Carla Bley Big Band: Appearing Nightly (Watt) ***** If there has developed a distinction between the big band (Basie, Kenton, Murray) and the jazz orchestra (Ellington, Evans, Schneider) then the Carla Bley band, despite its name, fell squarely in the latter… Read More ›
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The concert wishlist starts here
It’s time to play “Who would you like to see/hear play live?”, a game my friends and I engage in from time to time over a glass of wine. More of my concert wishes in due course, but first a… Read More ›
Is a jazz friend hard to find?
Good piece from Jamie Cullum in today’s Guardian about the late Esbjorn Svensson. Jamie pinpoints exactly the appeal for not only the non-jazz crowd but for the young jazz enthusiast like the student Mr Cullum. E.S.T. made the connection between… Read More ›
The names change; the music carries on
First the Sugarbeats, purveyors of club-friendly nu-jazz with a grin on its face, lost full time trumpeter/singer Leo Altarelli to the South and tenor saxophonist Ed Johnston to the West, and one of their two kit drummers to who knows… Read More ›
CD reviews 01-09-08
E.S.T.: Leucocyte (ACT) **** During the Swedish piano trio’s last Australian tour, they took a couple of days to go into a Sydney studio to jam – no pre-written material, just their instruments, some electronic gizmos and their extraordinary musical telepathy… Read More ›
Charlie Parker playing live
Thanks to the Observer recommendations for great YouTube content and the jazz videos they tip – this one is, apparently, the only footage in existence of Charlie Parker playing live. It’s part of a TV clip of the Downbeat magazine… Read More ›
DVD/CD reviews 25-08-08
Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack DeJohnette: Standards I/II Tokyo (ECM DVD) ***** To mark the 25th anniversary of this possibly greatest of all piano trios, ECM has released a double DVD of two Tokyo concerts from 1985 and ’86. For those of… Read More ›
Jazz really does free your mind
Came across an interesting post on Mike McMannes’s The Drama Blog about research done by scientists into what happens in a jazz musician’s brain when they are improvising. Apparently their brains turn off areas linked to self-censorship and inhibition and… Read More ›
Svensson’s valedictory music
Leucocyte, the recording EST had delivered to their record company ACT less than a month before Esbjorn Svensson, the trio’s leader, died in a diving accident, has just arrived in the morning post.It’s thrilling to listen to – a disc… Read More ›
CD reviews 18-08-08
Kenny Barron: The Traveller (Emarcy) ***** Surely, one of the classiest pianists on the planet, with a new rhythm team comprising Japanese bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and Cuban drummer Francisco Mela, plus, on a few tracks, saxophonist Steve Wilson and guitarist Lionel… Read More ›
Downbeat critics and the UK blindspot
Tony Dudley-Evans, artistic director and programmer of Birmingham Jazz and the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, has some interesting observations about the 2008 Downbeat Critics’ Poll. Like Tony, I’m always interested in this annual poll from the magazine that is a jazz… Read More ›
Piano trios and the belief system
Just listening to the new disc from Tom Cawley’s band Curios (to be released on 1 September on the Impure label) and thinking that it’s really good that we seem to have moved through that period when each new piano… Read More ›
Even tastier on a new plate
Welcome to thejazzbreakfast at wordpress and look out for new and exciting developments in the days – well months – to come.
Kinch brings the Basement into the Hall
Hugely looking forward to Soweto Kinch and his band doing Basement Fables, part two from his A Life In The Day Of B19 project, at Birmingham Town Hall tonight.Heard some of it at the Drum and at Cheltenham earlier in… Read More ›
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
This news arrived too late for my Birmingham Post jazz diary, so the power of the old ink on paper can’t help promote the amazing Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, who are in Birmingham on Sunday evening.The band comprises seven brothers, all… Read More ›
Jazz goes to church in Lichfield
Jazz in church is a relatively rare occurrence, but there is going to be a lot of it going on between now and October as Acoustic Triangle in their new three-dimensional format, tour some of the country’s finest cathedrals and… Read More ›
Esbjorn Svensson – a sad farewell
Devastating news that Esbjorn Svensson has died in a scuba-diving accident at the age of 44. It’s always an assumption we make as audience members that the musicians up on the stage are nice guys, but it seemed a safe… Read More ›
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