... contrapuntal orbits of the tides

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

JLU today Claire Martin presents a collaborative concert set featuring pianist Andrew McCormack , saxophonist Jason Yarde and the Elysian Quartet. Recorded at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff as part of the 2014 Amser Jazz Time Festival.

not much more in the way of pbi so here is a pic



Geoffrey covers Jimmy Giuffre but that is all you will find out from the miniscule pbi ..... dreadful

Jon3 features a live recording of Bill Bang's Quintet playing music inspired by his experiences as a Vietnam veteran; and also The Westbrook's Picardie:

One hundred years to the day since Britain declared war on Germany, Jazz on 3 reflects on the First World War with a broadcast of Kate and Mike Westbrook's Picardie, "a meditation on the horror of war, on the history of the region, on the devastation of the landscape, and its regeneration."

The piece, which features texts by British and French poets and combines British jazz musicians with a French chamber orchestra, was originally released on the 1988 album, London Bridge is Broken Down, and has never previously been broadcast in full.

now that is a programme!

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks v much Calum.

Hi time Westy's "London Bridge" was broadcast, being arguably the best thing he's ever done

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Mike and Kate Westbrook:
London Bridge is Broken
Down



DUNCAN HEINING 27 JUNE 2014 MUSIC
London Bridge is Broken Down is a
reflection on the contrast between the
heights achieved by European culture and
the barbarism of its periodic internecine
wars.


WITH CONSUMMATE TIMING, at 11pm
on Monday 4th August, BBC Radio 3’s
Jazz on 3 marks the centenary of the
outbreak of the First World War with a
broadcast of Mike and Kate Westbrook’s
“Picardie” from their masterpiece
London Bridge is Broken Down.
London Bridge was recorded in 1987
following its commission and premiere in
Amiens in May of that year. Using texts
chosen and sung by Kate Westbrook, the
work is a reflection on the contrast
between the heights achieved by
European culture and the barbarism of
its periodic internecine wars.

Interviewed in 2008, Mike Westbrook
noted that the vision for London Bridge
had arisen during “a rather unique
period with the trio with Kate, Chris
(Biscoe) and I, when we were criss-
crossing from Vienna to Berlin to Athens
to wherever and just got this kind of
snapshot of Europe in all its suffering, its
history, its culture.” It should not
surprise, then, that Westbrook - one of
the most articulate and literary
composers in jazz – has in London Bridge
shaped music to match the vastness of
his and Kate’s subject matter.

Remarkably for a jazz recording, on this
occasion, Mike had at his disposal a nine
piece jazz orchestra with voice and the
strings and woodwinds of the Sinfonietta
de Picardie. At nearly forty minutes in
length, “Picardie” forms the sixth and
final movement of London Bridge .
Described as a ‘composition for voice,
jazz orchestra and chamber orchestra’,
London Bridge also revealed Westbrook
as a musical poet, not just of landscape
or of human folly or of the nature of art
and experience but, of human history in
all its brightest and darkest moments as
well. “Picardie” itself is a meditation on
war and its impact on this area of
France, which on so many occasions –
not least between 1914-1918 – saw such
devastation and loss of life.

Using poems by writers such as Siegfried
Sassoon, René Arcos, Andrée Chedid and
an anonymous 12th century Picardian
text, “Aucassin et Nicolette” with its
almost humanistic and heretical themes,
“Picardie” is by any standards an
astonishing, multi-faceted piece of
music. It neither shrinks from the horror
but nor does it dwell upon it. As always
in Mike and Kate Westbrook’s work, a
faith in our capacity and potential for
transformation, transcendence and
regeneration lies at its heart. Through
art, through music and words, it says
simply and powerfully, “This is what we
can achieve - it does not have to be this
way.”

London Bridge is Broken Down is
available on BGO Records.

Source: No Glory in War

BN.

Barbarism indeed. Will def be listening.

[Quarky]

Great stuff - my ears have been glued to Radio 3 since 5 pm this evening. Currently listening to Geoffrey Smith. And Kiss me Kate and Hear and Now.

Enough music to last me all week. Come back Claire Martin - all is forgiven!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Geoffrey on Giuffre

i am finding Jimmy Giuffre's work more and more delightful:

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]