JazzUK - August-September 2014

. jazz uk AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2014

ISSUE 118

Juliet Plus

Kelly

NEWS ANDREW McCORMACK HOT HOUSE OUT & ABOUT JAZZ ON THE ROAD DOWNLOAD OUR FREE GIG GUIDE!

PUBLISHED BY

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 Design / Production: Nick Brown production@jazzservices.org.uk Donations / Distribution: subscriptions@jazzservices. org.uk.

Advertising: Nick Brown advertising@jazzservices.org.uk 07824 663488 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 August-September of JazzUK, your bi-monthly guide to the UK’s jazz scene from Jazz Services.

In this issue, Juliet Kelly discusses her new Spellbound Stories project, and we hear from pianist Andrew McCormack following the release of his new studio album, First Light. The Guest Spot belongs to Stephen Duffy of BBC Radio Scotland’s The Jazz House, and we go Out & About in Brighton with Wayne McConnell of the Brighton Jazz School.

In light of the recent decision by the Arts Council not to continue funding Jazz Services as an NPO from April 2015, we also have a special feature highlighting our key activities and successes. Now more than ever, it’s important to understand what Jazz Services does for the UK’s scene and how you can support our work.

Plus there’s Phil Meadows’ regular youth jazz feature Hot House, news, previews and highlights from August’s issue of Gigs, Jazz On The Road and more - all brought to you for free by Jazz Services!

Jazz Services – Supporting Jazz In The UK!

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NEWS – Catch up with the latest news of what’s to come in August and September.

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SUPPORTING JAZZ IN THE UK! – An overview of Jazz Services’ key activities as we map out our future development.

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OUT & ABOUT – Wayne McConnell talks about the Brighton Jazz School’s work with his local scene.

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JULIET KELLY – Rosie Hanley interviews the acclaimed singer about her latest project, Spellbound Stories.

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ANDREW McCORMACK – We speak to the pianist about his new trio album First Light and his international career.

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THE GUEST SPOT – This issue’s guest is Stephen Duffy, host of BBC Radio Scotland’s show ‘The Jazz House’.

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

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

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JAZZ ON THE ROAD – Heads South tell us about their upcoming Rural Touring Support Scheme gigs.

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

Our thanks to Rob Adams (RA) for supplying us with jazz news from Scotland!

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’.

Nestled on the gorgeous Cornish coast, Falmouth University hosts its third annual summer school from the 18th- 23rd August. Building on the success of previous years, the school now runs over six days and features Brigitte Beraha (voice), Ed Jones (saxophones) Jez Franks (guitar), Andy Hague (trumpet) Jonathan Taylor (piano), Riaan Vosloo (bass), Keith Michael (drums) as the tutors covering subjects such as rhythm, harmony and improvisation, solo and ensemble playing skills, with recording opportunities and a final performance included. Bookings being taken right up until the start of the course so there’s still time to get involved – more at www.falmouth.ac.uk/ jazzsummerschool

Brecon Jazz Festival

7th – 10th August As the festival season continues, Brecon steps up once again to offer one of the top line-ups seen this summer. Between the 7th and 10th August the town welcomes an amazing range of equally amazing artists, and with a fine emphasis on UK players to boot. Loose Tubes,

© Andrew Cleyndert

Falmouth Jazz Summer School, 18th-23rd August

Warren Vache & Alan Barnes play Brecon Jazz Festival Zara McFarlane, Trish Clowes, John Taylor, Ollie Howell, Kairos 4tet, Troyka, Don Weller, Roger Beaujolais and Jean Toussaint are just some of the names gearing up alongside Burt Bacharach, Gregory Porter, the Michael Wollny Trio, Marius Neset and Warren Vaché – who appeared at the very first Brecon Jazz festival - to fill the various venues and stages over the weekend, and there are several masterclasses where aspiring stars can hone their chops with their champions. 2014 also sees Brecon Jazz marking 30 years of live music, a milestone beautifully captured in a new book by Geena Davis, The Brecon Jazz Story in Photographs (published by Crooked Window press). A longtime resident of the town and an attendee of every

festival since its inception, Davis provides an extremely thorough and often surprisingly intimate account of the musicians and moments that have contributed to the event’s rich history over the years - with a programme this enticing we can expect many more yet to come. www.breconjazz.com

Scarborough Jazz Festival,

26th- 28th September Scarborough may offer a more compact line-up than some of the larger events on the festival calendar but it still packs a punch.

Visitors to the Scarborough Spa venue will over three days and nights be treated to performances from the likes of Theo Jackson & Nathaniel Facey, Clark Tracey, Gwilym Simcock, Dennis Rollins’

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Velocity Trio, Jazz ExTemporé, Anita Wardell with the Alan Barnes Septet, Iain Ballamy & Stian Carstensen and Saturday night headliners Nigel Kennedy & John Etheridge. While this is the 12th year of the festival itself, Scarborough Jazz Director Mike Gordon is celebrating 30 years of live jazz promotion in 2014, and throwing a festival of this quality seems as apt a way to do it as any.

For details of the Festival shows as well as other events Scarborough Jazz has coming up, see www. scarboroughjazz.co.uk

Ollie Howell - Scottish tour

Quincy Jones-endorsed drummer Ollie Howell leads his quintet on its first tour of Scotland in September.

Howell, who floored Jones during a performance by students at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2009, leading to Jones mentoring the Wallingford-born Howell, has also been taken under the wing of the legendary former Miles Davis drummer Jimmy Cobb, won the prestigious Peter Whittingham Development Award with his group and is the first recipient of a Sky award, winning a Sky Academy Arts Scholarship earlier this year.

A television documentary will be screened on the Sky Arts channel during 2015 as a result. Meanwhile, his quintet featuring Duncan Eagles (tenor), Mark Perry (trumpet), Matt Robinson (piano) and Max Luthert (bass) alongside Howell plays Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline on September 17th, Aberdeen’s Blue Lamp (18th), Inverness Eden Court (19th), Lyth Arts Centre near Wick (20th) and Edinburgh Jazz Bar (21st). (RA)

Sara Mitra – September preview shows

Vocalist and leader Sara Mitra is planning the release of her second album in November. 2010’s April Song showed great promise from a seasoned live performer translating her talents to record for the first time, so it’ll be worth listening out for the autumn release of the new single Baltimore Oriole on

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Impossible Ark Records before her second long-player Losing You arrives at the end of autumn. With a fine band comprising Rob Updegraff (guitar), Matt Bourne (Rhodes), James Allsopp (sax), Fulvio Sigurta (trumpet) Riaan Vosloo (bass) and Tim Giles (drums), you can catch two previews shows in London this September; on the 3rd at The Vortex, and at The Oxford in Kentish Town, the 29th. More news and info on Losing You as it’s announced on www.saramitra.com

Claire Martin and the Montpellier Cello Quartet – album and tour

A new project from Claire Martin is pretty much guaranteed to deliver in terms of quality, so it’s always interesting to hear her in a setting that gives a new focus to her talents. Her latest recording project pairs her up with the Montpellier Cello Quartet for Time And Place, released on Linn Records on 23rd September and accompanied by a short tour beginning on the 21st of the month in Manchester. “I’ve been doing ‘normal’ jazz ensembles for over 25 years and fancied a complete change,” says Martin, speaking to JazzUK. “This was a challenge and something that hasn’t been done before, so it was very exciting as well as slightly scary!” The project was initially conceived in late 2012, and includes new arrangements but has only just come to fruition as Martin was keen not to rush anything. “It took longer to get things going as the cello quartet arrangements had to be written and I had to think carefully about what songs would work with this line up.” On record, that line-up includes special guests Joe Stilgoe, Laurence Cottle, Ben Reynolds, and Jeremy Brown alongside the cellos (celli?), but the upcoming live dates see Martin with just the strings for company, which should prove an intriguing and intimate combination as she revisits classics from the Great American Songbook with new arrangements provided

by the likes of Django Bates and Mark Anthony Turnage. After the Manchester date, Martin plays The Sage, Gateshead (22nd), St. James’ Church, London (26th), The Junction, Cambridge (28th), The Old Market, Hove (30th) and SJE, Oxford (1st October). www.clairemartinjazz.co.uk

Jazz at Made In Scotland – Edinburgh Fringe

Glasgow-based saxophonist Brian Molley and world-jazz guitarist Simon Thacker are among the artists who will represent Scotland’s creative output to international promoters and audiences through the Made in Scotland showcase of music, theatre and dance at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Molley, who released his first album Clock last autumn, will play three concerts with the Clock quartet – Molley, pianist Tom Gibbs, bassist Mario Caribe and drummer Stu Brown – at the Jazz Bar on August 11th, 12th and 13th.

