz names such as multi-reed virtuoso Alan Barnes with his Blowin’ the Blues Away set; award-winning singer/pianist Liane Carroll performs one of her thrilling solo shows; recent Parliamentary Jazz Award-winning vocalist Elaine Delmar (below) lines up with Scots jazz guitar great Jim Mullen and there’s a show from the twin tenor saxes of Harry Greene and Dave O’Higgins. Dates are: Tom Smith Big Band (10 Nov); Chris Ingham’s Hoagy-2! – The life and music of Hoagy Carmichael (11 Nov); Gabrielle Ducomble’s Parisian Jazz & Tango (12 Nov); Alan Barnes’ Blowin’…

Konrad Agnas Rite of Passage Moserobie For his debut as leader and composer, Swedish drummer/synth playerAgnas enlists some of his countrymen (Per Texas Johanssen, flute, saxes, clarinets; Torbjörn Zetterberg, bass; Johan Graden, piano, organ). It’s an album that convincingly mashes up Terry Riley, Evans-esque lyricism, spiritual jazz and even a bit of hip-hop. (KW) Jamie Breiwick Awake: Volume 2 – The Music of Don Cherry Shifting Paradigm Trumpeter and percussionist Breiwick and four others pay fulsome tribute to Don Cherry with this collection of covers from the more obscure corners of the trumpeter’s compositional library. The resultant deep, swampy funk makes for a powerful listen full of dynamics and exotic textures. (KW) Tomasz Bura & Rouhangeze Astera Tomasz Bura Music Polish pianist Bura and Mauritian singer Rouhangeze have forged a…

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Write in to us here at Letters Dept, Jazzwise Magazine, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB or email letters@jazzwise.com Hobbled by Brexit In August the International Society of Musicians (ISM) published research from the testimony of more than 400 UK musicians who have worked in the EU since Brexit. Its findings are stark, but of course no surprise. The report quotes statistics such as 47.7 per cent of respondents having less work; 27.8 per cent having NO work in the EU; 39 per cent turning down work; 40 per cent having work cancelled (with visa, work permit, carnet and travel costs cited as reasons). The IMS report, as authoritative as it is, is but ‘4 bars of an 8 bar phrase’. What of the EU musicians wanting to…

The line-up for the seventh edition of the Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music has just been announced, and includes top-drawer names such as Zoe Rahman, Paul Edis with Graeme Wilson, Alcyona Mick (pictured right), Olivia Moore with Adam Fairhall, Rie Nakajima, Zoe Gilby Quartet with Tony Kofi and the Samuel Blaser Trio. This year’s event takes place at various venues across the city on three weekends: Friday 22 September; Thursday 28 Sep to Sunday 1 October; and Thursday 5 Oct to Sunday 8 Oct. Launched in 2017, the festival continues to respond to the city’s appetite for a contemporary grass roots jazz festival, presenting a diverse international line up, celebrating and pushing boundaries that challenge perceptions of jazz and improvised music. "This year we welcome new performance spaces…

Taking over leadership of the initial co-operative in 1956, Blakey’s Jazz Messengers landed a brief contract with Columbia, before recording the following year for no fewer than seven different labels. He was also in demand as a sideman on New York sessions, appearing in 1958 for instance with Jimmy Smith, Gil Evans and Cannonball Adderley (Somethin’ Else). But there was a three-month gap in his recording log, working out of town before debuting his new line-up on 30 October. Two days earlier, he appeared on the latest Adderley album (Things Are Getting Better) uncharacteristically speeding up on the title-track – the jukebox single version was shortened by an edit that highlights an uncomfortable leap in tempo. There were no such problems with the new Messengers, whose personnel were all recommended…

This September marks the 20th anniversary of the Junior Jazz Academy. Initially beginning as a Saturday morning jazz workshop for young musicians at London’s Royal Academy of Music (RAM), it’s served as an often life-changing entry point into jazz education for 14-to-18-year-olds. Importantly, it’s welcomed players from a wide variety of backgrounds. And with Mercury Music Prize nominees and Grammy Award winners among its alumni, it’s not hard to see how important it’s been over the last two decades. Names who started there include: Kit Downes, Jacob Collier, Nubya Garcia, Joe Armon-Jones, Michael Kiwanuka, Josh Blackmore, Ife Ogunjobi, Femi Koleoso, Rosie Turton, Tom Walsh, James Copus, Flo Moore, Daisy George, Will Barry, Alex Ridout, Tom Barford and Rosie Frater-Taylor, along with many more who have taken their first steps into…

One of the more interesting musical advances of this century has been the rise – in jazz, at least – of a very particular type of female artist. These women, talented composers, singers and instrumentalists all, seem very much in control of their careers and image; they think long-term; think visually and conceptually, as well as musically, and across multiple disciplines… they seem to me to be the ones leading the jazz charge in our young millennium. This group includes the established likes of Esperanza Spalding, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Lakecia Benjamin, Yazz Ahmed and Brandee Younger, as well as up-and-coming talents such as Samara Joy. There’s another figure we must add to this illustrious group: Laura Kabasomi Kakoma, better known by her stage name of Somi. The Champain, Illinois-born singer-composer…

Landmark Recording Excellent Good Average  Disappointing Susan Alcorn/José Lencastre/Hernâni Faustino Manifesto Clean Feed Records CF637CD (CD, DL) Susan Alcorn (pedal steel g, lap steel g), José Lencastre (as, ts) and Hernâni Faustino (b, el b). Rec. 4 August 2022 Pedal steel ace Susan Alcorn has single-handedly liberated her instrument from its traditional role in country music, recontextualising it as an exciting and versatile voice in free improvisation. Here she teams up with the experienced Portuguese pairing of Lencastre and Faustino on a largely aeriform session, with strings, brass and bass skulking stealthily like shadow pieces playing out a supernatural game of chess. But even at its most wraithlike, during the sumptuous crystalline glide of ‘Sombra’, or the Messiaen-style drone of ‘The Poet’ – the latter infiltrated by Lencastre’s mournful alto…

