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Jazz re:freshed Announces "Extended Hiatus"
London promoter and record label Jazz re:freshed has lost its home base, the Mau Mau Bar in Notting Hill Gate’s Portobello Road, following its sale to new owners. The organisation's weekly residency at the venue was a popular part of West London’s live jazz scene and the fulcrum of Jazz re:freshed's other activities. In a surprise ...
Nick Walters: Active Imagination
by Chris May
A rugged modal-based spiritual-jazz blowing session from the trumpeter Nick Walters, who has one foot in the underground London scene which is shaking up British jazz, and another in his home city, Manchester. Walters is a member of two Manchester bands, Riot Jazz Brass Band and Beats & Pieces Big Band, and leads the London-based Paradox ...
Pulled By Magnets: Rose Golden Doorways
by Chris May
After a momentous start in the mid 2000s with saxophonist Pete Wareham's Acoustic Ladyland and his own band, Polar Bear, drummer Sebastian Rochford's path through British jazz has been distinguished, though not without the odd glitch. The highs have been Himalayan. Perhaps most notably, he played a key role in reeds player Shabaka Hutchings' Sons Of ...
Byron Wallen: Portrait
by Chris May
An all too rare event, an album from Byron Wallen. The British trumpeter is part of that cohort of musicians who immediately preceded, and continue to inspire, the young London rebels who have been renewing British jazz since around 2015. So, too, is this album's drummer, Rod Youngs. Youngs was born and raised in the US, ...
Graham Costello's Strata: Cygnus
by Chris May
Metal-head jazz! It could only have been made by a Glasgow band. Without wishing to perpetuate stereotypes, the vibe suggests musicians who have spent more time in whisky bars than Tom Waits, Rabbie Burns, Ava Gardner, Mark Twain and Raymond Chandler put together. The focus and precision of their playing, however, suggests sobriety was maintained in ...
Camilla George: Warrior Charge
by Chris May
In 2017, alto saxophonist and composer Camilla George's band was the support act for a Dee Dee Bridgewater gig at the London Jazz Festival. After George had finished her set, Bridgewater, who had been listening in the wings, came onstage, took the mike, and announced: “The world is safe because we have Camilla." Others in Cadogan ...
Mezcla: Shoot The Moon
by Chris May
It is not only in London that UK jazz is being revitalised by turbulent young rebels. London is certainly the most exciting centre, with black and women musicians gaining unprecedented visibility, bringing particular sensibilities with them. But other cities, notably Birmingham and Manchester, have developed vibrant new scenes, too. Viewed from down south, ...
Marcos Valle: Braziliance!
by Chris May
First released in 1966 on Warner Bros., Marcos Valle's third album was his debut US release. An instrumental set, it is packed (if a 29-minute album can be so described) of great tunes composed by Valle with his brother Paulo. Like Antonio Carlos Jobim's own-name US debut, The Composer Of Desafinado Plays (Verve, 1963), another instrumental ...
Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra at the Jazz Cafe
by Chris May
Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra / Yung Afriqa Pioneers The Jazz Cafe London January 24, 2020 Time was when if Londoners wanted to hear authentic live Afrobeat they needed to take a flight to West Africa, preferably Nigeria. Not anymore. All they need do in 2020 is take the ...
Wild Card: Beast From The East
by Chris May
The impact of Jimmy Smith's organ trio in the mid 1950s was by all accounts massive. Nothing quite like it had been heard before in popular music. Smith unleashed a wailing, high decibel (for the era) monster which was also capable of expressing gentler moods. Audiences and record buyers went ape and Smith's label, Blue Note, ...