Thacker’s Ritmata quartet, which also features Caribe and Brown alongside pianist Paul Harrison, has six concerts at the Summerhall complex, August 15th-17th and 21st-23rd. (RA)

Kings Place Jazz Festival,

12th-14th September For anyone unfamiliar with this firm and favourite fixture on London’s live music landscape, King’s Place regularly offers eclectic seasons of live events as well as one-off gigs. The King’s Place Festival in mid-September offers a decent smattering of jazz alongside other music and art forms, including Andrew McCormack (featured in this issue of JazzUK), the National Youth Jazz Collective, Empirical, Blue-Eyed Hawk, Beats & Pieces and swing troupe Man Overboard. For those interested in branching out, there are also spoken word, folk, flamenco, klezmer, and classical performances, offering a real op-

portunity to expand your musical horizons. www.kingsplace.co.uk

Heads South - On The Way album and tour

Lively Latin 5-piece Heads South release their second album On The Way in September on Aline

Birch providing the drums and percussion backdrop to keep the pulse thumping throughout while Adolfredo Pulido’s slinky fretless bass underpins the proceedings. Waterman is a well-known heavyweight on the British scene but perhaps more so for his mainstream jazz playing – if you’re unfamiliar with his forays into Latin and Cuban sounds then this album, brimming with infectious high-energy grooves, is a great way to fill some gaps in your listening library. Soon to be heading off in all directions, Heads South are one of the bands recently accepted onto the Rural Touring Support Scheme, run

by Jazz Services in association with the National Rural Touring

back of this mag, and whet your appetite with their new release in the meantime. Full list of dates available from www.headssouth. com

Forum. As well as having several dates already arranged through the scheme for early 2015, they’ve a run of shows booked in for September as well. Read their Jazz On The Road Q&A at the

its source material, namely 1977’s Low and “Heroes”. Clearly a big fan of Bowie’s more explorative side, Howe skilfully and thoughtfully expounds upon the music and offers some intriguing new

Dylan Howe Subterranean tour

Dylan Howe goes on the road in September to tour his excellent new album Subterranean – New Designs on Bowie’s Berlin.

The latest recording from the drummer (who as well as being a leader is also known for impressive stints with the likes of Get The Blessing, Wilko Johnson and Ian Dury and the Blockheads) was released back in July and takes two of David Bowie’s ‘Berlin trilogy’ albums as

Claire Martin

Records. The quintet’s sound is led by the pairing of pianist and keyboardist John Harriman and the regularly exhilarating trumpet of Steve Waterman, with Chino Martell Morgan and Buster

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perspectives on tracks like Some Are, Weeping Wall and All Saints. While a familiarity with the originals will certainly help inform the listener’s appreciation of the concept behind the album, it’s by no means a prerequisite for enjoyment of the music itself, which is utterly engaging and impressively original in its own right - Howe’s arrangements give plenty of space for jazz improvisation to take wing while still retaining the avant-garde rock and pop elements of Bowie’s tunes that makes them so distinctive. The tour begins on 5th September at Fleece Jazz in in Colchester, continuing through the month with gigs in Lincoln, Bonnington, Derby, Hull, Brighton and London with further dates in October. Full details at www.dylanhowe.com

four-piece, The Real Note vol.

2 once more explores the idea of ‘contrafacts’ – that is, new tunes based on familiar standards’ chord sequences. So the classic Invitation becomes RSVP, complete with a rollicking solo from de Krom, while On Green Dolphin Street forms the basis for O’Higgins’ swinging soprano bossa number Shark Avenue.

It’s all as expertly put together as you could possibly wish for, with some truly sparkling playing from all involved - O’Higgins in particular on blistering form - and the imagination at work is a joy to behold. It swings hard, the band is clearly having a blast and it’s a wonderful way to inject some new life into old classics – The Real Note vol 2 is the real deal…

Out now on Jazzizit Records: www.jazzizit.co.uk

compositions to develop, and also for each member to explore their role in the unfolding proceedings. Out in September on Edition Records, Blue-Eyed Hawk’s debut album was part-funded through Jazz Services’ own Recording Support Scheme and the band offers a hugely enticing live prospect too – catch them in Barnstaple on 11th September, London (12th), Lescar (17th) and Leeds (19th). https://soundcloud. com/blueeyedhawk

Blue-Eyed Hawk – debut album and tour

The Gascoyne O’Higgins Quartet –The Real Note vol.2 (Jazzizit)

JazzUK gave an all-too-brief mention to the previous disc from this sterling group in last year’s August/September issue, so it’s very gratifying to be able to give them a little more space this second time round. This excellent quartet is co-led by bassist Geoff Gascoyne and saxophonist Dave O’Higgins, master players both whose combined talents here produce something very special. With drummer Sebastiaan de Krom and pianist Graham Harvey again completing the

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Jazz and poetry seem to be fine fellows for mutual inspiration – like Christine Tobin’s Sailing To Byzantium project, Blue-Eyed Hawk’s name is taken from a poem by W.B. Yeats, and that the band bring an eclectic range of influences to their overall approach is apparent from the outset. The quartet consists of vocalist Lauren Kinsella, trumpeter Laura Jurd, guitarist Alex Roth and drummer Corrie Dick, who pool their various and considerable talents and resources into a frequently free-roaming and highly experimental blend of sounds that encompasses avant-garde rock and ambient electronic music as well as jazz improvisation.

Experimental it may be, but there’s nothing about this music that comes across as flippant or unconsidered - Blue-Eyed Hawk paint a very emotionally engaging picture for the listener and ensure they give plenty of space for the

Partisans – Swamp (Whirlwind Records)

In the last issue of JazzUK, guitarist Phil Robson spoke about being distracted from his organ trio project by other projects, and at the end of September we’ll be treated to those distractions in full as the new Partisans album, Swamp, is released on Whirlwind Recordings. Often hailed as among the founding fathers of UK jazz-rock fusion, Swamp sees Robson, saxophonist Julian Siegel, bassist Thaddeus Kelly and drummer Gene Calderazzo build on their 20-plus years of experience as bandmates to produce a fantastically coherent and broad-ranging album. In promoting the release the band have talked about their love of combining influences such as Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix with the likes of Miles Davis’ electric bands, Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman and their combined experience as top-flight

contemporary jazz players, and the result is simply some fantastically exciting music that covers a lot of bases while expressing the individuality of each member, and indeed of the band as a single unit. Swamp swings, grooves, rocks and broods, and as such it’s occasionally hard to tie down exactly where the album’s musical loyalties lie, but Partisans manage to pull off the trick of balancing their many-faceted sound like few others. This is a stand-out album from a band who continue to make a huge impression on the jazz scene at home and abroad – they’ve recently finished a brilliantly received tour in the US and Canada as part of the Made In The UK showcase series, part funded by Jazz Services.

Swamp is released on the 22nd September, with a full UK tour to follow throughout October and November. See www.partisans. org.uk for more information.

wall2wall festival 2014

The promoters Black Mountain Jazz are behind the annual Wall2Wall festival, held over the last weekend of August in Abergavenny, Mounmouthshire.

The festival has a number of strands, with the varied main programme serving up performances from the likes of John Etheridge’s Sweet Chorus, Digby Fairweather, Arun Ghosh, Brass Jaw and Jacqui Dankworth, but there’s also a decent emphasis on youth jazz and education tied into the proceedings. The Youth In Jazz programme, which is free to participants, features a series of workshops from various artists performing at the festival, including from the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and Brass Jaw, as well as a classes in jazz dance from local group Dance Blast for anyone hoping to brush up on their swing skills. The festival runs from 30th-31st August, with tickets

and further details available from www.blackmountainjazz.co.uk

Jack Massarik, 1940-2014

It’s with great sadness that we learned of the passing of the noted London-based journalist and guitarist Jack Massarik as this issue was going to press. Massarik was one of the UK’s foremost jazz critics, having contributed to The Evening Standard for some 35 years and to Jazzwise magazine for more than 12, and he was a talented musician as well as a writer. Massarik passed away on 13th July at the age of 74 following a battle with pancreatic cancer. He will be greatly missed, and Jazz Services sends its condolences to his family, and his many friends and colleagues on the jazz scene.

