JazzUK - February-March 2014

. jazz uk FEBRUARY / MARCH 2014

ISSUE 115

NEWS • GIGS • INTERVIEWS • FEATURES • REVIEWS

PUB L ISHED BY

DOWNLOAD OUR FREE GIG GUIDE!

Jay Phelps plus • JEAN TOUSSAINT • JAZZ ON THE ROAD • GIGS HIGHLIGHTS • HOTHOUSE

1 THE JAZZ SERVICES GUIDE TO THE BRITISH SCENE

JazzUK is published bi-monthly

by Jazz Services, a registered charity which provides funding, information, and representation for the British jazz community.

JazzUK exists to promote the appreciation of jazz and expand the opportunities available to its performers. JazzUK’s print run of 25,000 copies is distributed by mail to donors to Jazz Services and free of charge to jazz venues, shops, libraries, and is also available to read online via the Jazz Services website.

JazzUK is pleased to support the Musicians Union in seeking equitable terms and working conditions for musicians.

Members of the UK MU Jazz Section are emailed a link to their own free downloadable copy of each issue of JazzUK. JazzUK, First Floor, 132 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SW UK Tel: +44 (0)207 928 9089 Fax: +44 (0)207 401 6870 www.jazzservices.org.uk Editor: John Norbury-Lyons john@jazzservices.org.uk Listings Editor: Sabina Czajkowska listings@jazzservices.org.uk Advertising Manager: Nick Brown advertising@jazzservices.org.uk Design & Production: Nick Brown Donations / Distribution: subscriptions@jazzservices. org.uk.

Founding Editor: Jed Williams, 1952-2003.

Contributors as credited.

The views expressed in JazzUK do not necessarily reflect the policy of Jazz Services.

Welcome to the February/March 2014 issue of JazzUK - your bi-monthly guide to the UK’s jazz scene brought to you by Jazz Services. This issue we feature both the veteran and the vanguard, with Jean Toussaint and Jay Phelps both discussing their latest projects. We welcome Linley Hamilton into The Guest Spot, expanding the section into the realm of local radio as well as online, and Out & About looks to the north east of England and two regional promoters working for the good of the scene in their area.

Sabina Czajkowska offers her regular highlights from Gigs, the free Jazz Services’ listings guide, Phil Meadows keeps us updated with what the youth scene is cooking up in Hot House, there’s the regular Q&As with Jazz Services’ touring bands, news previews and more. All brought to you for free by Jazz Services!

Jazz Services – Supporting Jazz In The UK!

5

NEWS – Catch up on the latest news of what’s to come in February and March.

11

OUT & ABOUT – We’re in the north-east of England this issue with two different promoters, new and old – the Pink Lane Jazz Co-op and Jazz North East.

14

JEAN TOUSSAINT – One of the UK’s most impressive imports speaks to Matthew Wright as he announces a new album and Jazz Services supported tour.

16

JAY PHELPS – The ambitious young trumpeter takes to the road with a new Miles Davis inspired project.

20

THE GUEST SPOT – We take to the airwaves this issue with Linley Hamilton, who talks us through his BBC Radio Ulster show and the best that Northern Ireland has to offer.

23

HOT HOUSE – Phil Meadow’s regular spotlight on the best of the upand-coming players on the scene.

26

GIGS HIGHLIGHTS – Sabina Czajkowska’s choice picks from February’s issue of Gigs, the Jazz Services listings guide.

28

JAZZ ON THE ROAD – We speak to more bands touring the UK with the help of Jazz Services’ National Touring Support Scheme.

3

News Over the next few pages you can read some of the news that has filtered down through the JazzUK grapevine, plus updates on what to look out for in the next couple of months.

Got a story for News? Email details and press releases for the next issue’s news section to the editor, with the title ‘JazzUK News’.

Get The Blessing – Lope And Antilope album & tour dates

Album number four from the Bristolian quartet sees them approach their music from a slightly different angle, but with the same excellent and entertaining results we’ve come to expect. Lope And Antilope was recorded entirely live and unrehearsed, as opposed to the more structured methods on their previous studio efforts, and it’s a technique that has clearly proved fruitful for the band’s creative drive. “In the past we’ve always started with something concrete,” says the band’s saxophonist Jake McMurchie. “So this time we locked ourselves away and started improvising with nothing but the instruments, a stack load of pedals and effects boxes, a mobile recording set up, and some bara brith. In other words, we started with nothing, and the process was purely creative.”

Less heavy on the riffs that have seen the band gain ground outside the jazz world (although they’re still in evidence on tracks like Little Ease), the resulting album rolls rather than rocks through its ten tracks, and despite the lack of direct preparation during its recording the tone throughout is focussed and exciting. “I think there’s a genuine spontaneity to be heard,” continues McMurchie. “And it

Get The Blessing feels like there’s a strong evolution in the sound of the band; putting the effects boxes and manipulation of live sound at the forefront of the creative process opened new doors to us from a compositional point of view. It’s worth pointing out that there’s almost no post production of effects on this album – almost all the sounds used were created live.”

The band still manages to cover a lot of ground, from the laid-back warbly opener Quiet to the busily shuffling Cheviche and the ghostly Luposcope. The album is out now on Naim Jazz and the band embarks on a short tour in early March, with the first date at the Capstone Theatre in Liverpool (part of the venue’s jazz festival) on the 2nd.

More dates and details at www.theblessing.co.uk

Christine Tobin – A Thousand Kisses Deep rural tour The latest phase of the Rural Touring Support Scheme is coming to a close in March as singer Christine Tobin completes her

extensive run of over 30 dates. The scheme is run with the National Rural Touring Forum and allows artists to play in areas less well served by a touring network – as well as Tobin’s project, the scheme saw bassist and label boss Michael Janisch’s Purpose Built Quartet take to the road less travelled, with similarly productive results.

A Thousand Kisses Deep is Tobin’s interpretation of the work of Leonard Cohen and has gone down a storm with audiences and critics, picking up a Herald Angel award at the Edinburgh festival along the way. Her remaining concerts run throughout February and March, with full details of dates and venues available on her website, http:// christinetobin.wordpress.com/

Robert Glasper @ Hammersmith Apollo

One of jazz’s hottest international tickets at the moment, Robert Glasper is an increasingly regular visitor to our shores. Following the release of his acclaimed Back

5

Radio 2 album he’s back for a gig at the Hammersmith Apollo on 12th March. Glasper’s music might not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s hard to dispute that his artful blending of jazz chops with more modern urban styles is an intriguing one, giving an innovative perspective on jazz’s past – as well as its future. Tickets from www.eventimapollo.com

Polar Bear – In Each And Every One tour dates

Following on from a well-received preview show in London last October, Sebastian Rochford’s Polar Bear are taking to the road throughout the end of March to showcase their new album, In Each And Every One, released on 24th March on the Leaf Label. Starting at Manchester’s Band On The Wall on the 20th, the quintet visit Leeds, Bristol, Brighton, Birmingham and Norwich, with some extra dates for April in the books. Brief listens as this issue went to press indicate that it’s a more esoteric set that should please fans of the bands previous work, with a familiarly insouciant take on contemporary ‘post-jazz’ intermingled with some more raucous and occasionally abstract offerings… www. polarbearmusic.com

Bristol Jazz & Blues Festival

The Bristol Jazz & Blues Festival takes place across the weekend of the 6th – 9th March and it’s looking like a good ‘un. The festival ran for the first time in 2013 and was a great success. “It all started, like many mad ideas, after an evening

involving too much wine,” says Denny Illet, the event’s Artistic Director. “A rant about how Bristol didn’t have an international music festival evolved into a bravura display of ‘Let’s start one!’ A year later in March ’13 after much begging, borrowing and stealing, we found ourselves hosting a weekend of concerts by such heroes as John Scofield and Arturo Sandoval. We pulled over 6,000 folk off the streets and they all seemed to be very happy and supportive.”

