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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 ...
Barry Guy: Back to the Drawing-Board (Part 3)
by Duncan Heining
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 One of the things which may strike the listener on hearing the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra for the first time is just how much volume Guy is able to draw from just seventeen to twenty players. Some other big bands sound almost insipid in comparison. There ...
Alister Spence: Live
by Duncan Heining
Alister Spence Trio: Live is, apparently, this Australian group's sixth recording. Sadly, the others have passed me by and pianist Alister Spence only recently crossed my CD deck in the company of Scottish saxophonist / improviser Raymond MacDonald. To be honest, much contemporary piano trio jazz--EST, Brad Mehldau, The Necks--bores me. Perhaps unfairly so but to ...
Raymond MacDonald: Man with Two Brains
by Duncan Heining
By way of introduction... Saxophonist Raymond MacDonald is a busy man. He balances the life of a gigging, recording musician with a high-flying academic career and, in both respects, his reputation has grown far beyond his Glasgow home. As a musician, he is perhaps best known for his work with the George Burt/Raymond MacDonald ...
London Jazz Festival 2015
by Duncan Heining
London Jazz Festival London, UK November 13-22, 2015 Like many city-fests, the London Jazz Festival criss-crosses the town, spanning the River Thames that splits it in two. Two Southbank Centre venues--the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room--are being refurbished this year, making Kings' Place an even more significant festival stage ...
A Madman’s Approach To Music And Why Can't Music Be Like A Tree?
by Duncan Heining
"Art alone makes life possible." --Joseph Beuys. The Glasgow Improvisers' Orchestra is unique. It's an over-used word, I know, but in this case fully justified. GIO are unique in so many ways--in the way they formed, the way they make decisions, in their make-up, how they work and most importantly how they sound. They ...
Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra: Artificial Life
by Duncan Heining
The importance of ensembles such as the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra cannot be underestimated. Their work since their formation defines a distinctive approach to large-scale, free improvisation rooted in a well-defined philosophy of collective music-making. As George Lewis, trombonist and 'composer' of Artificial Life, remarks in the record's sleevenotes: “As with all improvisation, including our ...
Alister Spence and Myra Melford: Everything Here Is Possible
by Eyal Hareuveni
This exceptional piano duo featuring American Myra Melford and Sydney-based Australian Alister Spence, known for his local trio and an acclaimed duo with Scottish saxophonist Raymond MacDonald ; (Stepping Behind The Shadows, Rufus, 2012), was recorded during late 2012 while Melford toured Australia with her Trio M. The pianist/composers got to know each other through a ...
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