Jazz Articles
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Trio HLK: Anthropometricks
by Neil Duggan
Albums featuring standards are fairly common. Trio HLK start with this approach and then bend and invert it to create their own musical dialect. All seven compositions on Anthropometricks use sections of jazz standards as their base. The trio then put these ingredients through their version of a musical blender to create something unique. As pianist and composer Richard Harrold says “Each piece is new but shards of the original can be glimpsed within." He does mean shards; these are ...
read moreMartin Sjöstedt & Stockholm Jazz Orchestra: Horizon
by Neil Duggan
The Stockholm Jazz Orchestra has been together since 1984--40 years at this writing. That is quite an achievement. especially in an age where large ensembles make little financial sense. In 1986, Bob Brookmeyer joined the band as a guest, eventually leading to his compositions featuring on their debut album, Dreams (Dragon, 1988). Subsequently, they have played with artists such as Maria Schneider and The Yellowjackets and undertaken numerous worldwide tours. Operating similarly to a jazz collective, all the ...
read moreCorrie Dick: Sun Swells
by Geannine Reid
Corrie Dick is a multi-instrumentalist who has recorded on drums, piano, vocals, synth, guitar, and trumpet. As a composer, Dick is known for his dynamism, his melodic slant, and his playfully subversive melding of genres. Presenting his sonically inventive drumming, which has a rhythmic epicenter of a new era of innovative British jazz, is Dick's release Sun Swells . The album's theme is to create a folk-rock-jazz with rock instrumentation and color by Rob Luft on guitar and Tom McCredie ...
read moreThe Qow Trio: The Hold Up
by Neil Duggan
Anyone whose musical taste yearns for the type of '50s and '60s sounds of artists such as Sonny Rollins, Jackie Mclean and Lee Morgan, may find The Hold Up is just what they seek. This is the second album from the Qow Trio (pronounced Cow). Taking their name from a composition on Dewey Redman's album, Coincide (Impulse, 1974), the trio are linked by a love of the tradition and the freedom to explore the saxophone, bass and drums format, without ...
read moreRob Cope: Gemini
by Neil Duggan
The number two features prominently in the concept behind this album. The album is called Gemini, meaning twins or two. It features two saxophones, it is Rob Cope's second album as leader and combines two existing duos. The first of those duos features the soprano saxophone and bass clarinet of Cope together with the tenor saxophone of Andy Scott UK. They combine their contemporary classical and improvisational styles in Scott's Group S (previously known as SaxAssault). Scott also ...
read moreDoncaster Jazz Alumni: 50 Years
by Neil Duggan
The problem for John Ellis UK as a teacher of brass instruments in the West Riding of Yorkshire, was that there were few resources or equipment available for him to teach his students the skills they needed and take them to the level that would enable them to have a career in music. He wanted to put a music training programme in place to provide an appreciation of big bands and opportunities for performance. The local education authority gave him ...
read morePaul Mottram: Seven Ages Of Man
by Neil Duggan
Throughout history, many have tried to divide the human life cycle into defined stages. The most famous is William Shakespeare's reference to the seven ages in Jaques' speech in As You Like It, the one which starts “All the world's a stage." This was the initial spark which gave composer Paul Mottram the idea for Seven Ages Of Man, Shakespeare's seven ages being Infant, Schoolboy, Lover, Soldier, Judge, Pantaloon and Old Age. Mottram has added two introductory movements, Origins and ...
read moreShear Brass: Celebrating Sir George Shearing
by Neil Duggan
The work of the late George Shearing, or Sir George Shearing OBE to give him his full title, is the subject of the debut album from Shear Brass, a band dedicated to playing new arrangements of his music. They are led by Shearing's great nephew, drummer Carl Gorham. The album, Celebrating Sir George Shearing, features eleven tracks, five of which feature vocals. All of the inventive arrangements, by the trumpeter Jason McDermid, have a level of detail usually reserved for ...
read moreMark Lewandowski: A Bouquet (for Lady Day)
by Ian Patterson
A regular in the Mingus Big Band and Wynton Marsalis' quartet, New York-based Mark Lewandowski has won numerous awards for his sonorous double bass playing, which can be appreciated in settings as diverse as John Zorn's The Book of Beri'ah (Tzadik Records, 2018) and Joe Chamber's Dance Kobina (Blue Note Records, 2022). As a leader, Lewandowski previously released the joyous, highly personal Fats Waller homage Waller (Whirlwind Records, 2017) and, following his relocation from London to New York, the impressive, ...
read moreEddie Gripper: Home
by Neil Duggan
Home is the debut album from Eddie Gripper, an English pianist, composer and educator from Oxfordshire. He's now based in Cardiff, where he studied jazz at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama with Huw Warren. He has collaborated with Warren and also with Iain Ballamy, John Parricelli and Welsh folk artist Angharad Jenkins of Calan. His debut features fellow graduates from the same university, bassist Ursula Harrison and drummer Isaac Zuckerman. The recording came out of ...
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