Brace yourselves: next week, not one, not two, but THREE bands collide (musically speaking!), as the University’s Concert and Big Bands team up with St. Edmund’s School Big Band for Big Bands 3.
The event is in aid of The Lady Mayoress’ charities, and promises to be a lively event. The first of its kind, conductor Ian Swatman is looking forward to the event (when he can tear himself away from following the fortunes of Hull City, that is…!)
“It’s going to be a great night, and a chance for University staff and students and some of the pupils of St. Edmund’s School to play together,” Ian remarks as he ponders The Tigers’ current form, currently in ninth position in the table, having won two out of their past three matches. ”Plus it’s all in support of a worthy cause, and all for a mere five pounds: great music, great players, and a great cause: who can resist ?!”
Kicking off at 7.30pm in St. Edmund’s School Hall, it’ll be an action-packed night: tickets are selling fast, make sure you get yours! Further details on-line here.
As reported in Jazzwise and elsewhere today, the great British jazz pianist George Shearing has died at the age of 91.
Shear genius: George Shearing
Blind from birth, London-born Shearing moved to American and lived in New York; he worked with a notable array of jazz luminaries including singers Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughan, guitarist Joe Pass and vibraphone legend Gary Burton . Shearing had a deft pianistic style, that moved easily from rich clusters of chords to delicate single-finger melodic playing.
Lullaby of Birdland was perhaps his most famous tune, named after the famous jazz club in New York.
And a belated Happy New Year! With various technical issues resolved, it’s back to work, and we start the new blog-year with an album of photos from the last Jazz @ 5 in December – the snow-and-ice-ridden gig that defied the weather to go ahead.
There’s lots of musical events to look forward to in the coming months; the new on-line calendar and downloadable brochure will be published to the website soon. With not one, but two concerts featuring Stravinsky (always the sign of a good term!), contemporary choral music from the Chamber Choir, the usual roof-raising Gulbenkian gig with the Concert and Big Bands, European sacred music from the Cecilian Choir, and the small matter of a Mozart Requiem in the Cathedral: it promises to be a packed several months.
Two different gigs appeared on the same programme, eclectic pianist Martial Solal and the great trumpeter Tomas Stanko; I’m not sure if this should count, as strictly speaking both performances were from last year, but the Stanko set was fantastic.
I’m not sure if any of the above compare to my favourite set from Jazz on 3 of all time, the Marcin Wasilewski trio recorded live at the King’s Place back in 2009. Fledged under the wing of Tomasz Stanko, Wasilewski has an expensive touch and a delicate yet profound improvisatory manner, where no gesture or phrase is unnecessary – he reminds me of another bastion of the ECM label, Keith Jarrett.
Jazz on 3 has a marvellous habit of sometimes re-broadcasting programmes, and occasionally playing parts of the original gigs that weren’t featured in the original airing. If these come round again, be sure to catch them.
Here’s looking forward to 2011: thanks, Jazz on 3: worth the licence fee alone.
Snow ? Ice ? Freezing temperatures ? Events being cancelled at the fall of a flake ? Jazz @ 5 laughs at such things!
Lights out for the territory...
With temperatures plummeting and snow and ice everywhere, the last Jazz @ 5 of the term warmed a suitably appreciative audience on Wednesday night, with a sprinkling of jazz-infused carols and popular Christmas favourites, a dash of funk and a slice of soul.
Making her debut at Kent, and beginning the evening in fine style, Ruby Mutlow gave a robust rendition of Macy Gray’s funk-laden Why Didn’t You Call Me, and Marvin Gaye’s soul classic What’s Goin’ On. Also one of the Big Band singers this year, as well as singing with Chorus and Sing!, Ruby has a vibrant vocal presence on-stage, and will be one to watch this year.
In contrast, the Music Department’s very own Sophie Meikle stepped away from upright bass in the previous gig and stepped up to the microphone to sing White Christmas and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, the latter holding the attention of a rapt audience so closely that it felt like no-one breathed for the duration of the song.
Returning to the Gulbenkian Foyer stage was the classy Steph Richardson, with a poised reading of Peggy Lee’s Black Coffee, a coquettish Santa, Baby and a deft Let It Snow! There’s a real sense of accomplishment whenever Steph performs, she is completely at ease on the stage and with the other musicians. With Ruby and Jo as well, it’s an exciting year for jazz singers at Kent!
Also stepping onto the stage for the first time was first-year pianist Kirstie Robbie, who played Winter Wonderland with the ensemble, and also Wagglestick Walkabout as a solo item, the latter with a firm boogie-woogie feel to the left-hand.
Regulars Dan Harding on piano, Andrew Kitchin on guitar, Will Rathbone on sax and Matt Bardrick on drums, were joined by Alastair Disley, a member of the Music and Audio Department of the School of Arts based in Medway, on electric bass, who heroically sat in at a few hours’ notice for his first Jazz @ 5. The group played a spirited performance of Herbie Hancock’s funky Canteloupe Island.
Thanks to all those who performed and especially to those making their debut on the University jazz scene. Jazz @ 5 returns in January: watch this space…
As I’ve mentioned over on ‘On The Beat,’ Radio 3 are currently broadcasting from the London Jazz Festival, and last night’s excellent gig by the Robert Glasper Trio is now on the iPlayer for a week.
Click here for more, including links to the programme, a review of the gig on the LondonJazz blog, and Glasper’s website. A treat for jazz fans. (The gig, that is!).
Pursuing the line of thought about the relationship between jazz and classical music: recently released on the great ECM label is Officium Novum, the follow-up to the world-wide phenomenon that was 1993’s Officium, featuring a collaboration between saxophonist Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble,
I’ve written before about the incorporation of improvisation into classical music; here, it’s taken back even earlier in musical history.
The first album presented music by Perotin, de Morales and Dufay, Gregorian chant and anonymous Hungarian and Czech composers from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Garbarek paints lyrical arabesques around the Hilliard’s singing, decorating and embellishing their archaic repertoire with very modern improvised lines.
There’s something deeply contemplative about the result; Garbarek’s meditative ruminations on the unvoiced lyrical potential of the music sung by the Hilliard seems to open up a door onto a different plane, to which the singing aspires but cannot reach. Garbarek’s improvised melodies ought to sound anachronistic against the medieval repertoire: and yet they don’t. Somehow, the synergy works to make the sax lines sound ancient, and, at the same time, to make the ancient songs sound modern.
Officium Novum widens the musical geography to include Armenian music, Arvo Part and compositions by Garbarek himself.
Detractors have lamented the intrusion of a saxophonist and improvised lines onto the music and the Hilliard, and point to the ensemble’s disc of Perotin (called, simply, Perotin), as a purists’ dream (and it is a fantastic disc). But, as the sales figures for Officium proved, and as they no doubt will for the new album, there is a niche for this type of ‘cross-over’ music. The link between ancient and modern continues to beguile modern listeners, divide critics, and foment debate: all to the good.
Because it does. Doesn't it ? Blogging about extra-curricular musical life at the University of Kent.
The event is in aid of The Lady Mayoress’ charities, and promises to be a lively event. The first of its kind, conductor Ian Swatman is looking forward to the event (when he can tear himself away from following the fortunes of Hull City, that is…!)
Two different gigs
Pursuing the line of thought