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Despite the news Jazz Services is still very much committed to providing the same level of support and assistance to the UK’s jazz sector. We’ve already had some very encouraging discussions with the Arts Council about alternative funding strategies and our plans going forward, an enormously successful open meeting an online survey about the needs of the jazz sector, and we’ll keep everyone updated as to the results of these conversations in the future. And remember, Jazz Services remains fully funded and functional up until the end of March 2015!

In the meantime, while we map out our approach for the next financial year and beyond, here’s a reminder of some of the main ways we help the music thrive and grow, and why Jazz Services

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is a crucial element of the UK’s jazz scene!

National Touring Support Scheme The National Touring Support Scheme is easily one of the most important programmes we run, and one that would leave a huge gap in the jazz scene were it not to continue. Open to brand new

bands as well as established artists, the scheme offers financial support to bands touring across the UK – successful applicants cover several differ regions to bring their music to a huge range of audiences and venues and ensure that the UK’s national scene is provided with the best jazz available.

It’s one of our most popular funding initiatives, and we’ve just selected the artists who will be

National Touring Support artist Charlotte Glasson

© Brian O’Connor

Jazz Services was sorry to announce at the start of July that the Arts Council of England has rejected our NPO bid for the next three years, and will not be funding Jazz Services’ activities from April 2015 onwards. This is obviously upsetting news for us, and for the UK’s jazz scene as a whole, and we’ve received a huge outpouring of support since the news broke, with goodwill messages flooding in from musicians, promoters and the public. There’s even an online petition protesting the decision which has reached over 5,000 signatures at the time of writing (you can find a link to this from the homepage of our website).

Jazz Promoter Award recipients Jazz Re:Freshed

putting on tours between October and December this year, with another period still to come running from January to March in 2015.

Rural Touring Support Scheme Our Rural scheme is run in partnership with the National Rural Touring Forum, and is designed to take live jazz to those areas of the country less well served by a regular touring network. Bands perform in village halls, churches and other public spaces, giving smaller regional communities access to fantastic live jazz music that might not otherwise come their way. Past and present beneficiaries of this scheme include Juliet Kelly and Heads South, and you can read more about their experiences in this very issue.

Between 2012-2015, our National and Rural Touring Support schemes funded 143 bands, playing 1,364 gigs to audiences totalling approximately 84,000 people!

Recording Support Scheme In the last issue of JazzUK we heard from Jumoké Fashola and Tommy Andrews, two recent additions to the Recording Support Scheme. The scheme offers financial support to artists who haven’t recorded before, giving them the assistance they need in order to complete their debut album and make a start on their studio career.

The awards have resulted in some truly inspiring recordings from new and established artists; among the many highlights have been Reuben Fowler’s acclaimed big band album Between Shadows, and Entanglement from guitarist Ant Law, recently heard playing with the great Tim Garland on the saxophonist’s latest Lighthouse Trio album.

In the last three years, we’ve so far made 25 Recording Support awards, with more to follow in the coming months - the 2014 version of the scheme had its first round open in the spring, and we’re very

pleased to announce that the Cervantes Quintet, Preston-Glasgow-Lowe, The Great Mountain and Dee Byrne’s Entropi will all receive funding to make their first recordings.

Jazz Promoter Award The PRS for Music Foundation/ Jazz Services Jazz Promoters Awards are delivered in partnership by both organisations, offering financial support to established promoters and for ‘Fledgling’ promoters in their first year of putting on live jazz events.

The programme is run annually

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and has enabled smaller grassroots promoters to host some exceptional music, particularly in areas away from major touring routes.

Since 2012, 66 Promoter Awards have been made, funding 818 gigs to audiences totalling c. 45,000 people!

On top of this, we’ve recently announced the successful applicants of the 2014 scheme, and the following promoters will receive funding support their live programming over the next financial year: The Arena Theatre - Bath Spa Live - Beat City - Black Top - Blow The Fuse - Bridge Music - Brighton Jazz Club - E17 Jazz - Freedom Principle - Fleece Jazz - Hackensack - Jazz-at-Heart - Jazz at The Lescar - Jazz North-East - Jazz Nursery - Jazz re:Freshed - Lauderdale House - Lume - OxjaMS (Oxford Jazz Masters Series) - Playtime (Fledgling Award) Restormel Arts - Seven Jazz - St Ives Jazz Club - Way Out West - Sheffield Jazz - Splinter Jazz Watermill Jazz Over the coming months these promoters will be offering some truly exciting jazz programming from some of the UK’s best artists – so get out there and support live jazz near you!

International Work Jazz Services’ activities aren’t limited to our shores – British jazz is very much in demand around the world and we do a great deal to ensure our artists get the overseas opportunites they deserve.

Each year we attend the JazzAhead conference in Bremen, Germany, the world’s largest industry showcase event for jazz music. Jazz Services organises

and co-hosts a stall that affords UK jazz organisations the chance to exhibit at JazzAhead and promote themselves to a global audience and secure some valuable career prospects that simply aren’t available in the UK. Jazz Services also partners with international promoters ESIP to help fund the Made In The UK series, a run of concerts centred around the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival in Rochester, New York, as well as several top jazz festival in Canada. In late June this year, Jazz Services directly funded two of the nine groups taking part in Made In The UK, with jazz-rockers Partisans and saxophonist Mark Lockheart’s new trio, featuring bassist Jasper Høiby and pianist Liam Noble, which was formed especially for the event.

Jazz Services’ overseas initiatives are a vital part of our work in opening doors for UK jazz artists developing their careers overseas.

In our last funding period we’ve helped 38 bands perform at international showcases!

...And the rest!

Along with our frontline funding initiatives, Jazz Services also offers a huge wealth of information and advice to those directly involved in the industry and the general public. Our website’s Directory contains the details of thousands of musicians, promoters, venues and industry services, with a special section dedicated to education (music teachers, educational institutions and courses, youth orchestras and so on), all searchable for free online. We’re also dedicated to supporting education in jazz, and are proud to have partnered with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra

over the past three years and provide the ensemble with over £150,000 of valuable funding to continue its work with the stars of tomorrow’s scene.

The Online Music Business Resource gives free guidance on how to develop your career in jazz, with guides written by industry professionals covering topics such as promotion, copyright, marketing, funding and more - again, all for free. And of course, there are our listings; thousands of gigs are listed online in our searchable database and included in our monthly online publication Gigs.

Jazz Services also works hard to make sure jazz is given proper representation in the UK’s musical landscape. For example, we help organise and support the annual Parliamentary Jazz Awards, recognising the best of the UK’s jazz talent, as well as the Will Michael Awards for Jazz Education which ensure the nation’s hardworking jazz educators also receive their due. And we’ve recently worked with the City Music Foundation to advise and support their drive to include more jazz musicians on their funding programmes, which previously focused only on the classical sphere.

Support Jazz Services!

As we map out our future, Jazz Services’ goal remains clear - we’re determined to use this crucial time to set out a plan for how we can continue to help the UK’s jazz scene grow. If you’d like to support the work of Jazz Services (a registered charity), you can donate to via our website, as well as finding a link to sign the musician’s petition.

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&

entations and of course, listening.

Students then split up into smaller groups and work on tunes associated with the core concept.”

This issue we speak to Wayne McConnell from the Brighton Jazz School, a regionally run educational institution that is doing great things for jazz on the south coast and beyond.

Pianist Wayne McConnell set up the Brighton Jazz School after returning from a long tour. He had realised that despite there being an awful lot of people getting up at jam sessions, there was a problem with most of them having no idea about the complexities of the jam session etiquette and a general understanding of what is assumed of you once you take to the stage. “If you get up at a jam session you are expected to know some standards,” says McConnell. “You are expected to know how to count the band in, what key you’d like to play or sing the piece in and a good idea about how to solo. I’ve always thought of jazz as a language and have taught it that way for many years. So really, setting up the school was a way of passing on the information I learnt from making a fool of myself at jam sessions!”

