Articles by David Burke
KT Reeder: 2021 Jazz
by David Burke
Jazz has always defied convention, its improvisational nature eliciting as much opprobrium as ovation. Ironically, given the libertarian philosophy that underpins it, those who play, critique or listen aren't always so receptive to change, to boundaries being forced, to new territory being mapped out. Remember, there were many who didn't dig bebop at first, many others who decried the free jazz movement pioneered by Ornette Coleman, and still more who baulked at fusion. All have since been accepted as seminal ...
Continue ReadingGiant Steps: Diverse Journeys in British Jazz
by David Burke
The following is a revised excerpt from “Chapter 3: Full Force Gail" of Giant Steps: Diverse Journeys in British Jazz by David Burke (Desert Hearts, 2021). In the 1980s, a new generation of black British musicians began to reconfigure the country's jazz scene, changing the face -and sound-of what had previously been a largely mono-cultural medium. The Jazz Warriors collective was the proving ground for players such as Courtney Pine, Orphy Robinson, Dennis Rollins, Gary Crosby and ...
Continue ReadingZara McFarlane: Embodying the Spirit of Jamaica
by David Burke
Zara McFarlane may have been made in Britain, but she belongs to Jamaica. The land of her mother and father is written in her soul and vibrates through her music. You can feel it in the bewitching rhythms and hear it in the socio-conscious words—both elements of reggae -that inform her distinctive version of jazz, especially on the critically-lauded collection, Arise. The London-born singer was five years old when she first went to the Caribbean island—a sort of ...
Continue ReadingCourtney Pine: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
by David Burke
Courtney Pine didn't pick up his beloved tenor saxophone for more than a decade, until an album exploring the black British experience demanded it. The multi-instrumentalist eschewed the horn on the likes of Europa, House of Legends and Song (The Ballad Book), his two-hander with pianist Zoe Rahman. “I spoke to Sonny Rollins about five years ago at a concert, and I asked him, 'Why don't you play loads of instruments, like John Coltrane?' What he said was, ...
Continue ReadingDenys Baptiste: Making the Late Trane Accessible
by David Burke
Even the most avowed John Coltrane disciples among us would admit to grappling with some of the albums he released in the couple of years before his death--the likes of Ascension, Sun Ship and Om. And we weren't alone. His long-time drummer, Elvin Jones, told Downbeat magazine, “At times I couldn't hear what I was doing--matter of fact, I couldn't hear what anybody was doing. All I could hear was a lot of noise." Evidently British saxophonist Denys ...
Continue ReadingSoweto Kinch: A Singular Jazz Odyssey
by David Burke
Soweto Kinch was a curious teenager when an encounter with Wynton Marsalis impelled him on his own jazz odyssey. An odyssey characterised by the creation of dynamic new soundscapes in the spirit of the music's great innovators, on landmark albums such as A Life in the Day of B19: Tales of the Tower Block, The Legend of Mike Smith and Nonogram. “There is a point at which you can hear the music and not really be switched onto ...
Continue ReadingTony Bennett at Birmingham Symphony Hall
by David Burke
Tony Bennett Birmingham Symphony Hall Birmingham, UK July 3, 2017 The ghost of Frank Sinatra crackled over the PA, introducing Tony Bennett as “the greatest singer in the world." He was, The Voice declared, “gonna tear the place up"--a boast that seemed hardly credible as the dapper nonagenarian shuffled on stage for what was surely his adieu to Birmingham. But a boast that Bennett did his damndest to affirm in the following ...
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