jazz
An Audience with Dame Cleo Laine, RFH review - a phenomenon at 90Saturday, 19 May 2018
Yes, she sang, with her trademark artistry from the very first notes – four numbers, including a duet with daughter Jacqui Dankworth, and all in close partnership with her consummate players, including son Alec on double bass. Any worries that this... Read more... |
CD: Judith Owen - redisCOVERedSaturday, 19 May 2018
When a 49-year-old Welsh jazz’n’folk singer decides to make it her business to cover songs ranging from Drake’s “Hotline Bling” to Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling”, most people’s immediate reaction would be to advise her to leave well... Read more... |
CD: Hailey Tuck - JunkThursday, 17 May 2018
Take a first, passing glance at the debut album from Hailey Tuck and she could be mistaken for Katy Perry, done up in florid new image finery. The Texas-born, Paris-living 27 year old, however, on further inspection (and, more to the point, on... Read more... |
CD: Brad Mehldau Trio - Seymour Reads the Constitution!Sunday, 13 May 2018
From Bach to the Beach Boys in three months. Though the right side of 50, pianist and bandleader Brad Mehldau has released 35 albums in over 25 years. In the Nineties, as a twenty-something, he recorded a five-volume series of albums with the title... Read more... |
Jazz Ambassadors, BBC Four review - the cool warFriday, 04 May 2018
As the ice hardened in the Cold War of the mid-1950s, and the USSR mocked the USA for both its supposed barbarism and racial segregation, the representative from Harlem, Adam Clayton Powell Jr, had a bright idea. Instead of competing in the cultural... Read more... |
CD: Espen Eriksen Trio with Andy Sheppard - Perfectly UnhappyFriday, 04 May 2018
Perfectly Unhappy’s sixth track makes the album’s case. Until this point, Andy Sheppard’s playing has largely gone with the flow; working through and around the melodies pianist Espen Eriksen has composed for his trio’s first recorded collaboration... Read more... |
Jazz FM Awards 2018 - a banner year for Ezra CollectiveWednesday, 02 May 2018
Hosted by Jazz FM presenters Chris Philips and Jez Nelson on UNESCO’s International Jazz Day, rising stars and international icons were honoured at the fifth Jazz FM Awards on Monday night.A Grammy winner earlier this year for her... Read more... |
CD: Van Morrison and Joey DeFrancesco - You're Driving Me CrazyThursday, 26 April 2018
Van Morrison has always been drawn as much to jazz as anything else. There is a natural swing to his voice, and his phrasing, melisma and familiar vocal mannerisms have always suited the medium well, from early excursions on Astral Weeks, through... Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl: Record Store Day Special 2018Friday, 20 April 2018
Record Store Day 2018 – Saturday April 21 – is upon us. It should really be Record Shop Day 2018 as this is the UK but let’s not quibble. Instead, put aside cynicism about major labels cashing in, wander down to the nearest record shop – and,... Read more... |
10 Questions for Courtney Pine: 'How do you express rage?'Friday, 20 April 2018
Over 30 years after he made his debut as a solo artist, woodwind multi-instrumentalist Courtney Pine is still Britain’s most prominent and influential jazz musician. He had a crucial role in reviving interest in jazz in the 1980s and 1990s, and has... Read more... |
CD: National Jazz Trio of Scotland - Standards Vol.IVWednesday, 11 April 2018
The National Jazz Trio of Scotland are not really that at all. With a name designed to sound like a stiffly formal unit they are, in fact, an entity based around Bill Wells, a Scottish institution, albeit an alternative one. He’s been around the... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Radka Toneff and Steve DobrogoszSunday, 08 April 2018
Fairytales is lovely. It opens with a subtle version of Jimmy Webb’s “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” which merges Radka Toneff’s emotive and intimate vocal with Steve Dobrogosz’s sparse piano lines. The ingredients are minimal, there is no... Read more... |
