Jazz Articles about Dominic Lash

About Dominic Lash

Album Review

Pat Thomas, Dominic Lash, Tony Orrell: Lifeline

by John Sharpe
May 4, 2026

New bottles, same wine? On Lifeline, Pat Thomas, Dominic Lash and Tony Orrell, who operate under the moniker Bley School with acoustic instruments, convene in the studio with electronics. The trio's defining traits--deep listening, volatility and reflexive interaction--persist, but now unfold through circuitry rather than strings and skins. Furthermore, in place of the covers favored in their parallel incarnation, they dispense with lead sheets and leap into the unknown. As a result agency blurs in sometimes opaque collages of ricocheting ...

Album Review

Bley School: Where?

by John Sharpe
January 9, 2025

Punningly recalling beloved British children's TV programme Play School, the name Bley School neatly encapsulates what is afoot on this album, representing an open-minded and irreverent fondness for tunes, especially those associated with the groundbreaking Canadian pianist Paul Bley. Responsible for this is the threesome of pianist Pat Thomas, bassist Dominic Lash and drummer Tony Orrell. Captured live at north London's Cafe Oto in 2022, Where? constitutes the band's second album following its eponymous 2019 debut also issued by Brooklyn's ...

Album Review

John Butcher / Pat Thomas / Dominic Lash / Steve Noble: Fathom

by John Sharpe
April 18, 2024

Finely judged sounds studded in space. Bursts of incipient rhythm. Wafts of fire music energy. Those are just some of the fruitful products of the British foursome of saxophonist John Butcher, pianist Pat Thomas, bassist Dominic Lash and drummer Steve Noble. A spider's web of alliances connects them, notably tangled given their time on the promiscuous UK free scene, so it is all the more surprising that Fathom documents their first meeting as a group, in north London's Cafe Oto ...

Album Review

Christoph Gallio, Dominic Lash, Mark Sanders: Live at Café Oto London

Read "Live at Café Oto London" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
March 24, 2024

Swiss saxophonist Christoph Gallio has been playing with the trio DAY & TAXI for over three decades during which time he has been the only ever-present member, and the trio has released twelve albums. Early in July 2022, Gallio arrived in London at the beginning of a six-month sabbatical stay at the London Atelier of the Kanton Aargau. This was not a new experience as he had previously stayed in the Berlin Atelier, in 2009, and in the Buenos Aires ...

Album Review

Dominic Lash, Alex Ward: Antonyms

by John Sharpe
January 30, 2023

Can an album's contents be any less summed up by its title? While Antonyms suggests opposition, the collaboration between bassist Dominic Lash and clarinetist & guitarist Alex Ward evidences rather more empathy than contradiction. That is unsurprising given regular appearances in each other's bands as well as collective arenas going back at least to Barkingside (FMR, 2008). If the title is not referring to the principals, then perhaps it is the form of their encounters? Not really, as each brings ...

Album Review

John Russell / John Butcher / Dominic Lash: But Everything Now Left Before It Arrived

Read "But Everything Now Left Before It Arrived" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
December 28, 2021

Released towards the end of 2021, the year of guitarist John Russell's death, this recording dates from December 2010, a time before Russell was seriously ill and needed heart surgery. As such, this recording is very welcome as it recalls happier times. The album's five tracks, totalling about forty-one minutes, were recorded at the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra Festival III at the Glasgow Centre of Contemporary Arts. As the YouTube footage below (filmed on 16th August 2010, ...

Album Review

John Butcher / Dominic Lash / John Russell / Mark Sanders: Discernment

Read "Discernment" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
November 5, 2021

As part of his 40th birthday celebration at Cafe Oto in January 2020, bassist Dominic Lash convened a quartet of some of the UK's finest improvisers, completed by guitarist John Russell, saxophonist John Butcher and drummer Mark Sanders. With such experienced practitioners, there are any number of prior connections which help ensure a successful and empathetic outing. Russell, who died in January 2021, was one of the so-called second generation of British improvisers, often working closely with Butcher ...