Results for "Steve Williamson"

Steve Williamson

Denys Baptiste: Pathfinder For The New London Jazz

By CHRIS MAY

Bandleader, composer and educator Denys Baptiste is among the generation of musicians, many of them of Caribbean or African heritage, who pointed the way for the younger players who have emerged on the London jazz scene since around 2015. Baptiste's contemporaries include saxophonists Jason Yarde, Soweto Kinch, Steve Williamson and Courtney Pine, and trumpeter Byron Wallen, ...

Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela: Rejoice

By CHRIS MAY

"Unfinished" is the kindest word to describe this album, recorded in 2010 and left on the shelf until its release was prompted after Hugh Masekela passed in 2018. It should have stayed on the shelf. The album consists of eight tracks of noodling by Masekela, accompanied by autopilot timekeeping from Tony Allen, who ...

New Jazz From London: Top 20 Paradigm Shifting Albums

By CHRIS MAY

After a lifetime trying to get on an equal footing with its American parent, British jazz has finally come of age. Since around 2015, a community of young, London-based musicians has forged a style which, while anchored in the American tradition, reflects the Caribbean and African cultural heritages of many of its vanguard players. The scene ...

Yazz Ahmed & The Guildhall Jazz Orchestra

By CHRIS MAY

Yazz Ahmed / The Guildhall Jazz Orchestra / Scott Stroman Milton Court Concert Hall Yazz Ahmed & The Guildhall Jazz Orchestra London November 27, 2019 Performances by student orchestras rarely qualify as must-see events. Audiences tend to be composed of fellow students and friends and ...

Sean Khan: Distant Voice

By CHRIS MAY

Sean Khan is among the most interesting of British jazz musicians, a prime exponent of jazz as rebel music with a unique voice. And yet, twenty years after he debuted with his band SK Radicals, Khan remains one of the scene's least celebrated players. Khan accurately describes himself as a “career outsider." Like another outsider, fellow ...

We Out Here: The Fast-Forward Evolution of British Jazz

By CHRIS MAY

After a lifetime in the shadow of its American parent, British jazz is finally coming of age. A community of young, London-based musicians is forging a style which, while anchored in the American tradition, reflects the modern Caribbean and African cultural heritages of the majority of its vanguard players. The music also addresses the race, class ...

Steve Williamson & Guildhall Jazz Orchestra: Celebrating Coltrane at Milton Court

By CHRIS MAY

Steve Williamson / Guildhall Jazz Orchestra / Scott Stroman Milton Court Concert Hall Celebrating Coltrane London July 10, 2019 The word “legendary" is bandied around so indiscriminately these days that it has all but lost its meaning. London saxophonist Steve Williamson is among a tiny number ...

Mosaics: The Life and Works of Graham Collier

By DUNCAN HEINING

The following is an excerpt is from “Chapter 9: The Eighties or Graham Collier -The Wilderness Years" of Mosaics: The Life and Works of Graham Collier by Duncan Heining (Equinox Publishing, 2018). All Rights Reserved. The late Graham Collier was a bandleader, a composer and a jazz educator. As far as this latter ...

Alina Bzhezhinska: Inspiration

By CHRIS MAY

Among the highpoints of London's 2017 jazz diary was the Barbican Centre's A Concert for Alice and John. The event commemorated the 50th and 10th anniversaries of the passing of John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane. It was headlined by Pharoah Sanders, the most distinguished surviving member of bands led by the Coltranes, who turned in an ...