LondonJazz

Photos from Maciek Pysz Trio's Insight Album Launch at the Forge

Maciek Pysz Trio at the Forge
© Paweł Fesyk. All Rights Reserved

Maciek Pysz Trio's Insight launch gig took place at a full Forge in Camden Town on 22nd May (photos reproduced here with kind permission of the photographer).

See the full album on the Paweł Fesyk Facebook page

Maciek Pysz
© Paweł Fesyk. All Rights Reserved

Asaf Sirkis
© Paweł Fesyk. All Rights Reserved

Yuri Goloubev
© Paweł Fesyk. All Rights Reserved

CD Review : Vole - The Hillside Mechanisms

Vole - The Hillside Mechanisms
(Babel BDV12102. CD review by Chris Parker)

‘An opportunity to make music with improvisers that is a bit different and a bit difficult’ is trumpeter Roland Ramanan’s description of his experience forming Vole with guitarist Roberto Sassis and drummer Javier Carmona.

‘Jagged, howling group extemporisation, with blustery trumpet, taut guitar shredding and tumbling percussion’ is what’s promised in the accompanying press release, and the album’s opener, ‘No Knees’, and subsequent tracks such as ‘Tim’s Frosties’, deliver just this toothsome package, interspersing full-on rock set to industrial-strength beats with passages of free improvisation.

Quieter moments are described as ‘environmental audio postcards from a mist-clad mossy hillside or a steamy jungle valley’, and Anthony Braxton’s recent music is also referenced; certainly, admirers of the great Chicagoan’s new-millennium music will also find much to enjoy here, whether Vole are in no-prisoners scrabbling mode or in more meditative mood, and for textural variety, rip-it-up energy and fierce interactiveness, the trio is hard to beat.

Apparently Vole are now a quartet, with the addition of pianist Alexander Hawkins (and Tom Greenhalgh replacing Carmona on drums), but on the evidence of this rousing, no-holds-barred album, their live act should be something special whatever the personnel.

Review: Gwyneth Herbert - The Sea Cabinet Live at Wilton's Music Hall

Gwyneth Herbert - The Sea Cabinet
(Wilton’s Music Hall. Opening night 23rd May 2013. Review by Alyn Shipton)

I have to declare an interest at the outset. During the gestation of this imaginative and absorbing project, Gwyneth Herbert was kind enough to find time to sing a series of concerts with my Buck Clayton Legacy Band. As a result of this, not only am I impressed from an on-stage as well as a critic’s perspective by her endurance, resilience and versatility as a singer, but in a series of time-lapse snapshots, I’ve watched from afar as The Sea Cabinet developed. Originally conceived during her time as composer-in-residence at Aldeburgh, the piece has grown from a somewhat haphazard collection of musical aquatic objets-trouvés into a tightly focused suite, with a complex tissue of sung and played musical textures, plus spoken words and (for the Wilton’s shows at least) back projections of images.

The conceit is simple: a spoken diary of things found, seen, experienced and collected on the shoreline, linking musical evocations inspired by the collection noted in the diary. Underlying the objects in the cabinet is a theme of women and the sea, so we share the experiences of fifty Fishguard ladies as well as the dislocated population of Alderney.

From her debut album First Songs through Bittersweet and Blue, via Between Me and the Wardrobe to All The Ghosts, Herbert has had the knack of writing catchy melodies and simple verbal hooks that help her songs to linger in the mind. Indeed Lorelei has lingered from All The Ghosts into the Sea Cabinet, getting a stirring and plaintive performance from Herbert and her fellow water sprite Fiona Bevan. The two voices melded well, though in character they are very different, Bevan’s dainty, delicate delivery being a model of control, whereas Herbert’s invocation to piratical lovers Plenty Time For Praying in the Morning was lustily delivered a capella from the side of the auditorium with no microphone, every syllable being crystal clear. However even in the forgiving acoustic of Wilton’s crumbly Music Hall, the balance did not always favour Herbert’s delivery. Sometimes the backing was just too enthusiastic, and her more intricate syllables were lost.

That said, her regular band came up trumps with Al Cherry producing his usual level of guitar wizardry and Dave Price somehow managing to be relaxed and in control of drums, piano, violin and goodness knows what other effects. Special guests the Rubber Wellies added plenty of texture, with Christophe Capewell’s mournful fiddle and melodica catching the wistful melancholia of times past particularly effectively. (Their opening set, with Fiona, was also a delight, with a particularly catchy Catalan cycling song setting the tone for the evening.) Overall it was Gwyneth’s night. Her songs will grow and develop with live performance, but this first full outing for the show was a triumph and after a whooping, cheering standing ovation, the audience spilled out into the narrow alleyway beyond the theatre, humming The King’s Shilling. There’s no better advertisement for a musical show than this!

We interviewed Gwyneth Herbert about The Sea Cabinet

NEWS: German ECHO JAZZ 2013 Winners Announced (Updated Post)

Winners at the German Echo Jazz Awards have been announced. (UPDATE)

Awards previously unannounced went to Melody Gardot, Toots Theiemans and ACT, for bestseller, lifetime achievement and label of the year respectively.

This morning, after the ceremony last night - there are no fewer than thirty-four videos up. Some in English like Kenny Garrett (admitting ignoranceof the German scene) and Jamie Cullum (with nice things to say about Go Go Penguin and Gregory Porter). The complete list of videos is HERE. And our listing of the award winners is HERE.

All the winners from the Awards night - Hamburg - 23rd May.

