Results for "Barbara Thompson"

Group Sounds Four & Five: Black & White Raga

by Chris May
January 31, 2021

So seismic were the eruptions of British pop and rock in the mid 1960s, along with the effusive chronicling which accompanied them, that the parallel fecundity of the country's jazz scene was widely overlooked then and has been largely forgotten since. Contemporary media coverage was practically non-existent except on those occasions when a musician got busted. ...

New Jazz From London: Top 20 Paradigm Shifting Albums

by Chris May
June 1, 2020

After a lifetime trying to get on an equal footing with its American parent, British jazz has finally come of age. Since around 2015, a community of young, London-based musicians has forged a style which, while anchored in the American tradition, reflects the Caribbean and African cultural heritages of many of its vanguard players. The scene ...

Barbara Thompson

Born: July 27, 1944

Yazz Ahmed: Polyhymnia

by Chris May
December 15, 2019

The British-Bahraini trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer Yazz Ahmed went clear in 2017 with La Saboteuse (Naim). The album is an otherworldly mix of jazz, electronics and Arabic folk music which carries traces of Miles Davis' In A Silent Way (Columbia, 1969) and Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970) and Jon Hassell's Dream Theory In Malaya: Fourth World Volume ...

Yazz Ahmed & The Guildhall Jazz Orchestra

by Chris May
November 30, 2019

Yazz Ahmed / The Guildhall Jazz Orchestra / Scott Stroman Milton Court Concert Hall Yazz Ahmed & The Guildhall Jazz Orchestra London November 27, 2019 Performances by student orchestras rarely qualify as must-see events. Audiences tend to be composed of fellow students and friends and ...

Neil Ardley & the New Jazz Orchestra: On The Radio: BBC Sessions 1971

by Duncan Heining
August 27, 2017

Neil Ardley was a truly remarkable individual. As well as his work in jazz as a composer/band-leader/arranger, Neil was a scientific author with 101 books to his name, which sold over 10 million copies. I spoke to him once but, sadly, Ardley had died by the time I commenced work on my book on British jazz, ...

Roland Kirk: Here Comes The Whistleman

by Duncan Heining
October 19, 2016

This December, it will be thirty-nine years since Rahsaan Roland Kirk split the scene for good. He was forty-one and about two-thirds of that short life span had been spent as a professional musician. He might not have been around long but he left behind a powerful legacy that may have no parallel in jazz or ...

Howard Riley: Reinventing the Jazz Piano Trio

by Duncan Heining
January 3, 2016

Even allowing for journalistic hyperbole, the phrase “reinventing the jazz piano trio" was a doozy. It all seemed a bit “Emperor's new clothes" or, as my late mother used to put it, “new coat and no knickers." For a time in the noughties, British critics variously applied the phrase to Esbjorn Svensson, Brad Mehldau, The Necks, ...

Howard Riley: Live with Repertoire

by Duncan Heining
December 24, 2013

Pianist Howard Riley turned 70 in February and belatedly celebrates the event with the release of a new CD, Live with Repertoire (NoBusiness Records). It's a really strong live, solo set of standards and a few original tunes recorded last year in Leicester and one that emphasises one particular aspect of his playing. Riley remains one ...

Songs From The Center Of The Earth

By Barbara Thompson

Label: Polygram Distribution
Released: 1991