Latest News From the Tower

LATEST NEWS FROM THE TOWER (JUNE)

COMING SOON....
The View from the Tower Residency resumes 23 June at the Vortex Jazz Club 15.30. Once again Dan Messore will be curating the series which showcases British compositions as well as Babel artists. Each week Dan is accompanied by a group of very accomplished colleagues, each bringing their own unique style to the ensemble.  Sometimes new talent and mature talent come together in the form of  Iain Bellamy, Tim Harries or Steve Waterman with interesting results. Frequently, described as a 'young upcoming guitarist' Messore demonstrates a respect for his seniors whose influence have undoubtedly left a mark. He has been developing his own style of composing and playing: rich in influences and range - from post-contemporary fusion to folk rock. Where does all this inspiration come from? From nature and its natural surroundings he says. Having travelled a fair amount, leading something of an itenerant lifestyle,  Messore re-creates travel transfroming stunning landscapes into soundscapes through improvisation. On the way one encounters  African folk music inspired some gentle rootsy guitar playing, misty mountain landscapes of an americana tinged with nostalgia, breezy and light with floating melodies. While 'tradition' is close to his heart the unknown road is equally a lure, so recently Messore hit the road with his band Indigo Kid  which included his youthful colleagues Trish Clowes (sax), Calum Gourlay (bass) and Gethin Jones (Drums) on a two month tour of the UK.

A WORD FROM DAN...                                                                                  
Last few weeks have been great, finished a really enjoyable Indigo Kid tour as with jazz services kind support. I was joined by Trish Clowes, Calum Gourlay, and Gethin Jones. They all sound amazing and we had fun times. 
Also, I've come out of  mixing the second album with Tim Harries, Martin France, Trish Clowes and Iain Ballamy. I'm very excited about it. 
At SE Collective I had my first gig with a new project I've been writing for with Ross Stankey on organ, Tim Giles and Gareth Lockrane. It went really well, those guys are so killer. 
So, View From The Tower coming up soon and we got some new tunes coming from Mike Chilllingworth, Dave Hamblett, and Get The Blessing's Jake McMurchie. Plus in the pipeline we have an arrangement coming from Laura Jurd and also from our very own Elliot Galvin. 
It nice to get these fresh tunes in from these musicians, its great having them sit in the set with the growing repertoire. 

DAN MESSORE ON BABEL


  

REVIEWSIndigo Kid 
BBC April (2012)    http://goo.gl/oKNdW 
All Bout Jazz (2012)   http://goo.gl/dtpq5
London Jazz News  (2012)  http://goo.gl/JxpoY
Americana UK (2012)   http://goo.gl/7I46D
BeBop Spoken Here (2012)  http://goo.gl/FNt7c
The Jazz Mann  (2012)   http://goo.gl/04CNj

Lacuna - Talk on the Step
Music Web International  http://goo.gl/vzKEx
The Jazz Mann (2013)  http://goo.gl/jN3nQ
BeBop Spoken Here (2013)  http://goo.gl/lHvEV

MOSS PROJECT - 'What Do You See When You Close Your Eyes?'.

