Here is a feature piece I wrote for The Birmingham Post – it was in their edition of 16-22 March: Composer and band-leader Sid Peacock is presenting the first of a new kind of arts festival. It’s called Surge In… Read More ›
Interview
LondonJazz: INTERVIEW/CD PREVIEW/ TOUR DATES: Tim Armacost – Time Being (Whirlwind)
Swinging for me has always been the main attraction to playing jazz, but that has meant finding the way to feel the music together. The Lonely Woman idea led to these explorations of creating tension by playing in parallel spaces,… Read More ›
LondonJazz: INTERVIEW: Avishai Cohen (with BBC Concert Orchestra – Only 2017 UK performance – Barbican. Thurs 9th Feb.)
Singing is one of the most difficult and scary things I do, it’s like going to the street with no clothes on. You are naked in front of everybody’s judgement, but it is such an intimate reflection of your heart,… Read More ›
Ben Lee – October 2016
Ben Lee is from Devon, got into guitar playing Blink 182 songs, studied at Exeter College and Birmingham Conservatoire, and graduated last year. Since then he has worked with his Quintet, with Birmingham Jazz Orchestra and other bands, on a cruise ship… Read More ›
Jacky Naylor – September 2016
Jacky Naylor grew up in Skipton, North Yorkshire, studied piano, and won a scholarship to study at Birmingham Conservatoire’s jazz course, from which he graduated with first class honours. While at the Conservatoire he developed his interest in composition and in writing… Read More ›
James Tartaglia
James Tartaglia teaches at Keele University which is where I met him to talk about how a jazz saxophonist became a senior lecturer in philosophy – and how he has finally brought his two passions together in a band called… Read More ›
The Spotted Dog Bros 2
It’s all change at Jazz At The Spotted Dog. Richard Foote and Jonathan Silk took over from Mike Fletcher and Miriam Pau in 2013, and three years on the baton is being handed over once more, this time to Sean… Read More ›
Claire Martin brings Hollywood Romance to Lichfield Cathedral
For glamour and romance the singing of Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae and Anita O’Day, the songs of the great Tin Pan Alley tunesmiths and lyricists, and the timeless orchestral settings from the middle of the last century take some… Read More ›
Johnny Hunter – June 2016
Manchester-based drummer and composer – and former astrophysics student – Johnny Hunter is about to release a new album, While We Still Can, with his Quartet – Ben Watte on tenor saxophone, Graham South on trumpet and Stewart Wilson on bass… Read More ›
Olie Brice
Double bassist Olie Brice plays jazz and the music known as improv, both as a leader and a sideman. He has a trio, a duo and a band called BABs, but it’s with his quintet that he made an album… Read More ›
Juliet Kelly
Singer and songwriter Juliet Kelly is coming to Birmingham Jazz’s Legends Festival on Sunday 22 May. She will be Celebrating The Divas Of Jazz – singing songs associated with Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Nina Simone with a piano trio. She… Read More ›
Improvising on the mode of success: Edition Records’ story
I’ve been sent this prepared feature by a PR agency, and I don’t usually just put anything I’m sent on this site in unadulterated form, but as this interview/case study is with Dave Stapleton of Edition Records – a man… Read More ›
Juan Carlos Arenas
Juan Carlos Arenas is a Colombian guitarist and composer now resident in the UK. He plays in various bands and is also a writer of film music. He has been visiting artist at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama,… Read More ›
Rosie Clements
The 2016 Frontiers Festival opens in Birmingham today and promises two weeks of creative, experimental and boundary-pushing new music, including more jazz than ever. Rosie Clements is its artistic director. On its publicity the festival uses the sub-heading “Demolishing Preconceptions”,… Read More ›
The Spotted Dog Bros
Eric & Ernie, Paul & Art, Stan & Ollie, Don & Phil, Don & Walt… perhaps Clifford & Max is the most appropriate analogy. Sometimes two can achieve so much more than just one. The pair that have done more for… Read More ›
Nick Dewhurst – January 2016
Trumpeter Nick Dewhurst was born and bred in my hometown of Lichfield – he still lives here. Despite seeing him in person every couple of weeks, it was still most convenient to meet in the ether of email for this… Read More ›
Olivia Trummer – January 2016
The 30-year-old born in Stuttgart, Germany, has studied both classical and jazz music and is active as a pianist, singer and composer. Her first two albums were instrumental, the following three included vocals, with 2014’s Fly Now bringing her wider attention… Read More ›
