Articles by Luke Seabright
Pete Bennie & Maxwell Hallett: Coma World
by Luke Seabright
Many a science fiction writer has found thematic material in the ideas of alternate realities and parallel worlds. Anyone willing to follow them into these conceptual maelstroms can find solace in the exotic wonder of infinite possibilities, but risk exposing themselves to the anxious existential conundrums of illusory perception. Even as some physicists explore the legitimate theory that our own universe could be but a simulation, one is easily tempted to question the foundations of our own reality. A friend's ...
Continue ReadingAmaury Faye: Buran
by Luke Seabright
There is no greater leap of faith for a musician than to leave the relative security of a band (with its fresh input of ideas and, let's face it, handy support when they mess up) and go down the solo road. And yet, especially for a pianist who claims Brad Mehldau as his primary inspiration, it is a mountain that is too tempting not to climb. For listeners, they also discover something new. If they were familiar with the conversationalist, ...
Continue ReadingMichael Weiss: Soul Journey
by Luke Seabright
Bebop is a complex craft, and like all crafts the only way to get any good at it is by learning from those who mastered it before you. Jamming through the night, getting on to that bandstand and firing away your best improvised lines, jousting with your partners (be they friends or strangers) like in the cutting contests of old. This is all part of the studious process that jazz musicians all over the world work their way to hone ...
Continue ReadingEFG London Jazz Festival 2019
by Luke Seabright
A truly great event that advocates for an art form like jazz will celebrate both its history and its younger incarnations. It can breathe life into the music's traditions while exposing new ways forward. The EFG London Jazz Festival, through its vast programme of concerts in venues across the city, succeeds in doing just that. This kind of intersectionality could already be found on the opening night. The founding of the iconic American label Blue Note 80 years ago is ...
Continue ReadingWaldo's Gift: Capturing the Moment
by Luke Seabright
If you were to somehow draw a map of the UK along cultural rather than demographic lines, suddenly London wouldn't be so disproportionately large. After all, the most influential pop group of all time came from a small city a few hundred kilometres north of the capital. Bristol is another town that has carved out a significant place for itself on this map. Today, it is perhaps going through a slight identity crisis, or at least it is having to ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Whiskey Juliet Foxtrot
by Luke Seabright
Much like the highly-regarded We Out Here (Brownswood Recordings, 2018), Whiskey Juliet Foxtrot is all about showcasing some exciting new talent in jazz. However, there is perhaps an extra lesson to be learned from Byrd Out's new compilation album; we would be wrong to assume that the UK's flourishing scene is solely concentrated in London. There is no denying that the capital is the epicentre of it all. The range of music coming out of there and the ...
Continue ReadingWalthamstow Jazz Festival 2019
by Luke Seabright
Walthamstow Jazz Festival London February 16, 2019 If you're not from London the name Walthamstow most likely means nothing to you, unless perhaps you admire the work of designer and craftsman William Morris. Even to most Londoners it is probably little more than the fabled end of the Victoria Line. And yet in recent years, as the North London borough has undergone rapid urban change (like many others before it), it has managed to ...
Continue ReadingBinker Golding & Elliot Galvin: Ex Nihilo
by Luke Seabright
Ex Nihilo sees the pairing of two British rising stars: Elliot Galvin on piano and Binker Golding, (one half of the acclaimed Binker and Moses) on saxophones. Communication is at the heart of most improvised music, and a duo strips this communication down to its most fundamental unit: the dialogue. Here the two converse with remarkable audacity as they experiment with texture and space. You might think there's a limit to the textural complexity that only a sax ...
Continue ReadingJazz Sur Son 31 2018
by Luke Seabright
October 5th marked the start of the 2018 edition of Jazz Sur Son 31 in Toulouse and its neighbouring towns. If jazz is part of Toulouse's DNA, a good reminder of this comes from the legacy of one the city's most popular artists, the singer Claude Nougaro who immortalised his hometown in the ballad “O Toulouse." “Serait-ce dans tes tripes une bulle de jazz?" Is that jazz bubbling in your gut, asks Nougaro. He felt it at the time and ...
Continue ReadingMemories of Woodstock: Joan Baez at Jazz in Marciac 2018
by Luke Seabright
If you're a jazz fan, you'll almost certainly have heard of Marciac. But if it's the first time you're going there, and you don't know much about the place, you may well experience some confusion. If you've flown in, you're most likely driving over from Toulouse, the nearest airport. You've prepared your GPS and entered in your destination (perhaps you know little more about it than the name and that of the jazz legend you bought tickets many months in ...
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