What Do You See When You Close Your Eyes?  An album of collisions and reconciliations... The CD and accompanying book represent a collision of sound and story, a marriage of music and literature. What started out as an album of original compositions has been expanded to a deluxe art object, with the addition of six new pieces of fiction, each one written as a response to a particular track on What Do You See When You Close Your Eyes? In the up-beat groove of ‘The Bubble,’ tricky prog time signatures and stop-start riffs meet soulful funk and openhearted jazz soloing to make music for body and mind. In the down-tempo sigh of ‘Anniversary’, mel- ancholy fiddle and clarinet sit against twanging Bill Frisell-like guitar to paint a rain-soaked audio landscape. And on the title track, a jumping Afro-beat shimmy smashes into moody post-rock vibes to create a truly cosmopolitan 21st century hybrid. In the same way, throughout the album, the contrasting lead voices of Moss Freed’s precise and determined electric guitar and Alice Zawadzki’s soaring violin and ecstatic wordless vocals combine to offer a captivating snapshot of the human heart that stops you in your tracks. “Moody, cinematic compositions that blur the line between folk, rock and jazz with imagination and flair.” Time Out London Led by guitarist Moss Freed, Moss Project, brings together key figures from the cutting edge of the 21st cen- tury UK jazz scene. What Do You See When You Close Your Eyes? is Moss Project’s second album, produced in conjunction with a book of short stories, written by some of Britain’s freshest literary talents. Naomi Alderman, Joe Dunthorpe, Colum McCann, James Miller, Lawrence Norfolk andHanan al-Shaykh have each contributed new work to this unique project, directly inspired by the music on this gripping album. The music and words are brought together in a beautifully-illustrated hardback book with CD insert. If you missed the launch at The Vortex you can check out some recordings of the show on the new BABEL YOUTUBE CHANNEL. BIOGRAPHIES Mancunian guitarist Moss Freed is founder and leader of Moss Project, which released its debut album, Vi- sion, in 2009. The album was greeted by prog-jazz drum legend Bill Bruford as “a real achievement.” Moss has also founded jazz-rock band Let Spin and established the Coventry Calling music festival in Connecticut. Bassist Ruth Goller is best known for playing bass guitar in the groundbreaking band Acoustic Ladyland, although the Italian-born Londoner has also performed in a wide range of situations including work with the acclaimed Serbian jazz piano star Bojan Z. Goller also leads her own band, Big Cat. Vocalist and violinist Alice Zawadzki has worked with jazz vocalist Norma Winstone of Azimuth, and singer Jacqui Dankworth. Zawadzki makes her solo debut as a bandleader in 2013. Slovakian drummer Marek Dorcik cut his teeth in his national jazz scene before moving to Manchester in 2006. He has worked with the vanguard of the north-west jazz scene including Mike Walker of The Impossible Gentlemen, and the Cinematic Orchestra’s Stuart McCallum. Reeds player Shabaka Hutchings leads his own highly rated band Sons of Kemet. He has also performed in drum-great Jack DeJohnette’s high-powered Jerwood All-Stars, and as a BBC New Generation artist com-posed ‘Babylon’, which was performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra in 2012. REVIEWS All About Jazz 1/6/13 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44637#.UanxjdLVC3E All About Jazz 31/5/13 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44636#.UanxBNLVC3E Be Bop Spoken Here http://lance-bebopspokenhere.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/cd-review-moss-project-what-do-you-see.html The Independent: 18/5/13 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/review-what-do-you-see-when-you-close-your-eyes-by-moss-project-8617703.html AVAILABLE FROM  BANDCAMP

BRUNO HEINEN SEXTET - 'Karlheinz Stockhausen Tierkreis'.

BRUNO HEINEN SEXTET - 'Karlheinz Stockhausen Tierkreis'.  

We're very proud to present yet another recent release: BRUNO HEINEN SEXTET - 'Karlheinz Stockhausen Tierkreis'.  

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW

Pianist and arranger, Bruno Heinen was knee-deep in Stockhausen from an early age. The luminous presence of wind-up music boxes from his childhood are at the heart of his exquisite arrangements of Tierkreis. Both Bruno’s parents – cellist Ulrich Heinen and violinist Jacqueline Ross - had worked with the composer & electronic music innovator Karlheinz Stockhausen in the 70’s in Germany when he composed Tierkreis (1974-5) for 12 music boxes. Bruno’s father had acquired 4 of the music boxes, and Bruno’s fascination with the piece began in the family home. A 5th was recently presented to Bruno for his birthday in late December appropriately the Aquarius box - and he returned to the studio in January this year to lay it into this recording. Tierkreis (meaning “the signs of the Zodiac”) has 12 melodies based on tone rows, one for each star sign. Heinen has adhered to Stockhausen’s brief instructions for the popular work, allowing for any combination of instruments, but that the performance should begin with the melody falling under the star sign of the selected date, and end with a repeat of the opening melody. Heinen’s recording in April, begins and ends with Aires, and on which the music box has a particularly vivid presence. Heinen brings his classical training and jazz sensibility, with traces of funk, west coast flavour and Blue Note inflexions, to his substantial reworking of the composer’s ideas. Certain movements include improvising with the melodies and music boxes, while others involve reharmonising. His sextet of distinctive players bring their diverse experience to their readings and improvisations. Stockhausen was a great believer in improvisation, and his influence rubbed off on a wide array of jazz musicians during his lifetime and since, including Miles Davis, Cecil Taylor and Herbie Hancock. It’s five years since Heinen first arranged Tierkreis for a jazz sextet, but in 2010 he also arranged the work rather differently for cello, double bass and piano for a performance that also included his father Ulrich Heinen, the long time principal cellist of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Tierkreis recorded with Markus Stockhausen’s blessing, in April 2012 at Eastcote Studios, was produced by Philip Bagenal and Bruno Heinen. The album is dedicated to Heinen’s former teacher, the pianist and composer, Pete Saberton, who died in 2012. Biographies A former classical piano student at the Royal College of Music, Bruno Heinen continued his studies with a Masters in jazz performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, taught there by John Taylor, and where he now teaches Jazz Harmony to Guildhall’s classical students. He has collaborated with many leading lights of the UK scene extensively since, including Julian Siegel, who guested on Heinen’s Dialogues Trio release Twinkle Twinkle released by Babel in 2012. Bruno leads both his trio and the sextet, and performs with Palestinian Singer Reem Kelani. As a composer, Bruno has written for groups ranging from sextet to two pianos and percussion, and from big band to classical string trio. He also leads the King Alfred School big band, and recently led them to win the Music For Youth Competition with his arrangements. Bass clarinettist James Allsopp won a BBC Jazz Award for innovation in 2008, recognition in part for his groundbreaking band Fraud. More recently he has led his band The Golden Age of Steam, whose debut Raspberry Tongue was released by Babel in 2010, followed by Welcome to Bat Country” on Basho.  Tenor saxophonist Tom Challenger is best known for his electronica-leaning post-jazz band Ma, and Dice Factory, who debuted in 2012. Challenger became involved in improvisation while still at school, and later gained a first class honours degree from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. London-based Italian trumpeter Fulvio Sigurtà jazz training has included study at Berklee in Boston, and a Masters at the Guildhall School of Music in London. With the Guildhall Big Band he appeared on Pure and Simple, an album that featured John Taylor. Andrea Di Biase studied double bass at the Milan Conservatoire, and continued with postgraduate studies in jazz at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He leads the Oltremare quartet releasing debut album Uncommon Nonsense in 2011 on Babel, and is a member of the Dialogues trio. Drummer Jon Scott is also a member of Dice Factory, the Oltremare quartet and Dialogues trio, and is best known for his work with the MOBO-winning Kairos 4tet.

