What was the latest Jazz gig you've been to?

[Ian Thumwood]

Lol.

For those interested, I found out the bass player's name is Chris Minh Doky and the African instrument Leni Stern played is the N'goni.

Wondered what had happened to him! I say his piano playing brother Nils about 10 years ago. Both brothers were part of the New Neos scene in the1980s.

I can recall Don Cherry playing a Dis N'goni with his band Nu around 1987. I believe the instrument was given to him by John Lee Hooker.

[Joseph K]

Paul Dunmall

I've just come back from seeing Paul Dunmall, who played tenor sax and saxello, John Etheridge who played guitar, Fred Baker on bass and Asaf Sirkis on drums at the Eastside Jazz Club in the Birmingham Conservatoire. It was awesome! The overall sort of vibe reminded me of late-60s early 70s Miles in that each song segued into the next spontaneously, and there was lots of free playing which reached fantastic heights of abstraction. Dunmall is a powerful, adventurous player, unafraid of departing from the harmonic background laid down by John and Fred. I was unfamiliar with much of the repertoire they played - but then, perhaps so were they! But there was quite a bit of up-tempo stuff and John managed to keep up with Paul, often echoing him, it was quite thrilling. Rhythmically it was often free and Asaf Sirkis played some very nice colouristic stuff. Then, out of the blue, they started playing Mr PC! That was unexpected, and great. Then after some more free? playing they launched into their final number, 'It's About That Time' by Miles Davis, and it was just sick. Also there were vibes of late 60s John McLaughlin with Etheridge's playing and late Coltrane in Dunmall's playing. Basically, a lot of my favourite music. I got to express how great it was to Paul afterwards which was nice - I mentioned about Mr PC and he said he too wasn't expecting that, so I guess the gig really was improvised. Plus I bought a couple of CDs for a fiver each featuring some of the players of this gig, and made a friend whom I hope to see at the next 'Paul Dunmall invites' gig in November, where he'll be playing with a different ensemble. Also props to the student support group, whose rendition of Wayne Shorter's 'Deluge' I appreciated.

[Joseph K]

I've just got back home from seeing Paul Dunmall on tenor sax, Liam Noble on piano, John Edwards on bass and Mark Sanders on drums, in the same place as last time. Another wonderful gig! This one was by comparison with last time more pure free jazz, and it was very intense. Taking advantage of the all-acoustic set up this time I felt everyone explored the colouristic potential of their instrument; the drummer had an impressive array of sticks and mallets, and wasn't averse to using unconventional parts of his kit to yield strange sonorities, and also at times used his hands, as well as scratching the skins and making fine use of a small gong. Likewise the bassist often played very rhythmically and aggressively, treating his bass in a manner I'd more associate with a flamenco guitarist, lots of heavy chords were strummed, with rhythmical taps, clacks and smacks against the body of the instrument, along with etheral use of the bow and some nice harmonics. Even the pianist took to extended playing techniques, playing inside the piano, plucking its strings at one point. And Dunmall himself was wonderful, he got into many passages that were sheer eargasm for me - I guess you could describe it as sheets of sound, though he didn't over do it - always one was left feeling as though he was as interested in playing as a band and hearing and reacting to what was going on around him, but when it was necessary, he did play some blazingly fast passages. It's always interesting to hear how free jazz turns out, and I did ponder on its organisation and the rhythms, which suggested a general tempo often, and it seemed to me that the boundaries here between playing 'in time' and out were quite porous - but that goes without saying I guess. I thought it was very successful owing to its freeness. Anyway, it was recorded too so I hope it gets released (I asked Paul Dunmall afterwards about that but he didn't appear to be sure, but I told him I hoped it would be!) At times his tone was somewhat akin to that particular sort of melancholy one finds on Coltrane's Expression and Stellar Regions albums, though over all the group definitely has its own thing, and generally eschews themes, unlike those late Coltrane records. As for the student opening act, I enjoyed their renditions of 'Windows' by Chick Corea and 'Embraceable You'. What was also nice was that there was hardly an empty seat in the club.

[Joseph K]

... some of it has been uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3Bhdmh4LAQ

[Serial_Apologist]

... some of it has been uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3Bhdmh4LAQ

Fantastic, thanks! Pity that you never got the chance to experience Mujician - the group Paul had for some 20 years with Keith Tippett. Paul Rogers and Tony Levin. This may go a small way to making up for that!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tNEkPq6YxA

[Joseph K]

Fantastic, thanks! Pity that you never got the chance to experience Mujician - the group Paul had for some 20 years with Keith Tippett. Paul Rogers and Tony Levin. This may go a small way to making up for that!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tNEkPq6YxA

Thanks - will listen later.