Landmark Recording Excellent Good Average Disappointing Terri Lyne Carrington TLC & Friends Candid CCD32122 (CD, LP, DL) RECOMMENDED Terri Lyne Carrington (d), George Coleman, Sonny Carrington (ts), Kenny Barron (p) and Buster Williams (d). Rec. 19 October 1981 Recorded over a single session at the Jimmy Madison Studio, NYC, on 19 October 1981, just a few months after her 16th birthday, TLC & Friends documents the very first recording of the four-time Grammy-winner, NEA Jazz Master, composer, activist and educator, Terri Lyne Carrington. The A-list line-up features tenor saxist George Coleman, pianist Kenny Barron and bassist Buster Williams, while Carrington’s tenor saxist father, Sonny, also joins on the concluding Sonny Rollins classic, ‘Sonnymoon for Two’. Awarded a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music at the age of just 11,…

● WAYNE SHORTER: ZERO GRAVITY DOCUMENTARY OUT ON PRIME VIDEO A three-part documentary, Wayne Shorter: Zero Gravity, launched last month on Amazon Prime Video. The documentary, which is available to stream free for Prime subscribers, emphasises Shorter’s immense influence on modern jazz and fearless approach to making music "without a net". Celebrating the life and achievements of the jazz legend, it’s directed by Dorsay Alavi and executive-produced by Brad Pitt and Carlos Santana. The film focuses on different eras of Shorter’s life and features interviews with luminaries such as Herbie Hancock, Joni Mitchell, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Marcus Miller and Esperanza Spalding among others. Wayne Shorter: Zero Gravity is available to watch now on Prime Video ● GEORGE BENSON BACK FOR SUMMER 2024 UK DATES Guitar legend George Benson has announced…

1 The Big Beat by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (1960) “This is one of my favourite jazz bands ever, and particularly this line-up. Blakey’s groups always had a real band feel which is something I've tried to achieve with my own band. It is a very influential record for me. This album has such great playing on it, as well as some brilliant compositions by one of my favourite composers, Wayne Shorter.” 2. John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman by John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (1963) “I would have to pick a vocal jazz album and this is one of my all-time favourites. Johnny Hartman is one of the best, and most underrated, jazz singers ever. This album has a great selection of tunes and Hartman is backed up by arguably…

Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society Dynamic Maximum Tension Nonesuch 075597905508 (2 CD, DL) Darcy James Argue (comp, cond, ringleader) and an orchestra of 21 ‘coconspirators’ inc Ingrid Jensen, Matt Holman, (t, flhn), Jacob Garchik (tb), John Ellis, Sam Sadigursky (s), Adam Birnbaum (p), Sebastian Noelle (g) and Matt Clohesy (b). Rec. 29 August–2 September 2022 Secret Society, says the sleeve notes, make music that is topical and unabashedly political. Well, thank goodness someone is. Railing against authoritarianism and disinformation, this music has an edge. A heady elixir of the past, the present and an imagined future, it maintains a right to surprise. And does. The century-old big band tradition stands behind it, a database that binds together contemporary inspiration, accumulated truths and wisdom and the explicable and inexplicable. Thus ‘Single-Cell…

A Life in Music: An Illustrated Chronicle Wulf Müller Self-published PB £25.99 A Life in Music is a rare insight into the world of jazz from the industry point of view. Müller has decades’ worth of experience across Europe, a fan who never lost his enthusiasm for the music, or affection for the artists, we follow his rise from early days in Vienna at Polygram to heady days in London with Universal Music International before heading up Okeh Records from the Madrid offices of Sony Classical. Much respected, much liked, by artists to journos to executives, Müller’s CV alone would make this volume an intriguing read. However, what gives this text the quirk of something different is its very personal insight. It’s written as a diary, covering 1955 to 2022,…

Aguilar AG Preamp/DI pedal In our post-pandemic age in which more and more musicians are recording and collaborating online – or working with larger touring set-ups that frequently require in-ear monitors over back-line amps – this new highquality preamp and Direct-In box from Aguilar will be welcomed by many bassists. Compact enough to sit on a small pedal board, reside on a desktop, or gig bag pocket, the AG Preamp pedal’s sleek, no-frills design is simple and classy. The fact it functions as a pedal also encourages its use in live performance and therefore offers up the possibility of further on-the-fly tone shaping – regardless of which amp you’ve been given as your backline! The control layout is simplicity itself: the 4-band EQ has an incoming gain knob on the…

BBC RADIO 2 88-91 FM and DAB Big Band Special (Mon, 11pm), Jamie Cullum show (Tues, 9pm) BBC RADIO 3 90-93 FM and DAB J to Z (Sat 5pm) Japan Focus with Miho Hazama (16 Sept) Sam Rivers at 100, with an exclusive archive interview (23 Sept) Jazz and spoken word. National Poetry Day special (30 Sept) The best in jazz – past, present and future (7 Oct) Carmen Lundy live at We Out Here (14 Oct) The best in jazz – past, present and future (21 Oct) Darcy James Argue’s inspirations (28 Oct) Jazz Record Requests (Sun, 4pm) Freeness with Corey Mwamba (Sat, Midnight) BBC RADIO 6 MUSIC DAB Gilles Peterson, Sat 3pm JAZZ FM DAB, Sky, Alexa, smartphone, tablet and online at jazzfm.com (Mon – Fri) 6am-6.30am Business…