Phronesis have a goal in mind and by means of what they play, rather than what they say, are well on course to staking out their claim as the breakthrough jazz band of the year. A piano trio, led crucially from the bass by Jasper Høiby, their latest album was recorded live with much talked about pianist Ivo Neame, and guest drummer Mark Giuliana standing in for Anton Eger, comes out just days after Jazzwise hits the streets. Could Phronesis be rewriting the rule book, asks Selwyn Harris.
Not for nothing is the new CD by double bassist Jasper Høiby’s trio Phronesis called Alive. It says all you need to know about a Dane, a Brit and a Swede who are turning more than a few heads with some recent electrifying live gigs. A couple of performances at the Forge Arts Venue in Camden Town in March form the basis of a blistering yet intimately recorded CD just released by the indie jazz label of the moment that is the Cardiff-based Edition Records.
The track selection is culled from two consecutive evenings of performances in which Phronesis showed why they’re one of the most exhilarating UK-based bands at present. In terms of contemporary piano trio jazz, Phronesis look the complete package. Rhythmically, they sound as if they have been injected with a large dose of the kind of feverish and intricate percussive activity and propulsive grooves you’d expect to hear at a Rio carnival. Melodically, Høiby’s writing favours folky-flavoured yet majestic themes drawn from mainly Brazilian, latin, Mediterranean, and North European sources.
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #144 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE CD...
Equipped with the sort of sound on the alto saxophone most players would die for, Peter King plays his horn like nothing else matters, achieving the enormous respect he receives for this but also the depth of his knowledge, compositional flair and acumen. For over half a century he has been a key presence on the highest wire of the British jazz scene gaining the admiration of his peers and audiences alike. In a frank interview King talks to Jack Massarik about his life and music as he marks a milestone date in his life. Portrait: Gill Vaux
Kindly charge your glasses, be upstanding and toast the health of Peter King, one of Britain’s most internationally respected musicians, perhaps none more so. A saxophone virtuoso who doesn’t blow his own trumpet, a composer of increasing renown and a unique all-round maestro, he celebrates his 70th birthday on the eleventh of this month. It’s a good moment to reflect on the illustrious career of a self-taught phenomenon who since his teens has been playing alto sax at the highest level. Judgments are subjective, but most good judges place him firmly in the world’s top half-dozen.
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #144 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE CD...
Herbie Hancock travelled the world to record his new album The Imagine Project beginning the process in the Indian city of Mumbai. The vocals-led album features a who’s who of top singers and instrumentalists, many of whom are household names. As the album is released this month, the hugely influential pianist and composer, an iconic figure in jazz, talks about its making, recalls highlights of his career so far, and explains how he addresses through his music the need for differing cultures to work and live together. Interview :: Stephen Graham
Earlier this year Herbie Hancock turned 70. A significant milestone for the pianist who has been an inspiration to musicians the world over since he debuted with Takin’ Off in 1962. The Blue Note years are very distant, understandably, yet the music from that special time is as fresh today as it was then, its appeal endless. Different generations come to Herbie Hancock’s music. If you’re a music student today you’ll study many of his classics, bona fide standards including ‘Maiden Voyage’ and ‘Dolphin Dance’; if you’re a clubber you’ll have danced to Us3’s updated version of ‘Cantaloupe Island’, which appeared in 1993 reborn as ‘Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)’; if you’re one of the MTV Generation” you’ll know ‘Rockit’ and if you’re from an older generation still and you’re a Gershwin enthusiast you’ll know his album Gershwin’s World which when it came out marked the centenary of the great composer’s birth and the world in which he lived, and saw Hancock perform memorably with Stevie Wonder on WC Handy’s ‘St Louis Blues’. This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #144 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE CD...
Drummer Cindy Blackman may be best known for playing drums with rock star Lenny Kravitz yet she has an impressive track record as a jazz player and has a sizeable back catalogue of jazz albums which show her skill and taste in detail. Uniquely she has retained her credibility as a jazz player even when playing rock. This month she continues her jazz work with a tribute album to the great Tony Williams on her album Another Lifetime. Here she talks candidly to Andy Robson about the project, settling a few scores along the way and spelling out just what it means to have to fight to establish a career in jazz
Let’s talk drummers: “For Billy Cobham to diss Tony (Williams) is not only a travesty, it’s not only ignorant but it’s also stupid. Without Lifetime Billy Cobham wouldn’t have had a Mahavishnu Orchestra to go to!” Cindy Blackman is a woman of deep conviction, a drummer of profound ability and, strikingly, a spokesperson of power and passion for the music that energises her life: jazz.
And mess with her at your own risk as she’s still sore about Cobham comments in a Jazz Times article back in November 2008. “I’m not designed to back down. It’s not in my DNA. He not only criticised me and Tony Williams but he also criticised Gretsch drums. Now I don’t care what he says about me, I’m taking myself out of the picture. But Gretsch drums was the sound jazz was built upon.”
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #143 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE copy of Denys Baptiste's 'Let Freedom Ring!'.
After the success of Bridgetower, their first jazz opera together, composer After the success of Bridgetower, their first jazz opera together, composer Julian Joseph Julian Joseph and librettist Mike Phillips team up and librettist Mike Phillips team up once again this month for a new children’s jazz opera, once again this month for a new children’s jazz opera, ShadowballShadowball, set in the world of the Negro Baseball Leagues.
Ahead of , set in the world of the Negro Baseball Leagues. Ahead of the work’s première, the work’s première, Jack Massarik talks to Julian about the inspirations that lie behind the work and the remarkable feat of talks to Julian about the inspirations that lie behind the work and the remarkable feat of performing with more than 200 children performing with more than 200 children
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #143 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE copy of Denys Baptiste's 'Let Freedom Ring!'.
Former Jazz Messenger Jean Toussaint has become a fixture on the London jazz scene both as a player and a highly respected educator. At the very first BBC Jazz Awards in 2001 his album The Street Above The Underground scooped the album of the year award. But remarkably, his brand new album Live in Paris and London, which has just come out, is his first album in eight years since Blue Black, the follow-up to The Street in 2002, and his first recorded live. It’s been more than worth the wait, says Selwyn Harris
The students who attended the Berklee jazz class in the early 1980s had some future ahead of them. Branford Marsalis, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, Greg Osby, Wallace Roney and Donald Harrison were among the classmates at Boston’s illustrious conservatory during that period. Another one was the tenor and soprano saxophonist Jean Toussaint. Before he took up a temporary teaching post at London’s Guildhall School of Music steering him in a totally different direction to that of his peers, the Virgin Islandsborn saxophonist was a Jazz Messenger between 1982 and 1986 alongside fellow sidemen that included Harrison, Mulgrew Miller and Terence Blanchard. That most celebrated of jazz onthe-job academies almost inevitably has had a profound and enduring impact on Toussaint.
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #143 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE copy of Denys Baptiste's 'Let Freedom Ring!'.
