Tag Archive | jazz
Sounds and Silence: journeying with Manfred Eicher
Records from the ECM label always begin with moments of silence. The ECM motto is the Most Beautiful Sound Next to Silence. Moments of silence are as important as sounds in the documentary film Sounds And Silence: Journeys with Manfred Eicher which I have just seen. Peter Guyer and Norbert Wiedmer followed Manfred Eicher, the […]
Jah Wobble and the Modern Jazz Ensemble
Headed off to the Capstone on Friday evening to see Jah Wobble in his latest incarnation, fronting his Modern Jazz Ensemble. I don’t know if there’s something lacking in the Capstone’s marketing, but the house was only half full to see a legend of modern British music. This isn’t the first time I’ve noticed this […]
John Surman solo: landscapes in sound
On stage the velvet-clothed table was illuminated in one discreet shaft of light, burnishing the instruments arrayed there: soprano and baritone saxophones, an alto clarinet and a recorder. They lay waiting for the deft fingers and mighty breath of a master European jazzman who would conjure from them music of haunting beauty, his melodies memories […]
Andy Sheppard’s Trio Libero at RNCM
Trio Libero is saxophonist Andy Sheppard’s latest band, with Michel Benita on double bass and Seb Rochford on drums. We had front row seats when we saw them on Saturday as their current tour reached the RNCM in Manchester. The great thing about live music is that you generally listen far more intensely than at […]
Chamber: musicians nearly outnumber audience
Last night, on spec, I went to the Capstone Theatre to see a group perform which I’d never heard of before. Chamber consists of guitar, double bass, drums and a three-piece string section. So there were six performers on stage – just two more than the number in the audience: an unusual experience for me […]
Sidney Bailey’s No Good Punchin Clowns
Another Friday night at the Caledonia, and another night of free live music you’d pay good money to hear elsewhere. This time it was Sidney Bailey’s No Good Punchin Clowns, who describe themselves as purveyors of ‘Antwacky Syncopation from Bootle to Toxteth and all stops along the 82 bus route’. The Clowns’ repertoire is largely […]
The Blindmonk Trio at The Caledonia
A superb helping of free (as in non-pecuniary) jazz last night when, with an old friend, I went along to the Caledonia on Catherine Street for what, astionishingly, was only the third outing by the Blindmonk Trio. The band does in fact consist of three seasoned pros – and it shows. This was playing of […]
A different Kind of Blue
I went along to the Capstone last night to see and hear Terry Seabrook’s band Milestones play Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue. The group was formed in 2010 to celebrate the music of Miles Davis, and leader, pianist Terry Seabrook, has assembled six musicians to perform the album, released on 17 August 1959, that has […]
Zoe Rahman Quartet: bit of an Irish-Bengali mash-up
It was not the kind of evening to encourage setting foot outside. There had been a moderate version of what the Americans call an ice storm: rain falling for most of the day and freezing on the ground. Roads and pavements were sheets of ice and there were icicles hanging on the car. But we […]
