Vortex Real Ale Group trip to Vilnius

We are looking at the possibility of a visit of Vortex fans to the Vilnius Jazz Festival. 
Under the auspices of the Vortex Real Ale Group, so that a visit to a brewery will be included.

Here are some details:

The festival tales place from Thursday 16- Sunday 19 October 2014.

The line-up hasn't been published yet. The festival website is:

http://www.vilniusjazz.lt

Return flights are likely to be between £50 and £100. Festival tickets are about €30 for entry to all events.

Accommodation costs will be reasonable.

Reports are that the beer in Vilnius is very good!

One idea might be to fly out on say, the Thursday afternoon and return on the Sunday.

Anyway, at this stage if anyone is interested let me know. You don't have to commit yet, but it would be good to get an idea of who would be keen to go so we have an idea of possible numbers.

Look forward to hearing from you.

If you are interested, contact me first on oliver@babellabel.co.uk

Festival time

I am lucky enough to have been invited/motivated to go to a few festivals over recent weeks.

What is the rationale?
1. Busman's holiday.
2. To hear some different music live
3. To meet people in a different environment and promote Babel's musicians and the Vortex

I have posted the reviews on www.londonjazznews.com

Europa Jazz Le Mans

http://www.londonjazznews.com/2014/05/festival-report-europa-jazz-2014-in-le.html

Schaffhausen Jazz Festival

http://www.londonjazznews.com/2014/05/featival-round-up-schaffhausen.html

Jazzahead

http://www.londonjazznews.com/2014/05/review-christine-jensen-jazz-orchestra.html

Overall, it has to be admitted that I do not necessarily hear better things when away. It almost reassures me that our scene is as strong as it is, though it also disappoints me that it doesn't get better heard.

I get niggling feelings of sadness that I miss some very special gigs in London when I go off. For example, when at Jazzahead I missed Louis Moholo's special night; and when at Le Mans, I missed the launch of Jason Yarde/Andrew McCormack's duo with strings.

Nevertheless, you also get feelings of great positive energy about what is happening in jazz. You can't quite work out when something more might transpire, but you just have to stay flexible.

I certainly prefer the festivals as a way to "network" because they are based around the music. Jazzahead seems to let alcohol overpower that. However, one major positive of Jazzahead is about musicians meetings. Kit Downes told me that he met Sylvain Darrifourcq and Adrien Dennefeld there for the first time (with the result of Barbacana!). Julia Hülsmann, in today's interview in Londonjazznews, says that she met Tom Arthurs there (with the result of Tom playing on her last ECM album). Hannes Riepler, when there now, reconnected with his Dutch friends (with whom he studied) and the Austrians of his homeland.

As more come along, I shall continue to do the linking up. More fully-fledged reviews on Londonjazz, and more oblique thoughts here.

Jazz Matters: International Jazz Day 2014

International Jazz Day 2014

For those who didn't know April 30th was declared International Jazz Day by UNESCO in 2011. So
what is International Jazz Day and what are we celebrating? The music? Or a form of cultural diplomacy that pays lip service to the role that jazz has played in soft diplomacy - beyond which usually lie social, economic and political influence? Not wanting to sound completely cynical, though I can help, when confronted with the 'sugarcoated' messages. On the  International Jazz Day website  there's a nice quote from jazz ambassador Herbie Hancock,

"Jazz is really about the human experience. It’s about the ability of human beings to take
the worst of circumstances and struggles and turn it into something creative and constructive.
That’s something that’s built into the fiber of every human being. And I think that’s why people
can respond to it. They feel the freedom in it. And the attributes of jazz are also admirable. It’s
about dialogue. It’s about sharing. And teamwork. It’s in the moment, and it's nonjudgmental."

Of course these noble sentiments aren't offensive as such. How could any reasonably- minded person be against mutual tolerance, unity and peace, equality, etc. My unease is about the way jazz has been co-opted as a soft power tool. Jazz's role in cultural diplomacy paved the way for America to dominate popular music globally, which presented an interesting paradox in 1950s and 60s. As the music that originated with an oppressed minority struggling against racism and inequality, jazz was used to represent American culture abroad by the US State Department - although racial segregation existed in some states in America. Jazz royalty / heroes were appointed jazz ambassadors to carry the message of 'freedom' that jazz symbolized, which became attached to American propaganda about  the 'American way of life' and the value of democracy during the cold war period. The contradiction did not escape the musicians - Charles Mingus, commented that if jazz was good enough for the overseas audiences of the state department then why wasn't it good enough for young people at home. Back then cultural diplomacy was clearly about the American experience of freedom with its modernity idealized. It wasn't just Jazz musicians but also Basket ball players, and other entertainers whose auras were exploited in this way.



Is the creation of International Jazz Day a revival of the jazz ambassadors of the 50s and 60s? Jazz and 'freedom' go together like a horse and carriage. But it gets tricky because 'freedom' was shaped by particular ideological forces and the US State Department that made the American way of life and 'democracy' appear interchangeable. Looking at the current language used to talk about 'jazz': 'jazz is a democratic music'; 'jazz allow people to express their individuality; 'jazz is a vector of freedom of expression', are these sentiments that different? Weren't these also the symbolic messages jazz musicians carried with them behind the iron curtain? Perhaps the really interesting part is what has happened to the American dream and America's 'moral' authority in the world today. Wasn't this enduring sense of 'freedom' - the freedom to make money, which accommodated the rise of rapacious bankers? For me engendering an appreciation of the music art form sometimes seems to be a footnote by comparison.