McConnell’s own early educational experiences also stemmed from having some great mentors, and this is clearly a factor in his desire to commit himself to educational work. “I was really fortunate to have met the American pianist James Williams when I was about 17,” he recalls. “He offered me so much guidance and support. It was a big shock when we lost him at the young age of just 53. He always told me to pass on what I learn and to ‘carry the torch’ for this music. After I came back from the tour, I met another wonderful person; Mike Guest has been at my side since the very beginning. I met him through

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an ex-girlfriend and his love for jazz is insatiable. Mike is gifted in many ways, a fantastic graphic designer, brilliant photographer, pilot AND a great flute player. Mike has been such a force with the development of the school.”

The Brighton Jazz School covers several different aspects of jazz education, as McConnell explains.

“We offer people a community of people, courses and regular gigs to aid them in becoming better jazz improvisers. We do almost everything by ear, with the emphasis on the importance of communication through the music, both to their audience and fellow band members.

We don’t teach theory for the sake of understanding it; we teach our students to hear the concepts first.

This is vital and it saves a lot of pain the otherwise complex nature of jazz harmony.”

The school is largely based at The Brunswick on Brighton’s Holland Road, one of the town main jazz venues and an ideal space to accommodate the organisation’s students. McConnell describes the main structure of the school’s core activities as being fairly simple.

“We run two courses; our main course, Learn To Play, runs on a Tuesday from 11am-6pm, and our Jazz Weekenders course runs on a Saturday from 11-2pm. In the Learn to Play course the core concept for the session is delivered in the morning using a combination of group exercises, lecture-style pres-

That the school works directly with the key local venues is an important factor in integrating its activities, and those of its students, into the regional jazz scene. Providing students with the experience of playing in the same venues as they’re likely to visit as punters gives them a real connection to their local music scene when first starting out. “We work towards an end-of-term gig,” says McConnell, “but we also have a regular gig for students every Wednesday at the Verdict Jazz Club. There is also the opportunity to jam at the famous Brunswick Jazz Jam on a Tuesday evening.”

McConnell and his students also work slightly further afield. “We have been invited to play at some wonderful events, from the Kemptown Carnival in Brighton to the Love Supreme Jazz Festival near Glynde, Sussex. It’s a wonderful chance for students to gig and learn, and there’s nothing quite like learning on the job. This is how all the jazz greats learnt so I guess we are echoing how jazz should be taught. Nothing is spoon-fed, we simply give the students the tools to discover the music for themselves which makes for a much more creative learning experience. We just got back from Love Supreme and had a wonderful time,” he adds.

“The students played a great set of tunes ranging from James Williams, Thelonious Monk and Herbie Hancock.”

As well as hands-on practical courses, the Brighton Jazz School is embracing the digital age with its podcast. As well as being a way to impart information about what the school does, McConnell has been able to connect with a regional, national and even international audience. “I started the podcast around two years ago,” he says,

The Brighton Jazz School crew at Love Supreme “initially just interviewing some of the wonderful local musicians we have here in Brighton. We really do have an exceptional scene and I wanted to get their stories and music out there more. I started to interview some higher profile artists and it has gone from strength to strength.” He’s also been able to add some heavy hitting names to the bill. “Our recent guests have included Ahmad Jamal, Ron Carter, Gary Burton, Kurt Elling, Geoffrey Keezer, Joey Calderazzo and several others. It’s a great chance for me to talk to some of my heroes and ask them in-depth questions about the music. Our students and listeners worldwide have been nothing but supportive of the show.

We have downloads in over 75 countries. I interviewed bassist Christian McBride last year for the podcast and he said how much he respects what we are doing for jazz.

It’s really nice to get recognition from a master like him.”

Along with respect from internationally recognised names, McConnell goes on to say that the school invites professional players to hold special tutorial sessions for students. “We have regular masterclasses from a wide variety of musicians. We recently had a vocal masterclass given by Claire Martin, young prodigy Jacob Collier came down, plus US pianist Geof-

frey Keezer, Joe Locke and our very own Tim Garland have all given classes, and we have a host of wonderful masterclasses lined up for next year.”

McConnell is rightly proud of what the school offers budding professional musicians in and around Brighton, and it’s an inspiring model for other areas and scenes to follow. “As well as providing top quality tuition to students of all levels and ages Brighton Jazz School really strengthens the local scene here in Brighton,” he says.

“As I mentioned, we are very lucky to have some of the country’s top players here but there are a good number of jazz venues to play in too, which really helps.” He’s also keen to see the school as a connected part of that scene, feeding into and supporting other ventures. “The added interest in the music generated by the school has increased numbers of attendees to gigs, which is obviously fantastic news for the players and club owners alike.”

McConnell welcomes any enquiries or interest from other parts of the country, and is open to anyone getting in touch about what the school does. “We have open days where people can come along and join in our free improvisation workshop and find out more about the school and our activities – the next one is on 30th August at the Brunswick. I’m always looking for ideas and ways of developing our community.”

The next Learn To Play term starts on Tuesday 9th September, and the Jazz Weekenders course starts on Saturday 13th September. Both courses run over the year in three ten-week terms. The Brighton Jazz School’s next open day is held on 30th of August at 11am at the Brunswick, 1 Holland Road, Hove.

More information is available www.brightonjazzschool.com. As well as information on previous and upcoming courses, you can subscribe and listen to the podcasts as well as downloading the free audiobook, ‘Six of the Best’ Top Jazz Improvisation Tips from the Masters, featuring advice from Gary Burton, Ahmad Jamal, Joey Calderazzo, Kurt Elling, Joe Locke and Brighton Jazz School Patron, Geoffrey Keezer.

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16 Kelly Š Annabelle Narey Juliet

Singer-songwriter songwriter Juliet Kelly embarks on her Spellbound Stories national tour this September. Juliet has performed with the likes of Carleen Anderson, Courtney Pine, Talvin Singh and Take 6 as well as earning a well-respected reputation within the UK jazz community. Spellbound Stories is Juliet’s new project, inspired by her favourite novels full of magic and mystery.

“I’ve always loved books and I used to read a lot,” Juliet says, explaining the origins of the Spellbound Stories project. “I did a sponsored read when I was at school during the six week summer holidays. I read 30 books in that time, I was reading constantly. I just love novels.” She adds, “I don’t really read as much now, probably because of the internet, and I was thinking about that and thought, ‘I really miss reading’.

I was thinking about all the books that I have read and then the idea just came to me. I thought why not use this as a way into writing new music, so that’s what I did.”

Novel ideas...

Juliet Kelly talks to Rosie Hanley about her latest endeavour - the literary inspired Spellbound Stories.

Juliet picked twelve of her favourite novels and set about using those as inspiration for new jazz compositions. Were there any common themes that arose? “I tried to find a common theme when I was looking through them, but it was only after I’d chosen them that I looked at them and thought, well there is sort of a theme - a lot of them contain elements of magic or mystery. That’s part of the reason why I chose the title.”

Spellbound Stories was premiered at the Forge, Camden back in May, and was well received. “It went OK,” Juliet says. “It was actually really hard because there were lots of new songs. It was a first outing which was good before the tour in September.” Are there any plans to record the new material? “Yes, we’re hoping to record it. That will be interesting, and I’d like to record it whilst it’s still quite fresh.”

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With specific inspiration does she have a ritual way of writing? “No, not at all. It’s quite spontaneous,” she answers. “Normally I find it quite hard to write when I’m doing other things. So for instance when I’m really busy promoting a tour or doing the business side of things, I find it quite hard to get into that creative space. But after a couple of days I feel in a creative mood and just let it happen. So once I get that zone I stay there for a while.”

Juliet is an accomplished songwriter, but she also has spent time reinterpreting standards. Does she have a preference between composing original material or reworking existing songs? “I love standards,” she replies, “that’s how we all start out. It’s not an eitheror.” As she explains, “a part of me felt that they’ve been done so well by so many great artists, that I’m not going to add much to musical history by recording standards. So I

thought for me, personally, the best thing was to concentrate on my own music. Having said that, I still love performing standards and how I choose them is to think about my favourite singers. So again, there’s always a connection. There are so many beautiful standards. When I do the rural touring I do mainly standards.”

Anyone who knows Juliet knows that she is incredibly hardworking and retains complete control and command of her whole career. Is that control important to her? “No, it’s not necessarily important,” she replies, “it’s just the way it is. There isn’t a lot of money in jazz, so most people do it themselves. It’s not easy and it takes a lot of time to do it well.” Through this hard work, the Spellbound Stories tour takes Juliet across the country from Liverpool to Newcastle, Bath to Oxford, but recently Juliet has also embarked on several rural tours visiting small

village hall type venues. Is there a big difference to the approach of those gigs versus the city gigs? “Oh totally different,” she exclaims, “I’ve done gigs where there are only 100 people in the whole village and then something like 70 people turn up to the gig. Everyone comes out. It’s rare for them to have artists come right up to their doorstep, so they all come out and they’re so appreciative. The venues are beautiful. It’s actually great.”

