Jazz Articles about Buster Birch

About Buster Birch

Album Review

Live albums offer a snapshot of a band at a particular time, sometimes capturing them at their peak, when the adrenaline is flowing and the group's energy and cohesion are at their best. SEMA4 by the Alison Rayner Quintet (also known as ARQ) is such an album. It was recorded live at the Vortex Jazz Club in East London in mid-2024. Having previously released three albums on the Blow The Fuse label: August (2014), A Magic Life (2016) ...

Album Review

Alison Rayner Quintet: Short Stories

Read "Short Stories" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
March 4, 2020

The Alison Rayner Quintet's third album is good medicine. Despite the sad events which inspired it, about which more in a moment, Short Stories tells its tales through strong melodies, sinewy rhythms and luminous solos, is by turns tender and exuberant, has an uplifting narrative arc, and simply makes you feel better for listening to it. Rayner has been a hero of British jazz since the mid 1980s when, with ARQ's guitarist, Deirdre Cartwright, she was a member ...