(Stoney Lane Records) This is the most ambitious release yet from the young Birmingham jazz scene, and quite possibly from any Birmingham-based jazz musician. Drummer Jonathan Silk has expanded his big band to 20 players and then added a 13-piece… Read More ›
The hugely-talented and enterprising saxophonist and composer Trish Clowes created a festival without musical boundaries called Emulsion, and she is bringing it to Birmingham in January. She already has substantial backing for the project to go ahead but she wants… Read More ›
That jazz festival that’s about to start in the British capital might be drawing a lot of attention but there are some extremely exciting events happening further north that deserve your attention. They explore the region where jazz and the… Read More ›
“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 ›
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 ›
It’s a sign of a sophisticated city when good quality live music is acknowledged to be a vital and regular part of the cafe bar mix. And when that live music starts to feature international musicians of exceptional calibre, then… Read More ›
City Of Sounds/Jazzlines Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham UK 10-06-2016 The final Jazzlines performance in this lovely concert hall which has so many special memories for Jazzlines/Birmingham Jazz audiences featured, thoroughly appropriately, one of the most important musicians to… Read More ›
The goodbye looks started at the beginning of May, but now we’re into the final weeks of City Of Sounds, a programme of music in all styles as a way of “saying goodbye to Birmingham Conservatoire’s Adrian Boult Hall” which… Read More ›
(Stoney Lane Records/Impossible Ark Records vinyl) There are three LPs of music in this beautifully produced limited edition package, and all the music is available to download as well, though it would be a pity to miss out on the… Read More ›
I went to the final, open concert by the participants in last year’s Jazzlines Summer School in Birmingham and can tell you the smiles on the faces of the young players taking part is all the evidence needed that it’s… Read More ›
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 ›
(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 ›
The Yorks Bakery Sessions are no more; welcome to The Pure Sessions. Trumpeter/bassist Percy Pursglove and drummer Andrew Bain have switched their regular Monday evening jazz sessions from Yorks in Newhall St, central Birmingham, to the Purecraft Bar and Kitchen… Read More ›
Award-winning jazz pianist Mark Pringle is a man on the move. He has a new album A Moveable Feast coming out this month and is currently touring the UK before heading off to Germany. We had a quick email back and… Read More ›
The Spotted Dog, Digbeth, Birmingham 01-09-2015 I have a very good friend with wide taste in music who has always had difficulty with the processional soloing over a rhythm section that is the basis of so much jazz. It’s not… Read More ›
They did it last year – now they’re doing it again! All 70 of Thelonious Monk’s compositions played over three days this week. It’s the brainchild of the people at Birmingham Conservatoire, and some of the regular jazz nights in the… Read More ›
One of the highlights of my concert-going in recent years was the premiere at the CBSO Centre in Birmingham last October of trumpeter Percy Pursglove’s Far Reaching Dreams Of Mortal Souls, an incredibly ambitious and, I think, incredibly successful, suite of… Read More ›
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