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Jon Scott
GoGo Penguin: Necessary Fictions
by Geno Thackara
What exactly is the entity known as GoGo Penguin? After several recordings developing a niche they call “acoustic electronica"--an amorphous recipe of rock-and techno-oriented hooks played on jazz instruments in real time--one might have thought we had the answer to that question with the eponymous GoGo Penguin (Blue Note, 2020). Like many self-titled albums, it made a clear statement of identity with a defining sound. Then again, it was soon followed by a companion remix album (Blue Note, 2021) of ...
Continue ReadingFabienne Ambuehl: Thrive
by Neil Duggan
Swiss singer and pianist Fabienne Ambuehl emerged onto the jazz scene with her debut album Glitterwoods (Traumton) in 2015. She cultivated her musical skills at the Lucerne School of Music, also studying with Asaf Sirkis and Gwilym Simcock. Following a move to London, she releases her follow-up album Thrive. To help realise her evolving musical vision, she has assembled a creative core trio of bassist Matt Ridley (known from the Darius Brubeck Quartet) and drummer Jon Scott (GoGo ...
Continue ReadingMike Chillingworth: Friday The Thirteenth
by Neil Duggan
London-based saxophonist and composer Mike Chillingworth is a frequent performer in many group formats in the UK and internationally. He has a distinctive and original style and is frequently found in the company of other like-minded musicians who like to expand boundaries and push through perceived barriers. The inspiration behind the album came in a strange way. Devoted educator Chillingworth was traveling with 50 teenagers on a multi- day bus tour (perhaps not an experience he would like ...
Continue ReadingChris Biscoe: Music Is: Chris Biscoe Plays Mike Westbrook
by Duncan Heining
Chris Biscoe can trade choruses with the best and melt the heart with the tenderest of ballads. But that is not what makes him special. Live and on record there is always a sense of quiet anticipation as he starts a solo. One knows one is about to hear something new, something different. It is more than his mastery of a range of woodwinds. It is more than the wonderful tone he achieves seemingly effortlessly on each of his instruments--powerful, ...
Continue ReadingGoGo Penguin: Everything Is Going to Be OK
by Geno Thackara
There is clearly something different about GoGo Penguin on their sixth full-length: where they've previously had a pattern of evocative titles and vaguely futuristic abstract covers, this one (at first glance) looks and reads almost like a greeting card. This also comes after one-third of the trio changed with 2022's interim EP, Between Two Waves (Sony/XXIM). Underneath the wrapping, though, it's recognizably the same evolving not-jazz-not-techno mix that they've made into their own niche, even when taking time to touch ...
Continue ReadingChris Biscoe: Music Is: Chris Biscoe Plays Mike Westbrook
by Chris May
Chris Biscoe has played in the bands led by the great British composer Mike Westbrook and/or his wife, singer and lyricist Kate Westbrook, every year since 1979 bar one. He is the Westbrooks' first-call saxophonist and clarinetist and the love runs both ways. It also rings out on every track of this beautiful album. The concept is straightforward. Biscoe has taken seven Westbrook pieces out of their original, mostly big band, contexts and arranged them for a ...
Continue ReadingChip Wickham: Cloud 10
by Peter Jones
Is it OK for music to be background? In other words, does all music have to be listened to with the same degree of concentration and freedom from distraction? It may be a moot question in these greatly distracted times. Here's another, related question: is the music you want on in the background necessarily inferior to the stuff you need to pay attention to? This new album from flutist/tenor saxophonist Chip Wickham is in the genre of spiritual ...
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