Mmmm....wamba!

[Serial_Apologist]

The new but not-much-toted (apart from on here) series commences at 12 midnight on Saturday - see below.

Sat 2 Nov
5pm J to Z

Repetition of the programme featuring vocalist Claire Martin, and Sun Ra Arkestra leader Marshall Allen's inspirational recordings.

12midnight - Freeness
New series
Corey Mwamba presents the cream of new jazz and improvised music with an adventurous spirit. Born and based in Derby, Mwamba plays vibraphone and dulcimer, composing across a wide range of jazz and contemporary music, using audio-processing software. This first instalment features poetic dialogue between baritone saxophone and guitar in Cath Roberts's quintet Sloth Racket. Plus improvised sounds from Leeds trio JFrisco.

This looks to be a good start. Corey I will vouch for; and he has a great personality. Baritone saxophonist Cath Roberts is a friend and associate of alto saxophonist Dee Byrne, (remember her excellent band Entropi?), and both are members of the S. London-based Lume collective. Sloth Racket will provide a nicely gritty follow-up to Harrison Birtwistle as Composer of the Week this week. I don't know anything about JFrisco, or anything from north of Watford...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000b075

Sun 3 Nov
5pm - Jazz Record Requests
Alyn Shipton marks the 50th anniversary of ECM Records with requests for discs issued on the Munich label including Jan Garbarek and Pat Metheny.

That should please Ian Thumwood! I wonder if Ronnie's 60th gets mentioned at any point this weekend, apart from on today's lunchtime news.

http://www.alynshipton.co.uk/blog

Two other programmes possibly worthy of mention are, on Radio 4:

Weds 6 Nov
11pm -Twayna Mayne: Black Woman
New Series. 1/4 Trans-Racial Adoption
Comedian Twayna Mayne explores the story of her identity as a black British woman and her upbringing as a trans-racial adoptee. Along with stand-up in front of a live audience, she talks to other women about their shared experiences, with this episode featuring a contribution from Pauline Black, the lead singer of the two-tone band The Selecter.

and...

Fri 8 Nov
11pm - Late Junction
Cutting-edge drummer, producer and jazz collagist Makaya McCraven takes Verity Sharpe on a 30-minute trip through his record collection...

[eighthobstruction]

....you are not alone....out here in the cosmos [compost]....you are read and digested....

[Ian Thumwood]

Well, the ECM edition of JRR has thrown up some interesting selections including, I am obliged to say, Charlie Haden's "Ballad of the fallen" which is probably the best album the label has ever put out. "Silence" always reminds me of one of the Chopin "Preludes. I love the Lester Bowie Brass Fantasy album too which comes from a time when the label was not quite so serious. I think the Pat Metheny track will also please a lot of ECM sceptics.

[Quarky]

.

12midnight - Freeness
New series
Corey Mwamba presents the cream of new jazz and improvised music with an adventurous spirit. Born and based in Derby, Mwamba plays vibraphone and dulcimer, composing across a wide range of jazz and contemporary music, using audio-processing software. This first instalment features poetic dialogue between baritone saxophone and guitar in Cath Roberts's quintet Sloth Racket. Plus improvised sounds from Leeds trio JFrisco.

This looks to be a good start. Corey I will vouch for; and he has a great personality. Baritone saxophonist Cath Roberts is a friend and associate of alto saxophonist Dee Byrne, (remember her excellent band Entropi?), and both are members of the S. London-based Lume collective. Sloth Racket will provide a nicely gritty follow-up to Harrison Birtwistle as Composer of the Week this week. I don't know anything about JFrisco, or anything from north of Watford...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000b075

and...

Fri 8 Nov
11pm - Late Junction
Cutting-edge drummer, producer and jazz collagist Makaya McCraven takes Verity Sharpe on a 30-minute trip through his record collection...

Interesting trailer for Corey Mwamba last night on Late Junction with Jennifer Lucy Allan - about 40 minutes in

[Serial_Apologist]

Interesting trailer for Corey Mwamba last night on Late Junction with Jennifer Lucy Allan - about 40 minutes in

for her, then! Shame the programme starts at midnight, as that's the time I normally drop off: I'd like to be listening along with others, this being a brand new programme which has pretentions to being the sort of thing I've been waiting for for a long time.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

for her, then! Shame the programme starts at midnight, as that's the time I normally drop off: I'd like to be listening along with others, this being a brand new programme which has pretentions to being the sort of thing I've been waiting for for a long time.

