Jazz Articles about Phil Minton

About Phil Minton

Album Review

Mike Westbrook: The Cortège Live At The BBC 1980

Read "The Cortège Live At The BBC 1980" reviewed by Duncan Heining

by Duncan Heining
April 12, 2026

Mike Westbrook turns ninety on 21st March. That would be reason enough to celebrate the man and his astonishing career in music, but add to that the release of the Mike Westbrook Orchestra's The Cortège Live at the BBC 1980 and balloons and bunting would seem in order. The original album is currently missing in action, so this live iteration also restores a major jazz composition to the catalogue. The music's realisation, along with the careful selection by ...

Album Review

Sergio Armaroli: I Dream I Was An European

Read "I Dream I Was An European" reviewed by Neri Pollastri

by Neri Pollastri
February 14, 2024

Un disco a suo modo “perfetto," questo di Sergio Armaroli, che si circonda di abituali e splendidi collaboratori come Giancarlo Schiaffini e Roger Turner, vi aggiunge un monumento dell'improvvisazione come Phil Minton, e con loro esegue nove sue composizioni nelle quali l'improvvisazione la fa da padrona. La “perfezione" sta soprattutto nelle individualità, anzi nei colori e nelle espressività che ciascuna di esse porta in dote: due percussioni timbricamente opposte e dalle invenzioni complementari, il vibrafono di Armaroli e ...

Album Review

Phil Minton / Pat Thomas / Dave Tucker / Roger Turner: Scatter: On A Clear Day Like This

Read "Scatter: On A Clear Day Like This" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
May 28, 2023

Recorded on the first night of a Pat Thomas residency at north London's Cafe Oto, On A Clear Day Like This by the collective Scatter demonstrates the breadth of the pianist's artistry, following as it did an opening set of Duke Ellington tunes. Aside from Thomas, who founded the group in 1992 and performs on piano and electronics, the outfit comprises three further luminaries in Phil Minton on voice (he does so much more than the term vocalist would suggest), ...

Album Review

King Übü Örchestrü 2021: Roi

by John Eyles
March 19, 2023

The large improvising ensemble King Übü Örchestrü first saw the light of day when they recorded their debut album, Music Is Music Is (Uhlklang, 1985) in Akademie der Künste, Berlin, in December 1984. It was a sign of the times that their trumpeter Mark Charig was prevented from going to Berlin for the recording. But, with players such as drummer Paul Lytton, trombonist Radu Malfatti, cellist Alfred Zimmerlin and violinist Phillipp Wachsmann in the line-up, the music was exceptional. Two ...

Album Review

Speak Easy: @ Konfrontationen

Read "@ Konfrontationen" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
March 5, 2020

Recorded in July 2016, at Festival Konfrontationen in Nickelsdorf, Austria, this album consists of a single track lasting fifty-two minutes, which probably represented the entire Speak Easy set at the festival. Speak Easy comprises vocalists Ute Wasserman and Phil Minton, with Thomas Lehn on analogue synthesizer and Martin Blume on drums and percussion. The quartet previously released Backchats (Creative Sources, 2009), the same year its DVD The Loft Concert was issued (see YouTube below.) As Wasserman ...

Live Review

4th Brda Contemporary Music Festival

by Neri Pollastri
October 2, 2014

Fesstival di Musica Creativa e Improvvisata Šmartno, Slovenia 11-13.9.2014 È giunto alla quarta edizione il Brda Contemporary Music Festival, piccola quanto preziosa rassegna di “musica creativa e improvvisata" organizzata a Šmartno, nella regione slovena di Brda, da Zlatko Kaucic, percussionista, compositore, didatta e operatore culturale ricco di passione e idee. Il festival, com'è noto, nasce anche per unire le forze di tutti i--molti--musicisti attivi sulle due sponde della frontiera che separa, oggi fortunatamente assai meno che ...

Film Review

Im Pavillon

by Eyal Hareuveni
May 28, 2014

Phil Minton / dieb13 Im Pavillon PanRec 2013 The mini DVD feature the complete duo concert of British vocal artist Phil Minton and Austrian turntables master dieb 13 (aka Dieter Kovačič}, filmed at the Music Unlimited Festival 23, Wels in Austria in November 2009. PanRec, a video label that focuses on jazz and improvised music, already dedicated a whole documentary film to the festival, Unlimited 23 (2011). Minton has been a frequent performer ...