The line-up for this second event looks promising and offers a wide range of styles, with Jacqui Dankworth fronting the Big Buzzard Big Band for a Gershwin Spectacular, Afrobeat pioneers Osibisa, Jim Mullen’s always impressive Organ Trio, Pee Wee Ellis and Fred Wesley’s Funk All Stars, Andy Sheppard & John Parricelli and young Georgian pianist Beka Gochiashvili. www.bristoljazzandbluesfest.com

Liverpool Jazz & Blues Festival

Also running into its second year for 2014 is this busily compact series of concerts, held at Liverpool’s Capstone Theatre’s from the 27th February to 2nd March. There’s a fine selection of acts on offer including ACV, Stuart McCallum, Blue Touch Paper, Jamil Sheriff, Get The Blessing and Jason Rebello, plus Dave O’Higgins leads a saxophone masterclass on the Sunday. Tickets and more info area available from the Capstone’s website, www.thecapstonetheatre. com

Cheltenham Jazz Festival early acts announced

The news that Loose Tubes will return to the live circuit for the first time in nearly 25 years should certainly have pricked a few ears by the time this issue goes to press; the London-based big band, which can count such noted players as Iain Ballamy, Django Bates and Julian Argüelles

among its number, is staging a 30th anniversary comeback at this year’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival, held over the May bank holiday weekend.

Other early names to be included in the line-up are saxophonist Paul Dunmall, pianist Dan Nicholl and DJ Gilles Peterson, with plenty more to come. Stay tuned, and keep an eye on www.cheltenhamfestivals. com/jazz for other details as they’re announced.

Gabrielle Ducomble – Notes From Paris

Originally from Belgium, Ducomble came to the UK several years ago to study at the Guildhall Music School.

The singer has now established herself firmly on the national scene and has also built quite a following throughout Europe, not least due to her reaching the final of the French version of Pop Idol in 2003.

However, despite basing herself in London it’s perhaps unsurprising that she turns to the classic songs of her mother tongue on her second album, Notes From Paris (MGP Records). Singing largely in French, Ducomble skilfully reworks tunes made famous by the likes of Edith Piaf (Je Ne Regretted Rein, La Vie En Rose) and Serge Gainsbourg (Cess Petites Reins), and the result is a polished, classy and refined affair.

Some may say that the album as a whole is a touch too refined for some tastes, but that shouldn’t be Ducomble’s concern. Her vocals flit between delicate and bold depending on the needs of the song, and it’s that sensitivity to the requirements of the moment that

7

makes this record such a strong statement - coupled with some great playing from a great backing band that includes guitarist Nicolas Meier and violinist Chris Garrick invoking the air of the French capital to a tee. Released on 3rd February, the album’s launched at Pizza Express Soho on the 5th, with more dates at www.gabrielleducomble.com

Slowly Rolling Camera album release

Edition boss Dave Stapleton isn’t one to rest on his laurels. As well as recently launching Edition Classics as the classical arm of the label, February sees the CD release of the debut album from Slowly Rolling Camera - keen vinyl lovers were able to get their hands on the 12” last year. Stapleton’s new group takes its musical cues from groups like Cinematic Orchestra and Jaga Jazzist, mixing jazzy influences with less organic dance and electronic styles as drums and vocals are placed front and centre, backed by lush string sections and horns. The CD is released on the 3rd February, and you can see the band live at Pizza Express Soho the following day, and at Four Bars in Cardiff on 7th March. http://slowlyrollingcamera. bandcamp.com

GoGo Penguin – v2.0

One of the hit new trios of recent times, GoGo Penguin’s new release is sure to build on the hype and success of their 2012 debut. v2.0 has the potential to be one of those rare albums that genuinely resonates with an audience outside jazz, as pianist Chris Illingworth’s classical and jazz background melds seamlessly and elegantly with the more dance and electronica-led grooves of drummer Rob Turner and new bassist Nick Blacka’s rhythm section, with no one dominant voice emerging to dampen the thrilling collective drive of the trio. The anthemic melodies and surging, bustling

8

rhythmic statements combine into a wholly convincing package that, if there’s any justice, will see them gain the kind of accolades enjoyed by the likes of e.s.t. and The Bad Plus, to whom they’ve often been compared.

Some may argue that the improvisational elements sound somewhat diminished in favour of a more through-composed feel; that’s possibly because GoGo Penguin describe themselves as ‘acoustic electronica’, with jazz taking up but a portion of their overall musical palette. It’ll be interesting to see how much room for development said palette allows on future releases, but the band is yet young and this is a hugely listenable and enjoyable album. v2.0 is released on Gondwana Records on 17th February, with a King’s Place launch on the 15th. www.gogopenguin.co.uk

Efpi Records Let Spin & Trio Riot

Efpi Records, the Manchesterbased label set up by musicians Ben Cotrell, Anton Hunter and Sam Andreae, already has a high-quality stable of artists and releases and adds to it this Spring with two eponymous albums. The Anglo-Scandinavian Trio Riot pull no punches as their dual sax front line (the aforementioned Andreae on tenor and Mette Rasmussen on alto) clashes in frequently chaotic sync with David Meier on drums.

Despite the ‘riot’ in the name there’s a lot of groove and empathy to the music and the energy is palpable, but one suspects it’s more enticing live prospect than what’s offered on record, which seems to falter in places. Decide for yourself in late March – the album’s out on the 17th, and the band plays in London (24th), Newcastle (25th) and Canterbury (27th).

If Let Spin’s album is a more rounded affair, it’s not because they’re any less ambitious or outgoing with their sound. With a line-up featuring alumni from

some of the UK’s punky jazz heavyweights - Acoustic Ladyland bassist Ruth Goller and Led Bib’s Chris Williams on sax - the quartet’s debut recording finds them gleefully rollicking through a selection of pieces that, while pleasingly boisterous in places (on tracks like Up And At Them and Awowowa), finds the space to display the band’s ample subtleties. Goller’s Piper and guitarist Moss Freed’s closing number A Change Is Coming are both tender gems that add some lovely texture to the album – recommended.

Visit Efpi’s website for more details on both bands and tour dates: www.efpirecords.com

Eduardo Niebla on tour

Yorkshire might not be your first answer when asked where to go for some fiery flamenco jazz, but guitar virtuoso Eduardo Niebla has made the north of England his home for some years now. The tireless performer and recording artist is currently working on his 24th album and tours the UK extensively throughout February and March with dates across England, Scotland and Ireland running right through into April.

Niebla has in the past applied his fast-fretted style to a number of different settings and on this tour he’ll be variously accompanied by fellow guitarists Matthew Robinson and Carl Herring, tabla player Dharmesh Parmar, double bassist Manuel Alvarez and drummer Roberto Ares, as well as local musicians and choirs on certain dates. Regardless of the context, Niebla should provide a riveting evening of musical exploration.

More details and full dates at www. eduardoniebla.com

Osian Roberts /Steve Fishwick tour

Good to see that the classic hard-bop pairing of saxophonist Osian Roberts and trumpeter Steve Fishwick are taking to the road again with a new line-up,

promoting their latest album When Night Falls. They’re joined by the American baritone sax player Frank Basile, a busy New York scenester who’s performed with the likes of Dave Holland and Joe Lovano with whom Roberts and Fishwick first collaborated whilst in the Big Apple some years ago. Also in the band is Ross Stanley on piano, Jeremy Brown on bass and Matt Fishwick on drums, and the tour kicks off on the 6th February in Bedford, finishing on the 17th in Cardiff.

For more dates, see the February issue of Gigs, the Jazz Services listings guide, or visit www. stevefishwickjazz.com

Parliamentary Jazz Awards

If you’re reading this hot off the press you might still have a chance to put forward your choices in this year’s Parliamentary Jazz Awards, as nominations close on the 3rd February. After this date, the nominations will be discussed by a panel of experts pooled by Jazz Services and PPL, who will whittle down the selections into a final shortlist which will then be deliberated by the members of the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group. There’ll be a full report after the awards on the Jazz Services website, and hopefully some insight into PPL’s

work in the next issue.

