New book on UK jazz.

[Jazzrook]

Richard Williams’ review of Andre Marmot’s ‘Unapologetic Expression: The Inside Story of the UK Jazz Explosion’:

https://thebluemoment.com/2024/05/10/the-sound-of-london

JR

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks JR for drawing this new book to our detention! I'm not too sure I go the whole way with Richard's view of jazz as an essentially black-led genre, though it unquestionably was and arguable is in the States, whereas "over here" white as notably as black musicians took essential parts in breaking with non-questionable American modes and moulds to prove jazz to be the universal repository of multicultural modernism for music from the 60s on - arguably a transitional provisional period occasioned by free jazz shake-up of the legacy Stateside, though if the trends covered in Apologetic Expression support his contention the view I formed five decades ago and have argued ever since will be seen as reactionary and ripe for taking a back seat. Whatever... I will probably get Marmot's book as a much needed (by me!) if incomplete guide to today's scene.

[Quarky]

Richard Williams’ review of Andre Marmot’s ‘Unapologetic Expression: The Inside Story of the UK Jazz Explosion’:

https://thebluemoment.com/2024/05/10/the-sound-of-london

JR

Thanks for the reference. I found useful the reviews of Cassie Kinoshi's Gratitude and Empirical's Wonder is the Beginning, both of which are available as freebies on YouTube, and which I am currently streaming. Rarely read books however....

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks for the reference. I found useful the reviews of Cassie Kinoshi's Gratitude and Empirical's Wonder is the Beginning, both of which are available as freebies on YouTube, and which I am currently streaming. Rarely read books however....

Some sort of discography both for those included and excluded in/from the book might help guide us through the various developments. Very rarely these days does one find informative CV's in individual players' entries, whether they be Wiki or personal websites - just "what I am doing right now" type stuff; and the only other places one can find out more is checking magazine articles and interviews - the good old hard graft research stuff!

[Serial_Apologist]

Our very own thread here turns out to be a treasure trove on new developments and incomers on the domestic jazz scene. From a few years back, I just dug out a couple of thread initiating posts, some including youtube links with liner notes usefully appended.

http://www.for3.org/forums/forum/jazz-programmes/jazz/18749-the-shuffle-london

http://www.for3.org/forums/forum/jazz-programmes/jazz/18262-we-out-here-new-documentary-on-the-new-london-scene

Inevitably very London-centric, but scrolling back on this otherwise miserably Novemberish day brings up more otherwise little mentioned stuff from the provinces

[Ian Thumwood]

I strikes me that this book is covering a movement in jazz that has barely started and has not reached its potential.

It is a welcome change but I am mindful that alit of this music is the equivalent of Soul Jazz in the 1960s although I think i would concur that Cassie Kinoshi is going to be a major force in jazz.

[Serial_Apologist]

I strikes me that this book is covering a movement in jazz that has barely started and has not reached its potential.

It is a welcome change but I am mindful that alit of this music is the equivalent of Soul Jazz in the 1960s although I think i would concur that Cassie Kinoshi is going to be a major force in jazz.

You could be right there on both counts, Ian. Fusion took some years to come up with creative solutions to what in the first years often seemed like commercial back-tracking (unless you sought out off the map venues or were part of an alternative grapevine). From your other post "jazz festivals" seem not to be where to seek them out any more - or is that a generalisation too far?