Results for "John Dankworth"

John Dankworth

Sir John Phillip William Dankworth, known in his early career as Johnny Dankworth, was an English jazz composer, saxophonist and clarinetist. He was the husband of jazz singer Cleo Laine. Born in Woodford, Essex, he grew up, within a family of musicians, in Walthamstow in its suburb of Highams Park and attended Sir George Monoux Grammar School in Walthamstow. He had violin and piano lessons before settling eventually on the clarinet at the age of 16, after hearing a record of the Benny Goodman Quartet. Soon afterwards, inspired by Johnny Hodges, he learned to play the alto saxophone. After studying at London’s Royal Academy of Music (where his jazz interests were frowned upon) and then national service in the army, he began a career on the British jazz scene

Nicola Conte: Other Directions

By CHRIS MAY

Since debuting with the quintessential acid-jazz suite Jet Sounds on the Milan-based label Schema in 2000, the composer, arranger, producer and guitarist Nicola Conte has released another ten exquisitely beautiful albums exploring acid jazz, spiritual jazz, soul jazz and bossa nova, often all on the same disc. Conte also produces other artists and has curated rare-groove ...

Daryl Runswick / Tony Hymas: Runswick Hymas Big Bands 1974-78

By ROGER FARBEY

British bassist, composer and conductor Daryl Runswick was born in 1946 and in 2019 is retired. His archival recordings have had something of a renaissance, at least as far as CD releases are concerned. Following in the wake of 2017's double album of previously unreleased tracks entitled Daryl Runswick: The Jazz Years and 2018's live quartet ...

Norma Winstone & John Taylor: In Concert

By ROGER FARBEY

When John Taylor died on 17 July 2015, aged 72, the jazz world lost one its finest pianists. Over the course of his career he recorded with the likes of Arild Andersen, John Dankworth, Peter Erskine, Gil Evans. Jan Garbarek, Mike Gibbs, Charlie Haden, Lee Konitz, Enrico Rava, John Surman, Steve Swallow, Miroslav Vitous and Kenny ...

Patchwork Jazz Orchestra: The Adventures of Mr Pottercakes

By ROGER FARBEY

Maybe the quickest way to sum-up Patchwork Jazz Orchestra's The Adventures Of Mr Pottercakes would be to appropriate the title of The Who's 1971 compilation album, Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy. For that is exactly what it is and quite a bit more besides. From the very start of the opening title track, there's a reminder ...

Ingrid Jensen and Steve Treseler: Invisible Sounds: For Kenny Wheeler

By ROGER FARBEY

The trumpeter Kenny Wheeler who died on 18 September 2014, aged 84, was one of the true greats of jazz but one who never quite attained the popular recognition that some of his contemporaries achieved. Nevertheless, to his peers and audiences around the world he was an international treasure. Born in Canada in 1930, Wheeler moved ...

Cloudmakers Five: Traveling Pulse

By ROGER FARBEY

Vibraphonist Jim Hart has extended the reach of his Cloudmakers Trio which released three albums: AJMiLIVE #7 (2015), Abstract Forces (2014) and Live At The Pizza Express (2013), all for Whirlwind Records. Now the trio is augmented by reedsman Antonin-Tri Hoang and guitarist Hannes Riepler. But the trio's rhythm section remains constant with Michael Janisch on ...

Henry Lowther: can't believe, won't believe

By BRUCE LINDSAY

If any jazz ensemble can be said to define the word “prolific" it's not Henry Lowther's Still Waters. The band's debut album, ID, appeared in 1997. can't believe, won't believe is its second release, just 21 years later. Good things, as they say, come to those that wait. Bandleader, composer and trumpeter Lowther has ...

Dave Gold: Heaven On Their Minds

By BRUCE LINDSAY

Dave Gold may not have the big-name bandleader or arranger status of Buddy Rich or Nelson Riddle, but Heaven On Their Minds shows that his own talents, and those of his Big Band compatriots, are no less for this lack of recognition. In fact, Gold's successes were often under the radar--as a composer and arranger of ...

The Charlie Bates Big Band: Silhouettes

By ROGER FARBEY

Born in Essex in 1994, British jazz pianist Charlie Bates was introduced to jazz in his teens and later studied for a BMus Jazz degree at the Birmingham Conservatoire. In June 2016, Bates won the Birmingham Conservatoire Jazz Composition prize with an arrangement of Cole Porter's “Everything I Love," adjudicated by Tim Garland. This ...