Photo Pete Woodman Alina Bzhezhinska – harp Mikele Montolli – Electric Bass Adam Teixeira – Drums Joel Prime – drums Is it possible to review a concert by a harpist without deploying the term, ‘Glissando’? Apparently not. So having dispensed with the inevitable, we can now move to the unexpected and delightful. The harp is…
Dale Storr – The Sounds of New Orleans, 29 November 2019
Dale Storr, piano This was an evening of piano music that said: Welcome to Nawlins; welcome to a place, a people, a history saturated in music; hear the parade of piano luminaries as they move through time from “tradition” to invention until they assume their own places in an enlarged tradition; sit in wonder that…
Greg Abate and the Pete Rosser Trio, 22 November 2019
Greg Abate – alto sax Pete Rosser – piano Adrian Knowles – bass John Settle – drums . There was more thunderous applause at the end of certain numbers than at the end of some entire gigs, so the review of this wonderful performance is already ‘on the air.’ From the start, there was a…
Calum Gourlay Quartet, 15 November 2019
Calum Gourlay – bass Helena Kay – tenor sax Kieran McLeod – trombone James Maddren – drums Before the quartet began their first set, Calum Gourlay praised the performance of the Wakefield Youth Jazz Orchestra, which had performed as support in the previous hour. He reminded everyone that even the most seasoned professionals had tender…
Alison Rayner Quintet, 8 November 2019
Alison Rayner – bass Steve Lodder – piano Deirdre Cartwright – guitar Diane McLoughlin – saxophones Buster Birch – drums Seafaring people (the fortunate ones, at least), speak of ‘a happy ship’—an apt way of describing the Alison Rayner Quintet, which from the start exuded a warmth and togetherness which can’t be reduced to ‘stage…
The Alan Barnes Octet and Josie Moon: A Requiem Nov. 1, 2019
Alan Barnes, saxes Dean Masser, saxes Gilad Atzmon, saxes Sebastiaan de Krom, drums Dave Green, bass Mark Nightingale, trombone Pat McCarthy, guitar Neil Yates, trumpet Josie Moon, voice For some the combination of jazz and poetry in performance immediately invokes the experiments in both forms, separately and together, throughout the 1950s and 60s, culminating perhaps…
Laura Cole and Alexander Hawkins, 18 October 2019
Laura Cole, piano Alexander Hawkins, piano There can’t be many of us whose musical appreciation is truly boundless. The musical universe is vast; and our ability to apprehend and enjoy unfamiliar musics is shaped by cognitive, cultural and aesthetic parameters which aren’t entirely self-determining. It’s not simply a matter of ‘liking what you know’: there…
Empirical, 4 October 2019
Nathaniel Facey – alto sax Tom Farmer – double bass Lewis Wright – vibraphone Shaney Forbes – drums Half-way through the first set, it came to seem that listening to this wonderful band was the musical equivalent of gazing at a Cubist painting: all angles, planes and perspectives that somehow, intriguingly, made a coherent and…
Ronnie Bottomley’s All-Star Jazz Orchestra, 14 June 2019
Director/Arranger – Ronnie Bottomley Trumpets: Dale Gibson, Gareth Smith, Trevor Vincent, Ian Chalk Trombones: Kevin Holbrough, Lee Hallam, Tom Ianson, Chris Hibbard (bass) Saxes: Jim Corry (as/ss), James Russell (as/cl/fl), Joel Purnell (ts), Simon Kaylor (ts/cl/fl), Rod Mason (bari) Piano – Graham Hearn Guitar – Derrick Harris Bass – Adrian Knowles Drums – Dave Walsh…
Chris Ingham Quartet, May 31, 2019: Getz: A Musical Portrait
Mark Crooks – tenor sax Chris Ingham – piano Arnie Somogyi – bass George Double – drums This was a splendid gig—bright, vibrant and wholly engaging, sustained from the first note, throughout both sets. Following the success of his earlier musical portrait of Dudley Moore, Chris has taken up Stan Getz—no less a challenge, for…
Adele Joel (tap dancer) and Pete Rosser (piano/accordion), May 31 2019
This was a ‘support act’ in name only; and it was too amazing not to write a review, if largely in the form of a grateful appreciation. To those of us with little or no familiarity with live tap dancing, it was a revelation that Adele was producing music as well movement—an astonishing range of…
Flying Machines, 29 March 2019
Alex Munk – guitar Matt Robinson – piano/keyboards Conor Chaplin – electric bass Dave Hamblett – drums A glance at the line-up might have suggested two obvious possibilities about the kind of music in store: a guitar power trio + piano, or a conventional jazz piano trio + guitar. In the event, we heard something…
The Whitman Review 