Official Release 5th March Twinkle Twinkle by Dialogues Trio & Julian Segal

All About Jazz

 By Bruce Linsay 15th February 2012

Bruno Heinen: piano; Andrea Di Biase: bass; Jon Scott: drums; Julian Siegel: reeds

"Twinkle twinkle little star" is one of the most immediately recognizable opening lines: a phrase repeated thousands of times every day by parents and children around the globe. The album sleeve doesn't quote the nursery rhyme lyric however, preferring instead to reference Lewis Carroll's version, featuring the tea-tray impersonating little bat. A good move, because Carroll's somewhat surreal take on the children's favorite is a much closer relation to Dialogues Trio's musical re-imaginings. [...] The inspirational nursery rhyme makes regular appearances in the tunes, at times overtly, at others in much subtler ways.[...] The music doesn't simply shine like a star, it flies, darts and swoops like a little bat. And it's all the better for it.Read the full review here: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=41403


 Bebop Spoken Here
Sunday 22nd January 2012

Bruno Heinen is a classically trained pianist and on this, his debut CD, it shows. Twinkle Twinkle is, unsurprisingly, inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Recite the words in your head...'Twinkle, twinkle' etc and the melody you hear is the foundation for a series of explorations, gentle in nature, of the cadences of Carroll's much-loved work. All four musicians on the recording show great restraint to realise Heinen's musical vision. Perhaps best described as a chamber jazz project (the CD's publicity material suggests Bill Evans as an influence), the ten tracks demand a disciplined approach to remain within a framework of pastoral, reflective writing. Heinen as composer of five tunes establishes the tempo and tone of the album. Bassist Andrea Di Biase contributes a tune - Thick Thin - and the remaining four numbers are band compositions. The opening three tracks - Waltz for Rossie, Spins Wins and Nocturne - flow from the pen of Heinen and the first band composition - Brigante - develops an off-centre, fractured rhythm exploited to good effect by drummer Jon Scott and guest musician on this recording Julian Siegel. The leader's Jumping Rocks has a distinct Latin vibe evident in the bass line and Siegel's tenor work. The reedsman's bass clarinet is prominent on East and Rising and the closing number - Night Hue - concludes a one hour-plus journey through the foothills of a European landscape sketched in homage to Lewis Carroll.
http://lance-bebopspokenhere.blogspot.com/2012/01/cd-review-bruno-heinens-dialogues-trio.html

Listen/download at http://babel-label.bandcamp.com/album/twinkle-twinkle

HSBC and support for the arts - NOT

About 3 weeks ago, Tim Ward, Chairman of the Vortex, and I went to see our bank, HSBC. The guy there was most insistent that, despite all the Vortex does, we reduce our overdraft of £12,500 to zero "to protect the bank". Our explanation of all the Vortex does as a music club supporting jazz etc., and all that we do in Gillett Square fell on deaf ears. "You're too small to be of interest to us.". He even supported our suggestion to look for an alternative bank.  For information, we pay commercial rates for the overdraft.
Now, let's look at 2 pieces of news from yesterday and today.
Record profits at HSBC. And I worked out that CEO Stuart Gulliver earns the equivalent of our overdraft in half a day of work approximately. What therefore would it have done for their image to have just left us at the status quo? Well, who knows? And the amount of time that they have wasted on us.
Also. There was an article in the FT today explaining how business donations are declining. I suppose our experience would not be "donations" but just awareness or support.
The contrast, also mentioned in the report, is in private giving. That certainly is true at the Vortex. Our volunteer support is up and up.
(The upshot, by the way, of our dealings with HSBC is that we have ended up with a lower overdraft, through bits of judicious tinkering around here. So we survive, but no thanks to our bank, even though we have been with them for 7 years. Tim feels chastened as his family has banked with them for 2 generations.)

College Arms gig

Dan Messore's College Arms gig takes place next Sunday afternoon, in a band with Rory Simmons, Dave Manington, Pete Ibbetsen.
Link here

Reviews 

 

Emilia Martensson and Barry Green

  And So It Goes…    

 

                                                                           Babel

                                                                         20/2/ 2012

                             

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/feb/23/emilia-martensson-barry-green-review?newsfeed=true

By John Fordham

The Guardian 23^rd February 2012

UK-resident Swedish singer Emilia Martensson made an impact in 2010 on Kairos 4Tet's popular debut Kairos Moment, but although her duo with pianist Barry Green is comparatively new, this set (covering Jacques Brel, Egberto Gismonti, James Taylor, Schumann and more) makes them sound like old hands embraced. Martensson invests every sound with a skimming, rapturous lightness and clarity, and Green demonstrates a cool individuality within familiar Bill Evans-to-Jarrett territory. Schumann's Ich Grolle Nichte is recast as I Won't Regret (the original lyric is "I do not chide you, though my heart breaks"), with Green dabbing shy chords under Martensson's weaving line. Taylor's Something in the Way She Moves glimmers with his typical soft sheen; Peter Gabriel's gospelly Washing of the Water is a haunting duet with Ben Davis's cello; and the dark presence of Julian Siegel's bass clarinet on Gismonti's Palhaco is a shrewd tonal contrast. It's often eclectically folksy, but Martensson can also be a graceful, Stacey Kent-like performer, as she shows on Esbjörn Svensson's Waltz for the Lonely Ones and the swinger The Best Man.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/feb/19/martensson-green-and-so-review

By Dave Kelly

The Observer 19^th February 2012

Her voice may be soft and light, but there is nothing limp or vague about Emilia Martensson's singing. In her gentle way, she is among the most incisive of today's crop of impressive young vocalists. She also has a dauntingly wide and adventurous repertoire, taking in Jacques Brel, Nat King Cole and folk songs from her native Sweden – and that's where Barry Green comes in. A pianist of immense delicacy, he also swings with real style. This could grow into a classic partnership. Listen out, too, for some terrific bass clarinet from guest soloist Julian Siegel.

Listen / download from bandcamp http://babel-label.bandcamp.com/album/and-so-it-goes