Jazz Articles about Conor Chaplin

About Conor Chaplin

Album Review

There's no “i" in “team," or so the motivational speakers of the world will have us believe, but as far as music is concerned every effective team needs an ear or two. The team responsible for Dream Away—from vocalist and lead artist Lauren Bush to the instrumentalists and producers—is well-served by ears and uses them to excellent effect. Throughout this album of standards and contemporary songs it's clear that everyone listens—to the words, the music and each other—crafting a collection ...

Album Review

Tom Ollendorff: A Song For You

Read "A Song For You" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
April 24, 2021

They say lightning never strikes in the same place twice. But sometimes it does. When it comes to new jazz guitarists of more than average talent, London has produced two in fairly rapid succession. In spring 2020, Rob Luft released his immaculate and uplifting sophomore album, Life Is The Dancer (Edition). Exactly a year later, Tom Ollendorff is releasing A Song For You (Fresh Sounds), a debut which delivers much and promises even more. Ollendorff and Luft ...

Album Review

Dinosaur: To The Earth

Read "To The Earth" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
June 7, 2020

One of the flag bearers of contemporary British jazz, Dinosaur's rise to more international renown accelerated with its signing to Edition Records, and the subsequent release of Together, As One (2016) and Wondertrail. (2018). Formerly known as the Laura Jurd Quartet, the band had already been going since 2010, releasing one album, Landing Ground (Chaos Collective, 2012) to general critical approval. Each album displays significant personality--the embrace of strings, or analogue keyboards--and Jurd's refusal to tread the same stylistic water. ...

Album Review

Dinosaur: To The Earth

Read "To The Earth" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
May 1, 2020

Britain's Edition label has remained independent of London's post-2015 alternative jazz scene, whose aesthetic is formed in part by the emphases of identity politics and which now, in 2020, has gone overground with the signing of three bands led by movement auteur Shabaka Hutchings to Impulse! in the US. Edition, which was founded in 2008 by pianist Dave Stapleton and photographer Tim Dickeson, has preferred to pursue its own path. It has done so with magnificent style. (The label made ...