1. German Ensemble of theYear
Michael Wollny’s [em] "Wasted & Wanted"

2. International Ensemble of the YEar
Brad Mehldau Trio "Where Do You Start"

3. German Male Singer of the Year
Michael Schiefel "An Berliner Kinder"

4. Internatonal Male Singer of the Year
Curtis Stigers "Let’s Go Out Tonight"

5 German Female Singer of the Year
Caro Josée "Turning Point"

6 International Female Singer of the Year
Malia "Black Orchid"

7. German instrumentalist of the Year Piano/Keyboards
Florian Weber "Biosphere"

8. International instrumentalist of the Year Piano/Keyboards
Vijay Iyer "Accelerando"

9. German instrumentalist of the Year Saxophone/Woodwinds
Lutz Häfner "Deep"

10. International Artist of the Year Saxophon/Woodwinds
Kenny Garrett "Seeds From The Underground"

11.German instrumentalist of the Year Drums/Percussion
Bastian Jütte "Hassliebe"

12. International Artist of the Year Drums/Percussion
Brian Blade "Quiver"

13. German instrumentalist of the Year Bass/Bass Guitar
Sebastian Gramss "Homo Ludens"

14. International Artist of the Year Bass/Bass Guitar
Avishai Cohen "Duende"

15. German instrumentalist of the Year / Brass
Nils Wülker "Just Here, Just Now"

16.International Artist of the Year /Brass
Christian Scott "Christian A Tunde Adjuah"

17. German instrumentalist of the Year
Guitar Giovanni Weiss "Wilhelmsburg"

18.International Artist of the Year Guitar
Lionel Loueke "Heritage"

19. German instrumentalist of the Year Other Instruments/Vibraphone
Wolfgang Schlüter "Visionen"

20. International Artist of the Year Other Instruments/Violin
Adam Baldych "Imaginary Room"

21. German Newcomer of the Year
Sebastian Sternal "Symphonic Society"

22. Lifetime Achievement
Toots Thielemans

23. Editorial Achievement of the Year
Hans Lüdemann "Die Kunst des Trios 1-5"

24. Bestseller of the Year
Melody Gardot The Absence

25. Big Band-Album of the Year
Stefano Bollani & NDR Bigband "Big Band!"

26. DVD of the Year
Renaud Garcia-Fons "Solo – The Marcevol Concert"(ABOVE)

27. Jazz Promoter of the Year
Sedal Sardan / Jazz-Club A-Trane Berlin

28. Jazz-Label of the Yea
ACT Music + Vision

29. Company of the Year
jpc Distribution

30. Live-Act of the year
RUSCONI

The original report in German is HERE.

News: Richard Michael's Jazz Masterclass on the BBC Radio Scotland website

Renowned jazz educator Richard Michael's masterclasses are being made available to a wider audience as podcasts by BBC Radio Scotland. The series cuts through some the potentially off-putting, technical jargon of the jazz world and has been well received so far. The first one onto the BBC website is about Scales and Modes. Others so far posted are about Melody, Groove and Harmony.

Richard Michael does workshops with children. He contributed a piece about his Edinburgh Festival family show to LondonJazz News last summer

Listen to the podcasts HERE

News: Chaos Orchestra Launch Indiegogo Campaign to Fund Début Album

The Chaos Orchestra, a London-based 20 piece big band featuring the likes of Laura Jurd, Alex Roth, and Simon Marsh have announced a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to help with the costs of releasing their début album.

Their goal is to raise £3000 by Wednesday 17th July.

The perks range from a £12 donation, which allows you to pre-order the album, receiving it upon its release later this year through to the full £3000 donation which gets you a performance of 2 sets of music by the orchestra at your home or venue of choice.

Donate HERE

Review: Pat Martino at the 606 Club (First night of 25th Anniversary Festival)

Pat Martino

Pat Martino
(606 Club, 22nd May 2013. Review by Rod Fogg)

Back in the early days of downloads I picked up two Pat Martino albums for the price of one. It was a bit of a punt, as I knew his music only by reputation. They were "Hombre" and "Strings" both from 1967 - his first two albums – and something of a bargain. “Hombre” featured the classic soul organ line up of guitar, organ and drums, beefed up by bongos, congas and occasional flute. “Strings” added exalted company – Joe Farrell on tenor and Cedar Walton on piano. Both albums consisted mostly of Martino's own compositions. There was a soulfulness about the writing; unison riffs, guitar melodies in octaves, free flowing bop-style solos - and great "fat jazz" tone. I have returned to them many times – they're that good.

Throughout the 70s Martino averaged a couple of albums every year. Then in 1980 a career-ending brain operation called a halt. Except that despite amnesia, he learned to play again and resumed his career in 1987 with the comeback album "The Return". There’s plenty of live stuff on Youtube if you want to check him out – he’s everywhere on the guitar and there’s nothing about his playing to suggest that he was ever in anything other than perfect health.

At the 606 last night he was few months short of his 69th birthday, on a European tour with Pat Bianchi (Hammond B3) and Carmen Intorre (drums); the classic line-up. I love jazz Hammond players; it’s like watching a cartoon octopus at the controls of a crazy Heath-Robinson machine. Pedal-board walking bass, comped chords, unison heads and inspired soloing – it’s all happening. And Bianchi doesn’t disappoint, nor does Intorre. These guys take fast tempos without breaking a sweat and cool grooves are suitably deep and slick.

The set was mostly standards – Footprints, taken slowly, Oleo, taken fast. Charlie Christian’s Seven Come Eleven, Miles’s Blue in Green and All Blues, a couple of Wes Montgomery tunes, Full House and Twisted Blues, and Martino originals Catch and Mac Tough. Martino blends old-school jazz tone with a modern sense of harmonic adventure – in amongst all this cool post-bop grooving, whether fast or slow, there are some seriously contemporary chord/scale relationship things going on that take his solos to the edge. Yet there’s a strong melodic sense that holds everything together.

