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 ›
mac
Peter Brötzmann & Heather Leigh
mac Hexagon Theatre, Birmingham UK 22-11-2016 In 1953 the philosopher Isaiah Berlin wrote a book called The Hedgehog And The Fox in which he applied the words of the Ancient Greek poet Archilochus, “Multa novit vulpes, verum echinus unum magnum” (“a… Read More ›
Speak Low
Review and pictures by Brian Homer The mac, Birmingham UK 09-11-2016 Strange Fruit is very hard song to do because of getting the tone of it right and because Billie Holiday did such definitive versions of it. So not many… Read More ›
Standards with a twist on Wednesday
Treating classic jazz standards to new and innovative treatments always makes for enthralling listening. Somehow there is a double pleasure: the old one of a song with the familiarity of your own home; the new one of finding that it… Read More ›
My top five Midland gigs – November 2016
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 ›
Good will be really good at the mac on Thursday
Vula Viel is the name of the band – it translates from the Dagaare language of Ghana as Good Is Good – and good is certainly a fitting description of the time the band and its audience has at its… Read More ›
Johnny Hodges tune turns into a band this evening
Squatty Roo is the name of the tune and now it’s the name of a quartet formed by Birmingham saxophonist Mike Fletcher with fellow saxophonist Tom Challenger, bassist Olie Brice and drummer Christian Lillinger with a performance this evening, courtesy… Read More ›
Drake, Dunmall and band on the radio tonight
“Style can be the cause of the death of creativity – if you think that your style is greater or better than any other style.” Those were the words of the late, great trumpeter Don Cherry, as related by drummer… Read More ›
Paul Dunmall Quintet featuring Hamid Drake
Pictures and words by Garry Corbett Hexagon Theatre at MAC, Birmingham UK 04-10-2016 As the music began last night I couldn’t help bringing to mind the title of Val Wilmer’s book on the musical achievements of Ornette Coleman, Coltrane, Albert… Read More ›
Chicago drummer Hamid Drake plays UK dates
One of jazz and improvised music’s very finest percussionists, Hamid Drake, is coming to the UK early next month for a three-date tour. He will be playing with saxophonist Paul Dunmall, trumpeter Percy Pursglove, pianist Steve Tromans and double bassist… Read More ›
My top ten Midland gigs – June 2016
If you are going to try a few gigs in Birmingham this month, these are the ones I’d choose from: Wednesday 8 In Love With TDE Promotions/Fizzle, mac, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, 8pm, £10 French drummer Sylvain Darrifourcq has string-playing brothers to share… Read More ›
In Love With – the art of improv
Following on from U.S. jazz improv last month which featured Ken Vandermark and Nate Wooley, TDE Promotions and Fizzle have some cutting edge music from France this month. Last time he was here drummer Sylvain Darrifourcq was In Bed With –… Read More ›
New York cellist is the latest of Tony’s special visitors
The next TDE Promotions gig at the mac in Birmingham is a trio of Okkyung Lee from New York with London saxophonist John Butcher and Birmingham drummer Mark Sanders. This follows highly successful TDE gigs last year which included a… Read More ›
Food plus Percy Pursglove
Review and pictures by John Watson Hexagon Theatre, mac, Birmingham, UK 02-12-2015 The content of Food has shrunk from time to time over the years… but the quality has always been maintained, and even improved. Food, with UK saxophonist Iain Ballamy… Read More ›
Food – This Is Not A Miracle
(ECM) The Anglo-Norwegian duo of saxophonist Iain Ballamy and drummer Thomas Strønen is joined here by Austrian guitarist Christian Fennesz. Food’s style of atmospheric, electronics-drenched music has had some consistency ever since the band was a quartet with trumpeter Arve Henriksen… Read More ›
Amok Amor & Andrew Woodhead
mac Hexagon, Birmingham UK 17-11-2015 This was the second of four events that Cheltenham Jazz Festival and Jazzlines programmes advisor Tony Dudley-Evans is currently presenting off his own bat (as TDE Promotions) along with Fizzle, the fortnightly Lamp Tavern series. It’s a… Read More ›
Looking for hope? Try Petter Eldh’s Amok Amor
“Amok Amor is essential listening for anyone who is concerned about the primary challenges still facing the human race and is wondering where to find a ray of hope.” – it’s a bold claim and one you can test for… Read More ›
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