Results for "Nick Smart"

Gift from the Trees

By Nick Smart (piano)

Label: Gondwana Records
Released: 2023
Track listing: The Spinner; Riser; Nightingale; Kernel; (Intro) Dimu; Dimu; Deep within Mountains; Labyrinth; Kai; Sleeping Bear.

Mammal Hands: Gift from the Trees

by Neil Duggan
April 28, 2023

At first glance, Mammal Hands may seem a traditional jazz trio, but their perspectives on the jazz landscape offer enticing and engrossing new directions. Gift from the Trees is their fifth album and shows a new maturity in sound and feel. It draws on influences from folk, electronica, modern classical and ambient to produce a fresh ...

Kenny Wheeler: Gnu High

by Chris May
April 21, 2023

Trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer Kenny Wheeler's exalted Gnu High, first released in 1976, is one of two albums with which ECM launches its audiophile vinyl reissue series, Luminessence, on April 28, 2023. The Luminessence mission statement is to showcase albums that have “changed perceptions of creative music making." And few would dispute this ...

Festival International de Jazz de Montréal 2022

by Mark Sullivan
July 19, 2022

Various Venues Festival International de Jazz de Montréal Montréal, Canada June 30-July 4, 2022 Like everything else, the Covid-19 pandemic stopped the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal in its tracks. Forced to cancel the 2020 festival, they instead presented a four-day virtual festival online on June 27-30. Another abbreviated ...

Julian Siegel Jazz Orchestra: Tales from the Jacquard

by Angelo Leonardi
July 6, 2021

L'eredità orchestrale britannica, rappresentata dagli eclettici lavori di Mike Gibbs, Mike Westbrook, Django Bates e Colin Towns, si rinnova in questo brillante debutto da bandleader di Julian Siegel. Nato a Nottingham 55 anni fa, Siegel è uno dei massimi sassofonisti del Regno Unito, leader di un quartetto e sideman in molte formazioni orchestrali: da ...

Julian Siegel Jazz Orchestra: Tales from the Jacquard

by Chris May
June 13, 2021

Reed player Julian Siegel has been an important part of the London jazz scene since the late 1990s, when he cofounded Partisans, a high-energy quartet completed by guitarist Phil Robson, bassist Thad Kelly and drummer Gene Calderazzo. The band is pretty much beyond category, although it is usually billed as jazz-rock. Unlike normative jazz-rock outfits, however, ...

Nick Smart

Head of Jazz Programmes at the Royal Academy of Music, Nick Smart is an internationally renowned Grammy nominated jazz trumpeter, conductor and educator who has given guest masterclasses and performances around the world. In 2013 he was awarded the Parliamentary Jazz Award for Jazz Education, in 2015 awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music, and in 2022 conferred with Professorship from the University of London. At home he is recognised as one of the leading musicians on the UK jazz scene, where as well as being in regular demand as a sideman to players of all generations, he continues to record and tour with his own projects.
 
In 2005 Nick released his debut album as leader “Remembering Nick Drake” to critical acclaim throughout Europe. The album, described by Straight No Chaser magazine as “…a future classic because it really captures all that is best about British jazz….”, featured Smart’s arrangements of Nick Drake’s music played by an all star line-up including John Parricelli, Paul Clarvis, Christine Tobin and Stan Sulzmann amongst others. In December 2008 the Nick Smart Trio released a highly praised follow-up album, “Remembering Louis Armstrong”, featuring Hans Koller and Paul Clarvis. His last band, Nick Smart’s Trogon, merged contemporary jazz sounds with Afro Cuban concepts and released their album "Tower Casa" on Babel Records in November 2013. It received 4 star reviews in Jazzwise and the Guardian, who described it as "an undemonstratively idiosyncratic fusion, and Smart plays with brightness, tight timing and subtle intonation throughout." 
 
His versatility as a trumpet player and his work at the upper echelons of Jazz Education has allowed him to perform alongside many international jazz stars in a variety of contexts, from Jazz Festival appearances to summer school concerts. These have included George Russell, Dave Holland, Bob Brookmeyer, John Hollenbeck, the New York Voices, Ingrid Jensen, Mike Gibbs and Dave Douglas, as well as most of the leading names on the UK jazz scene. Amongst other things, Nick was a member of the late Kenny Wheeler's Big Band with whom he had a long association. He has recorded on the album of vocalist Christine Tobin in her interpretations of Leonard Cohen songs, and plays in the last quartet of saxophonist Stan Sulzmann on album “Shadow Painting”. He also performed internationally as the regular soloist with the famous James Taylor Quartet, “JTQ”.

Mammal Hands: Shadow Work

by Phil Barnes
November 22, 2017

Our best musicians can soak up influences from many diverse sources, assimilate them into their own style, and allow them to emerge during improvisation. This is why, as readers of this site will surely be aware, a piece can sound different in the hands of two skilled jazz musicians even when the raw material of the ...

Eric Ineke: Surveying the European Jazz Scene

by Victor L. Schermer
September 6, 2017

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6[This is the fourth of the All About Jazz series on “The Many Faces of Jazz Today: Critical Dialogues" in which we explore the current state of jazz around the world with musicians, journalists, and entrepreneurs who give ...

Tom Green: A Man And His Trombone

by Nick Davies
March 27, 2017

Tom Green is a trombonist, composer and arranger described as “a new rising star in the British jazz scene" by Nigel Williams (Jazz FM). In 2014 he was mentioned three times as Jazzwise “One to Watch," and was the recipient of a Help Musicians UK Emerging Excellence award. He is a graduate of the Royal Academy ...