Category Archives: Bands/Artists I rate very highly

Bands/Artists I rate very highly

Albums I really like, Bands/Artists I rate very highly

Review: Tigran – a fable

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As soon as I heard a fable by Tigran I thought of the painting Night and her Train of Stars by Edward Robert Hughes. There is a wonderfully dreamy feeling to this delicate, magical, romantic solo piano album, it transports you to ancient eastern lands by starlight, the gently tinkling shimmering piano and haunting vocals will lull a child to sleep. It is romantic because it is about passion, freedom and the exotic. But there is an exile’s loss in the coda which makes it a grown-up fable where you are reminded of your own loss and sadness.

Edward Robert Hughes - Night with her Train of Stars

Tigran is an Armenian pianist of whom Brad Mehldau said “There’s something original here [of Red Hail (of Pomegranate Seeds)] that excites me and makes me feel like, “Hmm, I haven’t heard that before.” Praise indeed!

Tigran won many prestigious piano prizes as a teenager and his early steps to fame remind me of my favourite classical pianist Krystian Zimerman who won the Warsaw Chopin Competition in 1975 at the age of 19. Tigran plays with Dhafer Youssef on the latter’s album Abu Nawas Rhapsody, with Mark Guiliana on drums. He doesn’t sit easily in any musical genre. Unlike Zimerman, Tigran seems at home in all musical settings from the Wigmore Hall to rock festivals. The noisy Clore Ballroom at the London Jazz Festival was soon silenced when he put his hands on the keyboard, a striking slight figure who blew us away wth his improvisation and stage presence.

A fable consists of solo piano interspersed with some very subtle electronics, whistling and voice. Most of the compositions are by Tigran, but even those not by him such as Someday my Prince will Come sound unmistakably his. There is a fairytale feel to this album which starts with the opening track Rain Shadow where the piano has a musical box feel, the notes chime like tiny bells. Although it is a solo piano album, Tigran’s voice adds a entrancing dimension, as does the whistling on several tracks. It is as if he is lost in a forest and is whistling to keep himself company. The tunes are instantly memorable, you find yourself humming with him as you are swept away by the magic.

Longing is my favourite track. It has a songlike melody which darkens as you realise this song is about exile. You are in an enchanted forest but it is far from home. Tigran has a gentle haunting voice and Armenian is a beautiful soft-sounding language. Electronics and overdubbing of voice provide a heavenly choir which float us away from our pain.

In the final track Mother, where are you? inspired by a medieval Armenian hymn, we are very gently brought back to earth, just like the ending of a dream. It is slower than the previous tracks, wistful and spacious, the perfect way to end a fable, there is no happy ending.

A fable Tigran Hamasyan, piano and voice, 2011

http://flavors.me/tigran

Bands/Artists I rate very highly

Rest in peace, Dave Brubeck

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Rest in peace Dave Brubeck, 6 December 1920 – 5 December 2012. You probably ignited my love of pianists in general, and jazz pianists in particular, many years ago. My Mother had a vinyl copy of Time Out, the beautiful cover was my introduction to modern art. It was as modern as our new home, furnished in the colours, fabrics and shapes of the Festival of Britain, a time of optimism after hardship. As for the music, Take Five was part of my childhood. It will always conjure up happy times and later I would come to appreciate the subtlety of his compositions like the one below. It was the benchmark from which I discovered the sublime in music. It was perceptively used in Tim Hunkin’s magical Secret Life of Machines and later became the music Radio 4 listeners would choose as best encapsulating “Radio Guardian“, how Guardian readers would describe themselves if they were a piece of music. I wish strength and peace to his widow Iola, theirs was a very long marriage. He leaves us a wonderful catalogue of beautiful music.

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This is gentle and exquisite:

Bands/Artists I rate very highly, Gigs I've enjoyed, Jazz venues

Review: Phronesis, The North Wall Oxford, 1 December 2012

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The penultimate gig of 2012 for Phronesis was held in the North Wall in Oxford on 1 December, a good venue for listeners with excellent sight lines, comfy seats and lovely mellow brick walls. Old fans were probably hoping for some new material and were well rewarded with at least three new compositions which were not attributed – perhaps a symbol of a new Phronesis, utterly confident in each other’s presence. As I sat there I thought back briefly to seeing the Brad Melhdau trio just two weeks ago at the Barbican, and it hit me – this trio has exactly the same confidence on stage as that well-established entity, only with more equality.

This evening felt daring – old and new were mixed, leaving us to guess which was which – all sounded fresh, deeper, matured like good wine. We heard material from all four Phronesis albums. The sense of continuity in sound and concept, despite changes in drummer and pianist, is amazing, and a tribute to Jasper’s vision. It’s not that the sound is static, it has evolved so naturally that you are unaware that you are learning, that you are adapting to their increasingly complex deep sound. So we started with a tune from the first album Organic Warfare, called Untitled#2 which sounded very stately on the Yamaha piano, five years on, it still worked and sounded new. From their second album we had Love Song and Happy Notes – the latter an ironic commentary on an unwitty heckler. Passing Clouds (from Walking Dark) had an Oriental feel, the gentle movements of Tai Chi made manifest in majestic, floating, billowing sounds with darker clouds evident at the close.

The new material has the gorgeous lyricism we have come to expect. Nomads had me holding my breath, it was so beautiful. Ivo has hit a rich seam of tunes lately – his That Syncing Feeling from Yatra is one of my pieces of the year. Another new piece started with a simple melody on bass that I was still humming in the morning – had I heard it before? No, it just comes naturally.

One of the joys of seeing this trio live is that you never know how Anton will create new sounds. At one stage, I thought he was striking the stands of his drums, perfectly in tune – actually he had cymbals on the floor I think. But the fact that I thought he was hitting his drum supports did not strike me as odd. Sometimes he plays silently, hitting the air for several beats, always he is mesmerising. You have to see them to really appreciate just how tightly they play now, with such empathy for each other.

