Gscene 47
ART MATTERS
ALL THAT JAZZ
This month I’m concentrating on one very local arts venue, which is presenting five artists whose differing approaches allow each body of work to come to life, due to the giant leaps between them.
REVIEWS
BY ENZO MARRA
PHOENIX GALLERY
Brighton, www.phoenixbrighton.org ) Until Sunday, December 13, the Platform Graduate Award 2020 will be viewable online at www.phoenixbrighton.org/Events/ platform-graduate-award-2020/. This is the first time the gallery is taking part in the Award, which was established in 2012 and is designed by Contemporary Visual Arts Network South East to support emerging graduate artistic talent, and to help further their practice following graduation. Phoenix has selected five artists: Working within the expanded field of sculpture, Rachel Atkinson’s practice consists of large-scale props, video, photography, and poetry. Utilising these media, along with characters and props, she sets a scene of fakery and strangeness to explore concepts of audience expectations, illusion, the screen, theatre, and colour. Peruvian artist Ursula Vargas has been researching pre-Colombian art and how this historical aspect of her culture is reflected in her contemporary practice. Witnessing how human exploitation of natural resources contributes to environmental problems and climate change has guided her choice of traditional painting media with found supports such as discarded cardboard boxes. Charlotte Guérard’s abstract narratives are a conversation between forms and colour. Charlotte’s 2020 alternative Graduate show was presented as a virtual exhibition entitled Is This A First and featured works produced before and after lockdown. She was nominated for the Freelands Painting Prize 2020 and published in the a-n review earlier this year. Through the medium of photography, Leanne Jones-Starr explores the connection between memories, the uncanny and intuition. Her most recent collection of works is a collection entitled Isolation Garden which consists of five digital images taken during lockdown. They are inspired by the confinement of the garden with each being individually titled at the time in which they were taken. Jessica Davis expresses the effects of how both animals and humans have clashed as they expand more into each other’s territory. To express this through art she uses a range of mediums, such as drawing, painting, taxidermy, sculpture, and photography. Growing up, Jessica saw the effects that humanity has on wildlife around us. Having her own difficulties with special needs, she feels that she has a deeper connection with nature and animals.
BY SIMON ADAMS
) MINO CINELU/NILS PETTER MOLVÆR SulaMadiana (Modern Recordings). Nordic ambient trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær comes from the Norwegian island of Sula, former Miles Davis and Weather Report percussionist Mino Cinélu’s father is from Martinique, or Madiana as it was originally known, hence this set’s collective title. This merging of cold and hot is a magical meeting, in which African rhythms and pattering tabla beats combine with slow, open and synthesized trumpet lines, Molvær in his best Jon Hassell Fourth World mode. Atmospheric sound effects waft in and out alongside random vocal interjections. It is all a bit like listening in to a multilingual conversation without quite understanding the different languages spoken, but loving the experience all the same. Unexpectedly good, and quite beguiling. COSMIC VIBRATIONS ft. DWIGHT TRIBLE Pathways & Passages (Spiritmuse). The six-piece Cosmic Vibrations have been gathered together by in-demand vocalist Dwight Trible. The band has been performing steadily over the last three years, building a reputation in Los Angeles and further afield for its mesmerising performances. Pathways & Passages is the first time that their transcendental, spiritual music has been recorded. It is a genre-defying amalgamation of divine vocals, soul-stirring jazz and healing poetry, delivered with a rich tapestry of African, Mesoamerican, and indigenous North American percussion and instrumentation. Improvisation forms the core of this set, but rhythm and groove are never absent. Throughout, Trible’s vocals dominate, but the real power comes from the three percussionists, who produce interweaving lines of frothing intensity, the bass and other instruments weaving all around them. It all makes for a heady brew, and a fascinating one too. COLIN STEELE QUARTET Joni (Marina). Joni Mitchell’s beautiful songs long ago made their way into the jazz repertoire, helped to some extent by her own adoption of jazz around the time of the Hejira and Mingus sets in the late 1970s. Many musicians have covered her songs over the years: now it is the turn of Scottish trumpeter Colin Steele. Steele certainly knows his Joni, although he obviously favours the early folk material rather than the later experimental works. However, while he cherishes the songs, he doesn’t do much with them except largely follow the melody note for note, his trumpet standing in for Joni’s voice. Pianist Dave Milligan is more adventurous, as are bassist Calum Gourlay and drummer Alyn Cosker, but overall it seems the band is too overawed by the original material to improvise much, despite their obvious skills. Of course, for hardcore Joni fans, this set is just perfect, but while it is enjoyable, many of us will consider it a missed opportunity.
