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 ›
steve tromans
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 ›
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 ›
Steve Tromans mixes philosophical talk and jazz piano in a fresh format
He’s been sharing his Deep Thoughts on this website for a while, but now Birmingham-based Steve Tromans is doing his double thing – philosophical discourse and jazz performance – on Soundcloud. He writes: “I’ve recently recorded an improvised talk on jazz… Read More ›
The 2016 JQ Jazz Legends Festival – part two
Birmingham Jazz is giving us not one but two Legends Festivals in 2016 on their home patch in the Jewellery Quarter to the north-west of the city centre, and that’s before we get to BJ’s big birthday celebrations in the… Read More ›
JQ Jazz Legends Festival – Sunday
Words and Pictures by John Watson University College Birmingham McIntyre House, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham UK 22-05-2016 The 2016 JQ Jazz Legends Festival wrapped up with some sublimely lovely singing… followed by an astonishing musical thunderstorm. The storm came from the… Read More ›
Steve and Sid on Sun and Surge
Sun Ra is the inspiration for the final performance of this weekend’s Legends Festival, and receiving – and passing on – the inspiration will be Sid Peacock’s jazz orchestra Surge. A key player in Surge is pianist Steve Tromans and… Read More ›
Steve has some musical haikus for you
Birmingham pianist, composer and scholar Steve Tromans has a new digital-only album out, called Rememberings (And Other Things), and he describes the pieces in it as “musical haiku”. Here’s what Steve has to say: A musical haiku is a deliberately miniature… Read More ›
Lydia Glanville Quartet
Picture and words by Garry Corbett Symphony Hall Cafe Bar, Birmingham UK 22-01-2016 Lydia Glanville at the kit. She led her tight band through a nice mix of self-composed pieces and a number from bass player Trevor Lines. It was Steve… Read More ›
Bowden’s back at the Piano tonight
Alto saxophonst Chris Bowden returns to The Blue Piano in Edgbaston, Birmingham, this evening leading his quartet with Steve Tromans on piano, Tom Clarke-Hill on bass and Miles Levin on drums. The music is always strong, sparky and very generous when… Read More ›
Steve’s been busy turning the Pepper grinder
Steve Tromans, jazz pianist and scholar, has an article called Myth, Progress, and Motion in Jazz Practice with the Standard Repertoire now published by the French jazz journal Epistrophy. In his own words it includes “a recording made during a jazz-research lecture at Birmingham Conservatoire,… Read More ›
The Days Of May returns in August
The Days Of May is the name of the band created by pianist Steve Tromans to play his Music in the Time of Revolution but it’s playing this Saturday, 1 August. The band – Steve, Ruth Angell, Sid Peacock, Tymoteusz Jozwiak and… Read More ›
Free Jazzlines session goes Angolan tonight
The regular early Friday evening free session in the Birmingham’s Symphony Hall cafe bar takes a sidestep tonight as Jazzlines hands the programming reins over to Celebrating Sanctuary Birmingham, the charity that highlights through art the contribution made to the… Read More ›
Steve Tromans – May 2015
Regular readers of this site will be familiar with composer, pianist, arranger and researcher Steve Tromans. He has contributed a whole series of Deep Thought pieces, extensions of his academic thesis, and has also featured in Garry Corbett’s Stolen Moments series…. Read More ›
New Sunday afternoon jazz at The Great Stone
Jazz and lazy Sunday afternoons go together like beer and peanuts as far as I’m concerned. And I hope there are others who will agree, especially if they like a packet of salted or dry roasted with their pint of… Read More ›
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