London Jazz Festival gigs

Here is a list of some Babel artists within London Jazz Festival. Where they perform actual music from Babel albums it is marked with a star.

Check the venues for details. I'll add more over time.

27 so far.....

15 November

Nick Smart's Trogon *  - South Bank Centre 1 pm

Julie Sassoon (double bill with Enrico Pieranunzi)  - Bishopsgate Institute 8 pm

Township Comets - Vortex 8.30 pm

Black Top *  - Cafe Oto 8 pm

16 November

Bruno Heinen-Tierkreis * -  Vortex 4 pm

Loop Collective  - King's Place from 3 pm

Black Top *  - Cafe Oto 8 pm

Emilia Mårtensson  - Vortex 8.30 pm

Neil Charles workshop  - Southbank Centre 11am

Chris Sharkey, Andy Champion, Way In To The Way Out -  Southbank Centre 5 pm

17 November

London Jazz Orchestra  - Vortex 4 pm

18 November

Louis Moholo-Moholo/ Alexander Hawkins  - Vortex 8.30 pm

19 November

Riaan Vosloo & Tim Giles -  Forge 6.30 pm

Alexander Hawkins Trio - Forge 8 pm

Christine Tobin - Southbank Centre 7.45 pm

Julian Argüelles - 606 Club 8.30 pm

21 November

Moss Project * - Forge 8 pm

Carol Grimes -  Lauderdale House 8 pm

Alexander Hawkins curates  - Vortex midnight

22 November

Raymond MacDonald -  Club Inégales 8 pm

Eyes of a Blue Dog *  - Vortex 8.30 pm

Alice Zawadzki  - POSK 9 pm

Alexander Hawkins curates  - Vortex midnight

23 November

Alexander Hawkins curates  - Vortex midnight

24 November

Dan Messore's View From The Tower  - Vortex 4 pm

Oliver Weindling/John Jack Soho talk Vortex 6 pm

DAN MESSORE'S
                                VIEW FROM THE TOWER at the VORTEX JAZZ CLUB

View From the Tower is back for its monthly residency at the VORTEX JAZZ CLUB, SUNDAY 20th 15.30 with the latest installment of themed performances exploring the work of Great British composers. 

KATAN500:  What've you been up too since the last installement of VFT?

DAN:  Well it's been a busy old  time. "Little Arrow" a great band I work with have been nominated for The Welsh Music Prize  We will be playing on the Green Man stage at SWN festival this Sat. Depped  a few gigs in "Streetworks",  accordionist Karen Streets Quartet. The regular guitarist is Mike Outram, who's one of my absolute favourites. This was really fun and Karen and her husband Andy Tween have written some beautiful tunes. Also, had a great gig in the foyer of South Bank with "Get The Blessing" saxophonist Jake Mcmurchie. It's was packed and went down really well. I've been guesting with his group "Michelson Morley" a lot recently and we'll be touring in spring next year. With their album out on F-ire May 2014. Jake writes great music and the band explores minimalism, free playing and lots of fun with electronics. So its been choka...

KATAN500: A little birdy told me that you were getting married... *loud hum of here comes the bride*
 
DAN:  We're  planning our wedding for next year, which has been awesome and mental :) My lovely Jojo (Dan's fiancé) is soon to finish her acupuncture studies and already has lots of clients!
 
KATAN500: I'm sure you'll tell us more later. What have you got planned for Sunday's Vortex gig?

DAN:  ..I'm really looking forward to Sunday. As always a great line up including the regular power houses that are the rhythm Daves...Manington and Hamblett on bass and drums. Front line we got the fabulous Joe Wright (tenor sax), Nick Malcom (trumpet) and Mr Mike Chilligworth (sop sax), and our new musical comrade Rick Simpson (piano). He came at the recommendation of Mike Chillingworth our sop sax regular. So hope to see you down there as we explore some classics from our pad. Including tunes from Iain Ballamy, Huw Warren, Julian Arguelles, Phil Robson, Gareth Lockrane, Steve Waterman...and more.

KATAN500: Thank you Dan and see you Sunday...

The concept and musical arrangements of VFT are by Dan Messore. 

Gig information:  http://www.vortexjazz.co.uk/gigs.php?gd=20131020#1530


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NEW ON BABEL (2) Tower Casa

TOWER CASA

Due for release on Babel 18 November is TOWER CASA by the trumpeter Nick Smart with his band TROGON. Not only is Smart a renown trumpeter who has played with most of the big names in the UK jazz scene, he is also the Head of Jazz at the Royal Academy of Music. His dedication and talent as an educator was recognized when he received the Parliamentary Award for Jazz Education 2013. For the Tower Casa project Smart brought together an impressive bunch of musicians from the World-Jazz scenes. They include Denny "Jimmy" Martinez, Chris Montague, Kishon Khan, Dave Hamblett and Pete Eckford. The album is rooted in jazz, yet constructed from a mix of musical backgrounds - drawing on the rhythmic traditions of Afro Cuban music and the rich harmonies of contemporary jazz. There are some original compositions by Nick Smart and Kishon Khan and new arrangements of pieces by Kenny Wheeler and Stan Sulzmann. In case you're wondering 'Trogon' is the national bird of Cuba: presumable because of its colours - red white and blue. 

Meet the boys:
‘Troyka’ guitarist Chris Montague, Cuban bassist Denny ‘Jimmy’ Martinez, Nick Smart, London-Bangladeshi pianist Kishon Khan, cutting edge drummer/composer Dave Hamblett,and long established London percussionist Pete Eckford.

Hope you enjoy the music...

Russell Henderson concert tonight!

One of the most influential steel pan players here and also part of the Soho jazz scene in the 50s! He performed in the first Notting Hill Carnival on pan.

