Posts Tagged ‘Symphony Hall’

Now in its third year, the critically acclaimed English Originals Weekend celebrates English music in all its diversity. From traditional folk to contemporary singer-songwriters; individuals all connected by a strong sense of place, identity and wit as well as possessing some fine musical talent.

Birmingham Jazz are delighted to be part of this weekend and this afternoon will present the opening concert at the hugely popular Rush Hour Blues sessions at Symphony Hall Foyer. Lydia Glanville leads N.O.M.A.D who will perform today at 5.30pm until 7pm. Rush Hour Blues is always free so please come down to hear some unique Birmingham folk fusion.

Weekend programme:

• N.O.M.A.D. English Originals Weekend & Rush Hour Blues

  Fri 14 May Symphony Hall Foyer Bars

  Birmingham-based N.O.M.A.D. kick off English Originals Weekend with their uniquely enjoyable brand of folk-fusion. ‘The most enjoyable thing to happen to Donington Le Heath since Richard III slept there.’

• Grace and Danger: The Songs of John Martyn English Originals Weekend 2010

  Fri 14 May Town Hall

  *Please note this concert has now moved to Town Hall. Existing ticket holders will be contacted individually.* It’s just over a year since the death of John Martyn, a musician of genius who walked a tightrope between the grace of his art and the danger of his personal demons. This special show is curated by bassist Danny Thompson, Martyn’s long time friend and collaborator.A range of special guests will pay tribute to the most soulful and innovative singer songwriter of his generation. Check back here for the latest artist updates.
  Featuring special guests: *Scott Matthews, Beverley Martyn, Eddi Reader, Beth Orton*, *Krystle Warren* and more tbc. *Band* *Arran Ahmun* _drums_ *Maartin Allcock* _guitar, mandolin_ *Foss Paterson* _keyboards, piano_ *Alan Thomson* _electric bass, guitar_ *Due to unforeseen circumstances, we regret that Badly Drawn Boy is unable to appear in tonight’s show. However, we’re delighted that singer & guitarist Ian McNabb has been added to tonight’s bill.*
  Curated by Danny Thompson

• Folk4Free English Originals Weekend 2010

  Sat 15 May Symphony Hall Foyer Bars

  An afternoon of free folk music, curated by Moseley Folk Festival. *Dave Boddison* has been writing music for ten years and performing for seven. His solo acoustic sound hovers in the realms of ambient folk. 23-year-old *Abie Budgen* combines psychedelic, roots and blues sounds with finger-picking. As a child, *Deborah Hodgson* earned her first guitar by washing cars. Although not the most glamorous start to a career, she has now performed in festival fields, castles, a cathedral crypt and she opened the Big Top Stage at The Isle of Wight festival in June 2009. _‘Fantastic voice’_ Nick Britten, Daily Telegraph *Goodnight Lenin* caught the attention of audiences in Birmingham after releasing a YouTube video of a simple acoustic performance in which they sat perched on the counter-tops of their kitchen. The group attribute their sound to Bob Dylan and Elvis Perkins, mixing folk with a heavy American influence. 2010 is set to be a great year for the band as they supported First Aid Kit on the Birmingham leg of the duo’s UK tour and will be releasing their first limited edition single in the summer. Yet despite this, they can still be found performing amongst the pots and pans in kitchens. Growing up listening to Abba and Queen, *Megan Henwood* first performed at the tender age of nine. Turning eighteen she played her way round the world, singing to crowds in Venice, Thailand, India and Malaysia. After falling in love with Nepal, she has returned to Kathmandu twice to record with leading Nepalese musicians Nirmal Kulu, Binod Katal and Shyram Saram Nepali. In 2009 Megan won the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Musician of the Year Award.
  2pm *Dave Boddison* 3pm *Abie Budgen* 4pm *Deborah Hodgson* 5pm *Goodnight Lenin* 6pm *Megan Henwood*

• The Graham Coxon Power Acoustic Ensemble English Originals Weekend 2010

  Sat 15 May Town Hall

  After last year’s triumphant Blur reunion tour, a range of special guests join outstanding singer-songwriter-guitarist Graham Coxon. The concert is based on his acclaimed solo album _The Spinning Top_, a narrative of a man’s journey from birth to death. The show features special video and projections made by director Chris Hopewell. ‘The Spinning Top is a revelation. A gorgeous album… that cements Coxon as a true icon in a day and age populated by unmagnificence’ BBC Music Magazine
  Featuring guests Martin Carthy, Robyn Hitchcock and friends

