Musical Meanderings with Chris Cuzme
Audio slideshow: Exploring the creative conscience of a busy saxophone and bass player in NYC.
London BluesFest 2011
Reviews of three gigs at London’s inaugural BluesFest: Monty Alexander, Roy Hargrove and Booker T. Jones.
Christian Scott: Breaking Boundaries, Crossing Lines
ALL ABOUT JAZZ: The prodigious trumpeter pulls no punches in a vicious critique of the jazz establishment.
Barbacana / Troyka – Vortex, 5/3/10
The bassless Anglo-French quartet Barbacana made strong impressions right from the start: James Allsop’s supple tenor sax led the way, as the others gradually joined in to create a compelling collective improvisation with tight melodic interludes. This was the story of their set. A constantly shifting dynamic spectrum, ranging from full-volume, rowdy sax blasts and...
Acoustic Ladyland // Pete Wareham
Vortex, London, 6/2/10 myspace.com/acousticladylandmusic Click here to read my interview with Pete Wareham, published May 2008.
Requiem for a jazz great
George Garanian, 1934-2010 On January 11, Russian jazz icon George Garanian – a musician who nourished jazz as part of Soviet culture – suffered a fatal heart attack while on tour with his popular big band. He was 75. A productive career spanning more than half a century has ensured that Garanian, a highly renowned...
Manuel Mengis – Dulcet Crush
HatHut Records / Hatology 684 Release: October/November 2009 Manuel Mengis – trumpet Reto Suhner – alto saxophone, alto clarinet Roland von Flue – tenor saxophone, bass clarinet Flo Stoffner – electric guitar Marcel Stalder – electric bass Lionel Friedli – drums 1. Plant Life 2. End Of A Record Breaker 3. Bling Bling Cowboy 4....
Le Cool Moscow – July/August
Afisha Picnic Kolomenskiy Park, 8/8/09 The cult British ska-pop combo Madness will take to a Moscow stage for the first time in their checkered 33-year history. Headlining the capital’s biggest summer festival will be no daunting task for a group which spent over 200 weeks on the UK singles charts between 1980-86, now reunited and...
Hot New Jazz CDs from the UK
Led Bib – Sensible Shoes If London’s “maverick avant-jazz skronkers” Led Bib were a politician, they’d put John McCain to shame. But it’s not just skronkadelic mania and wall-to-wall noise: this twin-sax-led quintet presents a thorough exercise in structured collective improvisation, which traverses mood and dynamic with a delicacy that belies the fierce, free energy...
