jazz
Owen Richards
Lamp Lit Prose is the ninth Dirty Projectors album since 2003, an incredibly prolific output for any artist. All the more impressive when you consider it’s the project of producer/songwriter David Longstreth, who also finds time to collaborate with artists such as Rihanna, Kanye, Paul McCartney and Solange. Such a notable CV befits an act as innovative as Dirty Projectors, and their latest release further demonstrates the talent on show.“Change is the only constant law” sings Longstreth, an appropriate lyric as Lamp Lit Prose is a journey of shifting influences. Tracks range from folk and Read more ...
Matthew Wright
Trumpeter Keyon Harrold grew up in Ferguson, Missouri and studied alongside Robert Glasper at the School of Jazz at The New School, in Greenwich Village, NYC. He has been a sideman with many of the biggest performers in music including Eminem, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Dr Dre, Maxwell and Common, and recorded two albums in his own name.His second album, The Mugician, was released last year to great acclaim. With collaboration from artists including Robert Glasper, Bilal, Big KRIT and Pharoahe Monch, Harrold incorporates elements of soul, reggae and hip hop into a transcendent musical statement of hope Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Earlier this year, in May, Brighton hosted the Vinyl World Congress where Paul Pacifico, head of the Association of Independent Music, told the assembled that, “People pay for vinyl not because they have to but because they want to - they want a physical representation of their emotional connection with an artist." There was a general agreement that vinyl collectors and fans account for the majority of sales, but also that things are still stable and/or rising. Here at theartsdesk on Vinyl, we cover collectible artists of yesteryear (below are boxsets by Buffalo Springfield, Brian Eno, Read more ...
Ellie Porter
Concluding a trilogy of releases that began with the EPs Not the Actual Events (2016) and Add Violence (2017) – Bad Witch is being called an LP despite its six tracks clocking in at only 30 minutes, a discrepancy that reportedly led an exasperated Trent Reznor to sound out a pernickety fan in an online forum. Short and sharp opening track "Shit Mirror", despite lyrics that speak of "new world, new times, mutation", does feel a little like the NIN of old – that familiar industrial groove and shouty vocal combo – but as soon as that’s done and dusted, it’s swiftly followed by "Ahead of Read more ...
Matthew Wright
It would always be difficult to follow The Epic, the 2015 release which turned LA saxophonist Kamasi Washington from leader of the local scene to international star. So this musical and spiritual journey lifts off into the heavens, the 16 pieces divided equally into firstly Earth - the external world perceived by Kamasi - then Heaven, which Kamasi describes as the world he sees inwardly. He’s always been in the West Coast spiritual jazz tradition, though this time the mood, in places, is positively hymnal. The music’s passion, energy and momentum is irresistible, even in the more Read more ...
David Nice
Yes, she sang, with her trademark artistry from the very first notes – four numbers, including a duet with daughter Jacqui Dankworth, and all in close partnership with her consummate players, including son Alec on double bass. Any worries that this would just be a chat with a bit of nonagenarian crooning were quickly banished: the legend remains a warm and witty human being, capable of transfixing her audience with those flashing eyes and spontaneous laughter, and her amazing technique still serves her well in her unique, wide-range vocalising.When she performed in Michael Tilson Thomas's LSO Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
When a 49-year-old Welsh jazz’n’folk singer decides to make it her business to cover songs ranging from Drake’s “Hotline Bling” to Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling”, most people’s immediate reaction would be to advise her to leave well alone. I’d be with them. However, despite some real no-no’s contained in Judith Owen’s new album, there’s also fun to be had.Things do not start well for, despite Owen’s best efforts, her plaintive, sparse piano cover of Drake’s bootycall anthem “Hotline Bling”, while a brave idea (suggested by her husband, the actor-comedian Harry Shearer) does not Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Take a first, passing glance at the debut album from Hailey Tuck and she could be mistaken for Katy Perry, done up in florid new image finery. The Texas-born, Paris-living 27 year old, however, on further inspection (and, more to the point, on listening), is nothing like that pop superstar. The only thing they may have in common is ambition, for Junk is weighted with Sony money, recorded at LA's Sunset Sound Studios with top jazz session men and a sense of high expectation. It’s a major label punt but, happily, a likeable one.The man at the studio controls is jazz super-producer Larry Klein. Read more ...
Matthew Wright
From Bach to the Beach Boys in three months. Though the right side of 50, pianist and bandleader Brad Mehldau has released 35 albums in over 25 years. In the Nineties, as a twenty-something, he recorded a five-volume series of albums with the title Art of the Trio. Today, he’s probably the best-known improvising pianist after Keith Jarrett. No one can accuse him of a lack of ambition or confidence. On the evidence here, it’s born of a great inspiration and gift. This is sumptuous, collective improvisation of the highest order.Listening to this album without a track listing, it would require Read more ...
Matthew Wright
As the ice hardened in the Cold War of the mid-1950s, and the USSR mocked the USA for both its supposed barbarism and racial segregation, the representative from Harlem, Adam Clayton Powell Jr, had a bright idea. Instead of competing in the cultural heats of the Cold War on Soviet strengths of classical music and ballet, why not bring the world that quintessentially, originally American art form, jazz? With the added benefit that most jazz ensembles were racially mixed, to dispel the Soviet claims about segregation.Powell’s wife, Hazel Scott, was a jazz singer, and he was close friends with Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Perfectly Unhappy’s sixth track makes the album’s case. Until this point, Andy Sheppard’s playing has largely gone with the flow; working through and around the melodies pianist Espen Eriksen has composed for his trio’s first recorded collaboration with the British saxophonist. A minute 20 seconds into “Naked Trees”, the double bass comes to the fore. Then, after another 55 seconds, Sheppard begins playing with a free-flowing sinuousness and spontaneity which wasn’t previously apparent. The next two tracks, “Revisited” and the album closer “Home”, are similarly energised.Sheppard and Norway’s Read more ...
peter.quinn
Hosted by Jazz FM presenters Chris Philips and Jez Nelson on UNESCO’s International Jazz Day, rising stars and international icons were honoured at the fifth Jazz FM Awards on Monday night.A Grammy winner earlier this year for her remarkable 2CD set Dreams and Daggers, watching Cécile McLorin Salvant silence a capacity crowd at Shoreditch Town Hall with her vivdly dramatic reading of “The Peacocks (A Timeless Place)”, accompanied by regular pianist Aaron Diehl, was one of the evening’s standout moments. It followed her acceptance of International Jazz Artist of the Year.Sax player Read more ...