The 606 is a great, intimate venue for music like this and there was a heart-warming glow about the room by the end of the gig, with gratitude expressed from both audience and performers. This was the first night of a 40-artist twelve-day festival to celebrate the club’s 25th anniversary of re-locating to Lot’s Road. Day one, without doubt, was something special.

News: Valamar Jazz Festival (25-29th June) – Special Offer for Music Students

Tickets for the Valamar Jazz Festival (running from the 25th-29th June) in Poreč (Croatia) are now on sale. The festival, with its stage right by the sea, one venue in a 5th century basilica, and an amazing after-party hang..... can be purchased HERE (for 25-26th June) and HERE (for 27-29th June).

Regular ticket prices are:

25th June: 50 kn (roughly £6)
26th June: 70kn (roughly £8)
27th, 28th, and 29th June: 150kn (£17)

This year, the festival is offering a great deal to music students (from anywhere!) at the price of just €21 per day which includes bed and breakfast and tickets to all the festival events on the day.

More information on the programme (which includes Buster Williams and Eddie Palmieri) HERE. Sebastian went last year and did this A to Z round-up

Review: Bobby Broom and The Deep Blue Organ Trio at Ronnie Scott's

Bobby Broom and The Deep Blue Organ Trio at Ronnie Scott's
Drawing by Geoff Winston. © 2013. All Rights Reserved

Bobby Broom and The Deep Blue Organ Trio
(Ronnie Scott's. 21 May 2013; review and drawing by Geoff Winston)

A sparkling corner of Chicago's jazz world was airlifted to Soho for a couple of nights when The Deep Blue Organ Trio rode into town.

Regularly performing together in Chicago clubs such as the Green Mill, the trio of Bobby Broom (guitar), Chris Foreman (Hammond B-3 organ) and Greg Rockingham (drums) have moulded a tremendous rapport built on pure musical respect. As Broom emphasised, "We are a trio .. a trio ..." In other words no clashes of egos, just a visible generosity of spirit which pervaded their single two-hour set.

Foreman and Rockingham go back 25 years and they have such an understanding that they can exchange musical ideas by singing on the phone. Broom first joined them 5 years later, eventually formalising The Deep Blue Organ Trio in 1999, who were then invited to open for Steely Dan on tour.

Bobby Broom's excitement for jazz was sparked by hearing his father's copy of Charles Earland's BlackTalk and the early George Benson and Wes Montgomery shaped his fluent, melodic style. His CV includes two stints with Sonny Rollins, the first of which he delayed at age 16 until he'd finished his studies. He has played in his mentor Kenny Burrell's Jazz Guitar Band, toured and recorded with Dr John and Tom Browne and had shorter spells with Miles Davis and Art Blakey.

Chris Foreman's fiery, nuanced flourishes were given centre stage, a reflection of the ethos of the trio and the enjoyment they share in this formidable format. Blind from birth, he immersed himself in the classic Hammond players to lay the foundations of his own irresistible take on the infectious jazz organ groove. The roller-coaster drive and phrasing of the 'Giants of the Organ', Jimmy McGriff and 'Groove' Holmes is in the DNA of his keyboard work, along with a sense of the balance wielded so memorably by Wild Bill Davis with Ellington's orchestra, and that ingrained knowledge of when to hold right back, when to apply the distortions and when to pile on the power exemplified by Earland. Virtually every number kicked off with spine-tingling solo organ laced with a wicked sense of dynamics which brought whoops of appreciation from the floor.

Greg Rockingham played it cool - he didn't need to hammer the skins and metal, he just tickled and tapped them to lay down a lightly teased but rock solid pace with consummate assurance and a gentle grin.

The trio set out its stall with Hank Mobley's This I Dig of You, getting into cruise control with a swinging pace and crisp, no frills brushwork over which Broom built up extended explorations with masterly understatement, revealing glistening riches just below the surface. Broom's fascination with Stevie Wonder's canon let in a lightly camouflaged Ma Cherie Amour that mixed blues and brushes. The trio's anthemic A Deeper Blue came with the warning from Broom, "You're in trouble if you don't like the blues!" which had Foreman showing the B-3's teeth with searing, juddering licks and Rockingham hitting out with perfect, tight trap work.

In encore slinky, slippery gospel moved into a loose, off-duty jam, which took us right back to the feel of the small club in Chicago where we'd started. It's easy to forget that the power organ trio is quite a rarity these days, and the quality of The Deep Blue Organ Trio live on-stage was without doubt an experience to be treasured.

The Gareth Williams Power Trio put in a quality performance to open proceedings, notable for Laurence Cottle's softly gliding bass lines, meshing in deceptively relaxed fashion with Williams, brightly versatile on piano and impressively rounded percussion from Chris Higginbottom.

Bobby Broom: guitar
Chris Foreman: Hammond B-3 organ
Greg Rockingham: drums

NEWS: Natalie Williams' forthcoming album Where You Are - Kickstarter campaign launched today

Phil Peskett, Natalie Williams, Chris Higinbottom, Al Cherry

Soul Family host, the life and soul of many an evening at Ronnie's, and the person whose enthusiasm can make any quiz team feel like they're winning - we weren't, but it really didn't matter! - Natalie Williams announces today that she has a new album for release in the autumn on the way. The songs are co-composed with Tom Cawley . Scroll down for a sampler.

She has launched an all-or-nothing Kickstarter campaign with benefit levels from entry/£8 which gets rewarded with a digital download, up to £1500/ top of the range which gets the buyer a private concert.

Review: Deco Heart - Lucian Ban and Mat Maneri - at the Vortex

Deco Heart. Drawing by Geoff Winston, Vortex 2012. All Rights Reserved

Deco Heart: Lucian Ban and Mat Maneri
(The Vortex, Dalston, Tuesday 21st May 2013. Review by Andy Boeckstaens. Drawing by Geoff Winston)

This Vortex gig was the first of three British appearances by the Romanian pianist Lucian Ban and the viola player from Brooklyn, Mat Maneri. Since meeting in New York in 1999, they have played and recorded in several configurations. As a duo, Ban and Maneri are known as Deco Heart.

