Birmingham Jazz is running something of a Norwegian season these days; Tord Gustavsen was at the CBSO Centre in autumn 2009, Nils Petter Molvaer brings the music of his latest album Hamada to the Hare & Hounds on Feb 26th and Humcrush, the duo of drummer Thomas Stronen and keyboard player Stale Storlokken of Supersilent will also be at the Hare & Hounds on 14th April (this one is a co-promotion with Caspule).  The Norwegian scene has  been for some time  arguably the most interesting scene in Europe and we at Birmingham Jazz are very keen to be able to present the best of Norway in Birmingham  Indeed, we have entered into partnership with the Norwegian Embassy in order to be able to do this.

Nile Petter Molvaer has produced some excellent albums for the ECM and Universal labels in recent years, notably Khmer, Solid Ether and np3, but he now seems to be recording for his own label Sula, named after his birthplace.  Nils’ music always brings together jazz, Scandinavian folk music and contemporary dance rhythms, hip hop, electronica and blends them into an intense but beautiful whole.  The latest album Hamada shows the same mix, but there are more of the uptempo numbers and this bodes well for the live show at the Hare & Hounds.  Nils is touring with drummer Audun Kleive and guitarist Stian Westerhus, the latter known for his high energy contributions to the British band Fraud when they played at Cheltenham and toured UK a couple of years ago.  Both these players will undoubtedly take the music further in the direction of a strong rhythmic pulse and powerful solos.

All this should work really well in the excellent informal surroundings of the Hare & Hounds.

For further details see Nils Petter Molvaer’s website.

Tony

Supported by:

Very impressed with this young quartet led by saxophonist Adam Waldmann and featuring excellent interplay between the four members of the quartet. The material is mostly penned by Adam and is a great mix of contemporary tunes with a respect for the traditions of modern jazz and played with great elan and precision by the group.  This  makes it all very accessible and enjoyable, and they really won over the Rush Hour Blues audience.

The group interaction is also very strong and bass player Jasper Hoiby was at the heart of this, strongly supported by drummer Jon Scott.  Rob Barron is a particularly fine soloist on piano.

Interesting that Adam Waldmann quotes Julian Arguelles as an influence; Sam Crockatt, another fine up-and-coming young saxophonist and band leader who played RHB with considerable success last October, also acknowledges an influence from Julian’s playing and writing.  Julian Arguelles, originally from Birmingham, was a key member of the influential Loose Tubes Big Band and now divides his time between the Frankfurt Radio Big Band and Scotland.

The group is touring UK this month in support of their newly released album Kairos Moment. This is available via their website here; tour dates are also listed.

Tony

( photo courtesy of Capsule)

This was an amazing gig bringing together the energy and anarchy of the punk rock band The Ex with the drive of Brass Unbound, a brass section with Ken Vandermark and Mats Gustafsson on baritone and tenor sax, Roy Paci on trumpet and Wolter Wierbos on trombone.  The sheer volume of sound and the swirling rhythms created a stunning degree of excitement.  Basically it was led by The Ex with weird but wonderful vocals and an excellent drummer.  I am often critical of the limitations of rock drummers, but this one (sadly I didn’t get her name) really drove the band in a very interesting way totally different from what jazz drummers do.  Brass Unbound essentially added riffs that blended very effectively and excitingly with the The Ex rhythms.

I have one fairly major reservation.  As the gig progressed, I began to want Brass Unbound to vary their role more and to have rather more freedom.  There were some solos: a particular good one from Ken, one of Mats’ almost trademark screaming solos, and punchy contributions from Paci and Wierbos, but more would have been nice.

This was, however, another good example of rock and jazz mixing naturally and successfully.  It wasn’t jazz rock as that term has become associated with a certain style that emerged in the 1960s and 70s.  Here it was a rock gig incorporating strong elements of free jazz , but in a very structured way.  And it certainly wasn’t jazz drawing on rock.  We will have to start thinking of new names to capture this important and exciting music.