• Bellowhead + Jackie Oates English Originals Weekend 2010

  Sun 16 May Town Hall

For more information please go to: www.thsh.co.uk

This Friday, 23rd April, promises to be a very rich day for jazz in Birmingham.  For the Rush Hour Blues session at Symphony Hall at 5.30 we have set up a project with Ray Butcher, his quartet and  saxophonist Jean Toussaint. Jean is originally from St. Thomas on the Virgin Islands, but made his name with the last version of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in which he played alongside the excellent trumpeter Terence Blanchard.  The Jazz Messengers was always a great ‘finishing school’ for young jazz talent and Jean was one of the finest to emerge in the last years of the band.  Ray and Jean met at a TLC (Tony Levin’s Club) session a year or so ago and have wanted to play together again ever since.  Jean settled in London after he left The Messengers and teaches at both the Guildhall and Birmingham Conservatoire.  His quartet has recently recorded an excellent album Live in Paris and London.

Then at 8pm at the CBSO Centre we present a band that has had a strong link with the Rush Hour Blues session: Dave Stapleton Quintet. They have appeared at RHB on a couple of occasions and really won over that audience with music that has a very strong identity arising from the excellent tunes that Dave writes for them.  Dave also runs the Editions Records label which is building a strong reputation for the quality of its roster of bands.  One of those bands is that led by saxophonist Mark Lockheart and they have issued on Edition an album called In Deep: they will be playing in the second half of the concert. It’s a great album and band featuring Chris Batchelor on trumpet, Mark on saxophones, Liam Noble on piano, Jasper Hoiby on bass and Dave Smith on drums. The Dave Stapleton Quintet has also issued a fine album on Edition Records entitled Between The Lines and you can read Peter Bacon’s Jazz Breakfast review here.

Tony

Nick Rundle Quartet- Photograph courtesy of Garry Corbett

The Nick Rundle Quartet was a late replacement for the Jef Neve/Pascal Shumacher duo that had to be cancelled as their flights suffered from the current collapse of air travel.  Last minute replacement the quartet may have been, but they were an excellent band with four top players, Nick Rundle himself on tenor sax, the wonderful Dan Nicholls on piano, Nick Jurd on double bass and Jim Bashford on drums.  What was particularly impressive was the way in which Nick mixed into the set list some of his own material as well as tunes by Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane.  Nick writes really well and his tunes did not suffer by being played alongside those by the two masters, and they set up really good solos from Nick and Dan.  What was also fascinating was the evidence that tunes by Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane are accepted into the mainstream of jazz, can be considered to be jazz standards and are enjoyed by the broad audience that attends the Rush Hour Blues sessions; forty years ago they were considered really avant-garde and had audiences protesting and leaving in droves.  The reason is quite simple; Coleman and Coltrane wrote wonderful and memorable tunes that had a lot more to them than the simple ‘heads’ of the earlier decade that were often no more than a starting point for the solos.

This was a great opportunity to give a young band coming out of the jazz course at the Conservatoire the chance to be heard and further evidence of the strength of the scene here.

Tony

Friday 7th May
Symphony Hall
7.30pm
From £5 – £37 Book tickets or 0121 780 3333

Hugh Masekela is a legend. Born in South Africa seventy years ago, he quickly emerged as one of his country’s leading musicians, his music reflecting its struggles, sorrows, joys and passions. He returns to Symphony Hall for a unique collaboration with the CBSO and the Town Hall Gospel Choir, for whom he has written a new work, as well as performing Jason Yarde’s Flugelhorn Concerto.

This concert is promoted jointly by the CBSO and THSH (and also forms part of the CBSO Season). Special discounts apply – please check when booking.

Listen to Hugh Masekela on Spotify:

We have already written about the two gigs on Tuesday 23rd March: Alcyona Mick’s score for the silent movie Sunrise which launches the Flatpack Film Festival at 7.30 at St. Martin’s Church in the Bull Ring and the Amy Fletcher Quartet playing material by Thelonious Monk at the Jam House at 9.30pm.  The film finishes at 9pm so it will be possible to catch both gigs.

At Jazz Club at the Rainbow (160 Deritend High Street, Digbeth) on Wednesday 24th March we present what is for me one of the absolute best of the young British bands with something of a rock influence.  This is Troyka, a trio with Chris Montague on guitar, Kit Downes on keys and Josh Blackmore on drums.  It’s really original stuff well worth coming to hear; music begins at 9pm.