I have had a conversation with him a bit about his times in Soho, and will talk to him more as my Soho project develops. When I saw him at the beginning of the week, he looked incredibly dapper for an 80 year old.

I'll also try and get him down to my talk at the Vortex during the London Jazz Festival with John Jack. (Second Sunday of the festival at 6 p.m.)

Jazz from Luxembourg - FREE gig at Vortex

It's too easy to dismiss a small country such as Luxembourg as having no jazz worthy of note. But that would be the same as disregarding any provincial city in Britain. Yet Derby has produced the likes of Phil Robson and Josh Blackmore and I can count at least seven from Norwich. (Work it out for yourselves!)

In fact, many of the Luxembourg musicians have, understandably, looked abroad for their inspiration and relocated for periods.

Leading the pack for several years has been Pascal Schumacher, the vibraphonist, who will be back at the vortex during the London Jazz Festival as part of a unmissable night featuring a duo of Philip Catherine and John Etheridge (on 23 November).

Meanwhile, Kevin Le Gendre selected tracks by Schumacher and singer Sofia Ribeiro for a new Now's The Time compilation on Babel.

I myself have been intrigued by who else is developing from there for several years, with tasters from my regular visits to the Gaume Jazz Festival,  just 50 miles away in Belgium.

And so I was delighted to hear, at a Luxembourg Jazz Meeting a year ago, one of the groups of the new generation - the trio of Michel Reis with Marc Demuth and Paul Wiltgen. Michel and Marc both spend part of their time in New York.Reis/Demuth/Wiltgen. Jazz for free from Luxembourg -14 October

It's too easy to dismiss a small country such as Luxembourg as having no jazz worthy of note. But that would be the same as disregarding any provincial city in Britain. Yet Derby has produced the likes of Phil Robson and Josh Blackmore and I can count at least seven from Norwich. (Work it out for yourselves!)

In fact, many of the Luxembourg musicians have, understandably, looked abroad for their inspiration and relocated for periods.

Leading the pack for several years has been Pascal Schumacher, the vibraphonist, who will be back at the vortex during the London Jazz Festival as part of a unmissable night featuring a duo of Philip Catherine and John Etheridge (on 23 November).

Meanwhile, Kevin Le Gendre selected tracks by Schumacher and singer Sofia Ribeiro for a new Now's The Time compilation on Babel.

I myself have been intrigued by who else is developing from there for several years, with tasters from my regular visits to the Gaume Jazz Festival,  just 50 miles away in Belgium.

And so I was delighted to hear, at a Luxembourg Jazz Meeting a year ago, one of the groups of the new generation - the trio of Michel Reis with Marc Demuth and Paul Wiltgen. Michel and Marc both spend part of their time in New York.

Unsurprising therefore that the trio's latest release is on the French Laborie label, which has releases by fantastic pianists such as Shaï Maestro, Benjamin Moussay and Yaron Herman. The trio brings out a strong contemporary style with an awareness of melody which at times is very cinematic.

Completing the double bill in October will be a duo of Luxembourg saxophonist Maxime Bender and Scottish guitarist Graeme Stephen, thus showing another trend amongst Luxembourg musicians: judicious selection of 'foreign' comrades-in-arms.

Thanks to the support of Music LX, ADMISSION WILL BE FREE!






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NEW ON BABEL (1) OPABINIA, STEP WIDE, STEP DEEP, SONG SINGULAR

NEW ON BABEL (1)

Check out what's new on Babel...

OPABINIA, STEP WIDE, STEP DEEP, SONG SINGULAR

Opabinia released 18 September 2013 is the debut album by the Dominic Lash Quartet which consists of Alexander Hawkins (piano), Javier Carmona (drums), Ricardo Tejero (sax) and the man himself Dominic Lash (bass). Lash takes the lead for this project with the quartet playing his compositions which retains a healthy respect for the art of improvisation / improv. He is a thinking man's musician with a commitment to experimenting. Compositions for improvisors may sound a bit of an oxymoron but even Lash's compositions are held together by something no matter how fine. Lash says he has never seen himself strictly as a 'jazz man' because his style owes as much to contemporary classical as it does to jazz. Whatever, he is undoubtedly an adventurous composer who has been described as a  musical stylist.

Lash also leads the Convergence Quartet with Alexander Hawkins whose other members include Taylor Ho Bynum, Harris Eisenstadt, which has been called a 'transatlantic band'. In fact, all are strong composers and improvisors in their own right ,and to say that there is a 'leader' is just plain wrong. Sebastian Scotney interviews Alexander Hawkins for London Jazz News about the band and the upcoming Vortex gig Tues 8th October 20.30  The band started from a precarious concept gradually finding a way to make their different stylistic languages gel. John Fordham described the band as 'a powerful example of 21st century musical catholicity, uninhibitedly mingling improv, contemporary classical composition, old jazz and new abstractions'. Now there's an accolade.
Pianist and composer Alexander Hawkins has two new albums ready for release in November. First in line is Step Wide, Step Deep due out 4/11/13 with the Alexander Hawkins Ensemble, followed by Song Singular on 11/11/13, which is a solo. His debut album All There, Ever Out  (Babel) released April 2012, was well received and Hawkins was named as a newcomer to watch  by many pundits. One reviewer even commented, 'It has been the Holy Grail of jazz since its inception: to carve out the perfect balance between the written and the spontaneously invented. While All There, Ever Out may not be the definitive statement, English pianist Alexander Hawkins has taken a bold stab at a new version of the equation, combining composition and improvisation in exciting and unpredictable ways'. It remains to be seen how audiences and reviewers will take to the new works one year on after setting such a high standard. I can say though get ready for a treat. 
Watch this space for more news about new Babel releases coming soon.