The Blessing – All Is Yes
One of the most sideways-thinking groups on the vibrant UK jazz scene, The Blessing are rapidly expanding outwards from their Bristol home. Signed on a three-album deal to Candid Records, the band has just completed a successful nationwide tour to promote the first in the series, All Is Yes. The title fits. It’s evident that...
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...
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...