Herbie, tells us,"We all want to live in a jazz world where we all work together, improvise together, are not afraid of taking chances and expressing ourselves." I'm not knocking Herbie because he's right about one thing which is jazz is about the human experience and to put it in a less sugary way, that experience was / is about hope, possibility and at times losing oneself. So what should one do on International Jazz Day? Listen to Jazz; buy some jazz, play some jazz; engage in dialogue about jazz; find something jazzy to do...

Here are my quick and very random picks for International Jazz Day 2014 and Happy International Jazz Day!

Ted Gioia's The Imperfect Art: Reflections On Jazz and Modern Culture - a really excellent and enjoyable read.

Herbie Hancock: The Norton Lecturer in 2014'The Ethics of Jazz'  - in 6 parts. Vijay Iyer and Homi Bhabba make an appearance.

 The History Of Jazz Piano In 11 Minutes
by Patrick Jarenwattananon

Music
Liam Noble's Brother Face

Graham Scrambler  Emeritus Professor of Sociology UCL
Jazz and Sociology Revisited (Feb 11 2014)
Jazz and Sociology (Mar 27  2014)

Check out Babel Label on Bandcamp

Jammin' the Blues (1944) and Blues for Joan Miro (1966)

   JAZZ PROJECTOR
                                                                            
                           DOWNSTAIRS @ THE VORTEX JAZZ CLUB
                        
                                                28/MON/4/14 20:00 - 2:00am
                                                                                                                                         
                                             Entry: FREE

Jazz Projector is a night of jazz related films hosted by Dr Nicolas Pillai (University of Warwick). Since most of these legendary musicians are dead it is perhaps the closest we can come to experiencing them live. The two short films selected for the next Jazz Projector event are: Jammin’ the Blues (1944) Dir. Gjon Mili, and Blues for Joan Miro (1966) Producer Norman Granz. The first conjures up classic images of Lester Young and others, while the second film is part of an uncompleted Ellington film project. The evening concludes with a 1965 Jazz 625 recording of the Thelonious Monk Quartet.

Jammin' the Blues (1944)

Features a jam session with some of the most outstanding African-American
jazz musicians, including Lester Young.

There was one white musician present, Barney Kessell on guitar, who appears as a shadowy silhouette figure in a deliberate attempt to make him unidentifiable as a white man jamming in the company of black musicians.

The noir-ish ambiance is created through the dim lighting, and wisps of cigarette smoke evoking the night club. To come to think of it the chairs look the same as the ones upstairs in the Vortex Jazz Club. For 1944 the film must have seem very avant-garde with its use multiplied images and abstract treatment of instruments and their players.

 Blues for Joan Miro (1966)

In this film Duke Ellington and his Trio play for Joan Miró in the South of France. Miro takes Duke on a guided tour of his sculptures while chatting away in French.The two men couldn’t understand a word the other said, but seemed contented to show each other their work. You see Miró standing, leaning on one of his sculptures behind Duke looking on as he plays The Shepherd.


               



 Hope to see you there and check out the food while you're there...

http://www.vortexjazz.co.uk/event/jazzprojector/

Raymond MacDonald/Marilyn Crispell review (From Sandy Brown Jazz)

Album Released: 24 February 2014 - Label: Babel

Raymond MacDonald & Marilyn Crispell

Parallel Moments

Steve Day reviews for us this album of duets from Raymond MacDonald (alto and soprano sax) and Marilyn Crispell (piano):

In the dark basement of an old church on the Lower Eastside in New York I first heard Marilyn Crispell play piano live. It was a trio with drummer, Gerry Hemingway and the bassist, Mark Dresser. All these years on, it is still one of those gigs that permeates my memory bank. No one jumped about or played the fool, rather the music they played came forth as if it were some Gloria ghost cut loose in the bowels of this old building. I had wanted to catch them because they were all members of Anthony Braxton’s celebrated 1980’s quartet. Marilyn Crispell came to the piano not simply (sic) as a gymnast of octaves, but

 as a fully contextual composer writing and reacting right there in the given moment. Now we have a duet of ‘parallel moments’.

And the other player? The alto saxophone can take my ears to the heart of the matter. In no particular order: Johnny Hodges, Joe Harriott, Art Pepper, Bird, Alan Barnes, Ornette Coleman, Bruce Turner, Eric Dolphy and Dudu Pukwana, the beginning of a list which retunes my hearing. Add Glasgow’s Raymond MacDonald to the roll-call. And I simply don’t care about sticking labels like be-bop, mainstream, or avant garde on musicians; if you are interested in how an alto saxophone can really engage with piano you will want this CD. Parallel Moments is superb.

This session dates back to the London Jazz Festival of 2010. The recording quality is ‘pin-drop’. There are ten distinctly different pieces in a seamless tapestry of dialogue, giving way to intense close duets breaking to solo conversation. We listen to these two listening, ears are the other instrument here. There’s an etiquette present, a mutual recognition audible within the playing. Thank the stars and the Babel Label for making these performances available now. From the opening track Longing, which is almost the ballad form crushed open to release a rapture rich with privacy, to the closing piece, Distant Voices, taking under two minutes to delineate circular breathing technique as an abstracted soundscape. The listener is drawn in to witness the MacDonald/Crispell duo in a parallel act at the pinnacle of the art of improvisation. I call it jazz or maybe I should just settle for listening.

Sometimes you feel you’ve already heard too much. This is the real thing, treat yourself to a little bit more.

Steve Day stevedaywordsandmusic.co.uk

Listen and buy on http://babel-label.bandcamp.com/album/parallel-moments