[Ian Thumwood]

I went to see David Binney with a quartet that featured Lawrence Cottle in The Arc in Winchester last Friday. It was really poorly supported with 30 people in the audience, five of whom I later understood to be staff. The rest of the quartet was made up of drummer Jamie Murray and guitarist David Preston.

Have to say that the alto playing of David Binney was effectively the most interesting element of the gig which also relied on live electronics. There was a piece with a walking bass line that closed the first set which was good but the material was not memorable until te band performed one of the saxophomist's originals. The guitarist seemed obsessed with effects and the drummer Murray was clearly in the thrall of Mark Guiliana .i.e Far too busy for my liking and tended to clog the music up. Curious how influential Guiliana is on other drummers, He is definately the "drum sound" of today just as you could argue Brad Mehldau offers the same with the piano. Not really a fan of either but, in the context of this group, it just made Murray sound like a pastiche.

Binney remains one of the most creative jazz musicians of today but I just felt he was ill-served by this group. The musicians did not look too happy to be playing together either. Five stars for David Binney but would prefer to hear him in a more acoustic setting. As for the others, not too fussed by either Preston or Murray, neither of whom mean't anything to me. As a composer, Murray was too interested in the complex. Cottle as as reliable as ever.

[Joseph K]

Last night at the Midlands Arts Centre I saw the Portuguese trumpeter Luis Vicente with saxophonist Paul Dunmall, bass player Olie Brice and drummer Mark Sanders; with the student group The Abyssal Trio, consisting of guitarist Tom Pountney, James Gardener on trumpet and Jonno Gaze on drums opening for them. The Abyssal Trio were not quite abysmal, but I have to say they did induce in me a not inconsiderable state of ennui, a psychological state characterised for me by thoughts of 'is this all free improv is?' 'I could do that' [aimed at the guitarist] 'they're mocking the audience' etc. etc. I admit, for most of their thirty minute set I was casting aspersions against free-improv as a whole and felt quite sullen. I do think they didn't avoid some of the pitfalls of this kind of music. The guitarist played repetitive riffs that, while sort of discordant, still nonetheless managed to sound bland, and he messed around with his effects pedals. The trumpet added spacey, textural sounds again messing with his electronics (obviously I have nothing against using electronic effects if they're used effectively...) while avoiding for the most part playing anything with substance. I guess it wasn't 100% bad; occasionally the guitarist hit on some riff or timbral thing that actually bore repeating, and there were a few passages that sounded like a distant relation to some of Keith Jarrett's improvisations, and the drummer wasn't bad. Still, the overriding impression was not good, and they didn't get off to the best of starts by feeling it necessary to give their free-improv a title ('Wet Leather' ). They are students though...

The main act, on the other hand, were wonderful, and I experienced having all my grotty negative thoughts about the nature of free-improv/free-jazz swept away easily and comfortably by them. They were wonderful; this is the group that I raved about in reply no. 78 of this thread, with trumpet instead of piano and a different bassist this time. Very powerful and intuitively-sound music, it certainly restored my conception of the positive possibilities of this sort of music.

I'm sorry I appear to have written more about the negative this time...

[Joseph K]

Just come back from another Paul Dunmall gig at the Eastside Jazz Club in Birmingham. Another wonderful gig! It's become more evident to me that Dunmall tends toward modal playing, though tempered, according to the types of players he's playing with, by a hefty dose of abstraction. But tonight the music ended up coalescing into playing that at least some of which was in time and given the repetition of motives and harmony, it creates essentially modal backdrops from which Dunmall and the other musicians base their improvisation (though that modal backdrop is itself of course improvised, and often morphs into something else). I guess it's still not 'playing tunes' but it feels like spontaneously 'playing tunes'. It was great though - the pianist, Glen Leach, who was excellent, had a penchant for playing inside the (acoustic) instrument, plucking and strumming strings and hitting it percussively and the bassist, Dave Kane likewise explored different timbres, at times using a bow, and the drummer, Tymek Jozwiak, also made use of tom-toms as well as sticks, or sometimes used just his hands, and at one point was hitting stuff with a tambourine. It's fascinating experiencing the band shift gears from more intense playing to more pointillist staccato and quieter stuff, and back again. And I enjoyed the student opening group, especially their rendition of the 'time-no-changes' tune 'Bop-Be' by Keith Jarrett and a version of Wayne Shorter's 'Infant Eyes' the melody of which was set to lyrics and sung. I also bought a couple of CDs of Dunmall's, though upon examining them, I discovered that one, Homage to John Coltrane, is meant to be a double-album, but only disk two is in it! I've messaged Paul, so hopefully it'll be sorted...