Tony

Our good friend Sam Jesson puts on some great gigs at The Cross, the pub in Moseley just down from the main Moseley crossing going towards Kings Heath.  The gigs take place in the upstairs room which works extremely well for an informal jazz gig.

This Wednesday, 3rd February at 8pm, Sam is putting on Canadian saxophonist Seamus Blake who is touring with the Scottish drummer Alyn Cosker and his trio.  Seamus is one of the excellent crop of saxophonists who came up in the 1990s in New York.  He has played in the Mingus Big Band and his own playing has something of the feel of Mingus about it; it’s basically in the modern mainstream of jazz, but has some interesting twists and usually has a strong blues feel.  Alyn Cosker’s Trio should make an excellent band for Seamus; I have been very impressed by Cosker’s aggressive but supportive drumming in various groups.

The band is being supported by one of the top groups in the final year of the Conservatoire jazz course; it’s led by saxophonist John Fleming, another young Scottish player.

The music will probably start at 8.30 and entrance is £8 and £5 for Birmingham Jazz members.

Tony

www.seamusblake.com/

For some reason The Guardian Guide has Birmingham Jazz down as promoting Julian Siegel at the CBSO Centre on February 2nd. It is a mistake!  It’s not on our leaflet nor on our website, so I don’t know where it came from.  Bizarrely, we were originally planning to present the concert, but the tour has been postponed as a result of Greg Cohen’s new commitments as a Professor at Berlin University.

We do very much hope to be presenting the Julian Siegel Trio later in 2010 or early in 2011.

Tony

Happy in his work – Led Bib’s Mark Holub (Picture: Russ Escritt)

Led Bib at Jazz Club at The Rainbow, Wednesday 27th January

“Led Bib achieve a kind of industrial shriek when they are at full tilt. Their opening few numbers acted as a kind of metallic barrage, the twin alto saxophones, the distorted Fender Rhodes and electric bass played high and strummed all inhabited a narrow sonic band where the ear could buzz and thrill to the nuances of the clashing tones and timbres.”

Extract from thejazzbreakfast.
Click here to read the full review of the Led Bib gig by jazz blogger Peter Bacon.

We haven’t seen Jan Garbarek in Birmingham for quite a few years, but he has nonetheless been a regular visitor since the 1980s playing first the old Triangle venue at Aston University, then the Adrian Boult Hall in a double bill with Charlie Mariano, then in the early days of Symphony Hall with a very interesting trio led by bass player Miroslav Vitous and featuring Peter Erskine on drums.  H e has continued to play Symphony Hall both with his own groups and with the unique saxophone plus choir project with the Hilliard Ensemble.  So, in other words, we have had the opportunity to hear him develop over the last twenty years or so.

The project with the Hilliard Ensemble has produced some amazingly beautiful music over the years, but I personally have been concerned that the music with his own group has attempted less successfully to create a similar gentle and ambient sound to that of the collaboration with the Hilliards.  But his most recent albums have shown that Garbarek is returning to a more forceful style of playing, and that he is rediscovering those early influences from John Coltrane.  The presence on the albums of the percussionist Manu Katche has played a key part in this and it will be fascinating to hear the band with Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu in this concert.  Trilok is an amazing player who plays  a mix of Indian percussion and drum kit all of which he plays kneeling on a carpet.  He was for some years drummer with John McLaughlin, but has been leading his own groups for many years, mixing jazz and world music, all with a strong    rhythmic drive.  He should really galavanise Jan and the whole group.

They are at the Town Hall on Friday 29th January at 7.30 and you can buy tickets here.

And, if you’re coming do check Delano Mills’ tribute to Grover Washington at Rush Hour Blues from 5.30 to 7 in Symphony Hall foyer.

Tony

Birmingham Jazz joins forces with Fizzle tonight to present two very promising young players who recently graduated from the jazz course at Birmingham Conservatoire, trumpeter Sam Wooster and saxophonist Alex Merritt playing with two giants of the free jazz scene in Europe: Mark Sanders on drums and John Edwards on bass. Both Sam and Alex will play individually in a trio with Mark and John and then there will be a final quartet set.  We all know that the graduates of the jazz course have really enlivened the scene here, and these two players are two of the most promising.

