Another weekend another show 21-23/1/12

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Barney Bigard on JL with Dave Gelly & Alyn

Claire Martin presents a concert of music from the iconic pianist McCoy Tyner recorded at the 2011 London Jazz Festival, featuring the stellar line-up of saxophonist Chris Potter, bassist Gerald Cannon, drummer Joe Farnsworth, vocalist Jose James and McCoy Tyner on piano. Plus an interview with Chris Potter conducted by Kevin Le Gendre prior to his perfomance with McCoy Tyner, which marked the 50th Anniversary of the legendary Impulse record label.

JLU ups it's game relinked [oops apologies]

and then again Jon3 looks unmissable

Michel Portal with his Bailador band at the 2011 London Jazz Festival. Now 75, Portal has had a wide-ranging musical career that began in the European free jazz movement and has also taken in the classical avant-garde, award-winning film scores and, in recent years, a more mainstream duo project with accordionist Richard Galliano. His new ensemble performs music influenced by Latin and Eastern European folk sounds and reflecting the cutting-edge line-up of the band: Serbian pianist Bojan Z and Americans Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet), Scott Colley (bass) and Nasheet Waits (drums).

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

This week's performance presents the latest intriguing twist in the distinguished career of French reeds player Michel Portal, with a mouth-watering line-up that includes Serbian pianist Bojan Z and young US trumpet star Ambrose Akinmusire. Portal’s international quintet provided one of my personal highlights of last November’s London Jazz festival.
In one sense, the tune-led music is a far cry from the French free-jazz scene that Portal pioneered in the 1960s and 70s. But there's a real looseness to the music – right from the fusion-y opening to the set – that gives the band loads of freedom too. The result is that individual personalities really shine through, whether it's the directness of Akinmusire's trumpet, or Bojan Z's folk-tinged solo in the second piece, followed by Portal in exploratory mood.
Folk music is in fact one of the things that binds Portal and Bojan – who is the arranger and producer of the project - as we'll hear in the interval interview with Kevin Le Gendre, who dusts down his very best French for the purpose.
Back on stage, the music becomes more reflective and the rhythm section of Scott Colley and Nasheet Waits really come into their own as things break down. There's just time for one more Latin-tinged melody to burst forth before the end, a confirmation that, at 75, Portal has as much musical energy as ever.
To end the show we go on a jazz road less travelled – journalist Daniel Spicer gives us a glimpse of what's coming out of Lebanon and Turkey at the moment. One of the bands is KonstruKt, featuring Sun Ra saxophonist Marshall Allen, and we've just heard that they'll be appearing in London this March – we'll put the details on the Jazz on 3 website.

Jon3 tonite

top band innit

[charles t]

Thank you, Calum for the heads-up on McCoy, Potter et al...an amalgamation of souls communicating in a parallel (jazz) universe.

[handsomefortune]

am currently enjoying jez's radio programme, it's really good tonight. a knowlegeable guest covering jazz in the middle east ...

michel portal was impressive too.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yep

a few minutes into the first Portal track and you know you are in for a treat

[Old Grumpy]

yep

a few minutes into the first Portal track and you know you are in for a treat

Indeed we did, and were -

shame about the last track played on the programme though - dreadful!!

[handsomefortune]

as mentioned by portal on jazz on 3, a previous incarnation, Unit,

Recorded live in Lovere, Italy, on June 17th, 1979

Michel Portal,reeds,bandoneòn
Albert Mangelsdorff,trombone
Leon Francioli,bass
Pierre Favre,percussionsrecorded in italy in 1979,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owv0jv_4FK0

(great percussion and bass too)

and more 70s portal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FAg4lvf5_o&feature=related

[Lateralthinking1]

I thought the programme on Barney Bigard was very good. I really rate Alyn Shipton as a broadcaster - have to say that I am not so keen on some of the others - and Dave Gelly was a terrific guest. Informative and radio friendly.

During the past 12 months, I have been trying quietly to find more roads in to appreciation of jazz. I have a library book which I like so much I have renewed it month after month. With the help of that book and the internet, I have steadily built up some playlists on Spotify. I have also listened at times to Jazz Record Requests but find it a bit haphazard by definition.

Now I realise of course that Alyn's series is ideal in this respect. Wish I had been with it from the beginning. I see that there are nearly a hundred podcasts and think this is the way forward. They appear to be far shorter than the original programmes.
Does anyone know why? I am excited by the prospect but also a little daunted. Any tips would be useful.

[Alyn_Shipton]

Thanks for the kind words! There are actually 152 podcasts available on the Radio 3 site, and the number grows each time there's a new programme (as opposed to a repeat). They are shorter because the BBC's rights agreement with the record companies only allows a minute of uninterrupted music between each portion of speech. So they are more of a taster than the original programme, and occasionally we simply can't include all the musical points discussed by me and my guest because they are spread over longer than a minute. But thanks to the BBC Trust paving the way for the BBC archive to be more widely accessible the whole part of the Jazz Library archive that is available for podcast (a few shows have rights or technical issues and others are feedback or review shows) will be there indefinitely.

[Old Grumpy]

Thanks for the kind words! There are actually 152 podcasts available on the Radio 3 site, and the number grows each time there's a new programme (as opposed to a repeat). They are shorter because the BBC's rights agreement with the record companies only allows a minute of uninterrupted music between each portion of speech. So they are more of a taster than the original programme, and occasionally we simply can't include all the musical points discussed by me and my guest because they are spread over longer than a minute. But thanks to the BBC Trust paving the way for the BBC archive to be more widely accessible the whole part of the Jazz Library archive that is available for podcast (a few shows have rights or technical issues and others are feedback or review shows) will be there indefinitely.

[Lateralthinking1]

Thank you Alyn for your very helpful reply. The news from the BBC Trust is particularly welcome. You might be aware that the commercial radio archives - diverse programmes from the 1970s unlike the current wallpaper on commercial radio - are located at the Universities of Kent and Bournemouth and can only be accessed by media students. So for everyone to have access to this far richer collection of jazz - and presumably the world music archive too - is really tremendous.