Sounds from The Smoke

[Ian Thumwood]

SA

I think you might find this resume of the current British jazz scene to be interesting as it represents a foreigner's perception of the current state of play / last ten years. I regret that I have only heard of Christine Tobin 9always considered her a folk singer who dabbled in jazz) and John Taylor / Julian Arguelles.

http://jazztimes.com/articles/172526-artist-s-choice-excellent-underrated-u-k-based-improvisers

The descriptions don't really make me want to explore this music but I see TF is singled out for praise. It is good that publications like this are taking note of what is going on in the UK. I did listen to some samples of the much lauded Laura Jurd over the weekend and struck by how much her band "Dinosaur" seemed indebted to Dave Douglas albeit it a very fusion fashion. The music seemed ok although not earth-shattering. It is staggering at how the musicianship off British jazz musicians seems to get better and better and the degree of technical prowess seems a given. That said, you long to hear a bit more bight and edge in the music to lift the music above this kind of mainstream which does seem rather ubiquitous across Europe these days. It is odd how this type of jazz seems to grab the media attention these days whereas when I was discovering jazz in the 1980s, world class European jazz seemed dominated by players who had emerged from the Free Jazz scene in the 1960's. Jurd's band of twenty somethings are pretty impressive the music will need to evolve if it is to retain the interest of the jazz audience once it has ceased to be shiny and new.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks ian - I'll take a look at that article tomorrow. I've intended making a report on Matana Robert's extraordinary gig at Cafe Oto last Thursday, but have been torn between letting the experience sink in first, and making the most of today's warmth and sunshine as it may be the last of it for several months to come.

[CGR]

"I am ambivalent about folk music manifesting itself in jazz. What is more "folk" than the blues, the key ingredient of jazz."

Reminds me of that particular blend of a jazz rhythm section, acoustic blues guitar and folk singing that were Pentangle. A subtle mix of styles that I still enjoy listening to now all these years later.

[CGR]

"It is staggering at how the musicianship off British jazz musicians seems to get better and better and the degree of technical prowess seems a given. That said, you long to hear a bit more bight and edge in the music to lift the music above this kind of mainstream which does seem rather ubiquitous across Europe these days. "

Such it the effect of music education needing to standardise everything and make it teachable in the lecture theatre and practice room and then give the examiners a standard set of criteria. Learning by apprenticeship probably produced less technically proficient, but more interesting, musicians.

[Serial_Apologist]

"It is staggering at how the musicianship off British jazz musicians seems to get better and better and the degree of technical prowess seems a given. That said, you long to hear a bit more bight and edge in the music to lift the music above this kind of mainstream which does seem rather ubiquitous across Europe these days. "

Such it the effect of music education needing to standardise everything and make it teachable in the lecture theatre and practice room and then give the examiners a standard set of criteria. Learning by apprenticeship probably produced less technically proficient, but more interesting, musicians.

There's a lot in that CGR. And welcome to the forum!

[Serial_Apologist]

Time limitations (ie a need to leave home in the next half hour to bike it to the first event at the Festival Hall this afternoon) foreshorten any reportage so far on the London Jazz Festival.

Yesterday we managed to attend two freebies in the foyer at the Barbican: the tenor/bass/drums trio of a young saxophone player from Scotland previously unknown to me, Helena Kay, winner of the Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year, whose lovely playing of two ballads in a standards' dominated set of the required one hour's duration, disguised something of that lack of originality or momentum on the faster boppish numbers I've noted amkong some of those who re-root themselves in the Cool 1950s, possibly by being driven on by a rather mechanical drummer, although the bass player, arguably the star of the session, was offered generous solo space. Trish Clowes followed with a quartet consisting of her regular guitarist and drummer Chris Montague and James Maddren, and the ever-dependable Ross Stanley on piano and Hammond organ. No bass player, surprisingly, so Ross took on bass line duties. Typical of Trish, the first number, in a driving Fusion vein reminiscent of the Brecker Brothers or any number of American groups of the early 1980s, would have sucked the audience in for what followed, which was in no way in suimilar vein, consisting of two new and one old composition in Trish's quirkily original style - through compositions alternating seriousness and whimsy, Ms Clowes and her colleagues loping their off-beat ways through the kinds of harmonic challenges that might well throw more experienced players. The old way of dealing with involved heads tended to be to take a small section of the theme and improvise around that, or else go totally free before triumphantly groping a way back to the start; this lot meander their way around the unexpected twists of mood, tempo and harmony and one has to admire them for it. It was difficult from where we were, off to one side, making out the announcements; Trish did mention lack of time ("That was the fastest turnaround I've ever done!", she said thanking her musicians at the conclusion) referring us to her website (must look later!), but one very moving number which she opened singing to a poem she'd set, appeared to be a lament for the migrants perished on the seas. Trish's heart is in the right place as well as her mind - I am convinced she is a major figure among the homegrown younger generation. Two of her CDs were on sale; I had the first one but the second, whidh I didn't, was sold out by the time I reached the front of the queue! But Trish told me that some of the materials played will be coming out on a new CD due out in the New Year.

