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Features
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Thursday, 25 April 2013 10:18 |
Saxophonist Marius Neset represents how many contemporary musicians, and listeners, approach music today; viewing the sonic landscape as limitless, and fearlessly embracing influences of every kind. Achieving universal acclaim for his Edition records debut album, Golden Xplosion, he returns this month with its genre-smashing follow up, Birds, and expands his virtuosity into widescreen compositions of dizzying but accessible proportions. Ahead of his performance at this year’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Selwyn Harris talks to this Norwegian high-flyer and his omnivorous approach to music The west coast Norwegian harbour town of Bergen has none of the hustle and bustle you might expect from a city that’s the country’s second largest after Oslo. But behind this unassuming exterior is a buzzing music scene, fired up by both its deep-rooted traditions and new perspectives. Besides being the birthplace in 1843 of the great folk musicrooted Norwegian classical composer Edvard Grieg, nowadays it’s home to the so-called ‘Bergen Wave’ of post-rock that sprung into life on the brink of the millennium on the back of bands such as Kings of Convenience and Röyksopp, as well as Nattjazz, one of the best cutting-edge jazz festivals in Europe. In 2013 it doesn’t feel inappropriate to be talking about these diverse strands of music in the same breath. One Bergen-raised musician who fits the bill is Marius Neset. Widely hailed as one of the most striking young instrumentalist-composers to have come out of the European jazz scene for quite some time, the tenor and soprano saxophonist is one of the city’s most recent prodigies. It’s the dramatic fjords and mountains though that surrounds the city, that are closer to the environment in which Neset was raised.
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #174 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE CD...
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Thursday, 25 April 2013 10:17 |
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Forced into the fast lane with a Mercury Prize nomination for his debut album Golden, pianist KIT DOWNES has survived the glare of the media spotlight, and the harsh realities of growing up in public. Back with Light From Old Stars, his third and most assured album to date, Andy Robson discovers it’s an unlikely mix of interstellar inspiration and earthy blues that reveals an artist capable of keeping his feet on the ground, while looking up to the stars “I considered getting out of music. It was the hardest experience I ever had.” Don’t get Kit Downes wrong. He does appreciate what his trio’s 2010 nomination for the Mercury Music Prize did for him. “We got so many gigs from that nomination. I’m incredibly grateful for having had that opportunity: it was a unique chance for a lot of people to get hold of your work.” But as he notes, “one thing about a lot of people hearing your music is that you get a lot of feedback.”
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #174 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE CD...
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Thursday, 25 April 2013 10:15 |
Whether aged 17, when he made his recording debut in 1961, or at 70, with his seventh Grammy win under his belt, the quality of vibes virtuoso Gary Burton’s playing has never been less than impeccable. Having led countless high-calibre bands – often discovering future guitar stars such as Metheny and Scofield, and now Julian Lage – Stuart Nicholson finds Burton’s current New Quartet, who headline this year’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival, hitting even higher gears on a bristling second album that’s as vibrant and engaging as its eternally questing leader Gary Burton was 70 in January, a time to pause and reflect on times past and present and contemplate what the future holds, more so for a jazz musician in a profession that has increasingly become a young man’s game. Perhaps reaching such a milestone prompts moments of self-enquiry: am I still relevant? Am I still saying something? For Gary Burton there could be no better answer, and no better birthday present, than winning a Grammy award in February. This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #174 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE CD...
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Thursday, 28 March 2013 10:14 |
From the first electrifying notes of Miles Davis’ trumpet, hooked to the sheer ferocity of Jack DeJohnette’s drums, it’s clear that Live in Europe 1969 is an album of truly monumental music making – the like of which is rarely heard today. This groundbreaking quintet, often referred to as the ‘Los t Quintet’ was one of the most enigmatic of Davis’ groups and reveals a world of astonishing musical revelations, with the trumpeter at his most imperious and agile, backed by a band that shadowed his every move. Stua rt N icholson jo ins the dots of this remarkable, but little known, period of Davis’ life with recollections from Jack DeJohnette and Chi ck Cor ea, and examins the critical mass the group gathered at this tipping point in modern music at the birth of electric jazz For as long as anyone can remember, the music business has floated on a cushion of hyperbole which has rendered terms like ‘astonishing,’ ‘amazing’ or ‘brilliant’ meaningless. It’s a shame, because once in a while an album comes along such as Miles Davis Quintet: Live in Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 2 that knocks you sideways. Then you have to reach for such superlatives. But does ‘astonishing’, ‘amazing’ and ‘brilliant’ really do justice to a major four-disc release like this? One of such significance the history of jazz in the 1960s will have to be re-written? Even in his autobiography Davis was in no doubt about the importance of his Class of 1969: “Man, I wish this band had been recorded live because it was a really bad motherfucker… Columbia missed out on the whole fucking thing.”
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #173 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE CD...
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Thursday, 28 March 2013 10:13 |
Few singers can channel the levels of sadness and soul that Liane Carrol c an, indeed, everything she sings courses with chill-inducing emotion. Back with a starkly beautiful new album, Ballads, the singer and pianist reveals to Peter Quinn that personal vulnerability can become an artist’s greatest strength “I’m a lot happier since the last time I saw you,” Liane Carroll tells me as we tuck into our main course. We’re in Pizza Express next to Broadcasting House, where later in the afternoon Liane is appearing as a guest on BBC Radio 4’s Alex Horne Presents The Horne Section. “Last March I decided to do something about it and got a course of treatment for my depression,” she continues. “And I’m a different person – although I’m not. I was really scared that it would flatten me out but it hasn’t at all. I still get that [Liane mimes an up and down motion with her hands] but it’s not up and down like a mountain range, it’s just a couple of little hills, which I’m really grateful for. The first thing I noticed, apart from actually not feeling despair, was that I wouldn’t cry at films that I would normally cry at. And I thought, ‘oh shit’. But with the music it just didn’t make any difference, emotionally.”
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #173 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE CD...
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Thursday, 28 March 2013 10:10 |
Iconic folk singer June Tabor has teamed up with jazz pianist Huw Warren and saxophonist Iain Ballamy, to form one of the more unusual trios of recent years, Quercus. An affecting jazz-folk triumvirate, their sublimely poised debut on ECM i s released this month, and as Selwyn Harris discovers, the trio’s exquisite sound moves between English and Nor dic folk traditions, Benedictine Monk songs and a dash of Shakespeare too June Tabor, the grand dame of English folk music, is expressing her deep admiration for the exceptionally versatile pianist Huw Warren, her close musical partner and musical director now for over 25 years. But nobody’s perfect of course. “He does everything except sing and he’s Welsh!” she says, her voice rising to an incredulous scream down the line from her Shropshire home. “Goodness me, have you ever met a Welshman who could sing and didn’t? That’s the one thing he hasn’t done yet is sing.”
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #173 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE CD...
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