Articles by Rob Garratt
Atlantis Trio at MutaMenti HK
by Rob Garratt
Atlantis Trio Tsuen Wan Town Hall MutaMenti HK Hong Kong September 27, 2023 A lot of flak is (fairly) laid on the often clumsy, jarring aesthetics of “global-beat," “world fusion," or whatever you want to call it (terms I use sparingly and with reservation). But the truth is however earnest the expectation, however tasteful the application, melding musical traditions isn't always as seamlessly intuitive as the true masters make it ...
read moreJack DeJohnette: Sorcery
by Rob Garratt
Which Jack DeJohnette is best known? The subtle sticksmith at the heart of Keith Jarrett's Standards Trio, perhaps? Probably the heavyweight hitter driving electric-era Miles Davis' '70s sonic brew. Maybe the percussive upstart propelling Charles Lloyd to crossover flower-power fame? Or even the fearless bandleader behind the ever-thrilling Special Edition band ... At age 81, DeJohnette can (still) fairly claim to be the most in-demand jazz drummer on the planet. But even the most studious acolyte ...
read moreFlow Festival 2023
by Rob Garratt
Flow Festival Suvilahti, Helsinki, Finland August 11-13, 2023 The stark quantity and sheer quality of improvised and instrumental music on offer at Finland's Flow Festival only starts to make sense when you dig into its roots. Once loudly crowned by Vogue as “the Nordics countries' coolest festival"--a fact the event's PR team are not in a hurry to let you forget--the Helsinki hipster fest was, it turns out, originally founded 19 years ago as ...
read moreHéctor Lavoe: La Voz
by Rob Garratt
Craft Recordings have been on a roll of late, following 2021's excellently presented Ornette Coleman boxset, Genesis of Genius, with 2023's Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds series and imminent Sonny Rollins set Go West!: The Contemporary Records Albums. So it is only natural that jazz-inclined audiophiles will start turning their attention to what other treasures the LA-based reissue specialists are digging out of the vaults. And so we arrive at Craft's new “special reissue" of salsa star ...
read moreMakaya McCraven: In The Moment to In These Times
by Rob Garratt
Makaya McCraven needs a coffee--fast. It's 4pm and he's crashing. It will be his third of the day. His first caffeine hit, consumed on stage six hours earlier, was a chemical necessity; McCraven was drinking at a nearby Irish pub until the early hours and nearly missed his early morning panel talk appearance alongside fellow percussion luminaries Antonio Sanchez and Nate Smith. Something tells me it won't be his last cup before bedtime--at 10:30 tonight the multi-hyphenate musician will present ...
read moreEzra Collective's Femi Koleoso: On Tony Allen and UK jazz today
by Rob Garratt
Of all the artists to emerge from the overbaked “UK jazz explosion" of recent years, Ezra Collective are arguably the greatest crossover success--based on Spotify stats and tour bookings, anyway. And while the juggernaut of early hype may have worn itself out, things are only looking rosier in 2023: The barrier-busting London quintet is currently gearing up for a breakthrough North American tour, topped by a week at New York's Blue Note Jazz Club. Their first post-pandemic outing comes off ...
read moreOur Jazz Pianists LIVE!
by Rob Garratt
Before you even drop the needle or hit play, take a moment to soak in the title of the recording you hold in your hands. The emphasis must fall squarely on the first word: these are our jazz pianists—Hong Kong's. A proud statement of ownership, acknowledging a fresh wave of young talent breaking in a city not renowned for its appreciation or cultivation of improvised music.It's the same title of the four-hour concert where these performances were recorded, one long, ...
read moreFreespace Jazz Festival 2022
by Rob Garratt
Freespace Jazz Festival 2022 Freespace, West Kowloon Cultural District Hong Kong October 26-30, 2022 Hong Kong's best jazz fest launched at the worst possible time. The debut Freespace Jazz Festival, in 2019, struck a bold chord with its choice of A-list international headliners-- most especially Robert Glasper, whose frenzied set channelled the electric energy of the anti-government protests of the moment. But ongoing pandemic restrictions have hampered subsequent editions, with the ...
read moreWe Jazz Records: Finland's indie label shaking up the global conversation
by Rob Garratt
The past decade's genre-bending jazz renaissance has been well-documented, but between the trailblazing players taking improvised music to increasingly hip places, and the ever-growing audience queuing up to hear them, sits the homegrown labels bottling these brave, thrilling (r)evolutions for all to hear. In conversations about the state of jazz today, it's often easier to distil the music's disparate scenes and sounds by referring to the labels who document them, instead of the musicians who play it. And it's not ...
read morePori Jazz 2022
by Rob Garratt
Pori Jazz 2022 Kirjurinluoto Concert Park jny:Pori, Finland July 14-16, 2022 If this year's 55th annual Pori Jazz festival had a “moment," it was when Immanuel Wilkins invited Shabaka Hutchings to the stage as a surprise guest for a dazzling 14-minute duet that capped the former's spellbinding set, and set the intense tone for the latter's to come shortly after. A cross-generational sax-off lacking all ego or one-upmanship, this searing, sympathetic encounter ...
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