A couple of concerts and a couple of reviews November 21, 2009
Posted by byased in Concerts, Local Musicians, Media, Music but not jazz.add a comment
There are a couple of concerts on in Glasgow over the next few days which I haven’t mentioned yet.
John Williams and John Etheridge
On Sunday night, John Williams and John Etheridge are playing at the Old Fruitmarket. Just in case you’re in any doubt, this isn’t John Williams the film composer, but John Williams the guitarist. Williams is mainly a classical musician, although he’s musically fairly adventurous and has made forays into different musical territories through his work with Cleo Laine and as a member of late 70s MOR prog-classical abomination Sky. Etheridge has worked with a wide range of musicians in the jazz and jazz-rock world, including Stephane Grapelli and the Soft Machine. They will each be playing a solo set as well as performing as a duo. Details on the Glasgow Concert Halls site.
It looks like a must for all fans of serious guitar playing, although I do have my doubts about whether it’s the best venue for an event which will at least partly consist of solo acoustic guitar. The Grand Hall upstairs might have been a better bet.
Alyn Cosker
On Monday night, Alyn Cosker is playing at the RSAMD with the students of the RSAMD Jazz Ensemble. The concert starts at 6.30pm.That might not give you enough time to hear them and then get down to the City Halls to hear Brass Jaw, who will be performing in the Recital Room at 8pm.
Reviews
Kenny Mathieson reviewed Empirical’s Perth concert for the Scotsman. He was less impressed by them than I was.
Rob Adams enjoyed Mercy Mercy Mercy’s performance in Dundee.
Brass Jaw; Dundee Jazz Festival part 2 November 18, 2009
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Brass Jaw
The “quite simply stunning” Brass Jaw are interviewed on the BBC’s London Jazz Festival blog. Topics discussed include their London appearances and meeting Sonny Rollins. I wonder if the BBC know that part of the URL for the article is “festival-on-the-move-with-bras.shtml”?
They are playing in Glasgow, at the City Halls Recital Room, on Monday 23rd (an 8pm start).
Dundee Jazz Festival
Brass Jaw also have a gig on Thursday night as part of the continuing Dundee Jazz Festival. Phil Mason’s New Orleans All Stars are playing elsewhere in the city at the same time.
The closing weekend features a couple of Scandinavian acts. Singer Josefine Lindstrand, who has worked with Django Bates and Uri Caine and was voted Jazz in Sweden’s Act of the Year for 2009 has a concert on Saturday night, while saxophonist Frøy Aagre is playing on Saturday. (If you don’t know much about her – and I must admit I don’t – there’s an article about her on the London Jazz site). Salsa Celtica play the Caird Hall on Friday, and on Sunday local band the Sellars Brothers Quintet will be sharing a bill with the Dundee University Big Band. Details of venues and prices for all shows are on the festival’s web site.
Sheila Jordan bigs up Brian Kellock November 15, 2009
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… in an online interview for the BBC. Roger Spence gets a namecheck too.
European Jazz Network: British Jazz Showcase 1 September 29, 2009
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Strathclyde Suite, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 23rd September 2009
This was the first of three concerts, each of which gave several bands a chance to show what they could do in front of an audience made up largely, although not entirely, of jazz promoters from around Europe. Each act played for about 25 minutes.
Stu Brown’s Raymond Scott Project
Stu Brown’s transcriptions of compositions by American bandleader and composer Raymond Scott. A lot of the compositions will be familiar to anyone who has watched classic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons such as Bugs Bunny, although they were originally written for radio broadcasts. The music isn’t really jazz, but a lot of the phrasing, and the use of growl trumpet, means that it’s hard to imagine it played by anyone other than jazz musicians. Great fun.
Tom Cawley’s Curios
Curios? Curious. Of the night’s four bands, they were the one I thought suffered from having to play an abbreviated set. Their music utilised an assortment of disparate styles: EST-like vamps, romantic melody, freeish improvisation. The one thing which was missing was any real sense of swing. The three musicians – Tom Cawley on piano, Sam Burgess on bass, and Josh Blackmore on drums – were all excellent, but they never really managed to combine the different elements of their music into a unified whole. I’d like to hear a full-length performance by them to see if they can bring everything together. As it was, this was fascinating and frustrating in equal measure.
Ryan Quigley Sextet
This was an altered version of band which recorded last year’s excellent Laphraoig-ian Slip. The rhythm section of Alyn Cosker and Mario Caribe remained the same, but Konrad Wiszniewski and Paul Towndrow replaced Paul Booth and Laura MacDonald on tenor and alto, and Brian Kellock made a guest appearance on piano. They opened and closed with fiery hard bop pieces from the album, with Towndrow taking a particularly fine solo on “Buzzy Bee”, and in between we were treated to a fine trumpet and piano duo version of “Embraceable You”. The most straightforwardly enjoyable jazz of the night, but also the most conservative.
Get the Blessing
Inventive jazz-rock from a Bristol quartet. The trumpeter and sax player both made use of a wide-range of electronic effects. The overall effect was a bit like early-70s electronic Miles, but with catchy tunes and short pieces, or like 80s one-hit wonders Pigbag with serious jazz soloing. There was a lot of Ornette Coleman in the mix too. I’ve generally not been too impressed by the new-wave of UK electric jazz, but I enjoyed Get the Blessing and would happily go to see a full concert by them.
Euphbass has a review of this concert, and the second in the series, on her blog. I’m sure I saw an overview of the series by Rob Adams in the print version of the Herald, but it doesn’t seem to have made it to the online version.
International Guitar Night; Strathclyde Youth Jazz Orchestra September 24, 2009
Posted by byased in Local Musicians, Music but not jazz, Musicians from elsewhere, U.S. Musicians.add a comment
International Guitar Night
Those of you who aren’t going to one of this weekend’s British Jazz Showcases might be interested in the International Guitar Nights which are on at the City Hall this Saturday and Sunday. There are three guitarists playing, American Brian Gore (who came up with the guitar night idea), Lulo Reinhardt (Django’s grandson), and Itamar Erez from Israel. Not strictly jazz, but close enough to possibly be of some interest to jazzers. The concerts start at 8pm, and tickets are £14. International Guitar Night web site.
Strathclyde Youth Jazz Orchestra
There’s an article about the Strathclyde Youth Jazz Orchestra in today’s Herald:
The band’s alumni include Ryan Quigley, Laura MacDonald and Alyn Cosker. And it’s good to see a couple of stalwarts of the older generation of Scottish jazzers, Bobby Wishart and Stewart Forbes, get mentions. Maybe not major figures, but the type of good solid professionals who’ve helped keep the music alive and have done solid work in jazz education.
