Three Gigs, Two Cities, 48 Hours
An epic musical journey from downtown Bristol to fashionable Shoreditch via London’s South Bank, this could definitely be regarded as a full weekend. Saturday November 24 saw three of Bristol’s finest live acts and numerous DJs swarm to The Attic in Stokes Croft, a new underground venue starting to attract a lot of talent. A...
Tord Gustavsen Trio / Stefano Bollani & Enrico Rava
London Jazz Festival, Wednesday 21/11/07 In an evening designed to showcase the celebrated European record label ECM, listeners at the Barbican Centre were treated to a pair of highly differing acoustic performances. The Italian duo of maverick young pianist Stefano Bollani and veteran trumpeter Enrico Rava played with a zestful understanding that openly defied their...
Us3: The Struggle Continues
In 1992 Geoff Wilkinson produced the groundbreaking jazz/hip-hop crossover track “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia),” gaining international recognition with his Us3 project. Fourteen years and six albums down the line he’s still going strong, but it could all have been very different. Here he tells AAJ contributor Frederick Bernas about the highs and lows of his long...
Blessed With Good Taste
From starting out as a loosely-organised acoustic jazz tribute act, The Blessing have moved on to develop a unique sound which matches their exotic culinary preferences. Frederick Bernas met two members of the Bohemian Bristol-based group. Easton is a part of Bristol with a notoriously interesting reputation, so naturally I was eager to step out...
James Taylor Quartet – Don’t Mess With Mr. T
James Taylor’s vintage Hammond-led outfit has consistently delighted lovers of jazz, funk and R&B in equal measure over the last twenty years. The group is most famous for its signature tune, the “Theme From Starsky and Hutch,” but this album shows greater variety than the standard jam workout. Don’t Mess With Mr. T: James Taylor...
Robert Mitchell – Equinox
British pianist Robert Mitchell, yet another distinguished alumnus of bassist Gary Crosby’s Tomorrow’s Warriors development programme for young British jazz musicians, throws up many questions on his ambitious solo release Equinox. Performing alone is not unusual to Mitchell: as recently as 2004 he played opening recitals for saxophone luminaries Wayne Shorter and Branford Marsalis. The...
Elan Mehler Quartet – Scheme For Thought
Scheme For Thought was released on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings in September 2007, accompanied by a series of gigs around London by pianist Elan Mehler and his quartet. This group has completely abandoned standard notions of jazz: the absence of a drummer and repeated use of arco playing on the double bass give an almost...
Empirical
Empirical burst onto the international music scene at the 2007 North Sea Jazz Festival, beating four other bands to win the inaugural European Jazz Competition. Two days later, with perfect timing, their self-titled debut album hit the shops. British saxophonist Courtney Pine had been keeping a keen eye on the quintet’s progress and produced the...
London’s Funkiest Hour
The Sound StylisticsJazz Café, LondonThursday 30 August, 2007 After witnessing Australian deep funk outfit The Bamboos tear up a small Bristol wine bar some months ago, it was hard to imagine how any other band could ever match such a boisterous performance. However, the funk gods up above clearly had other ideas when they gifted...
Trio Innovation
Avishai CohenRonnie Scott’s, LondonFriday August 24, 2007 This was the first time I’d visited London’s legendary jazz venue since its recent swanky refurbishment; still dimly lit, but with a classier kind of ambience, Ronnie’s barely allows punters to appreciate the photos of great jazz musicians adorning every wall. One man well on the way to...
Bristol: What else is going on?
Frederick Bernas embarks on a voyage of discovery to investigate the less talked-about aspects of Bristol’s vibrant music scene. While most students will probably know the names of the three Bristol venues I visited during this musical adventure, how many can say they have a good awareness of what kind of shows are going on?...
Eduardo Niebla – St George’s, 25/11/06
St George’s Hall off Park Street, which boasts of being one of the finest acoustic venues in the country, was host to a creative exploration of musical possibilities from a trio comprising two guitars and an Indian tabla player. Eduardo Niebla, whose show title brings to mind a completely contrasting guitar legend – Hendrix –...
