Update: The next View From the Tower will be held on 27th January 2013 

View From the Tower

At the Vortex Jazz Club 25th November 3.30pm

Tickets: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/190308

The latest instalment of themed performances exploring the work of Great British composers. This month's participating musicians are: Steve Waterman (trumpet), Gareth Lockrane (flute), Elliot Galvin (piano), Dave Hamblett (drums), Trish Clowes (tenor sax), Calum Gourlay (double bass) and Dan Messore (guitar). The musical arrangements and concept are led by Dan Messore. 

STEVE WATERMAN (TRUMPET)

Steve Waterman is one of Britain's top jazz trumpet players playing regularly on the British and European jazz scene. He is also a professor of Jazz Trumpet at Trinity College of Music in London and visiting Jazz Trumpet specialist at The Royal Northern College Of Music and The Welsh College Of Music And Drama. 

GARETH LOCKRANE (FLUTE)
Gareth Lockrane has acquired quite a reputation as a composer, and more recently the accolade of the 'flute phenonenon'. He studied at the National Film School where he excelled at film scoring. His album ‘No Messin’ won the Best Album category in the Parliamentary Jazz Award. Lockrane's Grooveyard's latest album, 'The Strut' was launched at the London Jazz Festival this month. Follow this link for a review by Chris Parker.
http://londonjazz.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/cd-review-and-interview-podcast-gareth.html



ELLIOT GALVIN (PIANO)

Elliot Galvin is a composer, jazz pianist and founding member of the CHAOS COLLECTIVE. He says that he is influenced by many things, including Miles Davis, Igor Stravinsky, György Ligeti, Dylan Thomas and Mark Rothko. 

Galvin's Trio plays music composed and arranged by him - fusing jazz, contemporary classical and folk styles. Read more about Chaos Collective here. http://www.chaos-collective.com/#!

DAVE HAMBLETT (DRUMS)

Dave Hamblett has played with some exceptional musicians including the F-ire Collective Large Ensemble, Ivo Neame Quartet, Sam Crowe Group, Richard Fairhurst's Triptych, Jonathan Bratoeff Quartet, Jasper Hoiby, Stan Sulzmann, Julian Arguilles, Elizabeth Shepherd and Elisa Caleb. Hamblett plays with the Ivo Neame Quintet and the late Abram Wilson Quartet. He has performed at festivals including: London, Madrid Jazz Festivals, IAJE New York and Los Angeles, Lounge on the Farm, and more, as well as the main London venues.

The Dave Hamblett Group - Live at the Con

TRISH CLOWES (TENOR SAX)
Trish Clowes was recently announced as  a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist for 2012-14 and the first female artist to be given the recognition. She has been called the queen of chamber jazz with a large dose of cool. Her latest album And in the Night-time She is There (Basho) is a line from an Oscar Wilde poem called The Sphinx. Roaming freely and floating across shifting scenery were just some of the words John Fordham used to convey the experience of the music created by the ensemble whose roaming crosses jazz improv classical and folk motifs. Follow this link for a review of the album http://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/and-in-the-night-time-she-is-there/

Interview with Clowes

CALUM GOURLAY (DOUBLE BASS)
Calum Gourlay began his musical journey playing the cello in primary school and by the age of fourteen started the double bass, having developed a serious interest in jazz and improvised music. Gourlay’s talents were noticed by many of Scotland’s premier jazz artists, and as a result he became the first bassist selected for the then ‘brand new’ Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra as well as the bass chair in the NYJOS and FYJO. Gourlay has since become a mainstay on the London scene while performing regularly in the UK and Europe. Already a very experienced young musician, Calum has performed and recorded with many illustrious names including the Kit Downes Trio, the Tommy Smith Group, Will Vinson, The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra featuring Joe Lovano, John Schofield, and Kurt Elling, Martin Speake, Martin Kershaw, Stacey Kent, Sheila Jordan and Trish Clowes.

Calum Gourlay with Kit Downes and James Maddren



DAN MESSORE (GUITAR)
Dan Messore was tutored by pianist-composer Huw Warren and mentored by saxophonist Iain Bellamy who said Messore is ‘a mature and confident musician with an individual approach to writing and playing’. Messore’s debut album Indigo Kid (Babel) this year featured all but one original scores by Messore evoking  nature and natural environments. This month saw the launch of another album Lacuna (Babel) with another mentor Steve Waterman. Messore's biog here http://www.danmessore.com/danmessore/Biography.html

Babel Babble, 20 November

Raynald Colom - Interlude #1: Hope from  Rise

Orquestra Mahatma - Lady l from Young Person's Guide

Gilad Atzmon & Orient House Ensemble -  Dal'ouna on the Return from Exile Billy Jenkins - Cooking Oil from Scratches Of Spain

