Home » Jazz Musicians » Kevin M Armstrong

Kevin M Armstrong

Jazz guitarist / composer based in Oxford, UK.

Jazzelation 2008-2010

Hummus Crisis 2015 - present

Hummus Crisis: Banks Of The River

Read "Banks Of The River" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
April 16, 2023

For their third album, British organ trio Hummus Crisis--guitarist Kevin M. Armstrong, organist Martin Pickett and drummer Ben Twyford--reconstruct themselves. The trio becomes a quartet with guest Alec Dankworth taking over the bass lines, and Pickett switching from organ to acoustic piano. And, in a smaller tweak, for the first time a standard, Jimmy Van Heusen's “Polka Dots And Moonbeams," is included in the otherwise all-originals set. The reason for bringing Dankworth in was that the trio ...

Banks Of The River is consistently good and it is difficult to pick standout tracks… the music feels positive throughout...Armstrong's melodic, cleanly articulated, single-note soloing is a delight, and Pickett's right hand similarly so… Twyford engages in some energetic trades… Dankworth and Twyford anchor things with crisp precision.

Chris May, All About Jazz
April 16, 2023

What a fine sound they make….unhackneyed…fine players…the quartet manage… within the soft turn-down-the-lamp atmosphere to unearth nuance and register…The Crisis also inhabit a more John Abercrombie-like dreaminess… as much whimsically as bittersweet melancholic…a very “band” like ego-less whole. Roam on!