Georgina Jackson charity gig

Trumpeter and singer Georgina Jackson is organising a concert at the Watersmeet Theatre in Ricksmanworth, in aid of the Mount Vernon Breast Cancer Research Centre. Jackson was treated at the centre during 2009-10 and their efforts mean she is able to continue her career in music. The gig features the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra directed by Pete Long as well as a number of special guests, and will be well worth attending for both the music as well as the chance to support an extremely worthy cause. The concert takes place on 6th March – visit the venue’s website for more info: www.watersmeet.co.uk

Dennis Rollins’ Velocity Trio tour dates

The trombonist’s most recent group enjoyed a wealth of critical acclaim for The 11th Gate, which while undoubtedly groove-based showcased a wider palette of Rollins’ skillset than perhaps has been displayed on previous releases. The trio, completed by Ross Stanley on Hammond organ and drummer Pedro Segundo, takes to the road for a string of dates that should help drum up some anticipation for a follow-up

recording due for release in the summer. Sheffield Jazz hosts the group on the 14th February, with more gigs to follow in Welwyn Garden City, Wakefield, Birmingham, Cheltenham and Southport. www.dennisrollins.com

SNJO – American Adventure

The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra is quite simply one of the most impressive large ensembles around, and last year’s joyful In The Spirit of Duke was a testament to their ceaseless creative ambition.

They follow it up with American Adventure, released on the 17th February and recorded whilst on a tour of the States in 2013. It’s a fantastic cross-continental collaboration between the group’s own stellar line-up of Scotland’s best and brightest and a host of top American players, including Bill Evans, Mike Stern, Kurt Elling, David Liebman and Randy Brecker. As ever, Tommy Smith leads the proceedings and the resulting set features some sterling arrangements of tunes from the likes of Marcus Miller, Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and Chick Corea. It doesn’t really get much classier than this. www.snjo.co.uk

SNJO © Paul Thorburn

SNJO in the studio

9

Advertise with JazzUK

25,000

PRINT COPIES PLUS UNLIMITED DIGITAL CIRCULATION IN TWO PUBLICATIONS!

For more info contact Nick Brown at advertising@jazzservices.org.uk or call 07824 663488.

For this issue’s Out & About we look to the north-east of England and hear from two organisations that are helping to continue keep the area’s bustling jazz scene alive.

Firstly, Dave Parker, one for the founders of the new Pink Lane Jazz Co-Op, writes for JazzUK about the organisation’s inception and its vision for the local scene.

A new jazz co-operative is inviting music lovers throughout the UK to invest in a unique venture that it hopes will transform the jazz scene in Tyneside and beyond. Pink Lane Jazz Co-op, which was set up last year, is issuing shares to raise money to buy The Globe, a pub and music venue on the west edge of Newcastle city centre.

The co-op has a long-term vision of establishing The Globe as the place in Newcastle to hear live jazz and other music that is outside the mainstream. It will be a place where musicians learn, share and develop their skills – a hub for jazz education – and it will be the first music venue to be owned by a co-operative committed to jazz. Any readers interested in joining the co-op and investing can visit www. pinklanejazz.co.uk.

This major development comes after a year of upheaval in the North East jazz scene. In January 2013 Newcastle was mourning the death of Keith Crombie, known locally as The Jazz Man, who set up the Jazz Cafe in Pink Lane and ran it for over 20 years. Also in 2013 Jazz North East, one of the longest established jazz promoters in the UK, lost its funding from the Arts Council [more on them in a bit – Ed.], and Newcastle City Council announced it was

going to cut all funding for the arts.

But Geordie jazzers are a resilient breed and during 2013 there seemed to be more jazz in more venues than for many years. Young film producer Abi Lewis completed a feature-length documentary about The Jazz Man funded entirely by individual contributions. Jazz North East launched a crowd funding appeal that drew responses from across the globe, and Pink Lane Jazz Co-op started putting on gigs at venues that have never had jazz before.

The co-op aims to support the performance and development of jazz, poetry, dance and related arts.

“It’s been hard work and sometimes frustrating,” said Joan Geany, one of the founders of Pink Lane Jazz Co-op. “Often we cannot reach a deal with a venue that is fair to musicians. The regular venues we do have depend on the continuing goodwill of the owners and we can’t rely on that. This makes it difficult to plan ahead.”

The co-op has also learned the truth that all operators of successful venues know: charging people to see a band rarely makes money – it’s sales of food and drink that generate the profit. So the members have decided that the co-op needs

Strictly Smokin’ Big band

It is committed to education and nurturing local talent, and launched its activities with a ‘Big Bash’ in April 2013 featuring the high energy Afro-beat of Hannabiell & Midnight Blue, the 19-piece Strictly Smokin’ Big Band (pictured), Mo Scott & Paul Edis (vocal/piano duo), three local poets and dozens of swing

Strictly Smokin’ Big band © The Co-operative Group

out & about

dancers. Since then the co-op has put on over 30 gigs in a wide range of venues including bars, cafes, restaurants, a cinema, a dance club and even a museum in an attempt to bring jazz to new audiences. It also runs a monthly jazz workshop at the Sage Gateshead.

to own premises if it is to promote jazz in a way that is sustainable and does not rely on grant funding.

That’s why they are inviting people to join the co-op and buy a pub.

The future of jazz in Newcastle is inspiring, but what about the present?

You can usually hear live jazz every

11

day somewhere in Tyneside. Trad jazz is always on offer, and mainstream can be heard most nights.

There’s usually something more experimental at least once a week.

The Sage Gateshead is the largest music venue in the north of England and each year hosts a three-day international jazz festival (4th-6th April in 2014). Apart from this most jazz in Newcastle happens in small venues; weekly at The Bridge, Salsa and the revamped Jazz Cafe, and less frequently at Hoochie Coochie, the Lit & Phil and No. 28. The best way to find out what’s going on is to visit the excellent online blog Bebop Spoken Here [our Guest Spot resident in JazzUK #109 – Ed.].

There are many talented jazz musicians in Tyneside and the standard at almost every gig featuring a local band is likely to be high. Several have a national or international following including Zoe Gilby (vocalist/songwriter), ACV (jazz/prog rock quintet) and Djangologie (Hot Club-style quartet). Some names to look out for include Andy Champion, Adam Sinclair, Adrian Tilbrook, Don Forbes, Emma Fisk, Graham Hardy, Graeme Wilson, Gabriele Heller, John Rowland, Lindsay Hannon, Mick Shoulder, Michael Lamb, Mark Williams, Pete Gilligan, Paul Gowland, Ruth Lambert, Sue Ferris, Stuart Collingwood and Steve Glendinning.

For more information on the Pink Lane Co-op, visit www.pinklanejazz. co.uk Another organisation that has been a big influence on the area’s scene is Jazz North East. Local promoter Paul Bream writes about the setbacks and successes throughout its past, as well as looking towards the future.

When American drummer Tom Rainey wrote “It means a great deal to me to know that these creative oases exist”, he was referring to Newcastle promoter Jazz North

12

Roby Glod

Roby Glod © Arsene Ott

East. It’s a view echoed by many musicians, and when JNE recently launched a crowd funding appeal to get them through a major financial crisis, donations came not just from the UK but from right across Europe and as far afield as Canada and Australia. It was, says JNE committee member Wes Stephenson, “a heartening demonstration that we’ve been doing something right”.

Not that JNE is the only player in a region that stretches from Teesside to the Scottish Borders. Indeed, despite its name, it rarely stages concerts outside the Tyneside hub of Newcastle and Gateshead.

Elsewhere in the North East the Darlington Jazz Club runs a successful weekly gig, Hexham has a monthly club session, and even within Newcastle itself jazz fans are also served by the Pink Lane Jazz Co-op [see above – Ed.], the newly refurbished Jazz Café, and the weekly Splinter gigs at the Bridge Hotel. These all serve as great platforms for local musicians, but for national and international artists, JNE is almost always the first port of call.

Something that has marked out JNE right from its formation in 1966 is its

openness to all forms of jazz; in its very first year it promoted gigs by artists as diverse as Alex Welsh, Bruce Turner and Ornette Coleman. By the late ‘70s it had largely dropped trad from its agenda as other promoters picked up that particular torch, but otherwise it continued to cast its net widely, and in the first year of the new millennium it was still ranging from mainstream favourite Scott Hamilton to the raw and raucous improv of Hession, Wilkinson & Fell.

