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Betty Accorsi Quartet: Growing Roots
by Chris May
The second album from Italian born, British based soprano saxophonist Betty (Elisabetta) Accorsi's quartet confirms what was already apparent on her debut, The Cutty Sark Suite (Betty Accorsi Music, 2020). That is, here is a young musician and composer of outstanding talent who is destined for the big stage. There is nothing radical ...
Albert Ayler Quintet: At Slugs’ Saloon 1966 Revisited
by Chris May
There continues to be as much discussion about Albert Ayler's personality and motivations as there is about the music he left us. Was he a religious fundamentalist? Was he bi-polar? Was he an attention seeker? Was he some sort of leather fetishist? The evidence suggests Ayler may have been borderline bi-polar, but as for the other ...
Celeste: Not Your Muse
by Chris May
The mega-concert staged in front of London's Buckingham Palace on June 4, 2022 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee was not an obvious save-the-date event for British jazz fans or non-monarchists. It was, however, brilliantly staged, and worth watching for that reason alone. And as it turned out, it contained three-and-a-half minutes of transcendent song ...
Soothsayers: Soothsayers Meets Victor Rice & Friends
by Chris May
Nobody does it better, so the song goes, though whether the innuendo resonates most strongly with the singer, Carly Simon, or the lyrics's supposed protagonist, James Bond, depends, as it were, on the direction in which the listener is pointing. But whatever. In the context of Soothsayers Meets Victor Rice & Friends, the song's hook becomes ...
Tumi Mogorosi: Group Theory: Black Music
by Chris May
In summer 2022, the portents suggest that South Africa, while not exactly the new London, is shaping up nicely to become another geo-cultural crucible for the reforging of jazz. Prominent among the signs is the formation of Blue Note's imprint Blue Note Africa, which launched in mid June with pianist Nduduzo Makhathini's highly recommended In The ...
The Paxton / Spangler Septet: Ugqozi
by Chris May
Ugqozi is a celebration of modern, urban African music, especially that from South Africa, with which co-leaders trombonist John “Tbone" Paxton and percussionist RJ Spangler have been in love for decades. It is also an affirmation of the vibrant Detroit scene of which the multi-generational Paxton / Spangler Septet is a part. Actually, ...
Julius Rodriguez: Let Sound Tell All
by Chris May
At 23 years, New York-based keyboards player and drummer Julius Rodriguez is close to being a founder member of Gen Z and so was an adolescent when the iPad was giving way to streaming and a new, randomised perspective on jazz and music in general was being shaped. The Juillard School dropout--Rodriguez quit in 2018 to ...
Oded Tzur: A Thrilling New Saxophone Colossus
by Chris May
Oded Tzur's 2020 album, Here Be Dragons, the Tel Aviv born, New York based tenor saxophonist's first release on ECM, triggered an eruption of purple prose. Critics competed to see who could convey the most enthusiasm. A few even suggested that the Tzur quartet was the inheritor of the mantle of the classic John Coltrane quartet. ...
TC & The Groove Family: First Home
by Chris May
The nine-piece collective TC & The Groove Family are based in the northern English city of Leeds. All but one of the members studied at Leeds College of Music. They play a goodtime mash-up of Afrobeat, jazz, funk, hip hop, dub and samba, reflecting the cultural melting pot which exists in most English cities and which ...
Grand Union Orchestra: Made By Human Hands
by Chris May
Grand Union Orchestra, which has mentored many young London jazz musicians over four decades, is approximately aligned with the grassroots organisations Tomorrow's Warriors and Kinetika Bloco. The longest established of the trio, Grand Union took wing in 1982, Tomorrow's Warriors in 1991, Kinetika Bloco in 2000. Made By Human Hands is a greatest hits compilation celebrating ...