Much of the material at the Vortex was drawn from the pair’s Transylvanian Concert, recorded two years ago and recently issued on ECM. Shades of Monk and early Jarrett could be heard on a furiously-swinging, off-kilter Not That Kind Of Blues, and later pieces containing audacious harmonies and unresolved cadences brought to mind both Béla Bartók and Annette Peacock. On Two Hymns, there was an aching, almost Wagnerian melancholy.

Mat Maneri worked with Paul Motian for six years towards the end of the drummer’s life, and Deco Heart tackled one of his compositions from the 1970’s, Fantasm. The familiar spiritual Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen (played on unaccompanied viola) provided the most straight-ahead music of the evening. The three pieces composed by Maneri, Last Steps, Blessed and Passing, were full of restless turbulence and a subtle, agonised tension. Lucian Ban’s Monastery was very dark, despite its folk-dance jollity, and Harlem Bliss highlighted his technical aplomb and empathy with Maneri. The closing Irreverence reaffirmed the quality of the pianist’s writing.

Deco Heart wrung out not only the great seriousness of this music but also its wit and joy. The blues – often disguised and sometimes played so softly as to be virtually inaudible – were never far away. At no point during the evening was there any hint of grandstanding. The many quieter moments were the most powerful, and one was left with an overwhelming feeling of serenity.

Lucian Ban – piano
Mat Maneri – viola

Not That Kind Of Blues (Lucian Ban)
Harlem Bliss (Lucian Ban)
Two Hymns (Lucian Ban)
Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen (Traditional)
Passing (Mat Maneri)
Monastery (Lucian Ban)
Last Steps (Mat Maneri)
Fantasm (Paul Motian)
Blessed (Mat Maneri)
Irreverence (Lucian Ban)

CD Review: Roger Beaujolais Quartet - Mind the Gap

Roger Beaujolais Quartet - Mind the Gap
(Stay Tuned Records ST009. CD Review by Chris Parker.)

‘Brazilian-influenced tunes, modern compositions as well as the usual influences from the days when swing and blues were essential ingredients in jazz’ is vibraphonist Roger Beaujolais’s description of the fare on this, his 18th studio album.

The last category is perhaps the most reliable guide to his quartet’s overall approach: pianist Robin Aspland, bassist Simon Thorpe and drummer Winston Clifford are all notable for their adherence to these core jazz values, and with Beaujolais himself turning in his customary vigorously cascading but measured performance, this is a thoroughly enjoyable straightahead set of lively originals, interspersed with a couple of Wes Montgomery tunes, two Brazilian pieces (Milton Nascimento’s ‘Vera Cruz’ and the Martino/Brighetti bossa nova sung by Shirley Horn, ‘Estate’), Thad Jones’s glowing paean to parenthood, ‘A Child is Born’ and Chick Corea’s ‘Sea Journey’.

Beaujolais, as his 1990s work with Acid Jazz Records suggests, is a musician who has always favoured the directly communicative, unfussily peppy approach to music-making, and in the hard-swinging Aspland he has the perfect foil; with the tight, crisp drumming of Clifford and the propulsive Thorpe driving proceedings with exemplary vim throughout, this is a warm, uplifting album, fresh as a summer breeze.

Stetsons in the air for Cafe Oto

Hats off to Cafe Oto for a very impressive intiative, working with Songkick Detour. They write:

Thanks to Songkick's new Detour initiative we were able to confirm a concert with saxophonist Colin Stetson at Cafe OTO for 28 October 2013.

Colin had got 50 odd pledges on Detour, and amazingly the show had almost sold out just hours after going on sale this morning. Luckily we've been able to secure a second date the day before on the 27 October 2013 so hopefully there will now be a few less disappointed punters!

Songkick Detour is a three-stage process: (1) Interested audience menbers pledge to buy tickets for the artists they want to see, and decide how much to pay. Songkick Detour don't take payment until the concert is confirmed. (2) SD then work with potential promoters to make the concert happen. (3) If the concert is confirmed, the ticket price is set and SD charges the audience members, up to a maximum of the final ticket price even if more was pledged.

28th May 6 30pm. Seminar/debate - Follow The Money: Can The Business Of Ad-Funded Piracy Be Throttled?

On next Tuesday May 28th there is a seminar/ debate produced by Musictank at Fyvie Hall, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW. Start time is 6.30pm. Advance booking only - no walk ups on the day.

Here's Musictank's blurb:

Recent debates on how to tackle infringement are increasingly focusing on the role of advertising in bankrolling unlicensed services.

Piracy is not some romantic fantasy of rebellious teenagers sharing music and sticking it to the man; it is brand-sponsored – with advertisements for major blue chip FTSE and Fortune 500 corporations being served systematically to the most nefarious corners of the Web on an industrial scale - keeping the likes of MP3Ape and 4Shared in business, while diverting much-needed revenues from the pockets of creators.

Focusing on brand-sponsored piracy is creating a new common ground between Big Tech and the content industries, but can it be stopped, even if the will is there?

On May 28th, MusicTank will explore this subject in some detail, considering whether it might be possible to throttle brand-sponsored piracy, even if the appetite to do so exists.

The session will also examine the wider relationships between music and Big Tech and ask whether we are approaching a tipping point, away from the adversarial lobbying that typified the last decade, and towards a future based on more fruitful commercial partnerships.

David Lowery (Artist & Commentator ) and Theo Bertram (UK Policy Manager, Google ) will be key speakers at this event.

BOOK HERE. Full price is £35. USE PROMOTIONAL CODE LJAZZBIGTECH13 to save £5 off the full price.

