145 articles
Barry Witherden
I first started to enjoy jazz when I was about nine through watching films like The Glenn Miller Story, The Benny Goodman Story and anything with Gene Krupa on drums. In my early teens I began to delve into modern jazz: first Stan Getz, the MJQ and Dave Brubeck, then the likes of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean and Ornette Coleman.When I was 15, disgusted by the general drubbing that my hero, Brubeck, got (from the critics, not the public) I submitted an article defending him to Jazz Journal. The legendary Sinclair Traill, founder and then-editor of JJ, disagreed with everything I said but enjoyed the article and published it. Soon after, I had pieces published in Jazz Monthly, International Times, Jazz and Blues and several fanzines. In my late teens I was, for a while, Secretary of the British Institute of Jazz Studies and contributing editor of its magazine. Then I dropped out of the fanzine scene, but at a Christmas party in 1985 I met the late, much-missed Richard Cook. He had just been appointed editor of The Wire and, remembering some of my earlier writings, invited me to contribute to the magazine, which I did for about a quarter of a century. I subsequently contributed to Jazz Review, Jazz on CD, Jazzwise, Gramophone, Music Week, Classic CD, Avant, The Rough Guide to Classical Music and The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz (for which I wrote 45,000 words without the aid of free samples from the sponsor) and currently contribute to BBC Music, allaboutjazz.com and, of course, Jazz Journal. I currently present a jazz show and a “left-field” show (which often features the more outré reaches of jazz and improv) on my local radio station, 10Radio (105.3 FM and www.10radio.org).
The Griots Speak: Destiny Calling
Brooklyn collaboration brings together straightahead and free players on Western, African and oriental instruments
Uri Caine: Agent Orange
Expressing himself as much in a classical as jazz vein, Caine draws a parallel between an infamous herbicide and an orange-tinted politician
Brackenbury Bianco: Wayward Mystic
String player Brackenbury, in duo with percussionist Bianco, finds a link between 12th century songwriter Hildegard and Coltrane's modalism
Marvin Muoneké Quartet, Taunton
The singer and brass man brought his rich bass-baritone voice to bear on the GAS, accompanied by bass vet Paul Francis and others
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Radio Banska CICCIC, Taunton
Southwest of England quintet mixed jazz with flavours from Mediterranea, their stance perhaps embodied in the title We're Not In Kansas Now
Duke Ellington & Johnny Hodges: Back To Back/Side By Side
Two-album collection with bonuses underlines the musical connections between Ellington's small groups and immediate post-bop jazz stylists
Paul Dunmall Ensemble: It’s A Matter Of Fact
Dunmall's music here was inspired by wood engravings but there's nothing wooden about this carve-up with Martin Archer, Julie Tippetts et al
Hugh Pascall Quintet at Ashburton Arts Centre
On the edge of Dartmoor the trumpeter led a band including James Allsop and Oli Hayhurst through a programme based in classic hard bop
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Zoe Rahman: Colour Of Sound
The pianist draws on hard bop and modal styles among others in a band including Rowland Sutherland, Alec Dankworth and Gene Calderazzo
Sharp Little Bones with Tony Kofi: Volumes I & II
Nottingham keyboard, bass and drum trio is joined by saxophonist Tony Kofi in a set of originals touching on bop, ballad, funk and Latin
Daniel Pogorzelski Quartet, Taunton
Pogorzelski is a Christian inspired by the spiritual aspect of John Coltrane's music, here playing the latter without direct imitation
Jane Ira Bloom – Picturing The Invisible: Focus 1
The science photography of Berenice Abbott inspired Bloom to write a set on which she plays typically pure, haunting and evocative soprano
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