...triple hit

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

JLU
devotes itself to a set from Trish Clowes with Norma Winstone

Mike Walker electric guitar, Conor Chaplin bass, James Maddren drums, Thea Spiers violin, Catriona Parker violin, Adam Robinson viola, Louise McMonagle cello, Norma Winstone vocals and Trish Clowes on saxophones.

cor!


Geoffrey does George Russell [hint Geoffrey - try Oscar Pettiford]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04lprx0 features two improvisation legends Evan Parker and John Butcher on their respective birthdays [track listing etc an irrelevance one feels]


in a meandering search for Don Abney discovered this:

live footage of a very great bass player!

[Ian Thumwood]

Caught some of the Trish Clowes gig lauded by SA last week. I didn't hear everything but did like the way that the strings were incorporated in to the group. As ever, Norma Winstone was superb but the core quartet was a little under-whelming . Clowes has a very light style of playing where the emotion is almost superficial - the same kind of approach that you would hear from a player light Mark Turner. It was interesting and, (hate to use the word which sums up so much of UK jazz) pretty worthy but not a patch on a clarinet player like Elodie Pasquier whose playing has much more grit - if you are looking for a female European who truly has something to say. None the less, Clowes music was agreeable enough and thankfully didn't revert into the twee-ness that mars such much British jazz when it gets loftier ambitions. Not bad from what I heard .

[Alyn_Shipton]

I shall be interested to hear where GSJ goes with George Russell - some boardees might remember his Jazz Library http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mw631
There's a stream of the podcast of that programme available from the bit marked "clip" on that page. To whet your appetite for the JL edition (in which you can distantly hear my famished producer eating a bag of Kettle Chips during the interview):

The jazz composer and theorist George Russell was a major innovator in jazz for over 50 years. In an archive interview with Alyn Shipton, Russell looks back at the highlights of a recorded repertoire that began with Dizzy Gillespie's big band and went on to encompass modal jazz and the dawn of jazz rock fusion.

George Russell was a ceaseless experimenter - spending most of his life writing his theoretical masterwork on Lydian Modal theory - but on the way writing extended compositions for Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s, introducing Miles Davis and John Coltrane to modal jazz in the '50s, and mixing world jazz and rock with Jan Garbarek and Terje Rypdal in the 60s. His Living Time Orchestra ran from the '70s to the present decade and included innovative soloists from both sides of the Atlantic. In conversation with Alyn Shipton, who visited Russell at his home near the New England Conservatory in Boston, the composer looks back at what he considers the highlights of his work, and at his standard compositions such as All About Rosie and Ezz-Thetic.

[Quarky]

Yes Ian - I felt JLU programme was rather like "Words and Music" programme on Sunday evenings. It fitted in well with the following concert from Wigmore Hall, so an agreeable evening's listening, and everyone's happy (I guess?)

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

..i find Trish Clowes a tad understated but not superficial Ian, but your general point was made for me one night at Scotts some twenty two years ago - celebrating No 1 son's 21st with a night of jazz .... there was a Loose Tubes gang small ensemble and the Dave Holland Quintet and the difference in sheer presence, volume and intensity was such that we wondered how the locals could get back on the bandstand ....

thanks for the reminder Alyn i do recall the programme ... and the era of Friday afternoon jazz programmes ...

[Ian Thumwood]

The latest CD by ex-pat pianist John Escreet features Evan Parker in he band. Escreet is an amazing pianist and surprised to see him so overlooked on this site.

[Quarky]

I shall be interested to hear where GSJ goes with George Russell - some boardees might remember his Jazz Library http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mw631
.

I felt Alyn's approach to George Russell, that of a historical figure giving us some insightful reminiscences, was better suited to the subject, than GS's approach of a revolutionary figure. Because the music played by GS didn't sound revolutionary, but pretty conventional with the passage of all those years; Alyn's selection was however more interesting.

But two lots of George Russell - that's the main thing.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yes Oddball more is the main thing!

never heard of John Escreet Ian ... redress?

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

just listened to the Trish Clowes gig on iplayer and must say that i would have been a leaping at the gig .... great subtle blowing from the quartet and Norma Winstone

[Ian Thumwood]

George Russell was someone I caught twice but it was his first UK tour in 1985 where he rocked u in Southampton that marked the point where I saw a genuine, jazz giant for the first time. Since that point, Russell was always a musician of interesting and I went overboard on his records at the time snapping up anything I could lay my hands on. The better stuff now seems, with hindsight, to be the 1950's / 60's material but it is quite sobering how much of his music was rooted in 1970's rock. The album "New York big band" has some fantastic soloists like Marty Ehrlich, Ray Anderson and the woefully neglected Stanton Davis but was mired by a soul version of "God bless the child." I also like the "Time spiral" record which has some terrifically grooving elements within it. Overall, discovering his later work in the mid 1980's, his approach did sometimes seem too rooted in the 1970's. A later records like "African Game" sounded great in 1986 but I haven't played the record for ages - probably a big clunky these days. I'm not so fond of his later stuff these days despite being someone who would vociferously argue for his importance as a jazz composer and original thinker.

Calum - Escreet's "Don't fight the inevitable" is a bit of a breakthrough album but there is plenty of music on it to get your ears into. The appearance of David Binney and Ambrose Akinmusire being given full range to express themselves doesn't do any harm either. Listening to this a few years back, I think it was pretty clear even then that he is destined for great things. Probably one of the most exciting jazz pianists under the age of 30.

[Serial_Apologist]

just listened to the Trish Clowes gig on iplayer and must say that i would have been a leaping at the gig .... great subtle blowing from the quartet and Norma Winstone

Actually it was mostly too sotto voce to elicit more than warm applause from the super-attentive packed audience (I was lucky to get in), the most extrovert number being Norma's Enjoy This Day from her 1971 debut album Edge of Time, which sadly missed out on the broadcast. As I mentioned before it would have been interesting to have compared her latest rendition with the original, which Norma didn't like at all from its recording quality and also, believe it or not, her own singing! I guess they omitted it for reasons of time, deciding to stick with Trish's materials as commissioned, presumably.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

... ah well i sit between the speakers just about