New Releases on Bandcamp

Here at babellabel we have been busy. Three new albums available on bandcamp http://babel-label.bandcamp.com/ prior to their official release.

                               Dice Factory

 

 with Tom Challenger, George Fogel, Tom Farmer and  Jon Scott


                        
                             Talk on the Steps

 

with Dan Messore, Steve Waterman, Lee Goodall, Aidan Thorne and Ollie Howell


                              Bilbao Syndrome

 

with Matthew Bourne, Chris Bussey, Andrew Plummer, Chris Sharkey and Colin Sutton

"Cultural Olympiad"

I was just listening to the BBC's Music Matters on the Cultural Olympiad. You can listen to it for the rest of this week on http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01cvlz2/Music_Matters_Music_Nation_Preview/
My frustration is how they make out that this is bringing something special, almost to making one feel that the alternatives are not good enough.
I understand how journalists love the buzz of a festival. I am often asked why the Vortex doesn't do more festivals by some, almost because they feel it would be better 'copy' than just the fact that there's a great day-to-day programme on at the club. It's also good that it's bringing in extra resources to the area.
But almost to the expense of making people feel that the alternative of the year-round buzz of the area isn't up to scratch. I also feel that resources that might otherwise be given to a place like the Vortex is being sucked away. Much of the programming of music around that time is linked to the "River of Music" celebration or the Radio 1 Big Weekend in Hackney Marshes.
Meanwhile, the money being made available for the Torch Relay procession on 21 July is relatively derisory, and we have struggled to get enough to have a good celebration in Gillett Square for that day. And yet we are just 2 miles or so from the Olympics itself.
I also want to hope that there will be a proper legacy for those venues in East London to help us continue beyond September. Though I expect much of it will be about trying to make sure that the buildings in Stratford don't collapse.

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