CD Review: Norma Winstone - Descansado - Songs for Films

Norma Winstone – voice; Klaus Gesing - bass clarinet, soprano saxophone; Glauco Venier – piano; Helge Andreas Norbakken  - percussion;  Mario Brunello - violoncello, violoncello piccolo.

(Review by Debra M).

British singer Norma Winstone has been performing jazz for six decades,  and the outstanding quality of her music has been so sustained that as recently as 2017 she won Jazz FM award for Vocalist of the Year. Her latest work, Descansado  - Songs For Films is the fifth album recorded with pianist Glauco Venier and reedsman Klaus Gesing.  For this project, the trio were augmented by percussionist Helge Andreas Norbakken and Marion Brunello on violoncello.  Gesing and Venier have created new arrangements of music by composers such as Michel Legrand, William Walton, Bernard Herrmann, and Ennio Morricone, from films by directors including Martin Scorsese, Jean-Luc Godard, Wim Wenders, Norman Jewison, and Franco Zeffirelli.

Ambleside Days - Latest

Hugh C has kindly sent this link to Ambleside Days which contains details on their 30th Contemporary Music Festival to be held over the long weekend of August 30 to September 2.

Events are listed as well as the opportunity to vote in the Jazz FM Awards.

Lance.

CD Review: Bobo Stenson Trio - Contra La Indecision

Bobo Stenson (piano); Anders Jormin (bass); Jon Fält (drums).
(Review by Lance)

Piano trios are very much to the fore these days - just about every other CD that drops through the letterbox seems to be a piano, bass and drums unit albeit not an 'easy listening' combo although, in truth, the Swedish Bobo Stenson Trio is easy to listen to.

This, despite being recorded on the always challenging ECM label and featuring music by Bartok, and Satie alongside originals by Jorman, Stenson, Fält and others, the listener's comfort zone is rarely breached.

CD Review: Snowpoet - Thought You Knew

Lauren Kinsella (vocals, backing vocals, lyrics);  Chris Hyson (electric bass, double bass, piano, synths, composer); Nicholas Costley-White (acoustic guitar); Matthew Robinson (guitar); Dave Hamlett (drums); Josh Arcoleo (saxophone); also Alice Zawadski (violin); Francesca Ter-Berg ( cello); Lloyd Haines (drums and percussion, tracks 1,2, 7)

(Review by Ann Alex)

This is Snowpoet’s second album, following their highly acclaimed debut album in 2016. The band is led by Lauren Kinsella (Jazz FM Vocalist of the Year 2016) and multi-instrumentalist Chris Hyson from the creative new London jazz scene. All the words and music are original except for the songs Dear Someone (Gillian Welch) and Snow (Emiliana Torrini) and 2 of the 10 tracks are instrumentals.

CD Review: Kit Downes - Obsidian

Kit Downes (pipe organs) + Tom Challenger (tenor saxophone on track 5)

(Review by Russell)

An album of pipe organs! Improvising jazz pianist Kit Downes also plays the church pipe organ, or rather he did. As a child, he sang in a cathedral choir in Norwich and took lessons with the organist showing an aptitude for improvising. He has maintained an interest in the organ, occasionally visiting churches to play the instrument. In November 2016, Downes recorded this CD on three organs in three churches.

CD Review: The New Wonders - The New Wonders

Mike Davis (cornet & vocals); Ricky Alexander (clarinet, alto saxophone & vocals); Joe McDonough (trombone); Jared Engel (banjo); Dalton Ridenhour (piano); Jay Rattman (bass saxophone & vocals) & Jay Lepley (drums & vocals)

(Review by Russell) 

At twenty-six Manhattan School of Music graduate, Mike Davis is in the vanguard of a burgeoning group of like-minded young musicians exploring, reviving and performing the music of the twenties and thirties. Cornetist Davis and his peers are dedicated to their art; scholarly attention to detail, a determination to provide a platform for, and raise the profile of, the music, and to proudly celebrate their love of the period and its then, revolutionary musical form.

Things To Come @ Blaydon

Sunday 18th March 8pm Adm. £5

Zoe Gilby Quartet - Zoe Gilby vocals, Mark Williams gtr, Andy Champion bass, Russ Morgan drums.

Our great jazz singer Zoe now has a much deserved national profile. She brings her brilliant quartet to Blaydon for our opener of the new season.

 
Sunday 15th Apr 8pm Adm. £5

Giles Strong Quartet - Giles Strong gtr, Roly Veitch gtr, Ian Paterson bass, Adam Sinclair drums. 
Highly respected and versatile guitarist Giles Strong is a devotee of guitar legends such as Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass and Jim Hall. For this concert he is joined by likeminded guitarist Roly Veitch, together with Ian Paterson on double bass and Adam Sinclair drums.

A Radio Portrait of Val Wilmer

On Sunday evening (March 4) at 6:45 on BBC Radio 3 there is a documentary feature on veteran photographer and writer Val Wilmer. Just about every significant figure in jazz, blues and rhythm and blues, from the mid-1950s onwards, has been photographed by Val Wilmer. Talking heads help paint a portrait of Wilmer and the subject’s essential book As Serious As Your Life: Black Music and the Free Jazz Revolution 1955-1977 is reissued today (March 1) by Serpent’s Tail. The cover image shown is a first edition of the book published by Allison and Busby in 1977. 
Russell
(Editor: See also...)

Great North Big Band Jazz Festival Cancelled!

The weather has claimed its highest profile victim to date.

The annual Great North Big Band Jazz Festival, due to have been held thls weekend at Chester-le-Street, has had to be cancelled. Organiser Bill Watson explains:

"Unfortunately, we have had to cancel the Festival this weekend due to weather and the forecast. This was not our decision but the decision of the venue who feel they cannot guarantee keeping the car parks, pavement and steps clear and safe due to drifting snow".

This is a devastating blow for Bill who, faced with organising 30 bands and over 700 musicians from across the country, had managed to slot everything in place according to plan. When I spoke with him last weekend he confided that all he had left to do was get some more Gaffa Tape - and then this happens!

Our support and sympathy go out to Bill who, every year, puts so much effort into making the event the success it invariably is.

Lance

CD Review: Peripheral Vision: More Songs About Error and Shame

Trevor Hogg (tenor); Don Scott (guitar); Michael Herring (bass); Nick Fraser (drums).
Most press releases can be taken with a pinch of salt useful only for ensuring that you spell the names of the musicians correctly and, even then, they're not always 100% accurate. However, the notes to this album by Peripheral Version is right on the money and I make no apology for quoting them verbatim. The album title itself and the names of the individual tracks are enough to tell you that it does what it says on the tin and maybe more.
The Blunder; Syntax Error; "And the Metaphysical Context of Shame"; Portrait of a Man in a Nineteen-Century Frame; Chubby Cello; Mycelium Running; Click Bait.
Listen and enjoy.
Lance