Live Review: Quinn Oulton at New Generation Jazz
New Generation Jazz: Quinn Oulton The Verdict, Brighton Friday 29th November 2019 Multi-instrumentalist, singer, teacher and composer Quinn Oulton was the latest in a long line of young band leaders to showcase their talents during this year’s New Generation Jazz series at Brighton’s Verdict Jazz Club. Fresh from a successful gig at Kansas Smitty’s […]
Live Review: Ezra Collective at Concorde 2
Ezra Collective Concorde 2, Brighton Wednesday 27th November, 2019 Ezra Collective were at Concorde 2 as part of their UK tour and they were there to party and celebrate their connection to the South Coast. Having performed at New Generation Jazz, Love Supreme and Brainchild festivals it’s no surprise that their biggest listenership on […]
Dave O’Higgins & Rob Luft Interview
SJM editor Charlie Anderson spoke to saxophonist Dave O’Higgins and guitarist Rob Luft at the start of their UK tour to promote their new album O’Higgins & Luft Play Monk & Trane. Dave O’Higgins and Rob Luft have recorded a new album that they are currently touring throughout the UK. The musicians first met […]
Peter Batten Interview (part 1)
Born in Bermondsey in 1933 Peter was six years old when war broke out. “I have a lot of horrible memories of the war. It was all quiet for about a year and then the Blitz really started and that was absolutely horrible. I lived through that either in Bermondsey or at my uncle’s bungalow […]
Column: Eddie Myer – All Night Long
In his biography of Debussy, Eric Frederick Jensen records a conversation between the great pianist and composer and his friend and mentor Ernest Giraud. Debussy plays a series of intervals on the piano – notated in the book as impossible-to-parse mix of apparently random clusters and wider leaps – and Giraud asks him what they […]
Column: Simon Spillett – There’s Always Someone Looking At You: The Peculiar World of the Jazz ‘Recordist’
There’s Always Someone Looking At You: The Peculiar World of the Jazz ‘Recordist’ I was on a gig the other night when a man noisily elbowed his way through the door of the venue, pushing what looked for all the world like some sort of portable defibrillator unit, mounted on a wire frame and […]
Pete Recommends…Tommy Flanagan – Montreux ’77
About five years ago some lucky purchases led me to spend more time listening to Tommy Flanagan. I had always admired his work as an accompanist. Now I began to see him as a solo artist. I went back to this trio recording which was part of my vinyl collection. Wow! How had I missed […]
Live Review: Mark Kavuma at The Verdict
New Generation Jazz: Mark Kavuma & The Banger Factory The Verdict, Brighton Friday 25th October, 2019 It was hard bop twenty first century style when Ugandan born trumpet star Mark Kavuma brought his highly impressive sextet to The Verdict’s monthly New Generation Jazz gig on the last Friday of October. Known as The Banger Factory, […]
Live Review: Carmen Souza at The Verdict
Carmen Souza The Verdict, Brighton Wednesday 13th November, 2019 Carmen Souza, a Portuguese vocalist of Cape Verdean heritage performed a spectacular tribute to Horace Silver (who shares a similar heritage) and performed a number of his tunes in the distinctive musical styles of Cape Verde, such as morna and funaná. This wasn’t, however, your typical Horace Silver […]
Book Review: Daniel Spicer – Lost In The Vaults
Lost in the Vaults Daniel Spicer (Elusinian Press) This is a fascinating and stimulating book. It reprints the complete run of Daniel Spicer’s column with the same title, as published in Jazzwise magazine between 2006 and 2019. Listing over a hundred rare collectables and forgotten gems of 20th century jazz, it brings together a […]