Five remaining minutes enable me to apologise for failing to write up the Matana Roberts Cafe Oto of the week before last. The place was more packed than I'd ever seen before. Ms Roberts asked the audience to indicate which of the two previous night's gigs there they'd attended: most of the standing crowd threw up their hands. Accompanying her on a totally improvised couple of sets was Neil Charles, a black bass ist whose name I'd noted, assuming him to be an American, Mark Sanders (looking more and more like Keith Jarrett each time I see him!) on drums, and the faithful 9and ever growing in stature ) Robert Mitchell on piano. it was mostly one headlong rush. After half time she invited local tenor player Rachel Musson onstage and the two engaged in telepathic togetherness. Matana apologised for the embarassing events unfolding in American, and somebody in the audience shouted "But it's not your fault!".

[Alyn_Shipton]

S-A If you'd stayed up late on Friday you'd have heard Helena Kay give a very good account of herself on the EFG London Jazz festival opening night Jazz Now from Pizza Express at 11pm on Friday: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08254pq Maybe assessing her over a 30 minute set of original compositions might alter your "lack of originality or momentum" view. And Rachel Musson is on next Saturday's JRR, recorded yesterday at the Barbican with Nikki Yeoh also guesting. You can hear it in advance of next week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p048h029

[Serial_Apologist]

S-A If you'd stayed up late on Friday you'd have heard Helena Kay give a very good account of herself on the EFG London Jazz festival opening night Jazz Now from Pizza Express at 11pm on Friday: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08254pq Maybe assessing her over a 30 minute set of original compositions might alter your "lack of originality or momentum" view. And Rachel Musson is on next Saturday's JRR, recorded yesterday at the Barbican with Nikki Yeoh also guesting. You can hear it in advance of next week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p048h029

Many thanks Alyn (apols for late reply).

[Serial_Apologist]

Nick Smart: trumpet player, teacher

Nick leads the jazz course at the Royal Academy of Music. Nice work if you can get it! Here he talks about the course and jazz education. The following link shows Dave Holland in rehearsal with the RAM student band:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7SVjO9NQkM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-Z5gGkO_OQ

and from a few years earlier, Nick performing his Kenny Wheeler tribute tune at the Forge in Camden Town, with his band Trogon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr6J9HTo8LA

[Ian Thumwood]

Laura Jurd's Dinosaur takes to the stage there next Monday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHPoQ26t6M8

I like Laura and her playing, but I have to say find her materials a bit... glib, frankly. In jazz it's what you do with them that matters more, sometimes, and anyone who can sound like Lester Bowie has my vote.

So - do I go? Decisions... decisions ...

Just got back from hearing Dinosaur perform at a packed out Turner sims Concert Hall in Southampton. I must admit that I did come to this concert with really low expectations but the fact that tickets we selling for £9 and I had no football to watch today made it a bit of a no brainer. There was always the hope that I would be pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, I have to say that this is probably one of the worst concerts I have ever been to and it was irredeemably bad. Several other people walked out before Ms Jurd had a chance to launch in to her encore and there were plenty of shaking heads in the foyer afterwards.

At the risk of sounding like a misogynist at best and former "Jass bored" poster Trevor Cooper at worst, I am struggling to see where all the hype if coming from with this musician and wonder if she hadn't been a young and attractive female would anyone outside of a music college have taken any notice ? SA hit the nail firmly on the head and her compositions were entirely unmemorable and she must be the only leader whose band actually sounded more interesting when she wasn't playing. Forget the analogies to Lester Bowie , Jurd is pretty characterless even if you take the view that what she is playing in jazz. That is debatable. To me, she seemed more influenced by Dave Douglas (usually a good sign) but something was missing. The better numbers sounded like Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia but with a trumpet instead of a saxophone and without the melodies whereas the least inspiring material sounded like it something composed for a 1980s Test Card.

It is a real shame that this band is so over-hyped. My recent experience has been that women are producing some of the most original and thoughtful jazz at the moment. Ms Jurd seems to equate vamps with composition and her band were all technically proficient. The keyboard player had bags of technique yet his solos seemed to consist of repeating motifs over and over again with an almost total absence of an improvised line. Even if you came to the gig as a fan of Jazz Fusion (which this band essentially is) , I think you would still have been left deflated.

