jazz
theartsdesk
Jimmy Page: Lucifer Rising and Other SoundtracksKieron TylerWith Led Zeppelin established as world-beaters in 1971, Jimmy Page was probably entitled to take some time off. Instead, in the wake of the release of their fourth album, they criss-crossed the world in 1972. When at home, Page somehow found time to work on the soundtrack for the Kenneth Anger film Lucifer Rising. It’s been bootlegged and the first official appearance of this mysterious chapter in Page’s musical life plugs a gap. Page himself has released it on his own label and contributes brief liner notes.Strictly speaking, this Read more ...
Ismene Brown
Sound the trumpets triumphantly - Matthew Bourne’s most original masterpiece has come out of hiding into full view, a giddy, sexy, diabolical confection that hovers on the edge of hellish, and deserves to become a global smash. Play Without Words is everything that any sex comedy could aspire to, everything that a film noir could aim for, and much more dangerous than either theatre or film can be, because it’s what bodies do, not what mouths say, that is leading you into your own sinful nature.Bourne made the work in a National Theatre workshop 10 years ago, and that experimental milieu drew Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
It could have been a cow lowing in the distance, the sound drifting across a barren landscape. Its tone transformed after echoing through hillsides and ravines. Actually, it was Karl Seglem blowing into the horn of a goat. Suddenly, he stopped and began wordlessly chanting. The other two musicians on stage at St Luke's kept their heads down and continued providing the sonic wash knitting together this collaboration between the classical, jazz and uncategorisable.Seglem’s diversion into the animalistic was short, but it helped define last night. The union of Christian Wallumrød, Seglem and Read more ...
garth.cartwright
New Orleans brass remains the elemental party sound of the Crescent City with groups of young black men providing a bright, swaggering soundtrack to jazz funerals and second line parades. Originally, the brass bands grew out of working men’s clubs that acted as de facto unions in the then segregated south. The likes of Louis Armstrong (and many others) got an early musical initiation via playing on the street and even today it's possible to visit New Orleans and find brass bands busking in the French Quarter or, if more established, crowding onto a stage in a local bar.The Hot 8 Brass Band Read more ...
graham.rickson
Mozart: The Four Horn Concertos Marc Geujon, Orchestre Paul Kuentz/Paul Kuentz (Calliope)Mozart’s horn concertos remain cornerstones of the hornist's repertoire. No one has ever written horn music quite so idiomatic, tuneful and loveable. They were composed for the Viennese hand horn player Joseph Leutgeb, whose technical virtuosity by some accounts wasn’t matched by intellectual ability; Mozart wrote cheeky insults addressed to Leutgeb in the manuscript of K495. But these brief works brim with warmth and affection; each one perfectly proportioned, difficult to play well but never Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
“This is such fun”. Martin Horntveth, Jaga Jazzist’s drummer, can’t contain his excitement. Standing up behind his kit, he radiates joy. Considering that he and his band are Norwegian, typically not given to overstatement, what he describes as fun would be off the pleasure scale by non-Nordic standards. The meeting of Jaga Jazzist and The Britten Sinfonia was an unqualified success, one of those rare one-off concerts where band and their temporary collaborators seamlessly connect.The Norwegian instrumentalists and the British ensemble came together at The Barbican last night as part of the on Read more ...
howard.male
As all the background information to this new release can be found in Nick Levine’s recent interview with Neneh Cherry for theartsdesk, let's get straight down to scrutinising the music. For this serious contender for album of the year deserves more than just a reshuffling of the information on its press release.Just as one can take pleasure in the physical substance of paint on a canvas (dragged, splattered or elegantly arced), it's also enjoyable when the music issuing from the stereo seems to violently push the air aside before threatening to ransack the room. Take this Read more ...
peter.quinn
If this gig by the new vocal supergroup, BLINQ, had to be summed up by a musical expression, then poco a poco crescendo would fit the bill rather nicely. The group, Brendan Reilly, Liane Carroll, Ian Shaw, Natalie Williams, plus the Mercury Prize nominated virtuoso pianist, Gwilym Simcock – what's wrong with a bit of BLING? – gave their first ever performance at Ronnie Scott's last August. Despite not having clocked up many miles on their musical pedometer, last night the quintet delivered auditory thrills by the bucket load.Balancing the BBC Jazz Award winners Shaw and Carroll Read more ...
Joe Muggs
Coming from a thriving East London improvisation scene, "aquatic Krautrock experimentalists" Snorkel have made a logical step forward and released a single that was entirely recorded in one, improvised take. We are very happy to present here in its full ten-and-a-half minute glory the video of the recording, as well as a free download of a remix by Crewdson of another track from the session.Snorkel now feature in their lineup trombonist/producer Ralph Cumbers aka Bass Clef, who is no stranger to improvisation as his previous collaboration with the London Improvisers Orchestra demonstrated. Read more ...
peter.quinn
Django Bates ascribes the variety of musical influences at play in his work to his childhood - growing up listening to his father's remarkably eclectic record collection. In the first part of my conversation with Django, he talks about Loose Tubes, StoRMChaser and his new post at Bern University of the Arts. In this second part of our conversation, he talks about craftsmanship, confounding expectations and why strumming one chord all day can be time well spent.PETER QUINN: Your father’s record collection included Romanian folk music, African music, jazz. I’m intrigued to know how that music Read more ...
peter.quinn
Born in Beckenham, Kent, in 1960, Django Bates is a self-taught composer and founder member of the seminal big band Loose Tubes (1983-1990). As well as leading his own groups, Human Chain and Delightful Precipice, he has composed works for the Brodsky Quartet, Joanna MacGregor, Evelyn Glennie, the Britten Sinfonia and the Dutch Metropole Orchestra, amongst others. In 1997, Bates was awarded the prestigious Jazzpar prize, known as the 'Nobel Prize of Jazz' (previous recipients include Lee Konitz, Roy Haynes and Geri Allen). He currently teaches at Bern University of the Arts and the Read more ...
Nick Levine
Neneh Cherry has never been conventional. The singer and rapper's latest album is a collaboration with The Thing, a Swedish free jazz trio who have previously tackled songs by PJ Harvey and The White Stripes. If anything, the presence of Cherry has made them braver: The Cherry Thing features reworkings of The Stooges' "Dirt", Suicide's "Dream Baby Dream" and MF Doom's "Accordion". It's gutsy stuff, but it works. The album already sounds like a contender for the end of year lists.At first, this project seems like an unlikely comeback vehicle for Cherry, but on closer inspection it could be Read more ...