CBSO Centre 11.11.08

Catch another Birmingham Jazz gig on Jazz on 3

Jez Nelson hosts a special edition of the programme from Ronnie Scott’s jazz club to mark the opening of the 2008 London Jazz Festival. With exclusive performances from some of the week’s most sought after acts, this line-up illustrates the strength and diversity of the current contemporary scene.

Ken Vandermark’s group features left-field drum and bass pair Mark Sanders and Barry Guy.

www.kenvandermark.com

Mary

We’ve just added a new page to our website which includes some of the other jazz gigs happening in and around Birmingham. If you think we’ve missed any out, or you’ve got a gig which you’d like to be added to the page then just let us know (chris@birminghamjazz.co.uk). Hopefully you’ll help us to make this a fairly comprehensive guide to what’s happening in our fair city.

Link: http://www.birminghamjazz.co.uk/othergigs.htm

Chris

Another success for the staff here at Birmingham Jazz! Administrator Chris Mapp of Sugar Beats and The Sub Ensemble fame has landed a coveted place on the Take Five artist development scheme showcasing exceptional British jazz talent. He’ll join fellow winners Robin Fincker (clarinets and saxophones), Natalie Williams (vocals) and John Burton (Leafcutter John) (electronics) amongst others. Please have a read of the press release below and well done Chris!

Mary

Following four extremely successful editions, The Jerwood Charitable Foundation and the PRS Foundation for New Music (PRSF) are pleased to welcome additional support from Arts Council England and the Musicians Benevolent Fund, and to announce that international music producers Serious will produce the fifth edition of Take Five - a significant artist development scheme for emerging jazz musicians – which will be officially launched with a free public event on Thursday 20 November at 6pm in the Fountain Room at the Barbican.

The Jerwood /PRS Foundation Take Five Initiative is designed to give some of the UK’s most talented young jazz musicians the unique opportunity to take ‘time out’ to develop their craft.  The scheme provides each artist with the special opportunity to discuss, explore and strengthen all aspects of their future careers.  The eight creative jazz musicians selected this year are:

John Burton (Leafcutter John) (electronics)

Neil Charles (double bass)

Nathaniel Facey (alto saxophone)

Robin Fincker (clarinets and saxophones)

Jim Hart (vibraphone and drums)

Jasper Høiby (double bass)

Chris Mapp (double bass)

Natalie Williams (vocals)

However you define jazz, there is a wealth of extremely talented musicians practising in the UK working within and on the edges of the world that is jazz. I am so proud that, with PRSF and Serious, we have found such a unique and uplifting way of finding them, and working with them, to help build their careers and get their music into the world.’ (Roanne Dods, Director Jerwood Charitable Foundation)

We are delighted to be touring Ken Vandermark round the UK starting with the Birmingham concert at the CBSO Centre on Tuesday 11th November.  Ken Vandermark will be playing with two improvisers with major international reputations, Barry Guy on bass and Mark Sanders on drums.  It is, sadly, a relatively rare event that Ken Vandermark tours UK and it is only Birmingham Jazz that seems to be able to do it.  For me, Ken is one of the most interesting saxophonists to emerge from the USA in the last ten years.  He is based in Chicago where he is at the forefront of the creative jazz scene, a scene that has its own distinctive character quite separate from that in New York .  What impresses me about the Chicago scene is that it takes in styles drawing on the music of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry through to free jazz influenced by European improvising traditions.  But certainly in the music I associate with Vandermark there is always a strong jazz base whether in the compositions or in the improvised passages.  With Guy and Sanders, Ken is likely to be in a totally improvised situation and it will be fascinating to see how the interaction between the three of them develops over the week.  To judge this, come to the Birmingham gig on Tuesday 11th and then listen to the live broadcast on the opening night (Friday 14th November) of the London Jazz Festival on Jazz on Three!  The trio are playing The Vortex Jazz Club that night and then going down to Ronnie Scott’s to play on the live Radio 3 show at about 12.30.    I am very looking forward to hearing Mark Sanders with Ken as Birmingham Jazz has adopted a policy of supporting Mark to play with different American and European artists.  The dates for the tour are:

Tuesday 11th November   CBSO Centre Birmingham

Wednesday 12th November    The Seven Leeds (Leeds Jazz)

Thursday 13th November Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne (Jazz North East)

Friday 14th November The Vortex London + Radio 3 live broadcast

Saturday 15th Jacqueline du Pre Concert Oxford (Cohesion Festival)

On all gigs except Oxford there will be a short opening set from Dave Kane and Alex Bonney.

Tony Dudley-Evans

Listening to Andrew Colman’s  excellent gig at Rush Hour Blues last Friday reminded me of how much I enjoy listening to the flugelhorn.  The flugelhorn is one of those instruments like the saxophone and even the double bass that has really found its home in jazz.  I have occasionally seen it elsewhere, mostly in brass bands in Germany and Holland where the instrument has a different shape with valves horizontal rather than vertical, but it is an instrument that is mostly used in jazz.  I love the mellow sound it produces and Andrew Colman used that sound to great effect on Friday.  This sound quality results from the larger cylinder, or more strictly, bore of the instrument; in the flugelhorn the bore gets gradually larger up to the bell whereas in the trumpet it remains largely constant up to just before the bell.  See Garry Corbett wonderful photos of Friday’s session for a close-up of the instrument on www.flickr.com/photos/bluejazzbuddha/sets/72157608761824343/

Apparently the flugelhorn was developed as part of the Saxhorn family by Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone (Wikipedia).  The first jazz player to use it was Joe Bishop in the Woody Herman Band; Shorty Rogers, Clark Terry and Kenny Baker used it in the 50s, but it was of course Miles Davis who really established the instrument in the collaborations with Gil Evans, also in the 1950s.  It was Chuck Mangione who first used it in preference to the trumpet.  Andrew Colman also clearly prefers it and only brought his flugelhorn on Friday.  Gerard Presencer is another horn player who mostly uses the flugel, at least on his own projects.

Tony

“Who goes for a walk in the middle of breakfast, and who discovered the food of the early morning gods was a walnut and banana waffle? ”

New page on Peter Bacon’s blog in which musicians and other jazz industry types share with you their favourite breakfast, or the best breakfast they’ve ever eaten, or maybe even a recipe…

http://thejazzbreakfast.wordpress.com/

Birmingham Jazz continues to please audiences and critics alike with another fantastic gig last weekend featuring Zoe Rahman and her Where Rivers Meet Tour. Have a read of The Birmingham Post 5 Star review below and please let us know what you thought of the gig,comments are always welcome!

Photo by Russ Escritt

Cobweb Collective launch their Autumn/Winter season at The Cross in Moseley with the Ben Bryden Sextet this Tuesday 4th November. This event is FREE and in the cozy downstairs of The Cross it’s a great reason to put on your winter woolies and support the local talent.

For a preview of Ben’s music, click the link below

www.myspace.com/benbrydenmusic

The gig is from 8pm -10pm with an open jam session afterwards.

Pretty self-explanatory really! To take advantage of this great offer just head over to our merchandise page to place your order. When you buy a Resonance Events/Ropadope T-Shirt you are entitled to one from a choice of three excellent CDs which are:

DJ Logic - Zen of Logic
Various - The Harlem Experiment
JD73 - Zeros And Ones

Fill out the Paypal form or give us a call on 0121 224 7380

Chris

Our good friend and DJ Sammy Goulbourne has recorded a mix in tribute to the late, great Esbjorn Svensson.

Click here to find out more.

Chris