Perhaps the one area in which JNE failed to keep pace was in recognising the new generation of contemporary bands that were emerging on the UK scene, and in 1999 the late Keith Morris set out to plug this gap with his monthly Schmazz nights, booking bands that were taking a distinctively new approach to the tradition. This quickly opened up a new strand which has provided first Tyneside outings for such happening young groups as Led Bib, the Kit Downes Trio, Roller Trio, and many others. And by the mid-2000s Jazz North East too had come to appreciate the vibrancy of the new UK scene, and increasingly came to co-operate with Schmazz in planning a balanced concert se-

ries, a trend which eventually led to the two promoters merging in 2013 (although the Schmazz approach continues as a distinct element in the JNE programme).

In any case, while Schmazz was building a base for contemporary UK jazz, JNE was not resting on its laurels, and was busy forging international links, primarily by its establishment in 2004 of the On The Outside festival, which gathered free improvisers from the UK, USA and mainland Europe and threw them together for three days of entirely new groupings. The festival survived for five years before the money ran out, but it created a legacy in putting Tyneside firmly on the world jazz map – in 2013 alone JNE’s programme featured musicians from a dozen different countries, with several bands playing Newcastle as their only gig outside London.

So, for jazz lovers in the North East, it’s now the best of times…

but also very nearly the worst of times. The adventurousness of JNE’s approach of booking bands that maintain ‘the sound of surprise’ rather than merely playing safe may have won it worldwide plaudits, but it’s definitely risky. Although audiences have held up reasonably well (and have actually been increasing for the more progressive gigs), sustaining such a diverse programme isn’t possible without financial support. For many years the promoter received an annual grant from the regional jazz development agency JazzAction, but that was closed down in 2012, and when last year Newcastle City Council and the Arts Council also withdrew their support, JNE was in imminent danger of going out of business.

What saved the day was the crowd funding appeal, and a fund-raising concert at which around 40 musicians donated their services. It means that JNE is safe until the middle of 2014, giving it time to find more secure funding. The one thing

it won’t do is trim its sails artistically – its programme for the coming months already includes rarely heard Luxembourg saxophonist Roby Glod (pictured) and the Canadian-Russian trio of François Carriere, as well as up-and-coming UK bands Let Spin and Followed By Thirteen. Wes Stephenson sums up the thinking: “The immense support we’ve just witnessed has convinced us that what we’re doing is appreciated by audiences and musicians, if not by funders. So that makes us all the more determined to carry on.”

For the sake of jazz enthusiasts throughout the UK, and especially in the North East, let’s hope they make it. www.jazznortheast.com Are you working to promote and build the jazz scene in your area?

If you’d like your organisation or activities to be considered for Out & About, email the editor and let us know!

13

Jean Toussaint Firmly established in the UK for many years now, the American-born saxophonist and former Jazz Messenger Jean Toussaint speaks to Matthew Wright as he embarks on a national Jazz Services supported tour to promote the release of his tenth album, Tate Song.

“Art Blakey never explained the music, he said it all from drum stool,” reminisces saxophonist Jean Toussaint, discussing the evolution of a career that took off in 1982 with four and a half years in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Though resident in London for several decades now, and originally from the US Virgin Islands, it’s his time with perhaps the outstanding band of 1980s New York that became the foundation of Jean Toussaint’s career. Having just released Tate Song, his tenth album as leader, he can look back with both satisfaction at a career of significant achievements as saxophonist, composer and teacher. His memories of that time are tinged with sadness since he lost a particularly close musical partner with the death, last May, of the pianist Mulgrew Miller, also a member of Blakey’s band.

and once it comes, I think about what it means. I have had to work to task before, but it’s more contrived. It’s more natural when it comes in other ways.”

Surprisingly perhaps for someone from such an exciting New York scene, Toussaint is very happy in London.

“I love it here,” he says, passionately. “I started coming here with Art Blakey. London was the only place on tour where we could do a two- or three-week residency. We’d get to London and breathe, after lots of one-nighters. I made a lot of friends in London. During the eighties, jazz was vibrant. Paul Murphy, Lionel Grigson, Courney Pine, Cleveland Watkiss, all these guys become friends. I played with Jason Rebello, who was fantastic, and put a band together with Cleveland. I was enjoying the music, and getting to do what I couldn’t do in New York. It was more collaborative in London, people were helping each other.”

The new album has a very personal feel, with many references to friends and family. The eponymous Tate is Toussaint’s son, a folk-blues singer and guitarist who has just left for California. The third track, My Dear Ruby, is for his daughter, while Mulgrew is of course a tribute to Mulgrew Miller. Rice meanwhile refers to Toussaint’s friend CR (Carlos) Peppers, a good friend from Berklee College of Music. “In my second year, I had no money or a place to stay, so he rented an apartment, put me up and fed me for a couple of months.

‘Rice’ is his nickname,” Toussaint recalls.

The longest musical collaboration of Toussaint’s career is with British pianist Andrew McCormack, whom Toussaint has known since the then teenage McCormack came to jam with him and Tom Skinner, Tom Herbert and David Okumu. A few years later, he taught McCormack at Guildhall. “I’ve been hiring him for over ten years,” he says, proudly. McCormack has two compositions on the new album; Tunnel Vision, a funky blues track which the pair have been using as a theme song since its composition four years ago, and Vista, a new piece which combines minimal, repeated chords on piano with a plaintive melody on soprano sax (the only track on the album when Toussaint isn’t playing tenor). “It has a universal sound. Jazz is a fusion of everything,” Toussaint says, referring to the classical and Latin influences evident in the piece.

Though still, perhaps, best known as a performer, Toussaint has an effervescent enthusiasm for the process of composition. With the two exceptions, These Foolish Things and Nascimento’s Vera Cruz, all of the tracks on the album are composed by Toussaint or his long-term collaborator, pianist Andrew McCormack. “I compose all the time,” he says. “There’s loads of music I haven’t recorded yet. It comes to me in many ways: in dreams, or while walking down the road. Something hits you - zamadoo! Once the melody comes, it’s very easy to record something and develop it later. I wrote My Dear Ruby while doodling at the piano, waiting for a student. I was playing an arpeggio and putting chords to it. That’s how it developed. It reminded me of my daughter. I take inspiration from wherever life takes me,

Ironically, McCormack has recently moved to New York, and is unable to play on the tour (he’s replaced by the fast-rising 20 year-old Reuben James). Toussaint’s not envious, but he understands the appeal. “He moved to New York to feel that energy. If you have the opportunity, go. If you can sustain yourself in New York, and work at the top, the opportunities are beautiful.” The pair rarely consult each other during the composition process; the musical relationship is so strong and well understood that it’s not necessary. “We have collaborated,” explains Toussaint, “but it was a kind of spontaneous composition, on Live in Paris and London (his widely acclaimed 2010 album). It was a kind of random discourse, based on my prompts. The whole piece was built like that.”

14

The second track, Mulgrew, obviously prompts sadder reflections. It has a much softer sound, with insistent, yet affectionately rich piano chords and piano chords, full of melancholy, which give way to angry, spiky trills suggesting Toussaint’s disbelief at the loss of his friend.

Mention of the track brings on a moment of solemnity.

“We were in Jazz Messengers for three years. We formed our careers together,” Toussaint says. “It’s sad to see peers go like that. It brings it all home - there’s so much more to do.”

Toussaint has a remarkable gift for depicting character in music, and the next three tracks, about his daughter Ruby, son Tate and close friend CR Peppers, all contain skilful musical portraiture. My Dear Ruby combines repeated scales on saxophone and a meditative, gentle tone, with a melody suggesting mostly affection, while occasional bursts of free playing suggest an independent spirit. Rice is, says Toussaint, “a burning tune, evoking mid-Sixties Miles Davis, Wayne, Herbie…” With fast saxophone runs over unsettled drums, it depicts a brilliant, but restless mind. “That’s what we were, a kind of ESP type… he was a clever guy, Ricehead,” says Toussaint, allowing himself a touch of nostalgia.

