Jazz Articles
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ALATI: Ascending The Morning
by John Sharpe
Although combining poetry and jazz can sometimes be as thankless as mixing oil and water, ALATI has come up with a near perfect formulation. On Ascending The Morning, the three piece band, led by Norwich-based trumpeter Chris Dowding and completed by vocalist Brigitte Beraha and pianist Dave O'Brien, sets to music eight nature-inspired poems by Oxford Professor of Poetry Alice Oswald. Dowding brings a lyrical sensibility to all his projects, such as the free improvising brass trio Hard Edges and ...
read moreTaeko Kunishima: Dictionary Land
by Karl Ackermann
Known for her lyrical piano style, Japanese musician and composer Taeko Kunishima has her roots in classical music. While studying at university, she heard Miles Davis on the radio and the impact was life-altering. Kunishima was not content with simply adapting to Western jazz; her interests are far broader and have led her to Dictionary Land. The album is the culmination of influences which range from jazz to her native folklore, and Arabic music. Dictionary Land is Kunishima's ...
read moreMeg Morley Trio: Journey Through Home
by Bruce Lindsay
Meg Morley self-released her debut EP, Through the Hours, in 2017 and followed it up a few months later that year with her trio's first album, the self-published Can't Get Started. Five years later, the same trio--Morley on piano, Richard Sadler on bass and Emiliano Caroselli on drums-- has returned, with Journey Through Home. It is a very welcome return, a record that retains the verve and quality of the previous album while expanding the range of Morley's compositions and ...
read moreBeverley Beirne: Dream Dancer
by Richard J Salvucci
Beverley Beirne may not be a familiar name to many American readers. Maybe she should be. While some jazz writers have labelled her a “rising star," the Yorkshire, UK, singer has been around for a decade. Her first recording was entitled, promisingly enough, Jazz Just Wants to Have Fun (Self Produced, 2018). Sometimes reading reviews of singers can put you in mind of studying observations from an oenophile journal: “She has notes of Ella embedded in a ...
read moreSarah Moule: Stormy Emotions
by John Eyles
Stormy Emotions is the fifth release from Sarah Moule to feature songs by the late, great lyricist & poet Fran Landesman (1927-2011), dating back to It's a Nice Thought (Linn, 2002). In total those five albums contain over fifty songs with lyrics by Landesman, many of which were first recorded by Moule. If that seems an unusually high proportion of songs by one lyricist, the explanation is straightforward: from 1993 until 2011, Landesman wrote over 300 songs with renowned pianist, ...
read moreJulian Costello Quartet: Connections: without borders
by Bruce Lindsay
Three years after its debut release, Transitions (33 Jazz), the Julian Costello Quartet returns with Connections: without borders. The debut was recorded in Italy, but for the follow-up the London-based band decamped to Norway, to record nine of leader and saxophonist Costello's compositions at Blueberry Fields studios in Heggedal. The tunes are indeed connected, reflecting how people are connected to places through music and how music transcends borders, as Costello notes on the album sleeve. There's one change ...
read moreBenjamin Croft: 10 Reasons To...
by Roger Farbey
British keyboardist and composer Benjamin Croft began piano and trumpet lessons at age seven and later earned a BA (Hons) Music degree at Leeds College of Music. In his debut album 10 Reasons To..., Croft dedicates four tracks to his heroes Allan Holdsworth, Keith Emerson, Christopher Lee, and Gustav Mahler. A disparate bunch to be sure, but Croft's compositions, written over a period of two years, hang together surprisingly well. A dark recitation over the atmospheric “100 Years ...
read moreZoe Schwarz: The Blues and I Should have a Party
by C. Michael Bailey
That most durable and indivisible of popular music genres: the blues. Traditionally of an eight-or twelve-bar architecture, if not something more primordial from the pre-Great Depression shellac of Mamie Smith, Tommy Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Charlie Patton. After years of sepia-toned, nostalgic reportage regarding the Ur-nature of this folk art, most of the cobwebs of legend and myth have since been brushed away, revealing that the “blues" became the “blues" at the same time they became a commodity being ...
read moreTom Ridout: No Excuses
by Thomas Earl
The name Tom Ridout may be familiar following his appearance in the Final of the BBC's Young Jazz Musician Competition in 2016. His sister, Alexandra, went on to win the Award. Any hard feelings have been set aside, however, with both siblings featuring on Tom's debut album, No Excuses. Opting for diversity over continuity, No Excuses weaves through a range of styles and influences, from Jazz-Rock fusion to traditional English folk. “What It Would" is a highlight, its ...
read moreJulian Costello: Transitions
by Bruce Lindsay
Saxophonist Julian Costello has been around the UK jazz scene for a while, but for some years he decided to give up the world of the gigging musician and take up a teaching career. In recent years he's been gigging again and he now leads his quartet on Transitions, a collection of his original compositions recorded at Artesuono Studios in Italy. It's an inventive, good- humored album full of warmth and humanity, a welcome return to the scene for Costello ...
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