CD Review: Craig Taborn Trio - Chants

Craig Taborn Trio - Chants
(ECM 372 4543. CD Review by Chris Parker)

Operating as a trio for eight years, but recording together for the first time on this album, pianist Craig Taborn, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Gerald Cleaver have staked out ground that will be familiar to anyone who saw the latter pair interpreting the music of Tomasz Stanko at the Polish trumpeter’s recent Barbican concert (reviewed here). Taborn’s description of Morgan – ‘a great “free” bassist but if you give him material there is nobody who honours the compositional fabric more than he does. He is really rigorous about holding onto the essential concept and helping to realise it’ – sums up the group’s approach perfectly: Taborn’s compositions are often relatively complex, tricksy affairs with subtly shifting rhythmic emphases and unusual melodies, but their shape and spirit are carried over into the improvisations to which they give rise with an almost telepathic faithfulness by both Morgan and the ever restless, probing yet confidently emphatic Cleaver, so that the pianist/composer’s ambition ‘not to break the spell by over-defining things ... extend[ing] the boundaries you can create in’ is skilfully balanced, in these nine intriguing pieces, against what he calls ‘allowing things to arise out of musical necessity in the whole arc of the story being told’.

If all this discussion of theory makes the music sound rarefied or abstruse, brief exposure to the album’s more vigorous passages will swiftly dispel this notion: this is consistently powerful, dense music, packed with dynamic and textural contrasts, performed by three mutually sensitive individuals who all subscribe to Taborn’s succinctly expressed philosophy: ‘If there’s a question, it’s because you intended there to be a question, and the improvisation is the answer.’

NEWS: Shortlist of unsigned acts competing for a play at Love Supreme announced

The ten unsigned acts who have been shortlisted for one winner to play at the Love Supreme Festival have been announced. THE SOUNDCLIPS OF EACH BAND AND THE VOTING ARE BOTH EXCLUSIVELY VIA FACEBOOK . The bands are:

Shama Rahman Band

Local Authority

Ellene Masri

Anoushka Lucas and the Humbolts

The Outlanders

Portia Emare

Nubiyan Twist

Giacomo Smith

Bassment Project

JFL Organ Trio

News: Kings Place Festival 2013 Tickets Now On Sale

Jay Rayner at Taste of London 2010
copyright MiMi Aye / meemalee.com

This year's sixth, 104-concerts-in-three-days Kings Place Festival is on the horizon once more, running from the 13-15th September. All tickets are just £4.50.

An unusual and intriguing event to whet the appetites of jazz fans (groan) takes place on the 13th of September at 10:00pm in the 100-seater St Pancras Room.Jay Rayner's Hungry Jazz: The Great American (Foodie) Songbook features the Observer's restaurant critic Jay Rayner performing at the piano (with Pat Gordon Smith on vocals, Robert Rickenberg on double bass, and Dave Lewis on saxophone), going through food related tunes from the Great American songbook (expect the likes of Nat King Cole's Frim Fram Sauce, and Save the Bones). Rayner will also be talking about the stories behind the songs.

If you are still hungry for more (aargh, stop it Rob), there are a host of other events and gigs (jazz-related shows listed below) including Martin Speake Trio, Jason Rebello Acoustic Trio (in the acoustic marvel of Hall One), Dave Stapleton with Cellophony and Iain Ballamy and Thomas Strønen's ....Food (that's all, Rob's promised). While Edition Records does not have the specific focus which it had last year, there are some gigs related to the label, including a new venture from Dave Stapleton, Slowly Rolling Camera (Facebook link), and the Finnish band which has inspired them, Oddarang.

Full Jazz Gig Listings Below:

Vive - 13th September (6:15pm), Level -2
Oddarrang - 13th September (6:15pm) Hall 2
Slowly Rolling Camera - 13th September (8:00pm), Hall 1
Jo Harman & Company - 13th September (8:30pm), St Pancras Room
Rose, Holborn and Harris - 13th September (9:15pm), Box Office Stage
Jay Rayner's Hungry Jazz: The Great American (Foodie) Songbook - 13th September (10:30pm), St Pancras Room
Amanda Wilkin - 13th September (11:15pm), Box Office Stage

Maciek Pysz Trio - 14th September (12:45pm), Box Office Stage
Man Overboard (Feat. Thomas Gould) - 14th September (3:45pm), Hall 2
Martin Speake Trio - 14th September (6:00pm), St Pancras Room
Aimua Eghobamien: Indigo Sessions - 14th September (6:45pm), Box Office Stage
Maurizio Minardi Trio - 14th September (7:45pm), Level -2
The D&O Duo - 14th September (8:45pm), Box Office Stage
Iain Ballamy & Thomas Strønen's Food - 14th September (9:45pm), Hall 2
Southbound - 14th September (9:45pm), Level -2

Jason Rebello Acoustic Trio - 15th September (1:30pm), Hall 1
Dave Stapleton with Cellophony - 15th September (3:45pm), Hall 2

More information and TICKETS HERE

Jamie Cullum at St Pancras this morning - in pictures and video

Jamie Cullum (on top of the piano, where else) was out doing a 9am half-hour set in the concourse at St Pancras this morning, with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and regular band members Tom Richards on tenor sax/ keyboards behind the poster, Chris Hill on bass, in blue, top of the shot, Brad Webb on drums, and Rory Simmons (guitar/trumpet, in pink). Tenor sax solo on the video is from Nadim Tiemoori.

It's part of the launch activity around the new CD Momentum which we've just reviewed. ITN's programme In Town Tonight were on hand filming (the guy with headphones in front of the sax section in the top picture).