“The rural tours reach new audiences,” Juliet continues. “People that are not in to jazz, people of different age groups. It does take a different skillset because you have to do a lot of speaking to the audience, you don’t just sit in the green room in the break, you’ve got to mingle and sometimes have dinner with them!” Giving her audiences personal insight is important to Juliet and she invests a lot of time into her listeners. “People come up to

“

I often get asked for advice, and I got helped a lot when I was starting so I think it’s important to pass that on.

”

© Brian O’Connor

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me and have chats. The ones who have a little bit of jazz knowledge especially come up and are really keen and it’s really special for them sometimes.” Juliet is fortunate to enjoy the best of both worlds, rural and urban. She’ll be visiting cities this autumn with her band comprised of pianist Nick Ramm, bassist Oli Hayhurst and drummer Eddie Hick.

Juliet invests time in ensuring the audience’s experience is informed and rich; does she continue this on stage? “Oh yes, I talk a lot. But I think people like it. I explain why I’ve written a song, what it means to me. I think that really engages the audience. When it’s new music for them it helps to understand the story behind it, so that when they’re listening it makes sense to them.”

Additionally to her open on-stage manner, Juliet maintains a blog that she regularly updates, “I’ve got a lot

of different kinds of posts on there.

Little things happen, like I might discover some local product or journal when I go abroad; it’s good to have a little diary about them.”

Certainly this gives fans a deeper level of insight than is often afforded to them by musicians. What’s been the most popular post? “One of the most viewed posts is the one about how to help your throat when you’ve lost your singing voice,” she answers. “I get thousands and thousands of views, it’s amazing - especially when X Factor is on! It always just amuses me. It’s important to be open. I often get asked for advice, and I got helped a lot when I was starting so I think it’s important to pass that on.”

Juliet was successful in securing Arts Council England funding for the Spellbound Stories project, which is no mean feat. “Yes, I’m very appreciative of that because I know it’s not easy,” she says. “But I would

also like to thank Jazz Services, who have been great to me too.

It’s really important to keep an organisation like Jazz Services going.

They started me on my way with my first tours. That was the first time I visited the sorts of venues I’m visiting on the Spellbound tour, and it really is a great stepping stone.”

Juliet will be on tour with her band from the 9th September – 15th October across the UK. For full dates and details see www.julietkelly. com.

Rosie Hanley is the Jazz and Classical Editor for the girls are – a music magazine that champions women musicians. Follow her on twitter @roseannehanley (@thegirlsare)

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TRAVELLING

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© Michael Weintrob

LIGHT

Pianist Andrew McCormack talks to JazzUK’s editor John Norbury-Lyons about moving to New York and his new album, First Light.

Andrew McCormack’s career as a bandleader has, to date at least, been a relatively steady and measured affair. That’s by no means a criticism; his debut album Telescope was released to great acclaim back in 2006 on Dune Music, and in the following years he became a favourite on the live circuit, touring extensively with his trio and releasing a well-received live album (2012’s Live In London).

McCormack also made quite a name for himself as a supporting player, notably alongside American bassist Kyle Eastwood, and as a co-leader in a duo with Jason Yarde, a partnership that’s born some particularly fruitful results.

However, a move to America signalled a new period in his development and the release of First Light on Edition Records, recorded in New York with his American sidemen, sees McCormack back in the driving seat once again and setting out his stall on both sides of the Atlantic with great confidence.

“It’s been a gradual shift over the last couple of years,” says the pianist, reflecting upon his decision to relocate to the Big Apple, “starting with a month long practice sabbatical in September 2011. I starting renting a place towards the end of 2012 but I finally got my Artist Visa in March 2013.” It’s not an easy or trivial decision to make, to up sticks (or piano stools…)

and move to a new town, a new country, a new continent in pursuit of one’s dreams. So with a fertile and thriving jazz scene in the UK, why do it at all? “I think the main motivation was to keep pushing myself,” says McCormack. “I grew up in London and have never had to go through the challenge of starting in a new city like so many of my musician friends have, and in a way I was beginning to feel like I was perhaps going around in circles in London, despite being very busy with numerous projects.”

“In the back of my mind I had always wanted to try living in NYC and watched a few of my compatriot friends go, such as Orlando Le Fleming and John Escreet. But the opportunity to actually do it suddenly presented itself, and so I went for it.” It seems to be a truism among many jazz musicians that when the chance to do something different presents itself, the general consensus should be to grab it with both hands. This might tie in nicely with the improvised, off-the-cuff nature of jazz music in general, but it’s not without its difficulties. “At moments it’s been incredibly hard,” admits McCormack, “particularly in the beginning. I certainly learnt some new things about myself but New York is a survival city and you have to quickly adapt and find your own way.”

Despite the initial hardships the move was certainly a positive one for McCormack, who soon immersed himself in the scene. “By the sheer number of high calibre musicians that you get to play with in New York, one actually gets better at playing music,” he says.

“There’s a parallel that pianist Dan Tepfer uses: ‘If you always play tennis against the same person, you only get better at playing against that person. If you always

play with different people, you get better at tennis.’” As well as informing his musical relationship with others, New York also heralded something of a reinvention on McCormack’s own perspective of himself as a player. “Another thing that happened was that New York humbled me,” he continues.

“Whoever I thought I was or what I could do was quickly crushed and yet what was left was a renewed sense of what I can actually do; indeed, what I really want to work on and also a strong idea of where I want to go next. And ultimately, what is it that I actually have to contribute?”

McCormack feels this last point is a big question, but an important one, “and I think possibly what I’ve been looking for all along in my going to NY. Music is much bigger than any of us and you get an intense feeling for that in the place that was once home to Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett...”

So did McCormack find the New York scene markedly different to the UK’s, and London’s in particular? “That humility I spoke of, you can recognise it in most of the musicians you meet. I think London has a similar energy but it’s a smaller scene and less historic in jazz, internationally speaking.

Musicians flock to NY from all over the world; I’ve met and played with guys from Asia, Africa, Israel, South America. London has, I would say, a more European demographic of musicians. I wouldn’t say one is better than the other,” he clarifies, “but I would strongly recommend to any jazz musician who’s serious about his or her craft to go and spend some significant time in New York. No matter how international this music

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has become, it’s important to go there and see it for oneself and to be involved.”

At the time of writing McCormack’s new album has already picked up a good deal of high praise on both sides of the pond.

First Light is very much a response to where it was recorded and it reflects the energy, vitality and imagination that New York conjures up in the minds of visitors and inhabitants alike; a sparkling, joyous, intense and intelligent record that shows a musician at that intriguing stage of being able to embrace his past experiences while at the same time opening himself up to something new and (re)invigorating. “All the music recorded on this album was written and developed at my apartment in Brooklyn,” says McCormack.

“I like to write music very early in the morning, a routine I learnt from my composition teacher, MarkAnthony Turnage. First Light, the title track, comes literally from the time of day it was written but has also come to suggest the theme of new beginning which, for me, this album is all about.”

“The only piece that was written at the beginning of this journey, before New York, was Vista. I asked singer-songwriter Noemi Nuti to write lyrics to it and the song is about visualising where you want to go and having the courage to travel there. Although it’s an instrumental track, the lyrics have been reproduced in the liner notes. In my mind Vista has become something of a prelude to whole programme despite being track 6. It’s one of the pieces I’m most proud of as it never seems to fail in speaking to audiences.”

Playing with McCormack on the album is his American rhythm section of bassist Zack Lober and drummer Colin Stranahan, and the three musicians are wonderfully in sync across the whole recording.

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“Colin and I have a particularly strong relationship as I shared an apartment with him until very recently,” says McCormack. “We would very often organise playing sessions at the apartment and a couple of times Zack joined us as a trio. I found it easy to play with them, was stimulated by their harmonic and rhythmic language, and they’re part of the community I fell into after first moving to New York. I consciously wrote music that would allow plenty of room for individual expression, which I think they really brought to the music.”

