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British Jazz


Bilbo
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went to a jazz bar on wednesday to see my guitar tutor's jazz fusion band play, and I've got to admit that they played some of the best jazz I've ever heard. the bassist was out of this world, along the lines of jaco (no exaggeration) and the drummer was probably the best I've ever seen. half way into red baron they got into some heavy metric modulation, it made your heart skip a beat... they came back into the main riff and everyone was gobsmacked. I really don't understand how if the bassist pushed a note, the drummer followed, like just off the cuff... so yeah, if they had an album, that would be my top.

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Neil Cowley is doing great work, although I'd call many of his compositions near-classical, or rock. I also miss not having any bass improv, although the piano improv is great.

I'm working my way down Mike Flynn's list now - I wasn't aware of all the others, save for one or two.

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[quote name='Earbrass' post='835352' date='May 12 2010, 03:04 PM']Carol Grimes - not perhaps so much for her recorded output (though there are some great tracks) but for the many fantastic gigs I've seen at the Vortex and other venues.
Especially when her band has included pianist Janette Mason, who is a great player and composer on her own right. I especially love the work JM did with Robert Wyatt.[/quote]


Oh!
Carol Grimes!
Takes me back ..
Steve Lodder on keys then and Angelique what's her name on sax. She was very "instrumental" in me continuing with my sax playing. :)

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[quote name='urb' post='836044' date='May 13 2010, 11:57 AM']Try these out... British jazz is in rude health - except you won't hear/see ANY of it on TV (thanks to the BBC's obsession with chasing ratings) or read about it in the papers (outside of [url="http://www.jazzwisemagazine.com/"]Jazzwise[/url] and a handful of reviews in the Grauniad and Independent)

Neil Cowley Trio
[url="http://www.myspace.com/neilcowleytrio"]http://www.myspace.com/neilcowleytrio[/url]

TrioVD
[url="http://www.myspace.com/triovd"]http://www.myspace.com/triovd[/url]

Minghe Morte
[url="http://www.myspace.com/minghemorte"]http://www.myspace.com/minghemorte[/url]

Led Bib
[url="http://www.myspace.com/ledbib"]http://www.myspace.com/ledbib[/url]

Troyka
[url="http://www.myspace.com/troykaband"]http://www.myspace.com/troykaband[/url]

Outhouse
[url="http://www.myspace.com/outhouseloop"]http://www.myspace.com/outhouseloop[/url]

The Mighty Jeddo
[url="http://www.myspace.com/themightyjeddo"]http://www.myspace.com/themightyjeddo[/url]

The South Trio
[url="http://www.myspace.com/thesouthtrio"]http://www.myspace.com/thesouthtrio[/url]

Zed-U
[url="http://www.myspace.com/zumusik"]http://www.myspace.com/zumusik[/url]

Acoustic Ladyland
[url="http://www.myspace.com/acousticladylandmusic"]http://www.myspace.com/acousticladylandmusic[/url]

The Final Terror
[url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/introducing/artists/finalterror/"]http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/introducing/artists/finalterror/[/url]

Polar Bear
[url="http://www.myspace.com/sebastianrochford"]http://www.myspace.com/sebastianrochford[/url]

Adam Waldmann
[url="http://www.adamwaldmann.com/fr_home.cfm"]http://www.adamwaldmann.com/fr_home.cfm[/url]

Portico Quartet
[url="http://www.myspace.com/porticoquartet"]http://www.myspace.com/porticoquartet[/url]

Manu Delago
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17ojj7tgrqw"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17ojj7tgrqw[/url]

M[/quote]

On TV, prossibly not but quite a lot on BBC Radio.
I've heard several of these on the [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazz/"]Radio 3 jazz[/url] and world music programmes.
Plus the new [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rr86v"]Radio 2 Jazz programme with Jamie Cullum[/url].

