Terry Pack’s Trees Into The Woods (New Leaf NL 001) For those of you who are unfamiliar with ‘Trees’ Big Band it is a contemporary jazz orchestra led by bassist, composer, arranger and orchestrator Terry Pack containing some of the finest jazz musicians from South East England and beyond. Back in 2017 they launched their […]
Brian Homer Photo Exhibition Freelance jazz photographer Brian Homer has a new exhibition at Centrala in Birmingham from 15th January to 1st February. The exhibition features photographs from a collaborative pilot research project called Everyday Jazz Life, a photographic project on contemporary jazz musicians lives in Birmingham and coincides with the Documenting Jazz Conference at […]
Some Like It Hotter Some Like It Hotter is an 18-piece predominantly female swing band founded in September last year by baritone saxophonist Jody Wood, who moved from London to Bexhill in 2017. Her love of bonkers, OTT glamour didn’t quite translate to East Sussex. She was also surprised by the dearth of […]
Lou Beckerman reviews Heart of Oak by Terry Pack’s Trees. An ‘unfeasibly large ensemble ’ delivers a most feasibly fine album. Terry Pack’s Trees Heart of Oak (Symbol Records) I can recall Trees as a freshly-planted seedling concept. It swiftly found fertile ground for robust growth in the musicianship, dedication, diversity and […]
Patrick Billingham reviews recent big band gigs at The Brunswick, The Round Georges and B.O.A.T.. That’s another election out of the way. My thanks to all who responded to my plea to register to vote and then to use it. Now back to the real world where the big band Summer season is starting […]
This month Patrick Billingham revisits practice. I am pleased to say that, after the death of its eponymous creator, the Les Paul Big Band is continuing to function. I was at their September gig, and the band sounded pleasingly tight. For me, a high point was a fresh take on their band […]
Saxophonist Patrick Billingham continues his monthly column with a look at practise. “Maestro*/man† why do you practise every day and for so many hours?” “Because if I didn’t, after one day I would notice, after a week my colleagues would notice and after a month my audience would notice.” I have found this quote […]