Of the two covers, Toussaint is keen to emphasise how much both have been reworked. “I never take a composition and do it as it is,” he assures me. “I always internalise it, make it part of me, and reinterpret it, while remaining true to the composer.”

Despite the obvious challenges of making a living as a jazz musician, Toussaint is reassuringly positive about the state of jazz today. “Young musicians today are more interested in the history of music,” he says. “When I was first here, they weren’t interested, and young saxophonists wanted to be either Michael Brecker or David Sanborn. There’s a much more balanced appreciation now.” Technology helps. “It makes

access to historical videos of older players, once very rare very easy to find. And digital recording can slow down a track without changing key, so you can work at your own pace. You can slow Parker down, and learn his solos,” he explains. Moreover, many young musicians have, he believes, embraced the entrepreneurial demands of today’s industry with confidence. “For example, Tom Harrison, one of my students at Trinity, has a business head on shoulders, but he can write, too.

His company, Turaco Music, booked this tour. You have to be multi-talented and entrepreneurial today.”

By now a veteran of the UK touring circuit, there are a couple of venues he always looks forward to visiting. “I love going to Cheltenham. We’ve had a great relationship for years, though it’s hard to tell whether they like you or not at first. But when they respond, it’s fantastic.

We’ve always had a great audience whenever we go to Leicester too,” he says. The audience is as important to the music as the rest of us,” he says. “If you have a great audience, and the gig is explosive, it pushes you to do things you never thought you could do, to feed off their energy. Outside London they love the music, there are jazz societies everywhere, and I like to support that, to keep it going,” he says.

Jean Toussaint’s Tate Song is released via Lyte Records on 24th February, and he tours with Jazz Services’ support from 14th March into April, with a launch at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London on 18th March. See www. jeantoussaint.com & www.turacomusic.com for more info.

Matthew Wright writes about jazz, mainly for The Arts Desk. He also contributes to festival and arts centre programmes, most recently Kings Place. www.matthewwrighter.com

Jean Toussaint © Ben Amure

This album is strikingly diverse, and the variety of tributes it gives to the important people in Toussaint’s life is more than matched by the range of styles on display. The first track, Toussaint’s Mood Mode is “a happy minor song, a tribute to the band.” The piece’s angular, boppish phrasing and rhythm make it the most Blakey-ian of the tracks, and mention of it provokes memories of Blakey’s method. “We had to know each other, how to read and speak each other. What I learnt from Art Blakey was always to listen to musicians. The danger comes when you’re not having a conversation.

It was the conversational aspect that I took away from Jazz Messengers… Art would never tell them what to do, let them interpret it in way they want to, they have to find something,” he says, fondly. “Art never explained the music, he did it all from drum stool, from the way he played, it’s more organic when it’s done that way.”

15

Jay Phelps sits down with JazzUK’s editor John Norbury-Lyons to discuss his new Miles Davis inspired project.

Jay Phelps has been a prominent figure on the UK’s jazz scene for some time now. The Vancouverborn trumpeter served with distinction in the Tomorrow’s Warriors and Jazz Jamaica bands led by bassist Gary Crosby before creating some serious waves as an original member of Empirical, whose debut album was hailed as something of a rejuvenation for young UK jazz upon its release. 2010’s Jay Walkin’ served as a vehicle for Phelps to further hone his talents as a bandleader, and for the last few years he’s largely been found occupying such a front-facing role.

That’s not to say his sideman cred-

16

its haven’t been impressive – he counts Wynton Marsalis as a friend and has played as a guest with the Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra – but it’s projects like his Big Band and the Jitter Jive group, whose residency at London’s Hippodrome Casino has been drawing crowds and acclaim, where he seems to have found his natural stride. His latest project is entitled Projections of Miles and as the name suggests it sees him revisit the music of one of jazz’s all-time legends.

“Projections came at a time where I realised I wanted to put a tour together but I didn’t have a new album to take on the road,” enthuses Phelps when we meet. “Miles is one of my biggest influences and obviously a very well-known name, and while I had done one Miles project with Richard Sheppard where we did Birth of the Cool, I haven’t really heard too many Miles Davis

projects that are based around particular arrangements done by the musicians. So what we’re doing is giving each musician in the band two tunes that they can arrange themselves, in any way they want.”

These individual ‘projections’ offered by each band member will be taken from across the breadth of Miles’ career, from the ‘40s right through to the ‘80s. “And it won’t necessarily just be Miles’ tunes either,” continues Phelps. “Someone could take his version of Time After Time and do something with that.

Each of the guys will choose tunes from two eras, and by spanning four decades we’re doing something a little different too. We’re not just doing ‘the ‘60s’ or anything like that, and I want to be able to give our own modern day spin on things. So if a song’s from the ‘40s, it won’t necessarily sound like it’s from the ‘40s with us.”

Re-birth Cool the

of

Jay Phelps © Richard Battye

The band Phelps has put together for this project should certainly allow for a lot of variety with the interpretations. “We have Soweto Kinch on tenor, who’s also an amazing rapper; Benet Mclean’s in the piano slot, and he can sing really well; Logan Richardson on alto sax, who used to play with Ambrose Akinmusire and is on that forwardthinking international scene; Shaney Forbes [Jay’s old Empirical bandmate] on drums; Tim Thornton on bass and myself on trumpet.

And I’m starting to do a little singing myself,” he adds a touch modestly.

“Not to say this is going to be a whole singing, rapping thing, but we can use little bits here and there of our hidden talents. And these guys are all great composers too...”

So far, so all-star. But with such potential for interpretation and divergence from the original tunes, will die-hard fans of Miles’ music

be surprised at what they hear? “I think people will be surprised, sure, but I don’t think it’s going to be too far-fetched,” he explains. “Like, we just saw the Wayne Shorter Quartet the other day. And just the way that they approach playing some of Wayne’s tunes…wow. You might only hear three notes of the original tune here or there! Not to say we’ll be going as far as that, because, well, we’re not Wayne Shorter! But in the same way we want to be able to utilise some of the song, or the elements - the ingredients - of the song, and take it to a new space that’s still recognisable but allows for reinterpretation.”

It might seem an obvious one, but the question of ‘why Miles?’ is nevertheless important. As probably the most famous jazz musician of all time and a trumpeter to boot, it could seem like an easy option for Phelps to look to the great man for

inspiration, and with no shortage of Miles interpretations I wonder if he’s cautious about re-treading old ground. “It’s new for me,” Phelps says simply. “I’ve never taken the Miles chair, although doing Birth Of The Cool certainly inspired me.

He’s one of my biggest influences and I would like to breathe some new life into his music if I can, and that would be up to my own interpretation and the interpretations of the people I’ve picked to be in the band, who I’ve chosen very specifically. I know from performing with them before that it’ll be an exciting situation to play in, and it’ll be exciting to see what their interpretation of the music will be and where we can take it. Even if you’ve heard Miles’ music your whole life, hopefully this will be a fresh new take on it; hopefully it will give the listener something they can to come back to Miles with.”

17

Similarly, and despite being a huge long-time fan of Miles, Phelps himself took a slightly circuitous route to get back to the music during the early stages of planning the project.

“There are a few live recordings that came out fairly recently and I’ve listened to them again. I hadn’t listened to the Second Quintet for ages. I used to listen to that stuff every day, I used to live and breathe it. I hadn’t heard it for years and I put this new stuff on and just thought, ‘jeez, what else can you do with this!?’ But there are sounds and styles around today that we can use with this music, and try something that’s not been done before - put it to the test...”

musicians today sound like they feel the need to play everything they know all the time, and that goes for composing as well. They’re playing a lot! They’re playing a lot of stuff and maybe not saying as much.

You can make a musical statement with not that much and it can still have a lot of impact. I think a lot of contemporary jazz is for contemporary jazz musicians to listen to, and as intelligent as the music is that can alienate a lot of audiences. So where I think I’m coming from is trying to bridge that gap – challenge yourself as a musician but also let your audience understand what you’re saying and connect with them.”

