Jazz Articles about Chris Montague

About Chris Montague

Album Review

With Try Me saxophonist-composer Trish Clowes joins a starry cast of artists inspired by London--its history, architecture, landscape and multi-cultural streets. From William Blake to Benjamin Zephaniah, from Charles Dickens to Hanif Kureishi, from Ralph Vaughan Williams to The Kinks, and from Claude Monet to the late David Hockney, England's capital has fed the creative spirit of poets, authors, composers and painters for centuries. British jazz icons Stan Tracey and Mike Westbrook both composed long-form works inspired by London, but, ...

Album Review

Trish Clowes: A View with a Room

Read "A View with a Room" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
May 17, 2022

My Iris è un quartetto guidato dalla sassofonista inglese Trish Clowes giunto con A View with a Room alla quarta fatica discografica. Nato in tempo di lockdown, con riferimenti, a partire dal titolo, alle criticità provocate dalla pandemia, sviluppato attraverso live streams e pubblicato dalla prestigiosa Greenleaf di Dave Douglas, A View With a Room conferma Clowes come una delle voci più interessanti della effervescente scena britannica, incarnandone il volto gentile e raffinato. La sonorità sia al ...

Album Review

Chris Montague: Warmer Than Blood

Read "Warmer Than Blood" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann

by Friedrich Kunzmann
August 10, 2020

Nuanced shades of blue, red, purple and yellow flung onto canvas mingle to clashing effect on the cover of British guitarist Chris Montague's drumless trio outing Warmer Than Blood. The title of the guitarist's debut as a leader is taken from a poem by the British writer Fiona Sampson. Its disturbing imagery is matched by the music's underlying restlessness and sporadic agitation, whilst the cover reveals itself to be the reflection of the different timbres, tones and textures which arise ...

Album Review

Chris Montague: Warmer Than Blood

Read "Warmer Than Blood" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
May 24, 2020

Spring 2020 has produced two notable albums from British guitarists. In April we had Rob Luft's exquisite Life Is The Dancer (Edition). In May we have Chris Montague's own-name debut, Warmer Than Blood. Like Luft, Montague writes engaging tunes and both albums are engagingly melodic; Montague's arrangements, however, are more open-ended, giving the music a collective vibe. Montague has recorded extensively since the late 2000s, notably with Troyka and Slowly Rolling Camera. His Troyka colleague Kit Downes ...

Album Review

MY IRIS: MY IRIS Live!

Read "MY IRIS Live!" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
April 30, 2020

Unable to undertake its scheduled April tour due to COVID 19, MY IRIS, the quartet led by saxophonist Trish Clowes, releases this live recording culled from gigs in Belfast and Galway in October 2019. Captured on Zoom recorder, Clewes has done an admirable job in producing a presentable sound on this digital-download, Bandcamp release. More importantly, in capturing for posterity one of the UK's leading jazz quartets in such fine form, MY IRIS Live! is an important document, and perhaps ...

Album Review

Troyka: Moxxy

by AAJ Italy Staff
September 20, 2012

I Troyka sono un trio esplosivo che esplora le forme del riff come elemento costitutivo delle diverse espressioni afferenti alla popular music. Tra progressive rock, jazz e funky, il gruppo conferisce alla classica formula dell'organo hammond-chitarra-batteria un groove inedito dove i loops elettronici e ritmi drum and bass vanno ad incastonarsi in strutture formali d'ascendenza rock. Pur non essendo un disco squisitamente jazzistico, Moxxy (il secondo dopo il disco omonimo sempre per la benemerita Edition Records) lo è profondamente nello ...

Album Review

Troyka: Troyka

by AAJ Italy Staff
October 1, 2009

Play It Loud!. Potrebbe essere la parola d'ordine per penetrare nel groviglio di suoni che scaturisce da questo giovane trio di sperimentatori londinesi, qui al debutto discografico. Va suonato ad alto volume questo CD per poter gustare appieno le dinamiche, i repentini cambi di atmosfera, le delicate alchimie sonore come le terrificanti bordate di decibel che Troyka si diverte a scaricare sull'ascoltatore. Prendete “Clint" (omaggio al pistolero buono dei western di Sergio Leone?). Un inizio quasi impercettibile, con l'organo di ...