Articles by Duncan Heining
Chris Biscoe: Music Is: Chris Biscoe Plays Mike Westbrook
by Duncan Heining
Chris Biscoe can trade choruses with the best and melt the heart with the tenderest of ballads. But that is not what makes him special. Live and on record there is always a sense of quiet anticipation as he starts a solo. One knows one is about to hear something new, something different. It is more than his mastery of a range of woodwinds. It is more than the wonderful tone he achieves seemingly effortlessly on each of his instruments--powerful, ...
read moreA Supreme Love
by Duncan Heining
Alan Skidmore is one of the finest saxophonists to come out of the United Kingdom, Europe or indeed anywhere. In fact, it was hearing Skidmore's tenor solo on “Have You Heard?" from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton (Decca, 1966) that encouraged a young Michael Brecker to take up the instrument. Skidmore had also served his apprenticeship with blues singer Alexis Kornerin the sixties and by the end of the decade was equally well-versed in the blues and in the ...
read moreRoberto Bonati + ParmaFrontiere Orchestra: La fòla de l’oca/Overtime
by Duncan Heining
Bassist/composer Roberto Bonati is one of the most imaginative and creative composers working in 2023. His past recordings evidence a fondness for literary and philosophical concerns, grand conceits that his compositional skills are more than able to match. A Silvery Silence: fragments from Moby Dick (MM Records 2006) pondered obsession versus conscience, while The Blanket of the Dark, a Study for Lady Macbeth ( MM Records, 2001) explored Shakespeare's -and Verdi's -tragic themes from the lady's perspective. Le Rêve du ...
read moreGeorge Russell Remembered
by Duncan Heining
How is it that one of the most significant figures in modern jazz is so often overlooked when histories of the music are written? And how come one of its most important composers is not immediately acknowledged when jazz is discussed? Therein hang a number of tangled tales. The centenary of composer, musician, bandleader, educator and musical theorist George Russell arrived in June, 2023. As a theorist his ideas shaped the ways in which modern jazz developed from ...
read moreRhythm And Blues Records: Small But Perfectly Formed
by Duncan Heining
Back in 2007, music fan Nick Duckett walked into a record shop hoping to buy a comprehensive history of rhythm and blues on CD. To his surprise, the owner told him no such set existed at the time. Having a bit of time on his hands, Duckett thought to himself, “Well, there bloody ought to be?" From that small acorn, the oak that would become Rhythm and Blues Records took root. The Middlesex-based UK label now boasts some ...
read moreDave Green Trio plus Evan Parker: Raise Four
by Duncan Heining
Bassist Dave Green recorded this set for the BBC Radio 3 programme Somethin' Else in 2004. In the interview included here with the show's presenter Jez Nelson, Green reflects on a forty year career in jazz. It is fitting that this fine record, only his fourth as leader, sees its release in the year Green marks his 80th birthday. What a great way to celebrate a wonderful career! Less well-known than he should be beyond the UK and ...
read moreFrances Shelley: A Place That Exists
by Duncan Heining
Pianist Frances Shelley's third solo album, A Place That Exists, is an intriguing, atmospheric collection. Though she describes her approach as “neo-classical," Shelley might equally be described as an instant composer. Classically-influenced, she has for some years explored the potential for bringing that influence together with improvisation and electronics, with her musical partner Matthew Bickerton. Inevitably, these thirteen tracks (sixteen with digital download) have a certain Nyman-esque quality to them, in that they are as much concerned with ...
read moreRobert Bonati Chironomic Orchestra: Whirling Leaves
by Duncan Heining
Whirling Leaves is a wonderful, intriguing album from Roberto Bonati, one of Europe's most interesting and creative composers. Bonati's previous large ensemble records have all essayed specific themes, from “The Scottish Play" from The Blanket of the Dark, a Study for Lady Macbeth ( MM Records, 2001) to the migratory nature and evolution of medieval music on Le Rêve du Jongleur (Parafroniere, 1999). With Whirling Leaves, however, there appears to be no such programme intent here. The music is its ...
read moreKeith Tippett: 100 Best Foots Forward
by Duncan Heining
From the Albert Hall at twenty-two with a fifty-piece band to picking potatoes to make ends meet a decade later, Keith Tippett's life in music could sum up many a jazz career. After a grim '80s, things now look better for the composer, pianist and bandleader. “What I'm about to say is ridiculous but it was a marvellous coincidence that when Thatcher was ousted my career kicked in again," he says laughing. There are obviously more Tory jazz fans than ...
read moreKeith Tippett: R.I.P.
by Duncan Heining
Keith Tippett's death on Sunday, 14th June 2020 robbed British and European music of one of its finest talents. The death on any musician of even minor significance often leads many critics reaching for the Thesaurus and tripping over their adjectives in a head-rush of hyperbole. In Keith's case, the simple phrase--"one of music's finest talents"--cuts through the exaggeration and elevation of those less gifted like a blade. The sheer breadth and quality of Keith's work is astounding. I have ...
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