Live Review: Skinny Pelembe at Patterns
Skinny Pelembe Patterns, Brighton Thursday 17th October, 2019 Skinny Pelembe has had a great year since releasing his 2018 EP Sleep More, Make More Friends which saw him team up with Hejira, Yazmin Lacey and Emma-Jean Thackray and this year he released his new album Dreaming Is Dead Now and has appeared at Love Supreme […]
Album Review: Barnacles – And So We Begin
Barnacles And so we begin (Cheeba Cheeba Records CCR003) Brass bands are an enduring part of the British musical tradition, and it’s fascinating to see how that tradition has morphed into the current popularity for funky updates on the wind and rhythm sound, from the consciously retro-named Hackney Colliery Brass Band on outwards. Barnacles bring […]
Album Review: PYJÆN – PYJÆN
PYJÆN PYJÆN (Bandcamp self-release) For the past few years now jazz has undergone a change of face and sound. In 2015 Amercian saxophonist composer Kamasi Washington wowed audiences worldwide with his debut release The Epic, which gave its listeners a new approach to what we class as ‘jazz’ music. Since then the face of jazz […]
Album Review: Quentin Collins Sextet – Road Warrior
Quentin Collins Sextet Road Warrior (Ubuntu UBU0027) Quentin Collins is a major force in British jazz – not just as a musician whose longstanding occupancy of the trumpet chair in Kyle Eastwood’s band has cemented his international reputation, but also as an educator, bandleader and producer – wearing the latter hat, he was most recently […]
Pete Recommends…Howard McGhee – Dusty Blue
Howard McGhee Dusty Blue [Archive Music Revisited CD AMR 870] The Bebop years of the 1940s produced one phenomenal trumpeter, Dizzy Gillespie. Two others, very close in quality, also appeared: Howard McGhee and Fats Navarro. As a young trad trumpet player, just starting out, they all amazed me. Every solo from Fats seemed to […]
Jim Rattigan Interview
Let’s start by talking a bit about your background. How did you get into music? I’ve done music forever. I literally started life as an Irish dancer, can you believe. My parents were Irish. I can’t remember not doing it, I was so young. And then I got into the piano accordion, I did that […]
Preview: Offie Mag Presents PYJÆN and Tina Edwards at Patterns
The band PYJÆN have their origins at Sussex’s Brainchild festival where trumpeter Dylan Jones ordered a cup of coffee. The subsequent misspelling of his name on the coffee cup, PYJÆN, gave him the idea for the name of a new band he had formed with fellow students on the jazz course at Trinity Laban. The […]
Preview: Skinny Pelembe at Patterns
In May this year guitarist, singer and composer Skinny Pelembe released his new album Dreaming Is Dead Now on the Brownswood label. The multi-talented musician was born in Johannesburg, but grew up in Doncaster and has been part of the new generation of artists to benefit from Gilles Peterson’s Future Bubblers development programme. His unique […]
Yadasofi Interview
Drummer and composer Nadav Schneerson formed his jazz ensemble Yadasofi last year and since then they have gone on to release two singles and performed support slots for the likes of Joe Armon-Jones, Nubya Garcia and Maisha. Nadav was born in London but moved to Brighton when he was little and has lived there ever […]
Leroy Horns Interview
How did you start out playing? My mum liked Acker Bilk. At junior school, when I was about 10, I had this teacher Mr. Green, he got everyone on recorder, which I got really into, so my mum got me a clarinet, and made me play Stranger on the Shore every time someone came for […]