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[quote name='OldGit' post='845829' date='May 23 2010, 04:04 PM']On TV, prossibly not but quite a lot on BBC Radio.
I've heard several of these on the [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazz/"]Radio 3 jazz[/url] and world music programmes.
Plus the new [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rr86v"]Radio 2 Jazz programme with Jamie Cullum[/url].[/quote]

Absolutely jazz record requests on Radio 3 is very good, heard some great Django Bates and Loose Tubes stuff on there yesterday and Jazz on 3 with Jez Nelson is great, I've been lucky enough to go to several of their live broadcasts and they always pick some cool bands to play on the show, listen again on the iPlayer is the way to go with this stuff :)

Oh yeah and Mike Chadwick, Sarah Weller and Helen Mayhew are all worth checking out in the evening on Jazz FM which is on DAB if you have it, daytime it still very 'smooooth jazz' which I can't stand... but the evening shows are very good, plus they are getting about 500K of listeners every week so well done Jazz FM.

Mike

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[quote name='Faithless' post='837341' date='May 14 2010, 04:09 PM']It seems that 'Jaco syndrome' is a major issue for modern jazz bassists, innit?

Hadrien Feraud is probably a best example for this..
A few years ago he sounded like a complete copy of the legend.. I'm glad he now got away with some sort of 'unique' sound after all.

But still, there are dozens, and there probably will be.

Just look at this Berklee cat:



Not to mention, that he's a complete 'victim' of Jaco, I can't get it, how can he get his thing going in Berklee.. Whatever..


It got me thinking..
I've heard it dozen of times - Oh, this cat, sounds like a complete Jaco/Wooten/Garrisson/whatever.. Basically, bassplayer is compared to another bassplayer..

But, have you ever heard - Oh, this man [bassist] sounds like M.Davis/Korea/K.Garrett/Coltrane, whatever..?[/quote]

I see very little of Jaco apart from harmonics but this video is everything that is wrong with emulating the modern day giants of bass too soon.
This guy may end up being a great player but he seems to have it ALL back to front- pinching artificial harmonics and slapping away but when he comes to actually playing the bass is a traditional manner, he struggles.
Just my thoughts.

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  • 4 weeks later...

[quote name='Bilbo' post='837868' date='May 15 2010, 07:04 AM']Who were the players, dp?[/quote]

Going to see them again on wednesday, they're back by popular demand. Found out the names, the bassist is Dave Troke and the drummer is Ed Williams. I might have sounded like I was exaggerating a little bit, but it truly was breath taking.

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[quote name='Lenny B' post='835270' date='May 12 2010, 01:40 PM']+1 on The Steve Berry Trio album too, but I haven't heard it in along time as my vinyl player is packed away. I pass by Steve's house nearly everyday and had the pleasure of lessons from him back in 1993 ish. Superb player and top bloke.



I had lessons from Steve in 96/97 - Superb player and top bloke indeed![/quote]

Steve is a marvelous and truly inspirational character, I got lessons from him at Uni and he completely turns your head inside out with his ideas on music and really gets you thinking, not to mention being one of the most phenomenal musicians I've ever met.

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[quote name='Bilbo' post='835106' date='May 12 2010, 10:29 AM']There has always been a general consensus that all of the best jazz comes from the US. I think that this has been challanged over the last couple of decades and that, in addition to jazz from Europe and the Far East, there has been a great deal of quality music coming out of the UK for the last 20 years or more. Following on from the talented but exceptional Tubby Hayes/Ronnie Scott/Jazz Couriers group (‘57 – ’59), we have seen major progress in the form of bands like Loose Tubes and the Delightful Precipice Orchestra and players like Courtney Pine, Iain Ballamy, John Taylor and Tommy Smith in the 80s and 90s. More recently, small groups like Neil Cowley’s Trio, Empirical, the FIRE Collective, etc have started to appear.

