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Polar Bear: In Each And Every One

by Bruce Lindsay
Polar Bear is back. Not just with a bang, but with a whole array of other sounds, including the occasional whimper. In Each And Every One brings together 11 tunes from the pen of drummer Sebastian Rochford--from the gently bucolic to the downright macabre. There's also an early front runner for the Best Song Title Of ...
Mark Lockheart: Ellington in Anticipation

by John Kelman
Ellington in Anticipation isn't Mark Lockheart's first album to employ an expanded lineup; the Polar Bear/Blue Touch Paper saxophonist collaborated with Germany's WDR Big Band on 2010's Days Like These (Fuzzy Moon) and first cut his teeth in Loose Tubes, the now-legendary large UK collective of then-up-and-comers that included pianist Django Bates, saxophonist Iain Ballamy and ...
Take Five Europe: January 28-February 2, 2013

by John Kelman
Take Five EuropeBore PlaceSevenoaks Weald, Kent, UKJanuary 28-February 3, 2013While solid jazz education for aspiring musicians is increasingly accessible, few programs tackle the harsh realities facing the emerging musician of the 21st century. With the dissolution of major labels, and a shift in revenue that often makes having a publicist and/or ...
Ultima Festival: Oslo, Norway, September 10-15, 2012

by John Kelman
Ultima Festival Oslo, Norway September 15, 2012In a country that has called its pathology" of over 600 music festivals per year festival inflation," it's hard for any festival to stand out amongst the others, and yet so many of the events in Norway do. From Kristiansand's Live Remix festival, Punkt, to the superbly ...
Babel Label: New Songs from the Tower of Sound

by Jakob Baekgaard
During the last decade, British jazz has been booming and London has become, once again, one of the jazz capitals of the world. To get a feel of what's happening, the place for live music is no longer Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, but a place called The Vortex, directed by Oliver Weindling. Weindling is also the ...
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 ...
Oriole: Every New Day

by Chris May
OrioleEvery New DayF-IRE2012Oriole's third album of sonorous South American and Iberian-flavored jazz has been some time coming. The London group, led by guitarist and composer Jonny Phillips, debuted with Song For The Sleeping in 2005 and followed up a year later with Migration (both F-IRE). There has been ...
Andy Sheppard / Michel Benita / Sebastian Rochford: Trio Libero

by John Kelman
Sometimes unexpected connections yield the most wonderful results. Saxophonist Andy Sheppard, bassist Michel Benita and drummer Sebastian Rochford all have more than enough cred to suggest capability in any context, but none of their individual pursuits could presage a collaboration like Trio Libero, quite possibly the finest saxophone trio recordings of the new millennium, and one ...
Matthew Bourne: Montauk, Billy Moon and the Lost Pianos

by Bruce Lindsay
"I've accepted that I'm not a traditional composer who sits and scores things out, plays them, learns them. I just have a rough sense of something and go out and do it. It often ends up being completely different," says pianist, improviser and composer Matthew Bourne. It's a characteristically honest appraisal, but it fails to do ...
The JazzLife UK Gilded Butterfly Awards 2011

by Bruce Lindsay
As Noddy Holder and the mighty Slade remind us every year, It's CHRISTMAAAAAAS." With the Yuletide festivities comes the annual avalanche of End Of Year lists, Best Of awards and Grammy nominations. This year, JazzLife UK adds its own awards to the list: the inaugural JazzLife UK Gilded Butterfly Awards (or GBs). In line with the ...