Quick CD Review: Jamie Cullum - Momentum

Jamie Cullum -- Momentum
(Island Records. Cursory CD Review by Sebastian Scotney)

The first time I heard Jamie Cullum live was at the 2010 Cheltenham Jazz Festival. I wrote in a review that "every single person in a packed Cheltenham Town Hall appeared to have located [..] an inner pogo-stick which they probably never knew they possessed."

Jamie is a Duracell battery full of energy. After a quick first listen to his new, unashamedly poppy, sixth studio album Momentum, released yesterday on Island Records, I realise that that first thought has never really gone away. If people are going to need music this summer to get them up and moving, feeling more energetic, then, honestly, look no further than the first few bars of the opening track, The Same Things, where Cullum's vocals get spurred into action by Brad Webb's strong backbeat.

Because of particular circumstances, this is just a review of first impressions, written on the hoof. Our copy of the album arrived yesterday. Those in search of more discursive depth had better go straight off and seek out Peter Quinn, on superb form, over at The Arts Desk.

There are twelve tracks on the basic version of the album (there are also deluxe compilations, a DVD...) of which ten are originals. The other two are: Cole Porter's Love for Sale, about which Andy Gill of the Independent has written that it is "pulled apart over a predatory funk groove that embodies the song's sad streetwalker sass", and which was accompanied by a creepy video. The other is a deliciously slow, reharmonized Newley/ Bricusse Pure Imagination. The tracks are all single length, and sometimes end abruptly, suggesting that they are really going to come into their own when they get stretched out on in live performance. An infectious rising bass riff in Anyway is definitely asking for that treatment.

There's more for musos too, in all sorts of inventively used keyboard sounds throughout. Jamie Cullum has given clues in an article in Drowned in Sound about his Fender Rhodes collection.

Psychologists will have fun - won't you? - with the ironic lyrics of When I get Famous. Out of the New Orleans brass chorus opening comes this little curve-ball: "When I'm looking from the top / You're love seems smaller / Ain't that what all us humans want / To stand that little bit taller."

For the rest of us, there are tunes to make us stand straighter and be more energetic this summer, and hopefully get us away from the sedentary slavery of our keyboards.Talking of which....

Review/Roundup: Inntoene Festival (Austria)

Inntoene Festival
(Western Part of Upper Austria. 17-19 May 2013. Review/Roundup by Oliver Weindling)

In a piece for allaboutjazz reviewing Inntoene a couple of years back, Sebastian Scotney described the special atmosphere engendered by a festival held on Paul Zauner's farm in Upper Austria and programmed by the trombonist himself for 28 years.

Zauner works indefatigably for music, encouraging the musicians of his region in particular, of Upper Austria, promoting jazz and baroque music releasing on his own record label PAO. And not least, playing himself. And if he has a few moments to spare, he's raising the pigs on his farm.

On his travels he is clearly keeping his ears open for new names - that Gregory Porter made one of, if not his first, European shows here is a prime recent example. And if you look at the programmes for past years, you see there are many who have become well known later, such as Gregory Porter himself or Bojan Z. He manages to mix this by using his infectious personality to bring some of the greater names to join in.

Thus he ends up with the mix that most jazz lovers would dream of: some stars to "tick off", some new names to surprise us and tell our friends to watch out for, while the whole event takes place in a barn and outhouses around a farmyard where you can buy his own pork, locally-caught trout, local beer and taste some of the fine Austrian wines. All of which are available in real glasses and with real crockery. Something we see more and more rarely! And queues for food are minimal.

And this year's music? The biggest star of the show was undeniably Pharaoh Sanders on Friday night. Paul Zauner seems to have been immensely proud of having one of the greatest playing in his backyard! Sanders didn't disappoint. He has been touring for the past 3 years in Europe with the same band - William Henderson on piano and one of London's finest bass-drums combos, Oli Hayhurst and Gene Calderazzo (known in London of course for their work together with Julian Siegel and Zoe Rahman in particular). In a recent allaboutjazz interview, Sanders explains how drummers too often lack energy. That Calderazzo is holding done the drum chair with such aplomb is a tribute to him.

The unbelievable Howard Johnson sat in, as did vocalist Dwight Tribble. The spirit and spirituality of Sanders was maintained, but we didn't hear enough of his spine-chilling playing. He sounds as incredible as ever. It felt special. We were close to Coltrane.

Tribble himself played a duo set immediately before, with pianist Bobby West. It was a dramatic performance. Taking his roots out of gospel, Tribble stays just on the right side of self-indulgence. In fact, I could imagine their duo, fully acoustic, as a knockout recital in a hall like the Wigmore! West's classical virtuosity, such as the use of a figure resembling the Chopin funeral march under Tribble's version of Strange Fruit was particularly effective. The strong Oscar Brown influence on Tribble was heard in the original Moon Over Montgomery, written to highlight The Alabama city as a cradle of civil rights.

Friday ended with the Matthias Schriefl Six Alps & Jazz. Schriefl revisits the music that he had grown up with in an Alpine village in Southern Germany. He does this with a touching respect and it gives scope to his gorgeous trumpet playing which can be overpowered sometimes by laboured humour. But he also indulges in close harmony yodelling and we heard some phenomenal soloing on 10 foot long alphorns! Whether it's something that could work away from the Austrian mountains, I'm not so sure.

Saturday was a day of the greatest contrasts, which we experienced in a day of great heat.

Peter Mayer, introduced as a star of the future from the next village and fellow pig breeder, was not a token local act in the slightest, having returned from studies in Dresden and Los Angeles. He started instrumentally just on acoustic guitar, but then included vocal duets with Nora Katzlberger, who has a pure and clear tone. Perhaps sometimes the songs were a bit too long and seemed almost operatic in texture, but certainly I look forward to how this duo develops.