So the question is, what British led jazz LPs have turned your head now or in the past? Ex-pats are welcome if they are long term residents of the UK. Defectors are excluded – Dave Holland, George Shearing etc – the choices must have been conceived and recorded within these shores.

My favourites? For starters…..

Kenny Wheeler – Flutter By, Butterfly (Canadian but here since 1950s)
Kenny Wheeler – Music for Large and Small Ensembles
Iain Ballamy – Balloon Man
Loose Tubes – Delightful Precipice
Django Bates – Winter Truce (and Homes Blaze)
Bill Bruford’s Earthworks – 1st (1990)
John Taylor Trio – Whirlpool
Andy Sheppard’s Co-Motion – Rhythm Method
Courtney Pine – Journey Ot The Urge WIthin
Steve Berry Trio – 1st

What British Jazz has done it for you.[/quote]
Bilbo, whenever you do one of your lists it ends up costing me money.

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I saw John Taylor years and years ago with Peter Erskine in Southampton. I've never heard a drummer play a solo that had was [i]melodic[/i] before or since.
Also on the bill was John Apple crumble, sorry, Abercrombie in a trio with drummer Adam Nussbaum, who fell backwards off his drum stool (it wasn't fixed properly) right in the middle of a tune. Happy times...

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Being more into singers than instrumentals, how about Tina May - doesn't play an instrument, but you can actually hear her smile!
Liane Carroll - plays amazing piano while singing a totally different (or totally same!) line. Used to smoke like a chimney during piano solos.. she's had to stop that, but it hasn't harmed her voice at all.

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[quote name='TheRev' post='873854' date='Jun 21 2010, 08:35 PM'][url="http://www.theblessing.co.uk/#awp::"]Get the blessing[/url]

Contemporary jazz from Bristol/Bath featuring half of Portishead.
Me likey.[/quote]

good call! never heard them before but I'm liking the original sound..


with regards to the Cottle vs. Jaco debate, he learnt from Jaco way back when, which I guess has a lot to do with it. I've heard him play some more chilled stuff and he takes on a completely different character - although still maybe a bit generic. (the whole Cottle family are fantastic, I'm swansea born and raised and Dave Cottle owns the jazz club just down the road from my parents. got to see some wicked gigs, Laurence quite often was the in-house player. particularly remember seeing Bill Bruford come down - that was a cracking gig.)

still, hats off to the guy, he toured with Sabbath - not many jazz players can say that :)

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A few of my favourite albums:

If Destroyed Still True - Seven Dials
Joel Purnell - Red Shift
Dave O'Higgins - Sketchbook
Paul Booth - Pathways
Chris Potter - Ultrahang
Empirical - Out 'n' In
Troyka - Troyka
Steve Melling - Solar
Acoustic Triangle - Resonance
Tony Kofi - The Silent Truth
Gareth Lockrane - No Messin'
John Taylor - Insight
Ambulance - Accident and Insurgency
Gwilym Simcock - Perception
Cleveland Watkiss - Green Chimneys
Dave Kane's Rabbit Project - The Eye Of The Duck

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[quote name='gnasher1993' post='874455' date='Jun 22 2010, 02:54 PM']A few of my favourite albums:

If Destroyed Still True - Seven Dials
Joel Purnell - Red Shift
Dave O'Higgins - Sketchbook
Paul Booth - Pathways
Chris Potter - Ultrahang
Empirical - Out 'n' In
Troyka - Troyka
Steve Melling - Solar
Acoustic Triangle - Resonance
Tony Kofi - The Silent Truth
Gareth Lockrane - No Messin'
John Taylor - Insight
Ambulance - Accident and Insurgency
Gwilym Simcock - Perception
Cleveland Watkiss - Green Chimneys
Dave Kane's Rabbit Project - The Eye Of The Duck[/quote]



Good to Gareth Lochrane in there, he's a such a great player. You can hear some of his great playing on my myspace page.
Lets not forget to mention Jason Rebello as well....

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