Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Playlist for Babel Babble, 17 may

Playlist for the latest show:

Brahms: Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen (Bach Chor Boeblingen, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Roland Bader)
Georges Brassens
Phil Robson: Songbird (from Six Strings and The Beat)
Christine Tobin: Dreamland (from Secret Life of A Girl)
Eve Beuvens: Little Scorpion
Orchestre National de Jazz Luxembourg featuring David Laborier: Fast and Furious (From Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Band?)
Flat Earth Society: Edward, Why Don't You Play Some Blues? (from Psychoscout)
Geri Allen, Charlie Haden, Paul Motian: See You At Per Tutti's (from In the Year of the Dragon)
Zed-U: Forest (from Night Time in the Middle Passage)
Nils Landgren/Esbjorn Svensson: Lapp-Nils Polka (from Swedish Folk Modern)
Billy Jenkins: Donkey Droppings (from First Aural Art Collection)

A few little themes this week, with some things to do with European jazz, especially the little Belgian/Luxembourg section in the middle. I hope that Babel will have a Wallonie compilation out later in the year, while I would heartily recommend the Gaume Jazz Festival for some of the music from the region.

I played Z-U because I loved Sons of Kemet on Monday at the Vortex.
Charlie Haden is playing at the Barbican. He was also on Later with Jools. As wilful as ever, it seemed.

I may have lost a bit of the Landgren/Svensson track because of not flicking over the right button. So here's another track.






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Suddenly found this track of Nivk Cave with Charlie Haden, Sanborn, Thielemans

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Babel Babble, 10 May 2011

Sorry, playlist not quite up yet.
Including Django Bates, Recyclers, Emilia Martensson,

But check out this by Big Air at Saalfelden

Thursday, May 05, 2011

A-Z of Jazzahead

Seb Scotney on Londonjazz put up his A to Z of Jazzahead here. Here's mine.


A - AFIJMA. This is the French jazz festivals organisation and which the Vortex has just joined as a foreign associate member.
B- Belgium. Unlike much of this divided country, jazz appears to be a unifying factor. They have a great range of promoters in both the Flemish and Wallonie regions, such as Jean-Pierre Bissot from Gaume, Wim Wabbes from Vooruit in Gent etc. etc. (Also, Oliver Belopeta of Skopje)
C - Copenhagen Jazz Festival. Preannouncing its highlights, the main festival has over 1000 concerts in July. Go for it Christian.
D - Dutch Jazz. A country which has the resources and musicianship. Mouthwatering venues (e.g. Bim Huis and SJU Utrecht) and festivals (such as North Sea)
E - Europe Jazz Network. The Vortex is a member. Anke and Battista have been doing a great job in bringing us members together.
F - Festivals. Lots of them.
G- Gerry Godley. The mastermind behind the 12 Points festival in Ireland and overseeing, with Bo Gronningstaeter its expansion Europe-wide.
H - Hungary. The BMC label seems to be the driving force behind a lot of Hungarian jazz, not just a label but also a festival.
I - ILK. One of the great young labels around, driven by the ILK Collective in Denmark. The guiding light is Lotte Anker, a great saxophonist.
J - Jazz Services. Joe Paice set up the British stand with limited resources, but managed to get a presence for us after all.
K - Kelman, John. The ubiquitous and hard-working creative mastermind of allaboutjazz.com
L - Luxembourg. Much of the development of the scene here is due to trumpeter Gast Waltzing, who is also label manager, promoter, professor at music conservatoire.
M - Muetzelfeldt. Karsten, a radio journalist for WDR in Cologne and Deutschlandfunk, has an encyclopedic knowledge of European jazz and can be seen all around the place.
N - Norwegian. One of the main languages of the event, along with English, German and French. This is where all is moving towards over the next few years.
O - Orotone. A leading French agency. Laurent Carrier works hard to ensure that many of the young bands get around Europe. (Also Philippe Ochem of Jazzdor Strasbourg).
P - Panisset. Jacques has overseen the development of Grenoble Jazz Festival and its move to having a name including Babel!
Q - Quenum. Thierry is a great journalist, using his knowledge effectively for Jazz Magazine in France.
R - Rui Neves. A great promoter who runs the wonderful Jazz em Agosto in Lisbon. 
S - Sendesaal. This is the former Radio Bremen studio, now a concert hall where I heard Colin Vallon and Mathias Eick. I first went there in 1992 to help Iain Ballamy record All Men Amen. Its revival is a fitting tribute to the indefatigable Peter Schulze, who also initiated Jazzahead.
T - Tallinn. This year's European Capital of Culture with a great programme of music and also the home of the Free Tallinn Trio, coming back to London in October
U - Ulli Rattay is one of the best jazz publicists around in Germany. Understands the music but is also a realist.
V - Vortex. Todd Wills managed to survive insomnia and various alcoholic potions which were being offered to ensnare him for gigs.
W - Winckelmann. Matthias is one of the great jazz producers, with Enja now 40 years old. A mentor to me.
X - Xylophone. Or rather Vibraphone. Pascal Schumacher (at the Vortex in June)
Y - Youthful. What so many of the grey beards seem to have, in order to keep going.
Z - Zomerjazzfietstour. A festival around Groningen where you cycle from gig to gig. Marcel Roelofs is one of the happiest men you could ever meet - and a demon ninepin bowler.

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Babel Babble playlist, 3 May 2011

Meadow (Iain Ballamy) from All Men Amen (B&W)
Bad Drummer (Stephane Kerecki/John Taylor) from Patience
River Man (Andy Bey)
Kill Your Jitterbug Darlings (Bushmen's Revenge) from Jitterbug (Rune Grammofon) [at the Vortex, 1 June 2011]
Slave Thing (Paula Rae Gibson) from You Gather My Darkness Like Snow.... (Babel)
John Cage: The Wonderful Widow of 18 Springs (Cathy Berberian) from Magnificathy (Wergo)
Ursula and the Wind Dance (Aka Moon) from In Real Time (Carbon 7)
Like Someone In Love (Huw Warren) from Infinite Riches in a Little Room (Babel)
Janits Sedej Kalnina (Ilgi)
Beautiful Indifference (Arthurs/Fairhurst) from Mesmer (Babel) [at the Vortex, 6 May]

The theme was partly linked to having been at Jazzahead in Bremen. Meadow was recorded at the radio station studios there. I picked up album by Bushmen's Revenge and Stephane Kerecki there. Babel also got the heads up to do a Now's The Time sampler on Wallonie jazz - hence the choice of Aka Moon.

This week's question: who originally sang River Man?

Answer to last week: Sphere was Monk's middle name.

Apologies for losing a few seconds before the last track of the show. I forgot to push a switch.

Podcast coming soon.

There was no Billy Jenkins track this week. So how about this?


And a lovely track by Graham Collier, with Harry Beckett soloing. (I am also smitten by JT's comping and soloing.) There's a Harry Beckett tribute at the Vortex on 30 May.