Huw Warren - Musicke Weeps from Infinite Riches In A Little Room

Raynald Colom - Interlude #2: The Journey from Rise

Bill Evans - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town from Further Conversations With Myself Jazz

Timo Lassy - Creole Stew from In With Lassy

Alexander Hawkins Ensemble - Cowley Road Strut: Message From The East (For Pat Thomas) from No Now Is So Jazz

Paul Hillier -  Cage: Song Books - Solo For Voice 22 from Cage: Litany For The Whale

Paula Rae Gibson - Boy in a cage

Hasse Poulsen - Lazers on the jungle from We Are All Americans

Dan Messore (ft Iain Ballamy) The Man I Love from Indigo Kid

Hear the show on http://ntslive.co.uk/?p=4690

I wanted to play some Iro Haarla, but had no space. Just been listening to some great Enrico Pieranunzi, who played the Vortex last week. His new album Permutation on Cam Jazz is great. John Fordham even bought his own copy.

Amit Chaudhuri wins Infosys Prize

Amit Chaudhuri has won the Infosys Prize for outstanding contribution to the Humanities in Literary Studies. The jury for the 25 lakh (30,000 pound) prize incudes the chair Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate in Economics and Lamont Professor at Harvard University; Homi Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of English and American Literature and Language, Harvard University; Akeel Bilgrami, Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University; Sheldon Pollock, Professor of South Asian Studies, Columbia University; Leila Seth, India's first woman high court chief justice; and Upendra Baxi, Professor of Law in Development, Warwick University.

The Infosys Prizes were instituted in 2008, but this is first time one is being given to Literary Studies. The citation notes that it 'is awarded to Professor Amit Chaudhuri for his imaginative and illuminating writings in literary criticism, which reflect a complex literary sensibility, and great theoretical mastery, along with a probing sense of detail. The Infosys Prize recognizes and celebrates the intellectual reach and the quiet humanity in his extraordinary writings.'

Amit has two albums on Babel.

Dice Factory....

To read Chris Parker's review of Dice Factory click here http://networkedblogs.com/F0yd7

Dice Factory was officially released last month on Babel Label. The name "Dice Factory" was inspired by a fascination with author Luke Reinhardt’s cult classic novel "The Dice Man" in which the main character makes life decisions by rolling a dice. The 'rolling' leave to chance metaphor could be said to determine the structural events of the music particularly since the style is experimental / improv. The quartet consists of: Tom Challenger (tenor saxophone); George Fogel (piano); Tom Farmer (double bass) and Jon Scott (drummer). Exploring, discovering and challenging were very much part of the creative process that went into making the album bringing together the art of composition and improvisation.

Power Jazz from the New Europe

Bishopsgate Institute in partnership with the Vortex Jazz Club 

Saturday 17 November 7.30pm 

  trioVD, Guillaume Perret – Electric Epic,  and Puma. 

TrioVD
In his 4* review of trioVD's latest album 'Maze' back in May John Fordham's wrote 'hypnotically racing, roaringly headbanging Pet Shop Boys show exactly why this fearlessly independent band reaches audiences that purer jazz distillations rarely do'. Setting aside Mr Fordham's praise the band who are based in Leeds consists of Chris Bussey (drums), Christophe de Bezenac (sax/electronics) and Chris Sharkey (guitar) ... yes all Chrises believe it or not...
trioVD on Bandcamp http://babel-label.bandcamp.com/album/fill-it-up-with-ghosts

Guillaume Perret - Electric Epic
GPEP consists of sax bombe Guillaume Perret, Phillippe Bussonet (bass guitar), Yoann Serra (drums), Jim Grandcmp (guitar). The band has been kicking up a storm at home and abroad and have been nominated for the French-equivalent of the Grammy's. Electric Epic has been described as is an incredible mix of improvisation, groove and electric sounds dipped in the most screaming version of metal.
This link will take you to samples of the music http://guillaume-perret.fr/?p=1832

Puma Trio

A Norwegian Trio and winners of Norway's JazzIntro Prize, led by guitarist Stian Westerhus. Other members of the Trio are Gard Nilssen (drums) and Øystein Moen (keyboard synthesizers). Puma are an adventurous free improv trio drawing on the textures of electronica and rock while retaining elements that are melodic, harmonic and rhythmic - one could even say 'a romantic take on improvisation'. 
Puma at the Avant Art Festival 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUZRF4xiMig&feature=related

Tickets available here http://www.wegottickets.com/event/184097