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Presenting Problem
by Duncan Heining
Jazz often appears to exist within its own cultural and artistic paradigm, isolated from other arts and in its own discreet musical corner. Worse still from the perspective of those who would hope to make a living from it, it often seems that more people want to play the music than listen to it or, more ...
Alan Skidmore: After The Rain
by Duncan Heining
In 1998, with After The Rain British saxophonist Alan Skidmore got to achieve a lifetime ambition to record this beautiful 'jazz with strings' album. Out of print for some time, its reissue is well overdue. It was once a cliché in the jazz world amongst critics that records such as this represented a descent into the ...
ELBJAZZ 2017
by Ian Patterson
ELBJAZZ 2017 Blohm and Voss/various venues Hamburg, Germany June 2-3, 2017 Although Gregory Porter was the marquee name at the sixth edition of Elbjazz, with a strong supporting cast including Joshua Redman, Jan Garbarek, Hildegard Lernt Fliegen and Youn Sun Nah, the real star of the show was the spectacular festival ...
Jazz Found Alive! Man In Blue Suede Shoes Wanted For Questioning.
by Duncan Heining
Colin Towns' Mask Orchestra LSO St. Lukes London October 17, 2015 The gap between the music that Colin Towns makes and much that currently passes for jazz grew even wider last weekend. Performing compositions from his new double CD Drama with his stellar Mask Orchestra, the composer-bandleader revealed the music's potential ...
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 ...
Bill Frisell: Live Download Series #1-13
by John Kelman
DS#001-013 | DS#014-017One of the biggest problems facing contemporary jazz musicians is that they often have far more projects on the go than could ever be recorded and released commercially by conventional record labels--even small and relatively responsive indie labels. Special projects abound, or personnel changes for a tour are forced when members of ...
Jack Davies: Inventing Himself
by Duncan Heining
"Jack's formal education has given him useful tools but above all he has drive and determination and ideas, which cannot be taught." class="f-right">--Colin Towns, composer, bandleaderand producer of The Jack Davies Big Band (V&V, 2012). The jazz big band is a wondrous beast. Caught in movement and it's like a big cat, with ...
Colin Towns: Rule Book? What Rule Book?
by Ian Patterson
Since the 1970s, internationally renowned English composer/arranger/pianist/keyboard player Colin Towns has enjoyed an extremely varied musical existence. In that time, he has composed and arranged music in just about every setting imaginable, from heavy rock groups to jazz ensembles both small and large, and from theater to film and ballet. Little wonder, then, that his first ...
Jack Davies Big Band: The Jack Davies Big Band
by Karl Ackermann
Composer/trumpeter Jack Davies is nothing if not eclectic. His current catalog of releases includes the unusually configured chamber quartet, Flea Circus, featuring bass clarinet and accordion. Simultaneously, Davies has released a contemporary quintet collection that channels Miles Davis by way of more modern influences. While both of these recordings are stellar, Davies' crowning achievement of the ...
Jack Davies Big Band: The Jack Davies Big Band
by Chris May
Jack Davies Big BandThe Jack Davies Big BandV&V Music2012With its debut album, trumpeter and composer Jack Davies' big band has joined an elite strand of British orchestras--Loose Tubes, flugelhornist Kenny Wheeler's outfits and Colin Towns' Mask Orchestra prominent among them--which have enriched and expanded the original big band ...