The gig is part of the Fizzle season and takes place at the Lamp Tavern in Barford Street; for details and a map see here.  Music starts at 9pm.

This is the first gig of a busy week.  Led Bib play the Rainbow tomorrow (Wednesday 27th); see my blog here .  Then on Friday I strongly recommend Delano Mills’ tribute to Grover Washington at Rush Hour Blues at 5.30 in Symphony Hall foyer followed by the great Jan Garbarek at the Town Hall at 7.30. More on the latter later in the week.

Tony

This concert had everything you need to make a really enjoyable and exciting evening.  It had a very strong theme, that is music inspired by the Charlie Parker with Strings album made in the early 1950s, virtuosic playing from Gilad Atzmon and the Sigamos String Quartet, a combination of  serious musical content and accessibility to keep both  the jazz fan and the more general fan happy, an excellent approach to presentation with clear and entertaining announcements and a good appreciative audience.

What particularly impressed me was the way Gilad and Ros Stephens, leader of the string quartet and Musical Director for the project had developed a mix of material some of which was quite close to the original Parker performances, e.g. April in Paris (or April in Birmingham as Gilad called it!) or Laura, others being arrangements that had taken inspiration from the approach without being on the original Parker album and then others that moved some way away from the theme and drew on the Middle Eastern material that Gilad has been working with recently with the excellent Orient House Ensemble.  This made for an extremely varied evening of music with almost perfect balancing of the material so that we began quite close to the original Parker, then moved away into the Middle East and finally moved back to more familiar tunes.

Gilad was on top form, mostly on alto saxophone showing the Parker inspiration in his solos but building on the bitter sweet aspects of that style by adding in his own very forceful character.  He also played soprano saxophone and clarinet getting a great reedy Arab sound on the latter.  The Sigamos String Quartet added immensely to the evening with their interpretations of Ros Stephens’ excellent arrangements and with their enjoyment of the music they were playing very apparent on their faces.

It all got a very good response from a large audience.  The music is recorded on Gilad’s In Loving Memory of America album

But we were of course the promoters.  Did other people agree with me about the music?

Tony

This project features the UK based Gilad Atzmon with his Orient House Ensemble and the Sigamos String Quartet playing music inspired by Charlie Parker’s renowned collaboration with strings late on in his career. The music has been recorded on Gilad’s album In Loving Memory of America.

Gilad has always been a stunning player in the bebop style, a style he is totally relaxed and fluent in, but he has always sought to broaden his music by incorporating elements of later styles of jazz and also of Middle Eastern music.  Gilad was born in Israel, but has been based in UK for many years.  On this occasion Gilad is on the road with his acclaimed Orient House group, featuring Frank Harrison on piano, and the Sigamos String Quartet led by Ros Stephens interpreting both the  Charlie Parker material, plus some originals by Gilad.

Charlie Parker was of course the great genius of bebop, but late in his short life he felt some dissatisfaction with the confines of small group jazz and sought to expand his range. Out of that came the string project on which Parker played with great intensity and creativity. To be honest, some of the original arrangements for strings were a bit cheesy, but the interpretations of the Sigamos String Quartet put that right with much tighter and darker versions.

Gilad is a great asset to the UK jazz scene and is always coming up with different projects based on his passion for the music. This one promises to be one of his most interesting. He has collaborated regularly with Ros Stephens, especially in her Tango Siempre band.  Gilad has also been a member of the Blockheads originally led by Ian Dury whose life is dissected in detail in the current film Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll. The Blockheads still exist and Gilad still tours with them, but, as far as I am aware, he does not appear in the film.

You can book for the concert at the CBSO Centre on Friday 22nd January here.  There will also be tickets available on the door.

Interestingly, this is one of two projects built around Charlie Parker’s music that Birmingham Jazz is presenting in the first half of 2010.  On April 10th Django Bates brings his Beloved Bird Trio with two Danish players to the CBSO Centre.

Tony