Bobby Broom, one of Chicago's guitar greats who has played with Lonnie Liston Smith and more, played a beautiful set, mixing Monk, other standards and some originals. I was impressed how the trio was able to move away from the heads during their interplay and soloing to such a degree but still remained implicitly there. Makaye McCraven on drums is a name to watch.

Mansur Scott is a regular at the festival. Indeed in October the PAO label will be releasing worldwide an album of "Voices of Harlem" where Scott is joined by Donald Smith and Gregory Porter and a band led by Zauner. A stunning prospect indeed.

This year, Scott, aided and abetted by Howard Johnson, magnificent on tubas and baritone saxophone, led us on an imaginative journey leaving the audience elated. He had attempted to persuade Paul Zauner to join in. However, throughout the festival, Zauner left his trombone its case, as he felt that he would not have done his playing justice, what with the distraction of being host, artistic director and troubleshooter.

Drummer Uli Soyka led a sextet which provided the most diverse musical experience. Thoughtful piano playing by Uli Rennert, the music was generally quite highly structured. But it is a tribute to the band that even when they played a section of free improvised music, they held the rammed barn spellbound. Klaus Gesing, known for his trio work with Norma Winstone, stood out for me.

The day ended for me as I returned by bus to the idyllic baroque town of Schärding at 2 a.m. leaving to the strains of the Afro reggae and Afro beat of Rocky Dawuni. I gather the bar stayed open till 7 a.m. when the last drop of the tasty Austrian wines had been consumed with a jam session roaring.

On Sunday, the weather changed. The high energy of Brazilian Renato Borghetti's accordion saw us through to the start of a torrential downpour. We were able to stay dry in the barn, where the concerts occur, but it seemed to dampen Scott Hamilton's performance. Technically flawless but not really overawing us.

Trumpeter and conga player Jerry Gonzales lives and breathes music, but here too his Cuban band hinted at great things, but again never quite took off.

Tulivu-Donna Cumberbatch is another new name to me, calling her quartet "the heart of Brooklyn". But certainly another find by Zauner in his collection of singers developing the Great American Songbook as she elegantly worked her way through lesser known songs by the likes of Ellington and more.

To end, we had the Contraband of blues singer Otis Taylor. It had a great spirit to it. Meanwhile in Saint Pigs Pub next door, the rain had ended, the wine flowed freely and Schriefl was leading the jam session, entertaining the several hundred fans who remained.

And of course the pigs.

All concerts were recorded by Austrian Radio ORF, and will be broadcast over coming months. There will be a round-up programme on WDR in Cologne (accessible on the internet) at the beginning of June. Inntoene.com

"Everything a good jazz club should be": Ajani Grill and Jazz in Hornsey

Pianist Barry Green writes about the Ajani Grill restaurant in Hornsey:

I just wanted to let everyone know about a fantastic jazz club in the heart of North London. It's everything a good jazz club should be.

About a year ago I got a call from the owner/chef/booker Patrick Oludayo, asking me to play at the Ajani Grill. I hadn't really heard of it,and viewed Hornsey at the back of beyond. Thankfully I overcame my geographical stupidity and said yes. Since then I've done a few trio gigs there,and it is one of the warmest welcomes musicians can receive in London. There really aren't many places which really make you feel that they want to play there. The place is tiny, and can only serve 32 people eating. Patrick truly loves jazz and the restaurant is covered with rare obscure album covers: Carmell Jones! Roy Brooks! The food is great.

All of this adds up to creating an environment in which we can really play jazz music in a place that feels like it has been there for years, and feels like it should be there for the next twenty. Jazz music in a place that really likes it! The scene needs places like this to enrich our day to day musical lives and the amazing and occasionally disheartening experiences that it sometimes brings.

So, next time you have a free night and fancy some chicken and jazz, go to Hornsey and check it out. It's not that far! Hopefully we'll all be playing there for many years to come.

Ajani Grill and Jazz / Find it ON THIS MAP

Laura Jurd Quartet - WCoM Winner's gig

Digby Fairweather, recipient last night of a Lifetime Achievement award from the Worshipful Company of Musicians, sat in for just one number - Fats Waller's Honeysuckle Rose - with the Company's Jazz Medal-winner Laura Jurd at her 2012 Young Jazz Musician prizewinner's gig. Laura Jurd is the first trumpeter ever to receive the medal, and the first woman since Tina May in the eraly 90's.

It was announced last night that the 2013 Award, which will be decided in September, will be contested among vocalists.

Preview: Moses Boyd's Tony Williams Tribute - 2nd June, Pizza Express

Moses Boyd. Photo credit: Benjamin Amure

Moses Boyd previews a Tony Williams tribute at Pizza Express Dean St. on the 2nd of June:

The gig I'll playing on 2nd June will be a one-off: I play regularly in bands such as Jay Phelps' quartet, Denys Baptiste's Triumvirate, The Zara Mcfarlane Band and the Soweto Kinch Trio..., but I seldom lead my own ensemble.

This gig is a tribute to the great drummer Tony Williams. I first got to know Williams' playing through listening to the Miles Davis Nefertiti album as well as various other classic Blue Note recordings. He's a real hero of mine and I admire the way in which Tony was able to manipulate and apply the language of the many drums greats before him and create a unique voice within the music adding various conceptual and technical advances to the music and the drums.

The gig features a great band of musicians whom I often work with. We have Denys Baptiste on tenor sax, Jay Phelps on trumpet, Peter Edwards on piano and Max Luthert on bass. its going to be a really good night these guys are in demand so it's not an easy band to get together - so it may not happen again for a long time.

It's at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho, and it is part of the "Thump Festival", organised in partnership with Murat Diril Cymbals.

BOOKINGS / Moses Boyd endorses Murat Diril cymbals.