With a different line-up for the gigs occurring outside the US, writing music that allows for a personal response is an important factor line-up when performing an album that is so rooted in its birthplace.

“As a composer you want your voice to remain,” he says, “but it really comes to life with the people playing it!”

Despite moving to America, McCormack is by no means leaving the UK behind – after all, Live In London and First Light both come via Edition Records. “I don’t see myself staying in the States forever, or that I’ve really left the UK,” he considers. “I would say my career is centred in Europe as it remains the place where I get the bulk of my income! Ironically I think the same could be said for most US artists with an international reach. Certainly my musical life has been greatly enriched by being present in both scenes; I’ve learnt so much in the last few years and am very happy at the moment.”

He’s also exploring other projects based here, including the excellent duo with saxophonist Jason Yarde.

“We just finished a new album release tour in May 2014 for Juntos, which is our collaboration with the Elysian Quartet. I was very proud to present that music and hope we get more opportunity to play live again, although it’s tricky to organise with everyone’s schedules in such a large group.”

With First Light sounding as assured as it does it’s obvious that the trio format suits McCormack very well as a leader, and judging by his previous work he clearly enjoys working with horn players and in slightly larger ensembles such as Kyle Eastwood’s band. Like any creative artist, he’s still exploring and expanding his own musical boundaries. “I am currently working on a tour for spring 2015 which will be as a quartet featuring saxophonist Mark Lockheart. I’m really looking forward to working with him and also developing some new music for quartet. In a programme of music I think it’s important to have variety in colour, something I really love taking advantage of in my classical composing. But I also enjoy the challenge of bringing that same variety to a limited group of instruments such as a piano trio. I’m not particularly focussed on any one format right now but I want to keep working on my music, push myself and remain productive.”

First Light is out now on Edition Records. Andrew McCormack performs as part of the King’s Place Festival on 12th September, with further UK dates later in the year. http://mccormackmusic.com

Stephen Duffy & Allison Affleck As The Guest Spot continues its tour of the UK’s jazz radio circuit, we head to Scotland and hand the mic to over Stephen Duffy, presenter of BBC Radio Scotland’s flagship jazz programme The Jazz House, to hear about his broadcasting experiences and a life in jazz.

The Early Days I grew up wanting to be two things, a radio broadcaster and jazz singer; and that’s exactly what I do now, and I’m very lucky to be gainfully employed as both! When I was a wee boy back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, you could turn on the radio during the day and hear Cleo Laine or Mark Murphy performing live with

the BBC Big Band (not in the wee small hours, but during the day!).

Oscar Peterson, Ella, Mel Torme – they were household names and jazz was a sound I loved from the very off. Mum and Dad had courted and jived in the ‘50s to the sounds of Ted Heath and Jack Parnell (both bands I adore to this day), and they encouraged my listening, soon discovering Basie, Ellington et all.

That was aided and abetted by what was unquestionably the finest music department of any High School in Scotland; Park Mains High in Erskine had award winning bands and orchestras that scooped all the big UK trophies for around 8 years on the trot, and many of my fellow alumni are involved in professional music making today. The head of music had me mapped out as classical singer, and he fostered my interest and love of arranging. But when I discovered Mel Tormé, Ella Fitzgerald and Lambert Hendricks and Ross, thoughts of a classical music career went out the window! At the RSAMD I decided to study drama instead of music, but kept on with vocal and arranging lessons, and a gruelling series of gigs in piano bars, restaurants and, thankfully, with the best rehearsal

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bands around, including the Strathclyde Youth Jazz Orchestra. I’m now the orchestra’s vocal coach!

Looking back at it, I realise I went through an old school musical apprenticeship that pretty much doesn’t exist for singers now.

I was obsessed with Jazz on Radio 2 – Humph, Alan Dell, Sheila Tracey, Benny Green, Russell Davies and of course the BBC Big Band (one of the best bands the UK has ever pro-

was a bit of pest to the music department when it came to being involved in jazz and presenting, but Keith Loxam, who produced Jazz Line-Up for Radio 3, recognised that I had ‘something’ as a presenter and was always impressed by my knowledge of jazz. He would let me introduce the occasional event or interview, and eventually I was one of 13 or so presenters auditioned for Jazz House. I got it as I’m simply a big jazz geek - sometimes it really

The Show The Jazz House on BBC Radio Scotland has been in production since 2005. At that time I was part of the management team of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and presented all of its concerts in the studio. What they were only vaguely aware of was that I’m a gigging jazz singer and pianist. I

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The Scene The jazz scene in Scotland is bursting with gifted artists. We have recently had live sessions with internationally acclaimed guitarist Martin Taylor MBE, funk collective Federation of the Disco Pimp, stun-

Stephen (2nd left) and the team at the Scottish Jazz Awards 2013

© Sean Purser

duced). I listened to it all, recorded it all and listened to it again and again. It was those broadcasters who really opened up the world of jazz to me, and made it a world I wanted to share with others.

big band to bebop, funk to fusion we don’t discriminate!

helps to be an obsessive about something!

BBC Radio Scotland is first and foremost a speech network, with some pop and specialist music shows in the evenings. Because of that, The Jazz House can’t be seen to pitch itself too high above the heads of the casual listener. Jazz is still a four-letter word to many people! From the off though, we made a strong point of featuring top local talent as well as classic artists. My producer Lee-Ann Howieson is great at choosing a very eclectic playlist, and I contribute to that with items from my own huge library with features on the core artists. We play everything from Cuban to cool,

ning songstress Alison Affleck, multiple award winning quartet Brass Jaw, world renowned saxophonist and leader of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra Tommy Smith…the list could go on!

There are some fantastic jazz venues – Edinburgh has a full time jazz club, the Jazz Bar, bolstered by some great long running jam sessions at Whighams Wine Bar and bigger events at the Queen’s Hall. There’s the Blue Lamp in Aberdeen, and Glasgow has many great venues but strangely doesn’t have a full time jazz club. There’s the Art Club, the 78 and the Wild Cabaret, but the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow’s Merchant City must be

the best performance venue for jazz in the UK; there’s nothing else remotely like it.

We’re spoiled for festivals here.

Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen are the largest, and many of our beautiful islands also have them, particularly Islay. The Glasgow Jazz Festival was just at the end of June and featured Christine Tobin, Sons Of Kemet and Courtney Pine, and the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues festival hosts Jools Holland, Julian Arguelles, Hot 8 Brass Band, Niki King, The Bad Plus and BadBadNotGood and a specially conceived Commonwealth Jazz Orchestra

House Music We have some wonderful contributors who are integral to The Jazz House. We have jazz enthusiast and former Ministry of Sound DJ Rebecca Vasmant, who is great at choosing unusual and under the radar music. And then there is a core part of the show with ‘Dr. Jazz’ – Professor Richard Michael. Richard is a multi-award winning jazz educator, professor of jazz piano at St Andrews University and the man who has led the Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra for more than 30 years, and he has the most amazing facility for turning complex musical jargon into layman’s terms. He’s also one heck of a piano player! We also get a monthly recommendation from our Radio 2 Chum, Jamie Cullum.

We broadcast live from some of the biggest events in the Scottish Calendar – Celtic Connections, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and also we broadcast the Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year from the Glasgow Jazz Festival.

We share content with our sister programme Jazz Line-Up on BBC Radio 3; we recently broadcast the BBC Big Band performing with Maceo Parker for the Commonwealth

on 19th July, and we reversioned it for our programme on The Jazz House on 30th July [Get in quick and you can listen to this programme again on the iPlayer until the 6th August – Ed.].

The team that makes Jazz House in Glasgow are brilliant, and we have the best fun. They also make Jazz Line-Up for Radio 3 and help look after the BBC Big Band, so there’s seldom a dull moment. We seemed to hit the ground running from the off, and came along just as there was a full-on renaissance in Scottish Jazz, which we’ve certainly contributed to. I’ve had so many fanboy moments with artists as eclectic Joe Locke, Annie Ross, Monty Alexander, Wynton Marsalis, Peter Erskine, Randy Brecker, Tommy Smith, Sheila Jordan...I could go on and on! We were nominated for a Radio Academy Award for Best Specialist Music in our first year and have won the Scottish Jazz Award for Best Media - we must be doing something right….