At Rush Hour Blues on Friday we present the first of the two Annual Poll Winners concerts.  This year we had a massive response to the poll for the best band at Rush Hour Blues and the result was a dead heat between the University of Birmingham Big Band and Chris Aldridge’s Beebe.  So we are presenting two Poll Winners concerts, the University Big Band this Friday anbd Chris Aldridge on 2nd July.  The Big Band really won over the RHB audience last year with a wonderful and varied programme that ranged from 40s big band music such as Artie Shaw through to more contemporary stuff.

At this concert we celebrate 6 years of Rush Hour Blues, the weekly early Friday evening event in the foyer at Symphony Hall.  I truly believe that this has become one of the great musical events in the city and probably in all UK cities.  The music presented has tremendous variety and goes way beyond the narrower definition of  jazz music, although jazz is at the heart of the whole programme.  I believe the variety of the music is one  of the reasons for its popularity.  A good example was provided by last Friday’s band, The Charlotte Glasson Band whose music drew on jazz, folk, Latin ska and went down extremely well; see Peter Bacon’s Jazz Breakfast review here.

But I believe the main reason for the continued success of Rush Hour Blues is that there are so many great bands ready to play at the session and who enjoy the great vibe and the friendliness of the audience.  Hardly any of the bands are known and they certainly get no coverage in the press or on the radio or TV, but they are part of a kind of underground scene that is thriving.

Tony

We have another run of great gigs coming up in the next week, actually eight days!

We start on Wednesday 24th February at The Rainbow on Digbeth with Trio VD led by guitarist Chris Sharkey. For me this is the best of the many young UK bands with a full on approach incorporating a rock influence.  Music begins at 9pm.

There are two gigs on Friday: the regular Rush Hour Blues session presents an American saxophonist John Gunther with a band led by UK trumpeter Nick Smart. The session runs from 5.30 to 7pm.

That leaves just about enough to grab something to eat before heading down to the Hare & Hounds Pub on Kings Heath High Street to hear the ambient music of Nils Petter Molvaer. Nils is a trumpeter from Norway and his trio has two other great Norwegian players: Stian Westerhus on guitar and Audun Kleive on drums.  Music begins at 8.30.

Saturday sees the great jazz flamenco group TG Collective at the Polish Club in Bordesley Street at 8pm.

Finally on Tuesday 2nd March Buffalo Collision play the CBSO Centre at 8pm.  The band features Tim Berne on alto sax with two of The Bad Plus piano trio, Ethan Iverson on piano and Dave King on drums, plus Hank Roberts on cello.

Tony

( photo courtesy of Garry Corbett )

What a brilliant gig last Friday’s session with the Kit Downes Trio was!  As ever, Peter Bacon’s review of the gig on his Jazz Breakfast site captures it extremely well.  You can read it here.   In addition to the photos by Garry Corbett that Peter mentions, you can see Bill Shakespeare’s shots here.

I totally agree that this was a gig worth paying a lot of money to hear, but there is something special about the Rush Hour Blues free entry gig.  It has a very loyal audience many of whom are not really jazz fans as such, but they seem to love the range of music that is presented at these sessions.  It is a large responsive audience (roughly 300 every week), and more and more bands and players are saying that it is a special and unique gig.

Long may it continue!

Tony

( photo by Garry Corbett )

There has been a dead heat in the Audience Poll at Rush Hour Blues to choose the favourite band of 2009.  Chris Aldridge’s Beebe and the University of Birmingham Big Band each received 53 votes and have been declared joint winners.  After discussion with the two band leaders we have decided that the University Big Band will play the Rush Hour Blues session on March 26th and Chris Aldridge’s Beebe will play a second Poll Winners’ concert on July 2nd.

The response from voters has been amazing this year with over 300 people voting; 200 of these voted online on this site.  This is proof of the ever increasing popularity of the Rush Hour Blues sessions run by Birmingham Jazz and Symphony Hall, which are attended by up to 300 people every week.  They run from 5.30 to 7pm every Friday in the foyer at Symphony Hall, which is a great setting for music with the band playing directly in front of the large window that overlooks the Birmingham Wheel in Centenary Square.

Bands always comment on the ‘open ears’ of the audience and it has been fascinating to observe how tastes have developed.  It is a session that has a growing national reputation and makes a great contribution to the music scene in Birmingham.

Tony

Friday 18th June
Symphony Hall Foyer
5:30 – 7
£free

Friday 25th June
Symphony Hall Foyer
5:30 – 7
£free