Jazz Articles about Kit Downes

About Kit Downes

Radio & Podcasts

New Releases From Turner, Downes, Amba, Halvorson, And More

by Bob Osborne
April 21, 2022

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, ...

Album Review

Kit Downes, Petter Eldh, James Maddren: Vermillion

Read "Vermillion" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
February 7, 2022

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 ...

Album Review

Matthew Halpin: Agreements

Read "Agreements" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
July 11, 2021

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 ...

Album Review

The Golden Age Of Steam: Tomato Brain

Read "Tomato Brain" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
December 4, 2020

It's been a while. The Golden Age Of Steam released debut album Raspberry Tongue (Babel Records) in 2009, the follow-up, Welcome To Bat Country (Basho Records), in 2012. Then they laid low until 2020 and the appearance of album number three, Tomato Brain. It's been worth the wait. The album's multi-layered, six-part, “Loftopus" is an atmospheric and often disturbing half-hour. The title track is a reminder of the comic, but dark, inventiveness of Scots poet, songwriter, humorist and all-round genius ...

Album Review

Lucia Cadotsch: Speak Low II

Read "Speak Low II" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann

by Friedrich Kunzmann
December 2, 2020

On their sophomore effort, the multinational European trio around Swiss vocalist Lucia Cadotsch follows the band's initial instinct of organically dissecting and rearranging old favorites of the respective band members. This time around the trio is expanded by English keyboartdist Kit Downes' occasional organ embellishments and Lucy Railton's additions of odd melodic cello lines to conceptually intricate arrangements. The group's nearly-chordless and drum-free approach is able to conjure intimate spaces and fragile constructs while at the same time capturing not ...

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 ...