August Jazzwise

The August print edition of Jazzwise is now on the shelves of WHS and is well worth a punt (£6.95 to be precise). The contents are great and, not without a little local interest in the form of James Kitchman who, like so many others paid his dues at Dave Weisser's workshop sessions at 'The Chilli' in Heaton. James is interviewed and his first album - First Choice - is awarded four stars and acknowledged as one of the Editor's Choice albums - praise indeed. BSH mentions... 

There's also a tremendous piece on  Mingus by Kevin Le Gendre with observations by bassists Boris Kozlov and Christian McBride - I call Mingus 'Ellington in a hoodie' because it's much more raw. It's more street than Ellington.

So far so good but it gets even better! Val Wilmer's recollections of the Sunset Club remembers a long forgotten black, West Indian, club in Carnaby St. That article in itself is worthy of a book - so many possibilities - which also reminds me to prompt some of our readers to kick in with their favourite long gone venues.

However, I've saved the best until last and I hope you'll excuse me when I cry VINDICATION!

When I first saw the Swedish film Sven Klang's Kvintett on tv back in 1980 I told all in sundry that this was the best jazz film ever made. Noses were looked down and even my then drinking buddy the late Brian Fisher could only manage a perfunctory if you say so.

In the very first year of BSH (2008) I expressed my views and now it seems the world is catching up. If you only ever watch one jazz movie in your life, make sure this is the one! Lance