I appreciate that my views are likely to be pretty controversial and anticipate to receive at least one barbed brickbat as is often the case whenever I post anything negative yet I can't recall ever going to a gig where I have been so bored before. The music totally failed to engage. It is a shame as you feel British jazz needs young faces even though the concert was largely attended by an audience generally older than myself. A discussion I had with a friend in the interval proved at least one other person concurred with me and even if she is a local ton my neck of the woods, there was little to be enthused about. The usual argument about these kind of bands is that they present an in road for a younger audience to get in to jazz. Tonight's attendance was indicative of her music appealing to an older generation made curious after the amount of fuss she had garnered throughout 2016. I acknowledge that this is a band of young-twenty somethings and they are all fresh out of college but the music was, frankly, pretty uninspiring. The constant plugs for the new album and the invites to follow the band on Twitter and Facebook didn't help. As my old friend Mr Improv used to say, this is more about "product" than the art.

[Old Grumpy]

Just got back from hearing Dinosaur perform at a packed out Turner sims Concert Hall in Southampton. I must admit that I did come to this concert with really low expectations but the fact that tickets we selling for £9 and I had no football to watch today made it a bit of a no brainer. There was always the hope that I would be pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, I have to say that this is probably one of the worst concerts I have ever been to and it was irredeemably bad. Several other people walked out before Ms Jurd had a chance to launch in to her encore and there were plenty of shaking heads in the foyer afterwards.

At the risk of sounding like a misogynist at best and former "Jass bored" poster Trevor Cooper at worst, I am struggling to see where all the hype if coming from with this musician and wonder if she hadn't been a young and attractive female would anyone outside of a music college have taken any notice ? SA hit the nail firmly on the head and her compositions were entirely unmemorable and she must be the only leader whose band actually sounded more interesting when she wasn't playing. Forget the analogies to Lester Bowie , Jurd is pretty characterless even if you take the view that what she is playing in jazz. That is debatable. To me, she seemed more influenced by Dave Douglas (usually a good sign) but something was missing. The better numbers sounded like Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia but with a trumpet instead of a saxophone and without the melodies whereas the least inspiring material sounded like it something composed for a 1980s Test Card.

It is a real shame that this band is so over-hyped. My recent experience has been that women are producing some of the most original and thoughtful jazz at the moment. Ms Jurd seems to equate vamps with composition and her band were all technically proficient. The keyboard player had bags of technique yet his solos seemed to consist of repeating motifs over and over again with an almost total absence of an improvised line. Even if you came to the gig as a fan of Jazz Fusion (which this band essentially is) , I think you would still have been left deflated.

I appreciate that my views are likely to be pretty controversial and anticipate to receive at least one barbed brickbat as is often the case whenever I post anything negative yet I can't recall ever going to a gig where I have been so bored before. The music totally failed to engage. It is a shame as you feel British jazz needs young faces even though the concert was largely attended by an audience generally older than myself. A discussion I had with a friend in the interval proved at least one other person concurred with me and even if she is a local ton my neck of the woods, there was little to be enthused about. The usual argument about these kind of bands is that they present an in road for a younger audience to get in to jazz. Tonight's attendance was indicative of her music appealing to an older generation made curious after the amount of fuss she had garnered throughout 2016. I acknowledge that this is a band of young-twenty somethings and they are all fresh out of college but the music was, frankly, pretty uninspiring. The constant plugs for the new album and the invites to follow the band on Twitter and Facebook didn't help. As my old friend Mr Improv used to say, this is more about "product" than the art.

An interesting and (as you observe) potentially provocative analysis, Ian. Can't say I know that much about Ms Jurd's music. I have heard one album on which she plays (Blue-Eyed Hawk – Under the Moon ), but have never seen her live and am otherwise unfamiliar with her "product".