It’s surely a testament to the inherent adaptability of Miles Davis’ music that contemporary musicians are still able to take it to new places, and to its longevity that they are indeed doing so. “Miles had such a different take on music, and such a musical way of playing anything, whether it’s his bebop stuff or Time After Time. There’s not a note wasted.” So does he hear his mentor’s influence in other contemporary musicians working today? Are the waves he created still out there? “They are and they aren’t,” he says cautiously. “It’s not a perfect analogy, but a lot of people around the world speak English, and England is the main reason why, because of its history and influence over the world. In the same way, I would say the reason a lot of people play jazz to begin with is to do with Miles and his influence and the waves he made, regardless of whether you like him or what instrument you play.”

Rather than being dismissive, with Phelps it feels as if this stance simply comes from having such an obvious fondness for that classic golden era of jazz and how it reached out to a wider audience.

As such it’s perhaps not surprising

And on the other side of the argument? “Well, Miles was very effective at using a small amount of his talent at one time. Whereas today I think there’s a tendency to use all of your talent, all at the same time, all of the time – to produce not as much of an emotional statement as Miles did with less! Some

that Projections of Miles, while contemporary in execution, is still very traditional in its lineage and approach. “I think it’s part of me coming into my own as a musician,” he summarises. “The whole of my 20s was spent trying to discover how to play this music and the wealth of the jazz vocabulary. Now I’m getting older and I’m trying to understand what it is that I can bring to this music, not only for me but for audiences, and how can my music impact someone. Music has to connect, and that’s what the traditional sensibility can bring to the modern sensibility. Don’t forget about the groove, man!

You still have to make people feel something…”

Projections of Miles is on tour in mid-February, starting at the Y Theatre in Leicester on the 12th.

For full dates and more details, see www.jayphelpsmusic.com

Jay Phelps © Richard Battye

19

THE GUEST SPOT For this issue’s Guest Spot we’re branching out into the UK’s jazz radio landscape and handing proceedings over to Linley Hamilton, presenter, trumpeter and well-known figure in Northern Irish jazz circles. Linley hosts a successful weekly jazz show on BBC Radio Ulster, and with a keen eye for local as well as international talent he introduces us to his show and local scene. Linley, you’re on the air…

The Show I have been broadcasting on BBC Radio Ulster now for around 7 years. My weekly jazz show focuses very much on new releases from bands and artists who are keeping jazz alive by gigging, recording and touring. Jazz musicians are better organised these days, releasing CDs to coincide with tours, being open to the many media opportunities that are available to them and even as far as Facebook or email, they are keen to interact with their fans, informing them of gigs and upcoming projects, and generally making them feel part of their team.

Well that’s certainly what I see as my role with all this; having the radio show central to what is happening currently in jazz, interviewing musicians and artists who are still active, playing new releases and building artists’ profiles, providing a significant gig guide, all the while giving background and context for listeners who are fresh to jazz or just happen to have the programme ‘come on’.

For my part, I’m a jazz trumpet player with 3 albums out; Up to Now released in 2001, Taylor Made (2011) and In Transition (2014). I have been a jazz educator for a

20

numbers of years, completed a Jazz Performance Masters in 2009 and am soon due to submit my PhD in Jazz Performance, so I guess you could say that mine has been a life focused on jazz and still very much in the thick of things on the local scene, which is absolutely thriving at the moment.

To put it simply, the show is part of the ‘jazz team’, to tie in with managers, record labels, jazz venues and so on; by helping to profile the artists, the listeners can become familiar with them and check out their back catalogue, or better still, go see them play! Our audience is the primary concern of the show and as such it is my goal to provide them with a full jazz experience (in BBC terms), to educate, entertain and inform, respectfully and enthusiastically. Every few weeks, I have

Ronnie Greer

an interview slot with someone significant, and luckily some wonderful opportunities have come my way including the likes of Randy Brecker, Wynton Marsalis, Walter Becker, Vince Mendoza, Billy Cobham and John Abercrombie, but also young British artists coming through like Ivo Neame, Portico Quartet, Paul Towndrow, Soweto Kinch.

The Scene And then there’s the explosion of new talent that has come through on the local scene, both in Belfast and Ireland as a whole…well, that has been extraordinary. Providing a platform for their music, telling people where they perform, giving them a voice, passing on news of their development and collaborations…

David Lyttle © Bencat

David Lyttle

these are the things that I see as central to the role of the show - a cog in the jazz wheel!

When I started the show I had two Northern Ireland jazz albums available for me to play that fitted the ethos of the show. Now I have eighteen and that figure’s growing! Musicians like pianist Scott Flanigan, guitarist Ronnie Greer, and drummer Steve Davis have all released albums recently, sparking interest in festivals and clubs and drawing in audiences that are disparate but open to experiencing improvised music in different forms.

In addition, two wonderful American performers have settled here; South Carolina vocalist Dana Masters has made a huge impact, so much so that her band did a 50 minute performance slot on BBC Radio 3 Jazz Line Up, while New York saxophonist Meilana Gillard, whose album Day One (on Inner Circle Records) has had a remarkable resurgence, is bringing a fresh approach and a hard work ethic that everyone is buying into.

As a result, a Belfast modern jazz scene that 10 years ago would have had one weekly afternoon

residency now has in excess of 65 gigs per month, while in Londonderry a Jazz PhD course churns out a Doctor of Jazz per year. Jazz festivals are sparse in Northern Ireland, but the gig scene is thriving, the punters are keen and a new Facebook page, Jazz NI (www. facebook.com/jazznorthernireland), engages with an army of fans who set their diaries by the events it advertises in conjunction with the Radio Show Diary Page. The gigs are well attended, with the highlight being a Saturday afternoon slot from 3-5pm at McHugh’s in central Belfast, featuring all the best musicians in town and regular guests from Dublin - now less than an hour and a half away thanks to recent infrastructure developments, creating a turn-about exchange of Northern musicians down South.

Bert’s Jazz Bar, not unlike the Jazz Bar in Edinburgh, runs gigs every night of the week and has done so for more than 3 years, changing the lives of many of the musicians here by exposing growing numbers to the local musicians and enforcing the ethos of listeners to the show getting a chance to experience live jazz, in some cases for the first time. There is also a dedicated jazz

record label, LYTE Records, founded by jazz drummer David Lyttle whose album Interlude has received critical acclaim worldwide. On the roster are albums by local artists pianist John Leighton, myself and of course David, but also Dublin artists Michael Buckley, Mike Nielsen and Nigel Mooney, and UK based artists such as Jason Rebello [Jean Toussaint’s new album Tate Song is also released on LYTE Records – read the interview with him in this issue – Ed.].

I certainly feel that part of my role is to bring this music to the listeners of my show and to encourage them to experience jazz as fully as they can by attending the gigs that local artists and travelling artists perform in the province. This will hopefully make my listeners fans of live jazz as well as what they hear on the radio, and maybe have the reverse effect in tandem.

Home And Away…

Another exciting project the show has developed is identifying home grown talent that has left these shores for G.B. and further afield,

21

and reuniting - in some cases, reintroducing - them to their home audience. By doing so we can welcome them back to the Northern Ireland jazz family as patrons, members and friends. Some of the musicians who fall into this category are Darren Beckett, living in New York and currently drummer for Madeleine Peyroux; Anthony Kerr, vibes player with the BBC Big Band; Kevin Glasgow, bass player with Tommy Smith and also the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra; James Hamilton, whose Big Band in Leeds won a BBC Jazz Award in recent times; and guitarist Mark McKnight, who moved to London several years ago and is probably our most gifted jazz export.

All of this surely highlights not only the exciting revival the Northern Ireland jazz scene is having, but the benefit of people - musicians and institutions - working together for the greater good. Live audiences are much more open than they

used to be about trying something new or sampling a form of jazz that they maybe aren’t familiar with; they seem to trust the radio guides who are broadening their palette with the full spectrum of world jazz available on CD and they have a clearer idea of how the different strands of jazz have evolved, and are still evolving.

This radio show celebrates this evolution and encourages email contact from the listeners. Maybe you would like to contact the show or check it out online…please do!

You might find a playlist that is original and at times a reflection of what is happening locally, but also giving a platform to all the jazz styles that are around today.