So I felt very hurt for the band when a woman heckler demanded new, unrehearsed material. It may be Oxford but it was just plain rude to Jasper, it broke the moment. It was extraordinary, to me anyway, that the heckler could have thought that she was not listening to new material when we were. The fact that new material sounded well rehearsed when perhaps it was not is a tribute to the skills of this perfect trio.

Sadly, fans in the UK now have to wait until Phronesis’ next performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London on 5 April 2013 when we are promised some guests including the singer Olivia Chaney. It’s a big venue but they can fill it, physically and mentally, they are at the top of their game.

http://www.phronesismusic.com/

Albums I really like, Bands/Artists I rate very highly, Gigs I've enjoyed

Gigs and albums of 2012, a fan’s eye view…

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I have tried in my mind’s eye to visualise an order to my list of gigs and albums of the year, and I can’t do it! There is no way of rationally ranking the many hours of sitting in theatres, halls, tents and pubs. All are precious to me.

Here are just a few of my happiest memories of gigs this year, in no particular order:

Gregory Porter at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival – a glorious voice and a performer who genuinely reaches out to the audience with an almost child-like pleasure.

Marius Neset standing on the stage at St Georges Brandon Hill during the first performance of Flight by Dave Stapleton and visibly relishing the wonderful acoustic.

That same gig, the buzz of the audience in the interval, no-one talking about getting a drink, everyone saying “This is amazing”. It was.

A very hot day in May and the launch of Phronesis’ Walking Dark at Kings Place. Such a joyful, relaxed evening in a lovely hall and shared with friends.

And albums of the year that mean the most to me?

Tracks that keep going through my head:

  • That Syncing Feeling from Yatra by Ivo Neame
  • Holland from Where do you start? by Brad Mehldau

People seen for the first time who made a big impression:

  • Tigran
  • Josh Arcoleo

Bands I want to see next year:

  • World Service Project – all credit to them for their pioneering pan-European collaborations and their sense of fun!
  • Roller Trio – have heard so much about them, now want to see them

My last jazz of 2012 will be Phronesis at Oxford on 1 December. They are my favourite trio and I thank them for the joy and richness they bring to my life.

Albums I really like, Bands/Artists I rate very highly, Gigs I've enjoyed

In praise of…Jim Hart

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Jim Hart, vibraphonist, composer, band leader and drummer was nominated in the Downbeat Readers Poll 2012, a rare and deserved honour for a British musician. Gary Giddins says there are two types of vibe player – cool or extrovert. He has forgotten the third type that Jim represents – the fun, almost-surprised-at-his-own-success but quietly-confident-all-the-same very English vibes player. Whether you are lucky enough to see him live or listen to his albums, you are always capitivated.

I first saw Jim as a drummer with Alcyona Mick at a free gig at the Herbert at the greatly missed Coventry Jazz Festival in 2007. He was impressive then. Most recently I saw him on 25 October, again on drums, with Sam Crowe in the lovely surroundings of St Georges Brandon Hill and again I was struck by his effortless quality, he barely moves his arms when drumming, the sticks seem to take on a life of their own. This was a starry gig – Sam Crowe Group and the return to the live scene of Kairos 4tet. Jim subbed for Dave Smith with the Sam Crowe Group. We had lots of new, fairly abstract material from Sam, eagerly lapped up by a local crowd, and Sam was generous to allow space for the other musicians to explore his complex tunes. It was a joyous evening, everyone was pleased to see Adam Waldmann back on stage after his operation. Jim gave an amazing solo which sounded like a clanging American train.

But it is his vibes playing that Downbeat have chosen to celebrate. And is there anything more magical than watching someone play the vibes? The very sound conjures up your childhood xylophone from a Christmas long ago or the thrill of an African balafon played in the hot sun. It’s Jim’s vibes that adds the sparkly quality I love in Ivo Neame’s Caught in the Light of Day ( see my review of that album here).

This summer Jim took his Cloudmakers Trio on tour and I caught them at Cheltenham in July. Cloudmakers consists of Michael Janisch on double bass, Dave Smith on drums and Jim on vibraphone. I’d seen Dave with Outhouse Ruhabi in 2008, a collaboration with Gambian drummers, so I wasn’t surprised to hear some African influences in Cloudmakers. I think all the compositions we heard that night were by Jim apart from some amazing Monk and a George Shearing tune. I particularly remember a very lovely tune called Westbound ( about travelling home to Jim’s native Cornwall, and as I am from Cornwall too, I paid particular attention). It was a very romantic tune and I hope Jim records it so I can hear it again.

We hear the African influence again in Morbid Curiosity on his latest album The Cloudmakers Trio with Ralph Alessi, Live at the Pizza Express, released September 2012. The trumpet of Ralph Alessi is feather light, the perfect foil for Jim’s delicate vibes. The bass is light as are the drums. It is a very sophisticated sound, perfect for intimate venues.

We hear Jim again, as composer and vibraphonist, on Neon Quartet’s Subjekt (released November 2012 on Edition Records). A particularly beautiful track is Springs and Neaps composed by Jim. The combination of Stan Sultzmann’s lyrical sax, the floating piano/organ by Kit Downes and Tim Giles’ sensitive drumming are the perfect setting for Jim’s effortless, gentle landscape. Does this tune describe a spring evening in a Cornish estuary, perhaps the Fal, when the tide is rushing in over beds of early spring flowers? A lovely sight and sound.

This magical world is just one of the reasons why I want to praise Jim Hart.

http://www.jimhart.co.uk/

Cloudmakers Trio with Ralph Alessi available on http://www.whirlwindrecordings.com/