OG

[Ian Thumwood]

Old Grumpy

I don't know what I really expected. I suppose I was anticipating a Fusion group which would have been agreeable enough yet the gig seemed a sign of the times. There would appear to be a bit of a marketing team behind Ms Jurd and this is the first time I have attended a gig where I have been encouraged to follow a band on Twitter. It was also intriguing to see her promoting the fact that her record was also available on vinyl. Maybe it is a sign of growing old? It is funny to find yourself in a position where you are shaking your head with regard to a gig by a new generation of artists whereas this is something which had hitherto proved really exciting when I was first listening to jazz in the early 1980's. Laura Jurd was probably still at junior school when bands like EST emerged on the scene and has cited the likes of Arve Henriksen as an influence - oddly one musician I saw back in the early 2000s in Salisbury and walked out of the gig. We are no encountering a generation of players who are looking back to the likes of Django Bates as ancient history and you can hardly expect someone so young to be checking out Kenny Dorham. However the people attending last night's gig were , as a rule, older than me. There weren't too many young people even though the gig was backed out and there were a few idiots whooping at the end of pieces who always strike me as being complete cocks. However, I kind of concur with the idea that it is interesting that jazz should look to evolve. In my opinion, I don't think this music is offering anything really new and is only a marginally more exciting experience than listening to a lot of Smooth Jazz. Some of that uses odd harmonies and unusual meters yet no one is making great claims about Peter White! At 25 Laura Jurd is obviously at the beginning of her career but I am not quite sure whether what she is producing is jazz or indeed whether that is what she wants to call it. It is probably fair to take into account that this was a quartet of nippers. All in all, it was the least inspiring gig that I have attended in years irrespective of how cynical you want to be about the slick and modern marketing machine pitting the spin behind her which would do Alistair Campbell credit. I wouldn't find it hard to believe that those who demonstrated enthusiasm for the gig would probably struggle with Miles Davis.

It is interesting to compare and contrast Ms Jurd with another Laura, the singer Laura Mvula who comes from a similar educative background in Classical composition.(Birmingham Conservatoire) Laura Mvula has received even more hype in the press and I would guess is only a few years older. For me, Laura Mvula is far more interesting and whilst primarily a pop artists, you could argue has a better understanding of jazz sensibilities. She can certainly nail a melody whereas the trumpeter didn't manage anything remotely memorable all night.

Wondered if anyone else had caught the Dinosaur tour and had similar impressions?

[Serial_Apologist]

Old Grumpy

I don't know what I really expected. I suppose I was anticipating a Fusion group which would have been agreeable enough yet the gig seemed a sign of the times. There would appear to be a bit of a marketing team behind Ms Jurd and this is the first time I have attended a gig where I have been encouraged to follow a band on Twitter. It was also intriguing to see her promoting the fact that her record was also available on vinyl. Maybe it is a sign of growing old? It is funny to find yourself in a position where you are shaking your head with regard to a gig by a new generation of artists whereas this is something which had hitherto proved really exciting when I was first listening to jazz in the early 1980's. Laura Jurd was probably still at junior school when bands like EST emerged on the scene and has cited the likes of Arve Henriksen as an influence - oddly one musician I saw back in the early 2000s in Salisbury and walked out of the gig. We are no encountering a generation of players who are looking back to the likes of Django Bates as ancient history and you can hardly expect someone so young to be checking out Kenny Dorham. However the people attending last night's gig were , as a rule, older than me. There weren't too many young people even though the gig was backed out and there were a few idiots whooping at the end of pieces who always strike me as being complete cocks. However, I kind of concur with the idea that it is interesting that jazz should look to evolve. In my opinion, I don't think this music is offering anything really new and is only a marginally more exciting experience than listening to a lot of Smooth Jazz. Some of that uses odd harmonies and unusual meters yet no one is making great claims about Peter White! At 25 Laura Jurd is obviously at the beginning of her career but I am not quite sure whether what she is producing is jazz or indeed whether that is what she wants to call it. It is probably fair to take into account that this was a quartet of nippers. All in all, it was the least inspiring gig that I have attended in years irrespective of how cynical you want to be about the slick and modern marketing machine pitting the spin behind her which would do Alistair Campbell credit. I wouldn't find it hard to believe that those who demonstrated enthusiasm for the gig would probably struggle with Miles Davis.

It is interesting to compare and contrast Ms Jurd with another Laura, the singer Laura Mvula who comes from a similar educative background in Classical composition.(Birmingham Conservatoire) Laura Mvula has received even more hype in the press and I would guess is only a few years older. For me, Laura Mvula is far more interesting and whilst primarily a pop artists, you could argue has a better understanding of jazz sensibilities. She can certainly nail a melody whereas the trumpeter didn't manage anything remotely memorable all night.

Wondered if anyone else had caught the Dinosaur tour and had similar impressions?