NEWS: BBC Young Musician of the Year 2014 introduces Jazz Award (with 2 updates)

First ever winner of BBC Young Musician of the Year in 1978 Mike Hext

The competition for BBC Young Musician of the Year, which gets broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC4 Television is to include a competiton for young jazz musicians for the first time. The competition will reach its climax at Usher Hall in Edinburgh on May 18th 2014.

Jan Younghusband, Commissioning Editor, Music & Events at the BBC writes: "This year we are delighted to introduce a new Jazz Award, further extending the reach of the competition and look forward to showcasing another group of exceptional young people when BBC Young Musician reaches its broadcast stage early next year."

Mike Hext, the first ever winner of the competition back in 1978 , is a jazz activist, and last featured on LondonJazz HERE.

UPDATE 1: We've had clarification as to how it will work: "It is a separate award with its own heats and final on 8 March 2014 and judging panel yet to be announced. Entry forms for the Jazz Award will be available from 1 August 2013 with a closing date of 18 October 2013."

UPDATE 2: We asked if there was a chance that the jazz contest might be televised. "It's too early to confirm the full broadcast schedule for BBC Young Musician 2014 as we are only at the call for entrants stage. The broadcast details of the finals will be announced in due course.[..] As soon as we know more so will you."

Preview: Manchester Jazz Festival 2013 – 26th July to 4th August

Adrian Pallant, who will be reviewing at the Manchester Jazz Festival for us, makes a personal selection of his favourite gigs, and points to some other events likely to prove popular. The festival has also just announced its success in leading an Arts Council England Catalyst Funding bid.

Manchester Jazz Festival has become a key Summer event in the North West of England, since its inception in 1995. This year’s festival, the 18th, has over 60 events . Venues include the popular Festival Pavilion Teepee in front of Manchester Town Hall. Last year, this sun-soaked Albert Square location provided a joyous hub for jazz-goers.

With ticket prices often as little as £3, or even free! ‘MJF’ has always sought to showcase the richness of local talent, as well as attracting bigger names from today’s flourishing jazz scene.

My Festival ‘six picks’ are:

- Trish Clowes’ Tangent (27th July - Festival Pavilion Teepee)

Current BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, Trish Clowes, brings a superb quartet with Chris Montague, Calum Gourlay and James Maddren. She's a beautifully lyrical, yet experimental tenor sax player, and I've been enjoying her second album ‘And in the night time she is there’.

- Emilia Mårtensson & Ivo Neame (28th July - Festival Pavilion Teepee )

This is a duo I’m longing to see perform together. Emilia Mårtensson has a meltingly beautiful Swedish voice – and for ‘MJF’, she teams up with one of the most hard-working and exciting UK pianists (and one-third of Phronesis), Ivo Neame.

- Go-Go Penguin and Matthew Hallsall Sextet (1st August - Band on the Wall)

RNCM alumni Chris Illingworth, Grant Russell and Rob Turner have, in a relatively a short time, gathered a huge and affectionate following with their driven piano trio creativity influenced by, amongst others, the pioneering e.s.t.

Sharing the bill is their Gondwana Records boss, trumpeter Matthew Halsall and his sextet, bringing us mellow, summery sounds from his native Manchester-titled album, ‘Fletcher Moss Park’.

- Laura Jurd Quartet (2nd August - Festival Pavilion Teepee )

The young trumpeter/composer has been making waves with her delightfully original début album. ‘Landing Ground', which reveals incredibly mature writing and improvisational skills.

- The Cloudmakers Trio ( 3rd August -Festival Pavilion Teepee )

Jim Hart is possibly the most in-demand vibes player in the country. His live Pizza Express album demonstrates both the invention and rapport he shares with bassist (and Whirlwind Records owner) Michael Janisch, and drummer Dave Smith.

- Dice Factory (3rd August -Festival Pavilion Teepee )

Propelled by Kairos 4tet’s Manchester-born drummer, Jon Scott – with Tom Challenger (tenor), George Fogel (piano) and Tom Farmer (bass) –their eponymous album released last year reveals a desire to create strongly-improvised, exciting jazz.

* - * - * - *

It's a broad programme, in which popular highlights will also include:

- Vocalist Claire Martin with the BBC Big Band (27th July, Bridgewater Hall ), celebrating the leading ladies of jazz.

- US jazz-funk groove collective Snarky Puppy return to Manchester (28th July, Band on the Wall ) led by charismatic ace bassist Michael League.

- Take Five: Europe (29thJuly RNCM Theatre) intriguingly brings together rising international stars including Arun Ghosh, Daniel Herskedal, Marcin Masecki and Dave Kane.

- A double-bill of Kirsty Almeida & The Troubadours and the Riot Jazz Brass Band on the final Saturday evening (3rd August, Festival Pavilion Teepee)

- Salford guitar luminary, Mike Walker, features in a fascinating project, the Music For Life Big Band ( 28 July lunchtime - Festival Pavilion Teepee) a 25-strong ensemble of young musicians from Cheshire, performing special commissions from contemporary composers such as Gwilym Simcock and Stan Sulzmann.

- Young drummer Johnny Hunter and his Quartet (30th July, Matt & Phred’s)

- The pulsating Paradox Ensemble (3rd August, Festival Pavilion Teepee) and ska-influenced Skamel (2nd August, Matt & Phred’s).

(More information from the MANCHESTER JAZZ FESTIVAL WEBSITE)

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Quick CD Review: Jamie Cullum - Momentum

Review/Roundup: Inntoene Festival (Austria)

"Everything a good jazz club should be": Ajani Grill and Jazz in Hornsey

Laura Jurd Quartet - WCoM Winner's gig

Preview: Moses Boyd's Tony Williams Tribute - 2nd June, Pizza Express

NEWS: BBC Young Musician of the Year 2014 introduces Jazz Award (with 2 updates)

Preview: Manchester Jazz Festival 2013 – 26th July to 4th August

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