Ah - didn't you listen to Geoffrey Smith's Jazz, then S_A? My "Jazz Composer of the Week", introducing me to/reminding me of many a fine artist, full of information easily presented - and on many-an-occasion a pick-me-up after a lustre-lacking H&N/NMS. I shall greatly miss it.

(But still looking forward to seeing how the new programme fares.)

[Serial_Apologist]

Ah - didn't you listen to Geoffrey Smith's Jazz, then S_A? My "Jazz Composer of the Week", introducing me to/reminding me of many a fine artist, full of information easily presented - and on many-an-occasion a pick-me-up after a lustre-lacking H&N/NMS. I shall greatly miss it.

(But still looking forward to seeing how the new programme fares.)

So will I - the difference, though, lies in Geoffrey's fare generally being concerned with the past, whereas, one is presuming, the new programme will be about... the new.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Ecclesiastes 1:9 "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun"

BN.

[Quarky]

Ecclesiastes 1:9 "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun"

BN.

Very true.

The issue as far as I am concerned is whether Jazz is content to remain in its own legacy-inspired world, or whether it will adapt to fit , jigsaw puzzle- like, into the broad swathe of music currently being created, which has some amount of an intellectual component.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

So will I - the difference, though, lies in Geoffrey's fare generally being concerned with the past, whereas, one is presuming, the new programme will be about... the new.

- and, as such, should follow NMS very logically; making clear (even if often unintended) the connections between what Musicians from the "Contemporary Classical" and those from "Contemporary Jazz" are exploring today. Such good programming - you'd think somebody had thought it up!

(I shall still miss GS'sJ, though.)

[Ian Thumwood]

It see the page for the new jazz programme is promising "cutting edge" music. I have got to say that I really hate that phrase. It not only smacks of Jez Nelson but I don't think it means anything. At worse, it just suggests stuff that is going to be modish which too often equates to a crock of crap. There was a really interesting interview with the legendary saxophonist Bob Sheppard on All about jazz this week which really intrigued me because he touched upon the mechanics of jazz and finding room to be creative from developing on from the ideas of the giants. He considers the innovations from a perspective of working amongst his peers and I felt this was a really good interview with a great musician who should be better known amongst the jazz audience.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/bob-sheppard-the-clark-kent-of-jazz-bob-sheppard

Reading this article about a very well respected and accomplished musician and then referring to the "cutting edge" jazz programme made me think that is this really how musicians perceive the music? A lot of so called "cutting edge" stuff does not endure and is often merely cosmetic. As the Sheppard interview implies, the innovations in the music are really more incremental and those making the real changes are limited to musicians we would refer to a giants. Personally, I think the idea of the actual innovation being within the mechanics of the music as opposed to cosmetic window dressing by employing computers, influences from beyond jazz is more interesting. The most "progressive" aspects within contemporary jazz come from people composing or theorising about the music such as Henry Threadgill or Steve Coleman.

I had hoped that the last few years had seen a move away from people talking about jazz being "cutting edge" or " jazz with a rock attitude" and there being something of a return to really appreciating what jazz is about.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Cutting Edge, pre post Avant jazz funk flugelhorn..."Flugelstorm"...

http://youtu.be/1RdmUQNcSHk

It's the very next new thing after the old new thing got blunted.

BN

[Quarky]

I hope I'm not standing on anyone's toes in saying how much I enjoyed Corey Mwamba's first programme. I leave it to the experts for a detailed analysis.

Particularly appreciated his short matter of fact presentation of the items broadcast; no extravagantly florid dissertations!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I enjoyed it, too - he did start to speak before the end of one of the pieces being played, but otherwise very good presentation, and a good selection of Music.

[CGR]

Very true.

The issue as far as I am concerned is whether Jazz is content to remain in its own legacy-inspired world, or whether it will adapt to fit , jigsaw puzzle- like, into the broad swathe of music currently being created, which has some amount of an intellectual component.

Go to any pub jazz jam and you'll be lucky if you hear a tune that was composed in the last 30 years.