Gunter Sommer and Raymond Macdonald July 5, 2009
Posted by byased in British Musicians, European Musicians, Live reviews.add a comment
Tron Theatre, 27th June 2009 (afternoon)
This was the first concert in a series of German jazz concerts organised with the assistance of the Goethe Institut.
I don’t listen to much free improvisation, so I don’t really know how to judge this in approved improv terms. Is it a form of jazz, or has it developed into a form of its own – non-idiomatic improvisation, I think the term is?
First up was a Gunter Sommer – Raymond Macdonald Duo. They played five or six pieces, each of which developed the opening idea in a fairly coherent manner, with obvious interaction between the two musicians. It wasn’t cold abstract music: there was an obvious element of humour and play to it. Jazz kept threatening to break out, but never quite did. I got the impression that Sommer would be an excellent straightahead jazz drummer if he chose to be, but that wasn’t his plan. (Later on, in the discussion, he said something along the lines of “I was playing Black American music, but I wasn’t a Black American. I felt like a thief”). On the jazz – free improv axis, the set was less jazzy than Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake’s “Together Again”, but less jazzy than Joe McPhee and Paal Nilsson-Love’s “Tomorrow Comes Today”, if that’s any help.
After the end of the set, Gunter Sommer gave a talk on his own musical past, and on the free jazz scene in the old DDR. He was interesting, amusing and spoke pretty good English. The BBC should get him to do an edition of Jazz Library, or at least interview him for the Jazz House.
Bobby Wellins Quartet (and guests) June 29, 2009
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Tron Theatre, 23rd June 2009. Part of Glasgow Jazz Festival
The more I hear Bobby Wellins, the more convinced I am that he’s not just one of the top UK jazz musicians, but one of the best contemporary mainstream sax players anywhere. Everything he plays is distinctively HIM, not just another highly-competent saxophone clone. It’s the combination of his distinctive slightly mournful tone, and the way he plays around with the timing of phrases. One part of the tune is drawn out a bit, then there’s a brief flurry of notes to let him catch up. And although he can play fast when he wants to, he knows the value of inserting a rest hear and there in the music. Not a note is wasted.
I mustn’t give the impression it was a one man show, though. He was greatly helped by an excellent band: Barry Green on piano, Oli Hayhurst on bass, and Dave Wickens on drums. Green was particularly good. Not only did he play good solos, but he was an excellent accompanist who responded to what the saxophone was playing and threw in some ideas of his own for Wellins to work with. Towards the end of the first half, Tom McNiven and Chris Grieve put in an appearance, each playing as second horn in a quintet for one number, and then both appearing alongside Wellins in a sextet set finale. The first set was fine, but the second set, as so often seems to happen, was even better.
YolanDa Brown June 23, 2009
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Tron Theatre, 21st June 2009.
Part of the Glasgow International Jazz Festival 2009
The announcement came over the PA: “Please welcome Mobo Award winning saxophonist, Miss YolanDa Brown”. But instead of Miss Brown, a bloke walked on stage and started playing drums. A minute or so later, on came the (male) bass guitar player. Then the keyboard player and the guitarist. Finally, wearing a gold dress and gold stilleto heels, on came YolanDa herself.
This was definitely jazz as entertainment rather than jazz as art. Brown had her band positioned round the back of the stage, leaving her free to strut around the remaining space, despite wearing heels which made shaking a tail feather look difficult if not downright dangerous. She did a costume change at the interval, coming back out in a puffball skirt and slightly more sensible shoes.
But what about the music? Well, she played a mixture of standards and originals, in a style which fused R’n'B (in the current sense) with jazz. As an attempt to renunite jazz with black popular dance music it was less radical than Courtney Pine’s efforts: more like Grover Washington Jr. or Stanley Turrentine. Her playing – mainly tenor, but some soprano – was pretty decent, but she rarely strayed too far from the tune. There were a few inspired moments, such as a Coltrane-over-reggae passage in My Funny Valentine, but also a few naff ones, such as a version of Round Midnight that milked the tune for sentimentality while saying nothing new. Best of the originals was the African-tinged “Festac Town”. The band were very good (I thought they were more impressive than YolanDa Brown herself), but I didn’t manage to catch their names.
Overall, an enjoyable enough concert, but a bit MOR for my tastes. It’s reviewed in the Herald here: Herald review
YolanDa Brown’s own web site is at www.yolandabrown.co.uk
Jazz in the Herald January 11, 2009
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For all its faults as a newspaper, the (Glasgow) Herald often has a lot of good jazz coverage, largely courtesy of Rob Adams. Having an Arts Editor (Keith Bruce) who likes jazz obviously helps. There are a couple of good articles cum interviews with visiting musicians this week:
Kurt Elling, is at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, with the Norbotten Big Band who, from the little I’ve heard of them (they play on one of Jonas Kullhammar’s albums), are very good indeed. Rob Adams is very enthusiastic about this gig, so if you’re in the area it’s probably worth getting along to.
Julian Siegel, is playing at the City Halls Recital Room in Glasgow with drummer Joey Baron and ex-Ornette Coleman bass-player Greg Cohen on Wednesday 14th, then touring the UK.
Records of the Year, 2008 January 2, 2009
Posted by byased in CDs.1 comment so far
My list of the best albums of the year is very much shaped by the erratic local availability of CDs: if it’s on a medium-to-small US label it’s difficult to get hold of in Glasgow. My favourites of 2008 all involve British musicians, but that’s a reflection of what I’ve actually heard rather than down to chauvinism. They’re all fairly straightforward contemporary jazz rather than free improvisation or jazz/funk/folk fusion. For some reason there’s a preponderance of alto players.
Martin Speake, “Generations”. Inventive reworkings of standards. Speake and his band are able get something fresh and inventive from the material without distorting it out of shape. If I’d to single out one record as my best new release of 2008, this would be it.
Martina Almgren and Laura Macdonald, “Open Book”. “Women play jazz – music world in shock!” – the album of the headline. Both leaders write well above-average melodic compositions, and the band work really well as a unit.
Chris Biscoe, “Gone in the Air: the music of Eric Dolphy”. Recreates the spirit and general style of Dolphy without simply copying his playing. Tony Kofi is the second horn player
Brian Kellock featuring Julian Arguelles, “The Nine Mile Burn Sessions”. Mainly standards. Half solo piano, half duets. This is apparently the first of a series of releases on the new Thick-Skinned label, but it’s not clear from the way the sleeve note is worded if it’s a series of Kellock – Arguelles recordings, a series of recordings by Brian Kellock in different settings, or a series of releases by different artists.
I haven’t heard the Andersen/Smith/Vinaccia CD or the Norma Winstone’s Distances yet, but having heard both groups in concert recently they’re definitely on my shopping list.
Most frustrating CD of the year has to be Kenny Garrett’s “Sketches of MD”. Much of it is absolutely first-rate, but it’s spoiled by long passages where Garrett tries to get the audience to clap along and tell him if they are Happy People. It sounds as if it was a great gig, but the audience participation stuff is pretty tedious to listen to at home.
