Articles by Rob Garratt
Erik Truffaz plays Rollin’ & Clap! at Hong Kong City Hall
by Rob Garratt
Erik Truffaz--Rollin' & Clap! French May Arts Fest Hong Kong City Hall Hong Kong SAR June 7, 2025 It's easy to feel suspicious of projects too keen to tout their sales-friendly theme. Whether it's another Bird tribute or an album of Beatles songs (yup, looking at you, Brad Mehldau), the USP frequently screams so loudly it's hard not to imagine the marketer's glee (or coercion). Even a masterpiece like Herbie ...
Continue ReadingTelakka Jazz 2025: Finland’s Second City Gets Spiritual
by Rob Garratt
Telakka Jazz 2025 Ravintola Telakka Tampere, Finland January 3-4, 2025 “Tampere is the heart of the Finnish jazz scene," a Helsinki record shop clerk proudly told me, when I announced I was heading north for the former, smaller city's Telakka Jazz fest. “In that case, Helsinki is the head," another hip capital dweller would retort, when I repeated this claim a day later. You would be forgiven for ...
Continue ReadingIngebrigt Håker Flaten (Exit) Knarr: Breezy
by Rob Garratt
When news of Jaimie Branch's passing broke in 2022, there was an understandably huge outpouring of tributes from different corners of the jazz community. While an eternal punk rocker at heart, Branch was also a distinctly millennial musician, and a fitting figurehead for the recent wave of borderless improvised music that came out of Chicago's International Anthem label that she called home. For all the deliberately ragged edges, Branch's vision was clear, her delivery fierce, and her inclusive message inarguable. ...
Continue ReadingThe Necks: Bleed
by Rob Garratt
There is a diverting theory that modernist developments in the visual arts were mirrored in the evolving language of jazz: the rigid melodies of classic swing analogous with the formal representation of realism; the harmonic blurring of modalism an impressionistic step towards ambiguity; and the breakdown of order that came with free jazz the divisive audio equivalent of abstract expressionism. It is a compelling if imperfect notion: Jackson Pollack's “action painting" was famously fueled by his jazz LP ...
Continue ReadingLee Ritenour and Dave Grusin at Tsuen Wan Town Hall, Hong Kong
by Rob Garratt
Lee Ritenour and Dave Grusin featuring Ivan Lins Tsuen Wan Town Hall Auditorium Hong Kong November 12, 2024 Lee Ritenour and Dave Grusin's musical relationship might date back some five decades--the pair may be, in the former's words, “best buddies"--but it was still startling to see how relaxed the pair are onstage together in 2024. How much joy there still is in the fleeting, on/off partnership between the smooth fusion guitarist and the four-time ...
Continue ReadingWynton Marsalis’ The Shanghai Suite At Hong Kong Academy For Performing Arts
by Rob Garratt
Lincoln Centre Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis Lyric Theatre, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts “An Evening of Swing" & “Wynton Marsalis' Birthday Celebration" Hong Kong October 17-18, 2024 How does Wynton Marsalis spend his birthday? On the road, of course. The venerable champion of all things jazzy and traditional celebrated his 63rd birthday onstage in Hong Kong on October 18, the second in a duo of divergent dates leading his Jazz at ...
Continue ReadingAtlantis Trio at MutaMenti HK
by Rob Garratt
Atlantis Trio Tsuen Wan Town Hall MutaMenti HK Hong Kong September 27, 2023 A lot of flak is (fairly) laid on the often clumsy, jarring aesthetics of “global-beat," “world fusion," or whatever you want to call it (terms I use sparingly and with reservation). But the truth is however earnest the expectation, however tasteful the application, melding musical traditions isn't always as seamlessly intuitive as the true masters make it ...
Continue ReadingJack DeJohnette: Sorcery
by Rob Garratt
Which Jack DeJohnette is best known? The subtle sticksmith at the heart of Keith Jarrett's Standards Trio, perhaps? Probably the heavyweight hitter driving electric-era Miles Davis' '70s sonic brew. Maybe the percussive upstart propelling Charles Lloyd to crossover flower-power fame? Or even the fearless bandleader behind the ever-thrilling Special Edition band ... At age 81, DeJohnette can (still) fairly claim to be the most in-demand jazz drummer on the planet. But even the most studious acolyte ...
Continue ReadingFlow Festival 2023
by Rob Garratt
Flow Festival Suvilahti, Helsinki, Finland August 11-13, 2023 The stark quantity and sheer quality of improvised and instrumental music on offer at Finland's Flow Festival only starts to make sense when you dig into its roots. Once loudly crowned by Vogue as “the Nordics countries' coolest festival"--a fact the event's PR team are not in a hurry to let you forget--the Helsinki hipster fest was, it turns out, originally founded 19 years ago as ...
Continue ReadingHéctor Lavoe: La Voz
by Rob Garratt
Craft Recordings have been on a roll of late, following 2021's excellently presented Ornette Coleman boxset, Genesis of Genius, with 2023's Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds series and imminent Sonny Rollins set Go West!: The Contemporary Records Albums. So it is only natural that jazz-inclined audiophiles will start turning their attention to what other treasures the LA-based reissue specialists are digging out of the vaults. And so we arrive at Craft's new “special reissue" of salsa star ...
Continue Reading
