This evening’s Jazz On 3 focuses on the music of Paul Dunmall who turned 60 earlier this year, and was recorded recently at the CBSO Centre in Birmingham. Paul’s Life In Four Parts gets its radio premiere, following performances last… Read More ›
percy pursglove
Paul Dunmall at 60
mac, Birmingham UK 26-10-2013 The saxophonist turned 60 earlier this year and Jazzlines had commissioned him to write a suite to be performed here and then at a couple more venues round the land. It’s called Life In Four Parts, Paul… Read More ›
Jazzlines honours an individualist
Paul Dunmall has always followed his own path, and it’s been one in which freedom has played a crucial part. He has been a consistent, reliable and inspiring presence across the British jazz scene since the 1970s, whether working with Spirit… Read More ›
Sam strips back for a Nearly Hot evening session
Guitarist Sam Slater, staunch Albion fan and one of the friendliest people on the Birmingham jazz scene, is best known as one of the jazz-flamenco TG Collective, but he presents a pared back Nearly Hot Club Four this evening in the… Read More ›
CD review: Reuben Fowler
Between Shadows (Edition Records EDN1042) With all the young musicians coming out of the British jazz colleges and conservatoires these days I suppose it was natural that band leaders would want to use as many of their contemporaries as possible…. Read More ›
CD review: Jonathan Silk Big Band
Uncouth (with Percy Pursglove) (Jonathan Silk) Jonathan Silk is a Scottish drummer who graduated from Birmingham Conservatoire with a first class honours degree in 2011 and has most generously decided to make Birmingham his home. This album, recorded in July… Read More ›
Silk launches Big Band album tonight
Silk doesn’t have to be smooth and restricted to the evening blouses of elegant ladies – it can be powerful and exciting, subtly lithe and full of sinuous horn lines and propulsive beats. That’s if the Silk is drummer Jonathan… Read More ›
First Jazzlines Fellows announced
Three young jazz musicians were announced as recipients of the first Jazzlines Fellowships at a reception at Birmingham Town Hall earlier this evening. They are Dan Nicholls, Percy Pursglove and Lluis Mather. They will be Fellows at Town Hall and… Read More ›
When bearing bad news, always bring a puppy along
That could be a PR dictum, and if it becomes so, then Birmingham musician and promoter Chris Mapp should take the credit. He has just announced that there will be no Harmonic Festival in 2012. This is the excellent showcase… Read More ›
The week ahead in Midland gigs
Birmingham Jazz opens its autumn season with the first of its Club Nights at the Red Lion in Warstone Lane in the Jewellery Quarter tomorrow. The band is Me & 3, at the evening begins at 7.30pm. The Me is… Read More ›
Olympians and other Midland gigs this week
The greatest track and field athletes from the US are at Alexander Stadium, doing their last -minute preparations for those games in London. And some great musical athletes of jazz are in Symphony Hall tomorrow evening. The Olympians of American… Read More ›
CD review: TG Collective
Release The Penguins (Own label) The Birmingham-based band that started as a gypsy jazz guitar trio has grown into a much more interesting affair, with the two central Spanish guitars of Jamie Fekete and Sam Slater now surrounded by the… Read More ›
Concert review: Birmingham Conservatoire Jazz Orchestra
Birmingham Town Hall, Birmingham UK 24-02-2012 This concert formed the final piece in the three-piece jigsaw that Birmingham Jazz had compiled to commemorate the centenary of the birth of jazz composer and arranger Gil Evans. In the first half we… Read More ›
Ian Green – the man who changed jazz
It’s time to raise a glass and remember Ian Ernest Gilmore Green. He was born in Toronto, Canada, on 13 May 1912, and, between about 1957 and 1960, he changed the way jazz sounded. The ripples of those changes have… Read More ›
My top 10 Midland jazz gigs of 2011
There’s been a lot of jazz about in Birmingham and the Midlands in 2011 in the way of smaller pub gigs but a little less in the way of big concerts. Much credit for the former is due to the… Read More ›
Harmonic Live: Food
Harmonic Festival, MAC Theatre, Birmingham, England 01-10-2011 I said in my preview to this Festival that the gig not to miss was Arve Henriksen and Dreams Of Tall Buildings. But of course I should have stressed there were two unmissable… Read More ›
Harmonic Live: Percy Pursglove’s Enchanted Heart
Harmonic Festival, MAC Theatre, Birmingham, England 01-10-2011 Harmonic co-director was playing trumpet and sometimes double bass with his good friend, pianist Hans Koller. It was all acoustic again, and intimate. The musicians were to one side of the stage. On… Read More ›