I did see Dinosaur a couple of years ago (I think) when they did an early evening freebie in the foyer of the QEH/Purcell. As I have since written, I found the music somewhat glib, and whole spirit of the band, along with its music, rather too pleased with itself for its own progress. The one time I was quite impressed with Ms Jurd was when seeing her in company with Evan Parker, John Edwards and Mark Sanders at the Vortex. That was one of Evan's totally improvised gigs, of which he has one a month there, often inviting a.n. other or other musicians to experience the deep end, and I have to say on that occasion I felt that the residents did rather soft-pedal their passing protégé - something others might more kindly refer to as being sensitive and accommodating. At least Laura is prepared to take this sort of plunge, and her playing, if not her compositional approach, will benefit in the same way those of an earlier generation using free improv as a creative bridge, such as Andy Sheppard did while en route to developing their own musical and in other respects bankable qualities.

Far more promising, once more, for me, was Trish Clowes's latest effort, exposed at the LJF a couple of months ago and due for recording early this year, she said. In contrast with the previous turn to an intimacy so intimate in her Norma Winstone collaboration it was almost drowned by the air conditioning - intimacy is an important aspect of Ms Winstone's output, but only one aspect; and Mike Walker, usually so impressive a guitarist, was completely wasted, or wasted himself on that one - the new suite was musically challenging, both in its materials and the challenge they posed to Trish and her bandspeople.

By coincidence I was checking out the very last VHS tape I recorded off the telly in 2009 before it all went digital. This was from a local BBC news item marking 50 years of jazz at Ronnie Scott, during which it was pointed out that the club had opened the upstairs for cheap-entry late-night jams being presented by the upcoming generation, and among those briefly spotted playing was someone on trumpet and clearly gifted remarkably like Laura J, the bespectacled Hampshire with the Fringe On Top as I might call her from now on, earlier glimpsed in the crowd near the stand. She would have been about 19 then. As Ian has said elsewhere, there are a lot of highly promising young women jazz musicians coming onto the scene, presenting some of the best and most interesting jazz around at the moment in the UK, and while disappointed, I'm not ready just yet to write Ms Jurd off.

[Serial_Apologist]

Keith Tippett brought a new quartet of young classically-trained musicians to Cafe Oto on Tuesday last. After a tentative start, the violinist, clarinettist and double bass player all piled in, and while interesting left for me the impression that a good deal more experience has to take positive effect before the important principle of mutual convergence established by the late Derek Bailey in bringing together incomers with dissimilar outlooks or from different disciplines, can offer a satisfying, unified experience. Far more compatible was the opening duo of Julie Tippets and Mark Wastell, a one-time self-taught improvising cellist-turned-percussionist, both of whom produced a plethora of mainly soft sounds from small percussion including Tibetan Buddhist sounding bowls with their exquisite sustaining tones, and a drone Julie was unable to identify by name when I asked. It was hard to believe that this was their first encounter, and one was in many ways reminded of Ovary Lodge, the quartet Keith and Julie ran in the mid-1970s with first Roy Babbington, and then Harry Miller on bass, and Frank Perry a massive surrounding rig of homemade and exotic percussion performed from inside, while also minded of Julie's ostensibly endless capacity to harmonise with her musical environment while at the same time expanding her range of already far-extended vocal techniques.

One was delighted to learn that Keith had been invited to work in Australia recently - a well-deserved break, and not before time! Details are in the link below:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-04/uk-jazz-composer-keith-tippett-resiodency/8090906

[Lat-Literal]

Keith Tippett brought a new quartet of young classically-trained musicians to Cafe Oto on Tuesday last. After a tentative start, the violinist, clarinettist and double bass player all piled in, and while interesting left for me the impression that a good deal more experience has to take positive effect before the important principle of mutual convergence established by the late Derek Bailey in bringing together incomers with dissimilar outlooks or from different disciplines, can offer a satisfying, unified experience. Far more compatible was the opening duo of Julie Tippets and Mark Wastell, a one-time self-taught improvising cellist-turned-percussionist, both of whom produced a plethora of mainly soft sounds from small percussion including Tibetan Buddhist sounding bowls with their exquisite sustaining tones, and a drone Julie was unable to identify by name when I asked. It was hard to believe that this was their first encounter, and one was in many ways reminded of Ovary Lodge, the quartet Keith and Julie ran in the mid-1970s with first Roy Babbington, and then Harry Miller on bass, and Frank Perry a massive surrounding rig of homemade and exotic percussion performed from inside, while also minded of Julie's ostensibly endless capacity to harmonise with her musical environment while at the same time expanding her range of already far-extended vocal techniques.

One was delighted to learn that Keith had been invited to work in Australia recently - a well-deserved break, and not before time! Details are in the link below:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-0...odency/8090906

Interesting comments.

On a basic and more parochial note although it is almost London, do you have any knowledge of The Woolpack in Banstead?

Is it very, very trad there - and whether it is or it isn't, is it ever worth it?