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Enemy At Magy's Farm
by Ian Patterson
Enemy Magy's Farm Dromara, N. Ireland May 18, 2023 Kit Downes, Petter Eldh and James Maddren have played under the unusual moniker of Enemy since 2015, with their eponymous debut released on Dave Stapleton's Edition Records in 2018. The enemy in question may well be cliché and conformity because this is a trio that eschews most of the time-honored jazz-piano-trio tropes, choosing instead to follow its own logic system. As the audience ...
Continue ReadingSebastian Rochford / Kit Downes: A Short Diary
by Karl Ackermann
London-based drummer Sebastian Rochford (aka, Seb) and pianist Kit Downes have a long working history but have recorded only once as a duo on the EP Live @ The Vortex (Loop Collective, 2012). They reunite on the poignant and cerebral A Short Diary. Rochford began his relationship with ECM Records as part of the Andy Sheppard-led Trio Libero (2012). He led a Mercury Prize-nominated experimental jazz band called Polar Bear and played with Sons of Kemet, David Byrne, Brian Eno, ...
Continue ReadingDeadeye: Deadeye
by Bruce Lindsay
Many years ago, jazz combos simply called themselves after one of their number: the Dudley Moore Trio, the Miles Davis Quintet, and so on. The tradition still lingers, but even a well-established format such as the Hammond organ trio must sometimes follow the modern trend of adopting a name that is at once original and also opaque. Hence Deadeye, a trio consisting of Kit Downes on organ, Reinier Baas on guitar and Jonas Burgwinkel on drums. Why Deadeye? Who knows? ...
Continue ReadingNew Releases From Turner, Downes, Amba, Halvorson, And More
by Bob Osborne
On this week's show we have all new releases from Kit Downes, Mark Turner, Orquestra Inorgánica, Way North, Yves Léveillé, and Zoh Amba featuring William Parker and Francisco Mela, plus a preview of an excellent new suite of music from Mary Halvorson. Playlist Show Intro 00:00 Kit Downes “Minus Monk" from Vermillion (ECM) 00:41 Mark Turner “Return From The Stars" from Return From The Stars (ECM) 04:59 Orquesta Inorgánica “Cuatreros" from Noctámbulos (Numeral) 15:02 Way North “New Dreams, ...
Continue ReadingKit Downes, Petter Eldh, James Maddren: Vermillion
by Mike Jurkovic
It shouldn't be tough to tell an artist open to alternate creation that their initial ideas behind any work of art—music, novel, portrait, sculpture—missed the intended target but the fall zone yielded some truly ecstatic, celebratory moments. Quite a few of them to be exact. In the promo attending his third album for ECM, classically trained pianist and killer organ scholar Kit Downes reveals that, as these fruitful sessions got underway in May/June 2021 at Auditorio Stelio Molo ...
Continue ReadingMatthew Halpin: Agreements
by Ian Patterson
Irish tenor saxophonist Matthew Halpin has waited for his moment to strike with his debut CD as leader, having graduated from Berklee College of Music as long ago as 2013. Not that he has been coasting; since relocating to Germany, Halpin has recorded with The Owl Ones and Last Chance Dance, just two of half-a-dozen ongoing projects at the cutting edge of contemporary music. On Agreements Halpin surrounds himself with some of his closest collaborators from his various groups, to ...
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