Review by Robbie Fearon Birmingham Town Hall 21-05-2017 When Terri Lyne Carrington put the original Mosaic Project (Concord Jazz) together in 2011, it featured a rotating cast of all-star female jazz musicians. The project’s second album from 2015 was in… Read More ›
In one sense Soweto Kinch has moved perfectly logically from his last project, The Legend Of Mike Smith, to his current one, Nonagram. It’s a natural seven (as in the deadly sins which Smith was working his way through) to… Read More ›
Editor-at-Large Peter Bacon picks the choice jazz events close to his home. And remember, it’s often quicker to get up to Birmingham than to get to the other side of London… Here is a bunch of gigs worth getting to… Read More ›
Already the arrangements on the recording were beginning to loosen and lengthen as the quartet explored their live malleability. Source: LondonJazz: REVIEW : Laura Jurd’s Dinosaur at the Hare & Hounds, Birmingham (first night of tour)
If you are going to try a few gigs in the English West Midlands this month, these are the ones I’d choose from first: Friday 2 Pilgrimage: Young Pilgrims, Rotunda Of Wonder, Gorillabot Jazzlines, Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham 8.30pm, £10 A… Read More ›
Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham UK 21-11-2016 “That was called – ah, it doesn’t really matter what the titles are. It’s all existential hogwash anyway.” That was seven-string guitarist extraordinaire Charlie Hunter to the crowd in the bigger room… Read More ›
Review and pictures by John Watson Town Hall, Birmingham UK 21-11-2016 “I don’t have a reputation for doing anything cheerful,” Madeleine Peyroux told her audience, with a grin. “But I’m working on breaking that mould.” I like the texture of… Read More ›
Review and pictures by John Watson Town Hall, Birmingham UK 20-11-2016 “This one is for the ladies . . .” – Herbie Hancock, Town Hall, Birmingham, 1975. “This one is for the ladies . . .” - Robert Glasper, Town… Read More ›
Review and pictures by John Watson CBSO Centre, Birmingham UK 12-11-16 “Jazz can save the world – right?” Drummer Andrew Bain posed the question to the audience at his Jazzlines concert. Some of us were nodding hopefully, and he added: “Or maybe… Read More ›
If you are going to try a few gigs in the English Midlands this month, these are the ones I’d choose from first: Saturday 12 Andrew Bain Embodied Hope Quartet Jazzlines, CBSO Centre, Birmingham 8pm, £12.50 The drummer’s Transatlantic all-star band playing Bain’s… Read More ›
Andrew Bain, drummer, band leader and senior lecturer at Birmingham Conservatoire, is back on the road. This is the second of year of Andrew’s PhD – have you noticed that academic study is now not just a worthy undertaking in… Read More ›
CBSO Centre, Birmingham UK 15-10-2016 Review and photographs by John Watson When you see the names Kit Downes, Petter Eldh and James Maddren in the publicity for a new trio, you just know this will be a band that cannot fail…. Read More ›
Pianist Andrea Vicari was commissioned to write a suite for the 2007 Music At Leasowes Bank festival in Shropshire, and The Mirror was the result. Nearly a decade later she has had the chance to record it and the suite is… Read More ›
Today’s jazz musicians have to have a lot of fingers in a lot of pies in order to survive, and one with more than a few digits in more than a few steak-and-kidneys is drummer Jonathan Silk. He’s not only… Read More ›
I know we’ve a good chunk of 2016 still to enjoy but a heads-up for a top choice in early ’17: Laura Jurd’s Dinosaur will be playing a Jazzlines gig at the Hare And Hounds on Wednesday 18 January. Dinosaur… Read More ›
If you are going to try a few gigs in the English Midlands this month, these are the ones I’d choose from first: Saturday 8 The Impossible Gentlemen Jazz @ The Arena, Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton 8pm, £15 The Anglo-American band now numbers five… Read More ›
Robert Glasper Experiment – ArtScience (Blue Note): When his country has produced so many different styles of music why should he restrict himself to one? That’s the clearly-stated methodology of pianist/producer Robert Glasper who surely has as influential a position… Read More ›
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