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Andy Sheppard Quartet: Romaria
by Geno Thackara
Where so much music treats silence as an exception, Andy Sheppard's recordings find it serving more as the rule. He's never been one for weaving flashy speed runs or feeling pressure to fill space. Even when his sax lines speed up from time to time through Romaria, they serve the mood with tasteful restraint, smoothly evoking the soothing coolness of its cover. Sheppard uses the term “dream band" to describe this quartet, which is appropriate in more ways ...
Continue ReadingGalway Jazz Festival 2016
by Ian Patterson
Galway Jazz Festival Various Venues Galway, Ireland October 7-9, 2016 The best jazz festivals are not necessarily the biggest. They're not always the ones with the marquee names. The best festivals, without a doubt, are the ones you remember, years later, for having had a hell of a good time. Such festivals, first and foremost, are usually rooted in and celebrate community. They often promote feasting, revelry and joy. The Galway Jazz Festival ticked ...
Continue ReadingAndy Sheppard Quartet: Surrounded By Sea
by Luigi Sforza
Si immaginino una pulsazione ritmica regolare, brani chiusi e strutturati in sezioni, armonie tensive e distensive che si alternano in base alle articolazioni delle frasi melodiche, improvvisazioni che seguono patterns e cliché consolidati del linguaggio e si avrebbe un format per certi versi omologante, avulso da ogni tentativo di ricerca creativa di uno stile originale. Per fortuna niente di questo si verifica nell'ultimo appassionante progetto musicale di Andy Sheppard, Surrounded by Sea. Non si cherchino ritmiche ...
Continue ReadingAndy Sheppard Quartet At The Mac
by Ian Patterson
Andy Sheppard Quartet The Mac Belfast, N. Ireland October 9, 2015 Three years on from his Belfast Festival performance with Trio Libero, saxophonist Andy Sheppard returned to the Northern Irish capital with his new quartet comprised of that trio plus Norwegian guitarist/sound sculptor Eivind Aarset. That the gig went ahead following a security alert in the city centre was a sign that people in this part of the world just want to get on ...
Continue ReadingAndy Sheppard: Tales From the Bristol Underground Jazz Revolution
by Ian Patterson
"Jazz has always been an underground thing. It doesn't have the power and might of opera, but it should," says Andy Sheppard, shortly after the UK premier of Surrounded by Sea (ECM, 2015) at the Bristol Jazz & Blues Festival. “Everyone in the music industry has a respect for jazz music, and they should, I think, realize the value of what's come out of this thing called jazz and the echoes that run through all other genres of music now." ...
Continue ReadingAndy Sheppard Quartet: Surrounded By Sea
by Ian Patterson
Saxophonist/composer Andy Sheppard has found a home in ECM. It's maybe not the perfect home for an artist as eclectic as Sheppard, for it's hard to see some of his other projects--notably the Scofield/Lovanoesque quartet Hotel Bristol--fitting in with the ECM aesthetic. Still, Sheppard's melodic improvisational approach and the airy lyricism on Movements in Color (ECM, 2009) and Trio Libero (ECM, 2012) fitted the ECM blueprint beautifully and rank among his most seductive recordings. With Surrounded by Sea Sheppard expands ...
Continue ReadingAndy Sheppard Quartet at Bristol Jazz & Blues Festival 2015
by Ian Patterson
Andy Sheppard Quartet Colston Hall Bristol Jazz & Blues Festival Bristol March 7, 2015 A “local hero" is how the emcee described saxophonist/composer Andy Sheppard. Bristol resident Sheppard is neither immortal nor a demi-God, but he is uber-talented and a warrior of sorts; a road warrior who has clocked up more miles than the Vikings ever did, purveying his music the length and breadth of the UK these past forty years. And the warm ...
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