jazz – Page 6 – Simon Purcell

Simon Purcell Quintet at Ronnie Scott’s – June 4th and 5th

Simon Purcell’s Quintet will be appearing at Ronnie Scott’s Club on June 4th and 5th, opposite the great guitarist Alan Holdsworth (click here for Ronnie’s website). The band with Chris Batchelor (trpt), Julian Siegel (saxes), Gene Calderazzo (dms) and Mike Janisch (bass) will be playing some new material, so do come down.

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Man making a difference

Cleveland Watkiss is a man making a difference. It is some time since Cleveland’s birthday gig at the Queen Elisabeth Hall in November 2009, which brought together 40 musicians from across the generations, peer groups and genres. A devout believer in musical multiculturalism, and innovation informed by the traditions, it is worth watching this musician’sContinue reading “Man making a difference”

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British Jazz – Pause for Thought

The sad passing of Jeff Clyne, Peter King, John Dankworth and recently, Ken Baldock represents a distancing of the eras of jazz in Britain. It is worth considering the achievements of the pioneering jazz musicians in the post-war years, establishing bebop first-hand, producing several generations of formidable artists who, petty international jealousies aside, could hold theirContinue reading “British Jazz – Pause for Thought”

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Swinging in 7 is hard – Ronan’s point.

There’s a lot of hot air and conflicting opinion amongst jazz musicians and within the music colleges regarding playing and improvising in odd metres. At last there are some wise and measured thoughts in Ronan Guilfoyle’s excellent blog. Check out his recent post “Whatever Happened to Odd Metre Swing?“

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A healthly dose of dissonance – Garzone hits London

At long last, George Garzone has recently performed and led various masterclasses in London. Its great to hear the American masters of line, and in particular guys like Garzone and Liebman who challenge our tolerance of dissonance. Of course we have our own harmonic Merlins (check out Jean Toussaint’s harmonic concept, Julian Siegel, Phil Robson,Continue reading “A healthly dose of dissonance – Garzone hits London”