Bruce Lindsay's up to date report about jazz in the UK.
The Art Of The Song
Singing is possibly the most universal of the arts, certainly of the musical arts. The human voice is the most portable of instruments, always there, always available. It's also the most expressive of instruments: almost every instrument invented in history has at some time or other been used to mimic the voice; none have truly succeeded. ...
Eat Worms Or Be Loved
The first JazzLife UK article of 2012 has been some time coming: my apologies to anyone who noticed. By way of recompense this edition moves beyond the narrow confines of the British Isles to discuss an international Jazz Quandary: if jazz has gone so horribly wrong, how can we fix it? It's a big question and ...
The JazzLife UK Gilded Butterfly Awards 2011
As Noddy Holder and the mighty Slade remind us every year, “It's CHRISTMAAAAAAS." With the Yuletide festivities comes the annual avalanche of End Of Year lists, Best Of awards and Grammy nominations. This year, JazzLife UK adds its own awards to the list: the inaugural JazzLife UK Gilded Butterfly Awards (or GBs). In line with the ...
It's Our Generations
It's been a strange summer here in the UK. To be fair, that description can be applied with no trace of irony to almost any British summer--and the summer of 2011 seems to have been a strange one for much of the world. But this is a JazzLife UK article, and parochial concerns are paramount, thus ...
So Why Can't Jazz Guitarists Play Chords?
This edition of JazzLife UK starts about as far from Britain as it's possible to get in the USA without toppling head first into the Pacific. It returns to its spiritual and physical homeland of Norfolk, where it can happily hide from the real world until next time, and looks forward to a festival that combines ...
Gondwanaland and the Mystical North
Good things continue to happen on the UK jazz scene. My cheery optimism remains in place. JazzLife UK gained a small smidgeon of recognition from the Big City. My new Blog, Jazz, Delicious Hot, Disgusting Cold, debuted to almost universal disinterest. Two new releases, the Kairos 4tet's Statement Of Intent (Edition Records) and Matthew Halsall's On ...
It's Been A Very Good Year
The New Year is past its infancy, leaving toddlerhood behind and heading into those difficult pre-school years. Olympic Fever jostles with a forthcoming Royal Wedding for the attentions of the Great British Public (at least according to the more populist media). Across the Atlantic, Esperanza Spalding won a first for jazz: the Grammy Award for Best ...
Northern Ireland: Jazz is on the Rise
In geographical terms, the island of Ireland is small: just 300 miles by 175 miles, with a population of around 6.2 million. Northern Ireland is smaller still: 1.8 million people in six counties in the north-east of the island. In the wide world of jazz the country rarely rates a mention. But Northern Ireland's jazz scene ...
Autumn Falls
It's autumn (Fall, if pushed). British jazz gets sensible again, and moves back indoors. As keen readers will be aware, JazzLife UK is essentially an indoor photography project--outdoors is the space that must be crossed to get from one indoors to another--and the thought of another nine months of gigs without the need to pack sunscreen ...
Am I "Jazz People?"
I rarely write anything too serious in a JazzLife UK article and, for the most part, this month's missive will be no different. However, the summer of 2010 started very sadly for UK jazz with the deaths of four popular, talented and influential musicians, and it seems appropriate to write a few words to remember each ...
"Dancing:" It's A Dirty Word
JazzLife UK continued apace during May and June 2010, adding many more photographs to the project and hearing more great jazz in yet more odd and unusual venues. Early May brought more indications of summer to the British weather, and ushered in a General Election. JazzLife UK can now reveal--as promised in my previous article--that the ...
There's No Such Thing as a British Jazz Scene
March and April 2010 were eventful months for JazzLife UK--my photo-documentary project on the jazz scene in Britain. Spring finally emerged from winter's grasp, snowdrops replaced snow drifts and jazz life got busier. Debates about jazz and the media took center-stage, at least for some of us, politicians limbered up for a General Election (I know ...
Photographing the World's Best Jazz Scene
JazzLife UK--a simple idea. I'll spend much of 2010 travelling around the United Kingdom photographing the jazz scene and asking some of its members what they think about the current state of UK jazz. I'll photograph musicians, venues, performances, rehearsals, sound checks, record label executives, promoters, agents, presenters, DJs and anyone or anything else that forms ...