Northern Ireland hereby holds its hand up and requests its place in the UK jazz fraternity; we welcome you all to visit with the knowledge that we have something on offer that will make you feel welcome

and are sending over an army of musicians, hopefully just to visit, who will represent the shared commitment to the music of musicians, fans, broadcasters, and website hosters alike; a team effort. Wish us luck!

Linley Hamilton’s show is broadcast every Friday at 10pm on BBC Radio Ulster. Listen locally at 92-95 FM/1341 MW, or nationwide – and beyond - via the station’s website, www.bbc.co.uk/radioulster. If you’d like to contact Linley about the show, you can email him at linley.hamilton@bbc.co.uk If you’re promoting gigs in Northern Ireland and would like them included in the Jazz Services listings and in our monthly Gigs guide, please contact our Listings Editor Sabina Czajkowska on listings@ jazzservices.org.uk

HOTHOUSE Saxophonist, bandleader and educator Phil Meadows gives us his regular insight into what’s hot on the UK’s youth jazz scene…

When she was seven years old Laura’s parents were given a piano for free: it was at this early age that Cole slowly started to explore the instrument of her own accord having fallen in love with the sounds it could make. Ten years later she started to explore jazz and improvisation within her studies despite

being surrounded by it throughout her upbringing: “When I was 17 my piano teacher, who was also a jazz player, put on a record at the end of one of my lessons. It was the Keith Jarrett Trio, Standards Volume 1 and the piece was God Bless the Child. I

HotTopic: Laura Cole Laura Cole is a pianist, composer and improviser whose approach to music has certainly left a smile on UK jazz fans faces over the past couple of years. Hot House took the time to find out more about her music, her upbringing and other influences that have created a unique and expressive voice that is not to be missed. Cole started by telling us about the music that echoed through the walls of her childhood house: “My parents are both very into music, although are not musicians themselves, and my dad in particular is a huge jazz fan. So there was a lot of Jimi Hendrix, ‘70s Miles, Coltrane, Brotherhood of Breath, Art Ensemble of Chicago and Joni Mitchell being played from when I was a child, which carried on into adolescence and adulthoood. When I was very little, certain records would make me cry, most notably Gary Shearston’s I Get A Kick Out Of You’, and I would beg my parents not to play it.”

Laura Cole 23

was completely and utterly blown away by it, and I thought ‘THAT is the music I want to play’. It was a kind of epiphany. So I starting going to Sheffield Jazz Workshops (which are still going strong) and carried on from there.”

EZRA

Having chosen to study French at university it wasn’t until in her late twenties that Laura decided to formally study jazz music where she was accepted onto the degree at Middlesex. During her studies Cole struggled with severe RSI where she couldn’t use her arms at all.

This lead to a bout of depression and it wasn’t until she started to recover that she began to think about music again, finding composition as her way back in both mentally and emotionally. It was during the recovery process that Laura’s flagship group Metamorphic was formed: “I decided that to start with I needed to work with musicians who knew about my history of RSI, who I felt really comfortable with. So after going back and finishing the degree, I formed Metamorphic and asked musicians who I’d known at Middlesex to join the band” It is no wonder that the release of Metamorphic’s second album Coalescence sparked critical acclaim in 2013. Cole’s unique voice combines a multitude of influences from Carla Bley, Moondog, Stravinsky and the Charlie Haden Liberation Orchestra to the artwork of Wassily Kandinsky and Mark Rothko; the films of Wim Wenders and her two great grandfathers, silent film pianist/ violinist Sidney Walker and MC Mervyn Cole, both involved in the same orchestra in the 1920s, but who never directly met.

“I feel there’s such a myriad of things, not just musical, which I think have influenced me; and I think in a way influences are really fluid for me, sort of alive, and change all the time. And sometimes

24

I listen to things I maybe haven’t heard for a while and suddenly realise their influence on my writing or approach.”

It’s been a long and hard road into music for Laura Cole but the UK jazz scene is blessed to have her presence. This year is set to be highly exciting and you would be foolish to not look out as she will not be slowing down for anyone.

The success of Metamorphic’s Coalescence tour with vocal outfit Royst has the potential to lead to a beautiful collaboration; the group have performances at The Vortex in a double header with Jason Singh, Kings Place with the John Martin Quartet, Marlborough Jazz Festival and a potential tour in France which is still being finalised and to cap it all off Laura is a member of a host of

other projects too! You can keep up to date with her work here: www.metamorphic.org.uk

Hot Topic: Jazz North When Jazz North was commissioned by the Arts Council to replace Jazz Yorkshire, NWJazzworks and JazzAction there was an air of uncertainty amongst the scene in the north of England. Now eighteen months into their work all grumbling has stopped and Jazz North have hit the ground running.

With Jazz Yorkshire as lead partner, along with representatives from Manchester Jazz Festival, Creative Arts Promotion and Live Music now

Jazz North have created a myriad of opportunities for musicians and audiences in the north of England supporting creative endeavors, providing performance platforms and offering artist support.

Their ‘Northern Line’ scheme promotes cutting edge music with forty-seven promoters having now booked an ensemble and five to be featured at the Liverpool Jazz Festival in March. On top of this there are professional development days helping musicians develop their business knowledge in order to attain more performance dates and a project to bring jazz to outside and unusual places helping audience development.

Their impressive array of educational outreach in schools across the counties features a particularly exciting project with the Manchester Music Hub and saxophonist, arranger and educator Jo McCallum’s new project is set to create high level performance opportunities for 16-24 year olds after being launched

at the Gateshead International Jazz Festival in April as part of ‘Jazz North Introduces’.

All of this and I am only scratching the surface of the work going on behind the scenes in the Jazz North office. It certainly is an exciting time for all based in the north of England and musicians and jazz fans alike should be keeping an eye on what’s going on, there is definitely something for everybody to get stuck into! www.jazznorth.org

HotTracks: Tomorrows Warriors Over the past year, two new bands have emerged through Tomorrow’s Warriors. Firstly there’s Nerija, an all-female Jazz group, and winners of Music for Youth Jazz Partnership Award; and then there’s Ezra Collective, a young band with fresh

ideas and super slick presentation who have already performed at Ronnie Scott’s and the Royal Albert Hall. Together, they have a very diverse set of influences, and this is clearly shown at their performances. Keep an eye out for both of them in 2014, and check out the tracks that makes them tick below: 1. Clifford Brown and Max Roach – Live at Basin Street - What is this Thing Called Love 2. Woody Shaw - The Green Street Caper (United) 3.Duke Ellington - Blues in Orbit 4. Arr. Joni Mitchell – from the album ‘Mingus’ - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat 5. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme 6. Ahmad Jamal - Poinciana 7. Fela Kuti - Zombie 8. George’s Dilemma - Clifford Brown and Max Roach Quintet 9. Christian Scott - Danzinger Bridge Massacre 10. Flying Lotus - Pickled www.tomorrowswarriors.org

25,000

PRINT COPIES PLUS UNLIMITED DIGITAL CIRCULATION IN TWO PUBLICATIONS!

Advertise with JazzUK

For more info contact Nick Brown at advertising@jazzservices.org.uk or call 07824 663488.

25

You can download the GIGS PDF to your smart phone or tablet by scanning this QR code!

HIGHLIGHTS Jazz Services’ listings editor Sabina Czajkowska takes us through her picks for February’s listings. Read Gigs, the full month’s listings to the UK’s live jazz scene at www.jazzservices.org.uk

Many venues closed down or stopped their jazz nights last year, but we are happy to share some good news this time: Jazz Café in Newcastle is back in business.

Russell Corbett reports: Twelve months after the death of proprietor Keith Crombie Newcastle’s Jazz

Café has reopened for business.

The late-night Pink Lane venue has been given a makeover and now functions as a daytime café bar and an evening bar café (spot the difference!). An ongoing programme of jazz on Friday and Saturday nights features mainly trios and the occasional quartet. The Paul Edis Trio is in residence every second Friday in the month.

We were also informed that there has been a change of venue for the Jazz Nights run by Roger Odell in Clare. It’s now the Cock Inn, Clare, Suffolk – check our listings for details and support the musicians!

