Home » Jazz Musicians » Charlotte Keeffe
Charlotte Keeffe
Olivia Murphy: Fateful Birds & Fledgling Stories
by Jerome Wilson
Olivia Murphy is a young composer and bandleader who has been establishing herself as a distinctive voice on the British jazz scene, leading a large ensemble that mostly performs her own compositions. She makes her orchestral recording debut on this album, which applies her musical ideas to themes of transformation and community derived from mythical portraits of birds. One of the most notable features of Murphy's writing is that she often does not separate her orchestra into individual ...
Continue ReadingOlivia Murphy: Fateful Birds & Fledgling Stories
by John Eyles
Throughout her career, Olivia Murphy has receiyed many awards which have been instrumental in promoting her blossoming career. In 2021, she received the prestigious and influential Peter Whittingham Jazz Development Award, which has been contested annually since 1990 to support an emerging jazz musician with their plans and ambitions. At the time she won it, Murphy was playing clarinet in the Moonrise Trio alongside vocalist Becca Wilkins and pianist Olly Chalk. In 2020, the trio's first EP, Tomorrow ...
Continue ReadingHi Res Heart: Move Fast And Mend Things
by John Sharpe
On its second outing, British outfit Hi Res Heart trades the stitched-together aesthetic of its debut for the friction and immediacy of shared space, sharpening both its collective instinct and sonic identity. Where the earlier release documented remotely recorded parts later assembled in the studio, Move Fast And Mend Things convenes the ensemble in a single setting, heightening responsiveness and rapport. By supplementing the core trio—reedist Martin Archer, trumpeter Charlotte Keeffe and percussionist Martin Pyne—with violinist Graham Clark and bassist ...
Continue ReadingCharlotte Keeffe Right Here Right Now Quartet: Alive! In The Studio
by John Sharpe
One of the finest up and coming trumpeters on the UK scene, Charlotte Keeffe's résumé includes an ever increasing circle of collaborators including bassist Olie Brice, reedman Colin Webster and multi-instrumentalists Alex Ward and Martin Archer (the latter also boss of the Discus imprint). For the second album from her Right Here, Right Now Quartet, comprising guitarist Moss Freed, bassist Ashley John Long and drummer Ben Handysides, she aims to replicate a live set in the studio. If this is ...
Continue ReadingMoss Freed / Union Division: Micromotives
by John Sharpe
A question any composer for improvisers must face is whether they can create something more worthwhile than what they might come up with if left to themselves. It can be a tough call. For some, such as Alexander von Schlippenbach's Globe Unity Orchestra or Peter Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet, the ultimate conclusion was no, while for others such as Anthony Braxton and Barry Guy the answer has been far less clear cut. British guitarist Moss Freed falls somewhere between the two ...
Continue ReadingNoisy Women present at Café Oto, London
by John Eyles
Noisy Women Flying Free Café Oto London Sunday February 19, 2023 Barely thirteen months after the Noisy Women's debut concert at Hundred Years Gallery, London, with the total of their concerts still in single figures, there was an air of excitement and anticipation in the audience before this performance began. The original four Noisy Women--multi-instrumentalist & singer Faradena Afifi, pianist Marion Treby, visual artist Gwendolyn Kassenaar, and pianist, dancer & singer Maggie Nicols--were all scheduled to play. Four ...
Continue ReadingAlex Ward Item 4: Furthered
by John Sharpe
Is there anyone else who doubles on clarinet and electric guitar? Multi-instrumentalist Eliot Sharp perhaps, but it is an otherwise fairly exclusive arena, one which Alex Ward has occupied since 1989 when he was already performing with Derek Bailey's Company at age 15. While the guitar remains his axe of choice for the rockier end of his activities, he wields both instruments in his free improv encounters and also in forays into jazz and contemporary music adjacent composition.
Continue Reading
