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Blue Touch Paper: Drawing Breath
by John Kelman
It's difficult enough for an artist or group to deliver their sophomore effort, but it's even more of a challenge when their debut is as strong as Blue Touch Paper's surprising Stand Well Back (Provocateur, 2011). Blue Touch Paper is the brainchild of British keyboardist/composer Colin Towns, who has already garnered plenty of acclaim for his Mask Orchestra and Quintet, as well as his series of big band looks at the music of the Mahavishnu Orchestra on Meeting of the ...
read moreBlue Touch Paper: Stand Well Back
by John Kelman
Blue Paper Touch Stand Well Back Provocateur Records 2011 Based on his recent work, creating impressive big band tribute projects including Visions of Miles--The Electric Period of Miles Davis (In+Out, 2009) and John Lennon--In My Own Write (Provocateur, 2011), it might be understandable to think of Colin Towns as an arranger and bandleader rather than a composer and performer. But arranging, at least the way Towns does it, is really composition; the only difference ...
read moreColin Towns & The NDR Big Band: John Lennon - In My Own Write
by John Kelman
Since 2005, British arranger/conductor Colin Towns has trawled the discographies of Frank Zappa, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Miles Davis for collaborative potential with Germany's NBR Big Band. In every case--most recently, on Visions of Miles (In + Out, 2009)--the focus was on source material in and around the jazz sphere, with plenty of built-in grist for Towns' soaring imagination to run rampant, blending vibrant and oftentimes complex charts with soloists capable of marrying form, freedom, and the fuzzy space in between. ...
read moreAndy Sheppard / John Parricelli: P.S.
by John Kelman
Sometimes artists are better known for the company they keep than their own work. Despite leading an active musical life with over ten releases as a leader, British saxophonist Andy Sheppard is likely best known to North American audiences for work with composer/pianist Carla Bley, like The Lost Chords Find Paolo Fresu (Watt, 2007). British guitarist John Parricelli has a very small discography as a leader--though the superb Alba (Provocateur, 2000) proves it's quality, not quantity, that counts--but is an ...
read moreJohn Parricelli: Alba
by John Kelman
Even with the internet's global reach, albums are sometimes unfairly overlooked, with John Parricelli's superb 2000 release Alba one that deserved to push this British guitarist into the international spotlight. A first-call session player who has, in the jazz sphere, worked with artists including Kenny Wheeler, Iain Ballamy and Martin Speake, Parricelli is a musical chameleon who never loses sight of his own identity. He takes the best elements of Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, John Abercrombie and Ralph Towner through ...
read moreAndy Sheppard: Learning To Wave
by Ian Nicolson
With Courtney Pine, British saxophonist Sheppard has been rated world class for long enough to get bored with the tag. This year his new quintet sound uses tablas and percussion in place of a conventional drumkit to realise tunes that Sheppard wrote on guitar for the first time. As a result there's an extra punch and accessibility to the rhythms, and a decidedly sexual fragrance in the air, while touring well off the beaten track in Africa and India has ...
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