jazz
CD: MALIJA - The Day I Had EverythingSunday, 22 November 2015
With a moto perpetuo of looping accompanying figures in piano and bass underpinning a memorably angular melody in the sax, the opening track of The Day I Had Everything, ”Squared”, announces both a cliché-free collection and a work of trenchant... Read more... |
Keith Jarrett, Royal Festival HallSaturday, 21 November 2015
How, exactly, are you supposed to review a Keith Jarrett concert – solo, completely improvised, just one man and his Steinway, audience on all sides, ushers walking up and down the aisles bearing signs forbidding any record of the evening's music?“... Read more... |
Cassandra Wilson/Lionel Loueke, Royal Festival HallThursday, 19 November 2015
“I’m sorry I’m late,” said Cassandra Wilson to a half empty Royal Festival Hall, after a sulky rendition of “Don’t Explain”, the opening track from her Billie Holiday tribute album, Coming Forth By Day. It was an hour and fifteen minutes since the... Read more... |
Gomez, Osborne, Britten Sinfonia, Järvi, Milton CourtThursday, 19 November 2015
Don’t blame the players: they did their considerable best. But what could they hope to achieve with a programme in which six of the seven pieces were on a hiding to nowhere, or too short to have much of an impact? A sequence, what's more, in which... Read more... |
Maria Schneider Orchestra, Cadogan HallWednesday, 18 November 2015
Eloquent, transfixing, profoundly moving. Last night, in the beautiful setting of the Cadogan Hall, the Maria Schneider Orchestra gave one of those landmark performances that people will remember for years to come. We heard seven of the eight tracks... Read more... |
Jarrod Lawson, O2 Shepherd's Bush EmpireMonday, 16 November 2015
Having released a self-titled debut album last year, soul singer Jarrod Lawson has been on a European touring offensive for much of this one. Very charming it has been, too, landing Lawson Soul Artist of the Year title at the 2015 Jazz FM Awards,... Read more... |
Jazz Voice, BarbicanSaturday, 14 November 2015
Featuring the usual, divertingly eclectic mix of singers from the worlds of jazz, pop and soul, last night’s Jazz Voice announced the opening of the 2015 EFG London Jazz Festival with a programme that satisfied both aficionado and newbie alike.... Read more... |
Jazz Central - London... or Odessa?Friday, 13 November 2015
For an art form that has been quite often written off over the last half century, Jazz seems in extraordinarily rude health. Today sees the opening of the biggest ever EFG London Jazz Festival featuring scores of venues and hundreds of groups... Read more... |
10 Questions for Musician Maria SchneiderMonday, 09 November 2015
Maria Schneider is one of the luminaries of contemporary jazz. The composer, arranger and bandleader, together with her 18-piece orchestra, first came to prominence in 1994 with the release of their debut recording, Evanescence. Blazing... Read more... |
10 Questions for Nicola Benedetti and Wynton MarsalisTuesday, 03 November 2015
He’s an American jazz giant; she’s a Scottish doyenne of the classical violin. Anyone familiar with one more than the other – and that’s more or less everyone – would do a double take to see their names on the same bill. But this week at Barbican... Read more... |
CD: Georgie Fame and the Last Blue Flames - Swan SongsSunday, 01 November 2015
While many of his contemporaries make the most of their grizzled old men’s voices, Georgie Fame sounds as young and fresh as he did when he first burst on the London scene in the 1960s. This is supposedly his last album, and it sounds, in many ways... Read more... |
CD: Amy Winehouse & Antônio Pinto - Amy OSTWednesday, 21 October 2015
Asif Kapadia’s Amy packs a punch. It is a wrenching, clear-eyed portait of a supremely talented, charismatic young woman being whittled away by voracious, relentless 21st century celebrity, exacerbated by her own demons. At the UK box office it’s... Read more... |
