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Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra: GIO Sevens
by Duncan Heining
Back in the 60s, there was a pop show on British TV called Thank Your Lucky Stars. It featured a “spin-a-disc" segment, where a DJ and three teenagers scored a clutch of 45s on a scale of one to five. One of these was a girl from the West Midlands called Janice Nicholls, who delighted audiences ...
Raymond MacDonald & Graeme Wilson: A Cast of Thousands
by Duncan Heining
Raymond MacDonald and Graeme Wilson are two of the leading figures in the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. The music on Cast Of Thousands may be freely improvised but the emphasis here seems very much upon structure and form. One suspects that MacDonald and Wilson's lengthy experience playing together allows each man to trust the other and that ...
Lol Coxhill & Raymond MacDonald: Morphometry
by Duncan Heining
Glorious, custard-coloured vinyl, a charming and witty woodcut by artist Ian Barrett (Syd's nephew) on the cover and ten duos featuring saxophonists Lol Coxhill and Raymond MacDonald--what's not to like? My first sightings/hearings of the legend that was Lol took place in my mid-teens. Crossing Hungerford Bridge en route to the South Bank for a concert ...
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 ...
Neil Ardley & the New Jazz Orchestra: On The Radio: BBC Sessions 1971
by Duncan Heining
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, ...
Martin Archer: Story Tellers
by Duncan Heining
We used to call records like this 'concept albums.' The whole idea soon became a term of derision thanks to Rick Wakeman and others. Nevertheless, let's stick with it for a moment. Martin Archer's Story Tellers is constructed as a series of interlocking vignettes, linked both by certain recurring themes, narrative threads and the attribution of ...
Grand Union Orchestra at Wilton's Music Hall
by Duncan Heining
Grand Union Orchestra Wilton's Music Hall London June 14, 2017 Song of Contagion, Grand Union Orchestra's latest show, would be a strange subject indeed for any other ensemble. But for leader/composer Tony Haynes and his comrades, it sits perfectly within the orchestra's progressive dialogue between the musics and ...
Mike Westbrook at Bury St. Edmunds Festival
by Duncan Heining
Mike Westbrook and Kate Westbrook Bury St. Edmunds Festival The Church of St. John the Evangelist May 19, 2017 Of all his many achievements, Mike Westbrook's The Westbrook Blake is one of his finest. Few works in jazz have combined music and text, voices and instrumentation, to such profound effect. The ...
Rock Swings
by Duncan Heining
A while ago, me and Mrs. O'Groove were at the Diamante Dance Academy, Chelmsford --I kid you not--for our regular lesson, when our teacher, Natasha Fellowes, put on this big band version of Van Halen's “Jump." Turned out it was off Paul Anka's Rock Swings album (2005). No particular reason but I've always had a soft ...
Malcolm Griffiths: A Man For All Seasons
by Duncan Heining
We talk often of the stars, like 'Trane and Miles. We remember the bandleaders, such as Basie and Duke. We even recall the composers and arrangers, Ellington again, Gil Evans and Monk. And we never forget those star soloists like Johnny Hodges or Lester Young. But the guys in the machine room, the guys who make ...