[Joseph K]

I also bought a couple of CDs of Dunmall's, though upon examining them, I discovered that one, Homage to John Coltrane, is meant to be a double-album, but only disk two is in it! I've messaged Paul, so hopefully it'll be sorted...

Pleased to report that he sorted this. Not only that but I was able to buy his new album One Moment, a recording of the November 3rd gig at the Eastside Jazz Club Birmingham Conservatoire! (I suggested after that gig that he should release it)

I've not long got back home from seeing a quartet at the Eastside Jazz Club comprising Paul Dunmall on tenor sax, Tony Bianco on drums, Faith Brackenbury on violin and viola and John Pope on bass. Another smashing gig! Bianco's style I would describe as 'rollercoaster' drumming, in that it's quite continuous and gives the impression of undulating, overlapping waves, and this formed a kind of centre around which everyone else played. Among all the drummers I've heard with Dunmall, his style is closest to Rashied Ali. Brackenbury (who I think is Bianco's partner) was a really nice, refreshing part of this group, often engaging in a give-and-take with Dunmall, echoing him and vice versa and at times it sounded not unlike the heterophonic hollering of John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. I think this gig was more intense than the last one, and I found, pleasingly, the bass more audible than previous gigs in the this series. I really enjoyed the student support as well, which featured a fine guitarist and whose performance of Kenny Garrett's 'November 15' I enjoyed especially.

No more of these gigs until the autumn, alas...

[Joseph K]

Although on the page where I went to buy the ticket says the bassist is John Pope, apparently the bassist was in fact Olie Brice. Anyway, here are three videos from last night's gig for you lucky people!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI9lmvT8qrE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juK8L79xx2Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gskUEymVt34

[JasonPalmer]

Not been to live jazz since we moved out of london, often frequented a jazz club in greenwich and upstairs at ronny scotts.

[Serial_Apologist]

Although on the page where I went to buy the ticket says the bassist is John Pope, apparently the bassist was in fact Olie Brice. Anyway, here are three videos from last night's gig for you lucky people!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI9lmvT8qrE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juK8L79xx2Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gskUEymVt34

Thanks for these, Joseph K. I did once venture to suggest to Tony Bianco that he reminded me more than any other drummer of Rashied, and, being the quiet modest kind of guy he is, he neither agreed nor disagreed - at least he wasn't upset! He does also play "time", as indeed does Rashied - I have him doing funky on another recording, somewhere.

[Joseph K]

Thanks for these, Joseph K. I did once venture to suggest to Tony Bianco that he reminded me more than any other drummer of Rashied, and, being the quiet modest kind of guy he is, he neither agreed nor disagreed - at least he wasn't upset! He does also play "time", as indeed does Rashied - I have him doing funky on another recording, somewhere.

[Joseph K]

So, as mentioned on another thread, last night I went to see Shakti, a legendary group that now comprises John McLaughlin on guitar, Ganesh Rajagopalan on violin, Zakir Hussain on Tabla, Selvaganesh on Ghatam, Kanjira and Mridangam and Shankar Mahadevan on vocals (who also, along with the two percussionists did the Indian rhythmical scatting that is Konnokol). Putting aside my soured mood (more on that in a few sentences) it was a great gig. They opened, much to my delight, with a tune from the Remember Shakti album The Believer '5 In The Morning, 6 In The Afternoon', and then followed it with two more segued into each other, 'Zakir' and 'Anna'. They were then joined by vocalist Shankar Mahadevan and there followed Selvaganesh's 'Mohanam' from the new album. I can't remember all the tunes played from this point onwards, but I do recall a very fine rendition of 'Sakhi', which is from the 2020 album Is That So? and, probably the highlight, Shankar Mahadevan's composition 'Bending The Rules'. It was so joyful and fun to see them trade solos, particularly violinist Rajagopalan and McLaughlin on that last number, I got the impression that the example of the violinist pushed McLaughlin to play ideas he might not have otherwise conceived. And McLaughlin's tone was very fine, I'm not sure quite how to describe it other than to say it was distorted just to an extent that in a certain register it produced a pleasant growl. But, alas, my evening was curtailed by the necessity of having to get back from Hammersmith, where the gig was taking place, to Euston, where I would have to catch a train, what with the utter morons at St Christopher's hostel having rejected me because of my form of ID even though I had already booked and paid for a shared room. So I missed the last half hour so that I could get back to Euston, a journey I made in an hour and ten minutes by alternating between running and walking (I didn't want to deal with the underground) on the way there it had taken about an hour and forty minutes to get to Hammersmith from Euston. But, anyway, before the gig I was spotted by a guy who recognised me from Paul Dunmall gigs, I think because of my ubiquitous Bitches Brew t-shirt. Small world eh? So it was nice chatting with him...