The legendary pub Bull’s Head in Barnes reopened in December after refurbishment and under new management – live music continues.

Check the website for details and our online listings for full February programme. Started in 1959, Bull’s Head alongside Ronnie Scott’s, is the world’s longest continuously running jazz club!

Festivals Liverpool International Jazz Festival 27th February – 2nd March At The Capstone Theatre with workshops on Saturday & Sunday (from the band Unfurl and Dave O’Higgins – see the website for details). http://www.thecapstonetheatre. com/index.php/liverpool-international-jazz-festival Great North Big Band Jazz Festival 28th February – 2nd March North Shore in Sunderland, Tyne & Wear

26

Workshops Pink Lane jazz workshop 1st February, 2.00pm. Sage, St Mary’s Square, Gateshead Quays, Gateshead NE8 2JR, 0191 443 4661.

Events John Harvey poetry & jazz: JAZZ IS THE WORD John Harvey reads fiction & poetry with the band, Blue Territory: 4th February at Dexter’s Jazz Club @ the Five Ways, Nottingham, 11th February at Worksop Library, 12th February at Southwell Library & 13th at West Bridgford Library.

More info on the writer’s website: http://mellotone.co.uk/?page_id=53

Bands touring this month with Jazz Services support

Bands touring this month with Jazz Services support include Ant Law Quartet, Damon Brown/Martin Zenker Quintet, Let Spin, Realms, Tori Freestone Trio, Boink! and Josh Kemp’s Jazz Prophets whom we feature on this issue’s cover.

Josh Kemp’ Jazz Prophets Josh Kemp’s melodic inventiveness, warm tone and heartfelt and lyrical approach to improvisation have marked him out as a hot prospect for some years now - an Oxford philosophy graduate who is equally at ease playing within the jazz tradition or his own compositions in a contemporary style. Since winning scholarships to study at the Guildhall and Trinity College of Music, as well as the Daily Telegraph Young Jazz Band of the Year award for his previous group Bop Art, Kemp has established himself as a prominent member of the Walthamstow-based e17 Jazz collective and with this tour he further asserts himself as

an increasingly visible figure on the national stage.

His current quartet – the Jazz Prophets - features Tim Lapthorn on piano, Mick Hutton on bass and Matt Skelton on drums, all of whom display a similarly flowing and intuitive playing style that communicates directly with audiences. Their latest CD is entitled Tone Poetry and is due for release to coincide with the tour.

27

JAZZ ON THE ROAD JazzUK speaks to more bands hitting the road in February and March with the help of our National Touring Support Scheme. For information on the scheme and the bands involved, see the Jazz Services website.

Boink! (Rob Palmer) - How long has this group been together?

Boink! is a really new group and we’ve only done two live gigs so far.

Our first was in July 2013 and then a later one in October.

- What’s the latest project?

We’ve got this Jazz Servicesfunded tour in January, February and March, with which we’re going to be promoting the live recording Boink! Live at the Blue Boar. And in a really exciting new departure for us, we’re going to be working Patrick Dunn, who’ll be doing live, interactive visuals behind the band.

- What are your hopes for this tour and the future?

We’re hoping with this tour to build up a repertoire of tunes that allow us lots of freedom for freely interactive improvisation and behind which we’re hoping the visuals will provide a subtle backdrop.

Later in the year, with the addition of a few new tunes, we’re going to go into the studio and record a second album, possibly to feature the visuals and also a DVD. Another idea is we might even leave out the second album and go straight to the tricky ‘third’ one!

- What can audiences expect from one of your gigs?

Rob Palmer 28

John Law, the main creative person behind this collective, has composed electronic music out

then we’ve recorded our duo project with our amazing band and can’t wait to take it on the road.

Rosalie Genay

- What’s the latest project?

We’re very excited to be releasing our album Realms alongside this February tour. We part-funded the album via a well-received crowdfunding campaign and have had lovely and warming reactions to what is practically a ‘soft’ release; now it’s time to take it out into the open!

- What are your hopes for this tour and the future?

of which the tracks grow. So the tunes generally start with this music as a backdrop, along with the visuals as another backdrop.

The electronic backing tracks are then brought up and down in volume during the improvisations as needed. So they’re really like another voice in the band.

We don’t have a bass; bass functions are shared between myself, using an octave pedal on the guitar, and John, who does most of them on the keyboard.

The drum rhythms are very important, and we’ve got a new, young guy who’s very exciting, called Lloyd Haines. And then featured on soprano saxophone and bass clarinet will be an old sparring partner of John and mine, Jon Lloyd, who also uses some looping effects. I’ll also be using lots of guitar and looping effects too.

- What’s the best thing about touring with this band?

It’s funny; in jazz contexts there’s

mostly about 30% - 40% written, pre-conceived material, and the rest is improvised. With this band all the backing tracks are totally pre-conceived and created, but we live musicians have almost 90% freedom. Just a few heads and things. That’s what makes this fun, the combination of total freedom and totally composed music.

Realms (Rosalie Genay) - How long has this group been together?

Rebecca Nash and I got introduced and started working together at the end of 2011, but this project only really started coming to life early 2013. I had been toying with the idea for a project with songs of Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen for a while and hearing Rebecca’s sensitive and innovative playing made it all fall into place. Luckily she liked the concept, and since

It would be great to establish ourselves on the scene in the UK and have the opportunity to connect with our audience as neither of us has toured under our own name before. We’d also like to harbour the Dutch and European connection and continue to take the project over there. And of course, we hope the audience will have a great time listening.

- What can audiences expect from one of your gigs?

Some arrangements are quite intricate, others more sparse.

However, our main focus is letting the music communicate the stories behind the songs to the audience.

Jules Jackson, Andrew Bain and Leo Richardson are all brilliant players in their own right and combining them in this band we think works a treat!

- What’s the best thing about touring with this band?

Finally getting to play together!

With everyone’s hectic schedules we don’t get to play together as often as we’d like; and the tour will be our first proper opportunity to get back together after the recording. www.rosaliegenay.com

29

Josh Kemp’s Jazz Prophets - How long have you been playing together?

I’ve been working with Matt and Mick for the last couple of years, and we’ve had a good run of gigs in 2013 to generate a rapport and to become familiar with the material for the tour. But I’ve been playing with Tim Lapthorn on and off for about 23 years, and that’s the central musical dynamic – although I’ve been fortunate to work with

some fantastic chord players over the years, I keep coming back to Tim. We met age 15 in a band my dad used to run at school – a band that is also responsible for quite a few guys on the scene today including Adam Waldmann (Kairos Quartet), Frank Harrison (Trio leader and longtime Gilad Atzmon collaborator) and Oli Hayhurst (Ray Gelato, Zoe Rahman etc).

- What’s the latest project?

musicians whose sound spans effortlessly across many idioms of jazz, who are happy playing compositions of mine with a contemporary sound, but who are also 100% at home playing within the tradition. Musicians who are always creating melody and who are not afraid of playing the obvious notes. The band really clicked in the studio last year, and this tour is the result.

- What are your hopes for this tour and the future?

A 30 date UK tour promoting my latest album Tone Poetry. When putting together this band – the Jazz Prophets – I was looking for

Josh Kemp

This tour will hopefully get my name firmly established on the UK scene. We’ll be back in the studio in March, to record the next album of original material. I’m also doing some writing for larger bands such as the E17 Collective large ensemble.

- What can audiences expect from one of your gigs?

Attractive melodic jazz which speaks directly to the audience, and a contemporary sound which is also rooted in the tradition. My formative influences were from the ‘50s and ‘60s - Bird, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson and John Coltrane.

But my writing is much more varied – much of it more contemporary, but all hopefully true to their sound and values.

Josh Kemp © Ruth Applin

- What’s the best thing about touring with this line-up?

30

Every gig so far has felt very fresh.

Mick, Tim and Matt have a huge playing experience – between them they’ve played with almost everybody on the scene – and the way they realise my compositions and the support they give to my improvising makes playing feel very easy. With so many dates close together to build on the rapport we already have, I’m sure the tour is going to be a great experience. www.joshkemp.com