Articles by Andrew Hunter
Theo Girard: La rivière coulera sans effort
by Andrew Hunter
French double bassist Théo Girard has built a career with great patience, not releasing his debut as a leader until the age of 40. That well- received record, 30YearsFrom (Discoble, 2017), was a trio piece and included drummer-in-demand Sebastian Rochford, with whom Girard has built a not inconsiderable body of work. La Rivière Coulera Sans Effort (The River Will Flow Without Effort) is the first with a new quartet called Mobke--the 'Mo' from Montreuil, a district of Paris, and the ...
Continue ReadingJ.A.M. String Collective at Hot Numbers, Cambridge
by Andrew Hunter
J.A.M. String Collective Hot Numbers Cambridge Jazz Festival Cambridge, England November 14 2025 It was a wet, dark night to follow a day so wet it felt like the sun never really came up at all. There was a food van in the street working hard to keep up with the demand for burgers and fries. Lights twinkled and beckoned through the glass door and inside it smelt of coffee, wine and damp-but-drying music ...
Continue ReadingFergus McCreadie: The Shieling
by Andrew Hunter
Things tend to come in pairs. The animals went into the ark, all those years ago, two by two. Tonic water was created to control the symptoms of malaria but found its voice when mixed with gin to control the symptoms of reality. Some pairings work against the odds; until you have tried strawberries with black pepper, it is hard to imagine what a harmonious pairing they are. The point being, if you saw Scottish folk served with ...
Continue ReadingEshaan Sood Presents The Sonic Alchemists: The Sonic Alchemists I: Dream River
by Andrew Hunter
Guitarist Eshaan Sood came to jazz by the most unlikely and brutal of routes. Born and raised in New Delhi, India, he was expecting to begin a career as a graphic artist until he lost his sight in a terrible car accident that he was lucky to survive. Rather than despairing, he moved his focus to his other love--music. A guitar, piano, bass and tabla player from a very young age, he enrolled at the Global Music Institute ...
Continue ReadingJasper Høiby: Fellow Creatures: We Must Fight
by Andrew Hunter
Fellow Creatures is the band that bassist Jasper Høiby has assembled around himself and they are clearly a talented bunch. They would have to be, to revisit material from Høiby's previous band, Phronesis. That trio of Høiby, Anton Eger and Ivo Neame were almost hyperbolically highly regarded. A quick internet search will show how well reviewed they were, not only amongst the jazz cognoscenti, but also in the mainstream media. Much of the material on this record was ...
Continue ReadingOlga Amelchenko: Howling Silence
by Andrew Hunter
Olga Amelchenko, the Russian born, Paris based saxophonist and composer, is joined here on her fourth recording as leader by a strong ensemble with members old and new. Jesus Vega has been playing drums with Amelchenko for a long while. Canadian guitarist Matthew Stevens, who did such great work with Walter Smith iii, is a new addition to the group. It is not obvious that this particular iteration of Amelchenka's band is recent; They play as if they have known ...
Continue ReadingRay Brown: His Life and Music
by Andrew Hunter
Ray Brown: His Life and Music Jay Sweet 310 Pages ISBN: # 9781800505353 Equinox Publishing2025 It is such a common occurrence in life that bad things happen to good people, and conversely that good things happen to bad people, that there is a branch of theology given to the question of how and why God allows such injustice to occur. It is called theodicy. Given the frequency with which people ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Ângelo Trio: Distopia
by Andrew Hunter
Portuguese double-bassist Miguel Ângelo is a busy guy. He leads a quartet, with which he has released three records, as well as the trio he appears with here. He is also a member of several other small groups and has, fairly uniquely, released a record of solo double bass--the splendidly titled I Think I'm Going To Eat Dessert (Creative Sources Recordings, 2017). It is more engaging that you might imagine and establishes beyond doubt that we are hanging with a ...
Continue ReadingPolar Bear: Dim Lit
by Andrew Hunter
When Polar Bear released Dim Lit in 2004, shortly after being nominated for Best Band at the BBC Jazz Awards, it was clear that the British quartet led by drummer Sebastian Rochford were going to make some waves. Mark Lockheart (sax) was already in the middle of a successful career, having played with Django Bates and been part of the seminal 1980s British big band Loose Tubes. Pete Wareham (sax) was playing with Rochford in Acoustic Ladyland. Tom Herbert added ...
Continue ReadingSnowpoet: Heartstrings
by Andrew Hunter
Snowpoet, led by the creative partnership of Lauren Kinsella and Chris Hyson has been releasing reliably engaging, curious music since 2014's self-released Butterfly. Heartstrings, their fourth full length record, was written through a series of group improvisations from which the ten songs here grew. Moving away from their accustomed writing habits was a bold decision considering the strength of their carefully crafted writing in the past. Regardless of approach, Heartstrings opens on reassuringly familiar ground. Hyson's harmonic sense ...
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