Stephen’s Selections Stephen Duffy picks out five recent records from The Jazz House playlists:

Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, American Adventure

I’m a big band nut, and this band is quite simply the best band of their kind anywhere right now. They are a national treasure. Under Tommy Smith’s inspired direction they maintain the best of the old whilst embracing the new, the laudable aim of any national orchestra of any genre. And they have many, many international champions, many of whom feature on this recording made in New York, including Kurt Elling and Randy Brecker.

New Focus

(tenor and soprano saxophones) and Euan Stevenson (piano) was commissioned by the Edinburgh Jazz Festival. The resulting CD New Focus is an album I’ve returned to again and again. Superb writing and playing, not just for the jazz quartet, but for strings.

Federation of the Disco Pimp The best name of any group in Scottish Jazz, and I defy anyone not to cut a rug to their brand of jazz-soul-funk. They’re very much in the Snarky Puppy mould and I reckon their star is very much in the ascendency. And they are SO much fun!

Alison Affleck and Viuex Carré

As a singer in the bebop vein, it takes a lot for a really traditional singer to catch my ear. But none has caught it more than Alison Affleck, a lady from Dundee who specialises in material from the ‘20s and ‘30s, but delivers it with a real swing, panache and a just the right kind of naughty, knowing glow in her voice. It’s authentic and heartfelt and that’s what jazz should be.

Brian Kellock and Nova Scotia Jazz Band

No-one in modern jazz plays with the same kind of Oscar Petersontype drive as the amazing Scottish pianist Brian Kellock. The Nova Scotia Jazz Band have a brilliant take on trad and dixieland jazz and have kick-started a bit of a renaissance in trad jazz in Scotland. The combination of Brian and this band seems at odds, but it works beautifully as they swing harder than anyone in the business.

The Jazz House is broadcast every Wednesday from 8:05pm on BBC Radio Scotland (locally on 92-95FM & 810MW), as well as digitally via the station’s website and BBC iPlayer: www.bbc.co.uk/radioscotland

I do love ‘arranged’ music, and this project by Konrad Wiszniewski

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

Hot Topic: British Jazz Abroad On the second weekend of July tens of thousands of European jazz fanatics travelled to Rotterdam to celebrate our beloved music at one of the world’s biggest platforms.

Having just completed their thirtyeighth year the North Sea Jazz festival plays host to hundreds of internationally acclaimed artists with 2014’s event featuring an array of American giants (such as Christian McBride, Dave Holland and Joshua Redman) combined with some of the hottest names on the European platform.

Dwindling audiences and lack of financial support are subjects our countrymen thrive on, but what would happen if we stopped complaining and started creating?

Yes, there’s a high level of support both state and corporate when it comes to bringing 75,000 people together, but it is events like this that make you realise that with the right preparation and impeccable delivery jazz is well and truly both a global and popular Twenty-First century art-form.

It is at this stage that I apologise for my sporadic musings in the hope of sparking a debate rather than a series of minor offences. I am not demanding a North Sea UK, as this is not where our problem lies; we have many thriving platforms for our underfunded music already.

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My concern lies with our chronic case of island mentality. Just six of the hundreds of artists featured at the 2014 North Sea Jazz Festival were British (of sorts) with two having been based in America for a number of years and one now living in Copenhagen. This leaves the UK represented by just three active artists - but why?

Having grown up on a healthy diet of British jazz music I am a true believer that our music is not the problem and that the jazz we create is just as ‘good’ as that of other nations. The music of Stan Tracey, Kenny Wheeler, John Dankworth and Loose Tubes is more than a testament to the depth of our own jazz tradition, whilst our current crop of talent continues to take our music forward, covering new ground and pushing boundaries.

So if it is not the music then what isn’t working? When you look at the European model for jazz they do things differently. They are much more accommodating of volunteers across the art form, using the skills they have so kindly offered properly, rather than for ripping tickets, selling CDs and serving beer. Their funding bodies look outwards, building relationships with the music created in other countries in an attempt to bring cultures together and offer platforms for artist development and growth rather than create platforms only for

their own. They also get together at events (for example JazzAhead in Bremen) to showcase their artists and break the intercontinental barriers we have seemingly created for ourselves.

As with all opening statements I cannot cover every aspect of the issue. There are some people working hard to break these barriers. Dave Morecroft’s Match and Fuse is a prime example bringing combinations of two groups (one British) together for mini-tours in the UK and the other bands home country and organisations such as Jazz Services, Serious and the Manchester Jazz Festival work hard to bring musicians to and from the UK as part of their programming. All I am saying is that the more I look the less represented we are outside of our island.

It is through these musings that I ask you to get in touch and share your view as the quest for global integration of British jazz music continues. You can reach me at phil@philmeadowsmusic.co.uk to continue this discussion!

Hot Tracks: Falmouth-Yamaha Summer School The Falmouth-Yamaha Summer School is a six-day workshop in its third year run by Falmouth University. With a tutor team

Moanin’ - Bobby Timmons I’ll take Les - John Scofield The Invisible – Chris Potter Just Another Murder - Dave Douglas Whisper Not – Billy Strayhorn Unit 7 - Wes Montgomery Take 5 - Dave Brubeck Sad Africa – Django Bates Waking The Waves – David Biney, Bye Bye Blackbird - Ray Henderson Hot Club: Jazz @ The Ent Shed Despite being the home to many of the UK’s favourite jazz names, Bedford is not a place you would normally associate as being a hotbed for live music. But after a recent packed-out performance at the Jazz @ The Ent Shed event I caught up with trumpeter, composer and new-found promoter Tom Syson to find out more about his plans to transform the town into a jazz heaven.

“The format starts with a support act from 7:30pm,” says Syson, “which is normally a band led by someone from our country’s major music colleges. We take a quick interval before our main act, followed by a jam led by myself and other local musicians. My aim is quite simple; to give the people of Bedford the opportunity to see a variety of creative and high class jazz on a regular basis. Creating

Julian Siegel Quartet awareness of jazz to all ages, in my opinion, is the hardest battle as a jazz musician and promoter today.

The music always speaks for itself.’

Tom’s passion for developing a younger audience for the music allows under-18s free entry with an accompanying adult. Being based in Birmingham, Syson spent thirteen years of his life in Bedford and his passion for his hometown is clear. He fell in love with organising events after putting together a reunion gig for his old school admitting that, despite the hard work, the satisfaction was worth it.

“I have always wanted to feel like I’m making a proper difference to the scene and wanted to make something happen. When I realised that the Ent Shed had run a successful jazz night before it changed owners five years ago the idea was in my head and I had to do it.”

Having already invited Julian Siegel Quartet (pictured) and John Turville’s Solstice it is evident that Tom’s ambitions for the Ent Shed are high. The next gig features Frank Griffith on 7th August, followed by Emily Dankworth on 4th September in what promises to

© Helena Dornellas

of well-known jazz players the course aims to create a stimulating combination of focused learning and practice, varied playing opportunities - from small group to big band- and the essential ingredient of fun! The music chosen within the course aims to cover a varied selection, from standards to more recent material, and the excellent facilities of the universities performance centre make the journey to Cornwall well worthwhile! Here’s what they’ve been checking out ahead of this year’s course.

continue an exciting programme that so far has been well supported by the people of Bedford.

“I have a glamorous team of 4 who help me run the nights,” continues Syson. “Edwin Ireland (house bassist) mainly runs the door for me, as well as other odd things, as he is great at hassling people for money as are all bass players! Then Mark Hale (house drummer) and Vittorio Mura (house saxophonist) do a variety of different things including lights, sound and room arranging as well as lots of general stuff to help me not stress out too much on the night. Then finally we have a wonderful house photographer in Ollie Pearson who generously gives up his time for us.”

Jazz @ The Ent Shed costs £10/£8 with tickets slightly cheaper if pre-booked. Having spent a night there with my group I could not recommend it more. It’s one of the friendliest new music events in the UK with Tom & co. guaranteed to give you a varied, enjoyable evening.

For more information visit: http:// jazzattheentshed.weebly.com

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HIGHLIGHTS

Sabina Czajkowska’s choice picks from the August issue of Gigs, the Jazz Services online listings guide.

