Jazz Articles about Tom Skinner

Ruth Goller: Skyllumina

by Chris May
February 27, 2024

The Italian-born, British-based bassist and composer Ruth Goller has been rattling jazz's cage since 2007, the year she joined Acoustic Ladyland. The band was in the vanguard of what became known as “jazz punk," although its sound was closer to metal than classic punk, and the lineup included tenor saxophonist Pete Wareham and drummer Sebastian Rochford. Four years later, Acoustic Ladyland disbanded and Goller and Wareham morphed into Melt Yourself Down, where they were joined by tenor saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings ...

Tom Skinner: The Son Of Kemet Shines A Light

by Chris May
November 8, 2022

Tom Skinner has been a vital presence on the alternative London jazz scene for close on twenty years. Yet, remarkably, only now in November 2022 is the drummer and composer releasing his first album under his own name. Voices Of Bishara features Skinner alongside four friends and fellow radicals: tenor saxophonists Nubya Garcia and Shabaka Hutchings, playing together on record for the first time, cellist Kareem Dayes and bassist Tom Herbert. As jazz supergroups go, this lineup would be hard ...

Tom Skinner: Voices Of Bishara

by Chris May
October 21, 2022

Voices Of Bishara is one of the top three jazz albums of 2022 so far and it would take the second comings of John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Horace Silver and Lee Morgan to threaten to dislodge it. Before going into the particulars, the backstory.... An epically cross-genre drummer, Skinner has lit up avantist British jazz and related musics for around twenty years. He emerged among the cohort of musicians loosely grouped around the self-help collective F-IRE (Fellowship ...

Wildflower: Better Times

by Karl Ackermann
August 15, 2021

The ground-breaking London trio Wildflower features bassist Leon Brichard, saxophonist Idris Rahman, and drummer Tom Skinner of the group Sons of Kemet. Brichard and Rahman are founding members of Ill Considered. Similar in style, the music of Wildflower has the fundamentals of post-minimalism, hard bop, and free improvisation. Spiritual and powerful, Better Times mostly lives up to its title, even while leaving the frustrating sense of an unkept promise. An outstanding reed player on the hot London jazz ...

Sons of Kemet: Black To The Future

by Chris May
April 30, 2021

Sons Of Kemet is led by tenor saxophonist, clarinetist and composer Shabaka Hutchings who, though he is far too modest to make any such claim himself, is the de facto standard-bearer for the new wave of musicians who have emerged on the London jazz scene since around 2015. The band is one of three Hutchings either leads or co-leads which are signed to Impulse!. The other two are the cosmic-fusion trio The Comet Is Coming and Shabaka & The Ancestors, ...

Wildflower: Season 2

by Karl Ackermann
February 25, 2020

On paper, the UK trios Wildflower and Ill Considered bear an obvious resemblance. Each features the outstanding reed player Idris Rahman and bassist Leon Brichard, and both groups are groove-oriented progressive jazz. Wildflower is the slightly more melody-driven and the less raw of the two bands, with intricate improvisations interwoven throughout. Season 2 sees Rahman altering moods with his interchanging of the bass clarinet, bamboo flute, and his trademark tenor saxophone. Rahman is well-known in Britain for his ...

Byron Wallen: Meeting Ground

by Bruce Lindsay
October 20, 2008

This album arose from a series of journeys--geographical, cultural and spiritual, but above all musical--undertaken by trumpeter and leader Byron Wallen, who first visited Morocco in 1996. The result of these journeys is a joyous and original record, fusing contemporary jazz with the music of the Gnawa musicians of Morocco.

The ten pieces of music on Meeting Ground tell the story of Bilal, a 6th century Abyssinian slave who was known for his beautiful singing. Released ...