Album launch @ the Vortex Jazz Club in March

REVIEWS

The Jazzmann 19/4/13
http://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/bruno-heinen-sextet-tierkreis/

The Independent 6/4/13
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-bruno-heinen-sextet-tierkreis-8562944.html

All About Jazz 6/4/13
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44273#.Uan14tLVC3E

Telegraph 4/4/13 (Live Review)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/9972130/Bruno-Heinen-Sextet-Vortex-Jazz-Club-review.html

The Guardian 28/3/13
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/mar/28/bruno-heinen-sextet-tierkreis-review

Beyond A Love Supreme: John Coltrane and the Legacy of An Album
_______________________________________

Beyond A Love Supreme is a new book by Tony Whyton the author of Jazz Icons: Heroes, Myths and the Tradition (2010). This latest offering takes on not just a John Coltrane masterpiece but one of the greatest jazz albums of all time whose importance and influence cannot be overstated. Coltrane's emergence from a dark period coincided with a heightened sense of spirituality and creativity that came together in the recording of  A Love Supreme, which explains why the work is often regarded as one of redemption.

A Love Supreme is widely considered John Coltrane’s magnum opus and one of the greatest jazz albums of all time.   In Beyond A Love Supreme, Tony Whyton explores both the musical complexities of A Love Supreme and the album's seminal importance in jazz history. Marking Coltrane's transition from the bebop and hard bop of his earlier recordings to the free jazz style perfected
throughout the rest of his career, the album also embodies 

the deep spirituality that characterized the final years of his life. The titles of the four part suite—"Acknowledgment," "Resolution," "Pursuance," and "Psalm"—along with the poem Coltrane composed for inclusion in the liner notes, which he "recites" instrumentally in "Psalm," reflect the religious aspect of the album, a quality that contributes to its mystique and symbolic importance within the canon of major jazz recordings. But Whyton also shows how A Love Supreme challenges many of the traditional, unreflective assumptions that permeate jazz culture—the binary oppositions between improvisation and composition, black music and white music, live performance and studio recording. He critically examines many of the mythologizing narratives about how the album was conceived and recorded and about what it signifies in terms of the trajectory of Coltrane’s personal life. Sifting through the criticism of late Coltrane, Whyton suggests ways of listening to these recordings that go beyond the conventional ideologies of mainstream jazz practice and open the music to a wider range of responses. Filled with fresh insights into one of the most influential recordings in jazz history, Beyond A Love Supreme is an indispensable resource for jazz scholars, jazz musicians, and fans and aficionados at all levels.

Reviews

“Tony Whyton has brilliantly revealed how it has become impossible to know John Coltrane's A Love Supreme outside notions of race, spirituality, history, authenticity, and nostalgia.  For me, it's like hearing the music for the first time.”—Krin Gabbard, Author of Hotter Than That: The Trumpet, Jazz, and American Culture

“Smart and engaging, Whyton's study highlights the multiple and ever-changing interpretations of Coltrane's most famous recording.  In the process, Beyond a Love Supreme serves as an important corrective to those efforts -- however well-meaning -- that might limit how we understand jazz and its people.”—David Ake, Jazz pianist and author of Jazz Cultures and Jazz Matters

Author Tony Whyton is Director of the Salford Music Research Centre at the University of Salford.   and co-editor of the Jazz Research Journal. Beyond A Love Supreme is Published by Oxford University Press. 

BABEL REVIEWS

 The 

wonderful 

Robert Ratajczak 

has reviewed a number 

of Babel releases which are 

in Polish but can be read using the 

google translator http://goo.gl/s4uaG