Stompin On The Quomps Christchurch Jazz Festival 2nd August This year the festival celebrates its 20th Anniversary. Check the website for full line-up. www.stompin.org TW12 Jazz Festival 3rd August Hampton Hill Playhouse, Hampton Hill, Middlesex One day filled with jazz from Richmond Youth Jazz Band, Andrew McCormack & Jason Yarde duo, John Etheridge, Janet & Friends, Graeme Flowers Band, Gabriel Garrick New Quartet, Shireen Francis Band and Gwilym Simcock Trio Brecon Jazz Festival 7th – 10th August One of the most anticipated festivals of the year offers not only fantastic international line-up (check our listings for details), but also events and master classes from Paula Gardiner, Kit Downes, Clark Tracey, Chris Batchelor, Jean Toussaint and more. Brecon Jazz Festival once again hands over The Guildhall for a Sunday of eclectic jazz curated by Brecon Jazz Club in association with AberJazz and SpanJazz (West Wales) as well as Torfaen Jazz, Swansea Jazzland, Rhondda Jazz, Pontypool Jazz, Black Mountain Jazz, Cardiff Jazz

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Society, Jazz Heritage Wales, Porthcawl Jazz and North Wales Jazz. www.breconjazz.com Canary Wharf Jazz Festival 2014 15th – 17th August Canada Square Park, Canary Wharf, London This year’s Canary Wharf Jazz Festival welcomes fantastic line-up for three days of free live music in one of London’s most striking settings.

The line-up features Andy Sheppard Quartet, Ciyo Brown’s – The Motown Sound, Eska, GoGo Penguin, Riot Jazz Brass Band and more.

Pershore Jazz Festival 15th – 17th August There will be over 30 sessions across four venues at the Pershore Horticultural College Campus.

Check the listings for headliners and the festival’s website for more: www.pershorejazz.org.uk Aberjazz - Fishguard Jazz and Blues Festival 21st – 25th August At various venues in and around Fishguard, Pembrokeshire and featuring Jacqui Dankworth, Brownfield/Byrne Hot Six, King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys, Isq, Eleanor McEvoy, Nik Turner’s Space Fusion, Dale Storr, Tango Jazz Quartet, Swingology and many more. See website for more detail www.aberjazz.com.

Rye International Jazz & Blues Festival 21st – 25th August The Rye Jazz & Blues Festival is

Read GIGS on your smart phone or tablet by scanning this QR code!

now in its 3rd year. Boutique and compact by design the festival offers both variety and intimacy with live performances taking place at an array of venues in the historic town of Rye, East Sussex. Check our listings and the festival website for more info: http://ryejazz.com Highgate Jazz with Soul Festival 22nd – 25th August A local jazz festival curated by Brandon Allen. Spread over a few venues in picturesque Highgate in London the festival offers wonderful variety and top musicians, including Anita Wardell, Arnie Somogyi’s Scenes In the City, Jean Toussaint’s JT4, Laura Jurd Quartet, Artie Zaitz Organ Trio, Ross Stanley Trio and more. http://brandonallen.co.uk/highgatejazz-festival Wall2Wall Festival 30th – 31st August In its second year the festival has a very rich programme, including a stroller line-up and Youth in Jazz Programme. Expect great headliners too: Arun Gosh, Jacqui Dankworth, John Etheridge’s Sweet Chorus and more. www.blackmountainjazz.co.uk/ wall2wall.html The Chapel Allerton Arts Festival Jazz Sunday 31st August Curated by Seven Jazz the Sunday gigs will take place on the main festival stage – all for £3 in the Chapel Allerton Arts Festival Buckets! www.sevenjazz.co.uk

Many festivals provide workshops and master classes, so please check their websites for information.

Improvisers Workshop Jazz Café, 25 Pink Lane, Newcastle upon Tyne, 0191 222 9882 The next date is 12th August at 8.00pm, free admission.

Summerschool @ Granville Plus Youth Arts Centre 80 Granville Road, Kilburn, London NW6 5RA For players and singers aged 13-25 (any instrument). Taught by award winning tutors the workshops include jazz improvisation, jazz harmony and applying jazz theory to modern popular music. The next dates are 7th, 14th, 21st & 28th August and 4th September, times: GROUP A: 6.00pm – 7.00pm GROUP B: 7.00pm – 8.00pm, cost: £10 per hour.

Register via eventbrite: http://jazzalivesummerschool2014.eventbrite. co.uk/ e-mail: admin@jazzalive.co.uk

Call, AJ Brown with Swingshift Big Band and more. Roast hog supper and dinner available at gala evenings. www.jazzinsouthport.co.uk

ESKA ESKA is one of those “best-kept secrets” on the UK jazz scene, but she’s quickly becoming the talk of the town and the audience’s favourite. Possessing a truly unique and one of the most memorable voices in the UK right now, ESKA weaves together diverse elements - hints of folk, soul, psychedelica and electronica in her jazz-immersed music.

She’s gained her reputation as a

writer and performer through collaborations with such legends as Cinematic Orchestra, Matthew Herbert, Zero 7, Bobby McFerrin, Grace Jones and more. She released her first EP Gatekeeper in November last year and created a great buzz with it. This is why ESKA’s CD, out in April next year, is surely one to look forward to.

She’s recently performed at various festivals, including the Meltdown Festival at the London’s Southbank Centre in June and Latitude in July. ESKA continues with dates in August at the Canary Wharf Jazz Festival in London and Shambala Festival in Northamptonshire, www. shambalafestival.org. Make sure you don’t miss her electrifying and truly moving performances, they are one of a kind.

A Riverboat Shuffle To Calstock with the Graham Trevarton Four Monday 11th August: cruise to Calstock and back to the lively sounds of traditional jazz. Boat leaves Commercial Wharf on the Barbican at 4.30 pm. Tickets £15 available at Plymouth Jazz Club gigs or from 01752 721179. www.plymouth-jazzclub.org.uk Jazz Blues & Soul in the Park 1st – 3rd August: Southport Melodic Jazz, Southport Flower Show and Queenscourt hospice organise a two-day mini- festival in Southport’s Victoria Park. Come along for days filled with music and evening galas in an enormous marquee. The bands include Vernon Fuller’s Soul

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JAZZ ON THE ROAD It’s a slightly quieter touring period at the moment, so for this issue we hear from Heads South, one of the bands recently taken on to the Rural Touring Support Scheme.

- How long has this group been together?

The idea for the group came in the wake of a typical pick-up gig that happened nearly seven (gulp!) years ago, which at the time was not anticipated to develop into a long term project, which is exactly what then happened. It started off mainly with Latin-ised standards but the originals soon followed and became our raison d’etre.

The rhythms are mostly but not exclusively Afro-Cuban and the melody is mainly original new tunes, alongside a few select tunes of others’.

- What’s the latest project?

We recently completed our new album On The Way which will be released in September. It’s 60 minutes of newly recorded material, recorded on two days last summer.

It’s our second album and a step up from our first, which was a bit of a toe in the water; this is a more confident plunge. We’ve really honed our groove over the last year or two, critically in this very rhythmic style.

The writing is more diverse, and there are bits of branching away from Cuban/Latin, perhaps some West Coast influence creeping in.

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

We were lucky enough to be selected as one of the winners of the Jazz Services/Rural Touring Forum award for 2014/5. Our hope for this tour and beyond is to win over newcomers to our music, and the genre. It can be hard for people to hear jazz in the media; for newcomers this newness can perhaps make it fresher, more intriguing. In our music the exciting rhythms and distinct melodies can entice them in and lead them to appreciate the spontaneous improvisation.

Touring of this sort is a great opportunity to bring the music to a wider audience on a national level.

It enables artists to experience the direct feedback of more diverse audiences around the country, not just London and major cities, and enables the audiences to hear something that they might not necessarily get locally and to hear it live, not just recorded. With perhaps less touring opportunities around nowadays, such funded touring schemes are all the more important.

- What can audiences expect from one of your gigs?

People can expect a lively, effervescent listening experience; high energy rhythms, dynamic improvisation, soaring trumpet lines, diverse percussion sounds from congas and cajon to castanets and frame drum and so on – oh, and also some laid back bolero/rumbaesque encounters, transporting us off to that sultry Latin evening...

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

Playing multiple tour dates gives us the opportunity to arrive at a higher level of mutual groove, cohesion and empathy. Last autumn we did 6 nights on the trot in Wales which supercharged our playing (on that one we had the Royal Welsh College Jazz Ensemble on tour with us, which was extra fun). These experiences on the road help the music to grow and expand. And the camaraderie and feeling of fulfilment when on tour playing our own music is unique.

Heads South’s tour begins on September 13th at the Grey Lady Music Lounge in Kent. For more info, see www.headssouth.com

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