(Jazz) piano, harmonica and accordion: three instruments with distinctive musical associations that don’t immediately suggest themselves as harmonious bedfellows in a chamber music format. How might such divergent instrumental “personalities” work together? Could their qualities converge to form a “new” [...]
“One of the most unique adventures that I’ve made in the jazz world,” says Gwilym Simcock of his new trio. The Wiltshire Music Centre describes this concert – the same line-up is also appearing at Kings Place – as follows: [...]
It was clear from the opening moments, when Vincent Segal’s cello laid down the groove that underpins Time Bum, that this was going to be a special evening. The quartet’s startlingly good recording Les Egarés, released last spring (link to [...]
The concept here intrigues. Marvellously expressive French soprano sax specialist Émile Parisien and accordion virtuoso Vincent Peirani have recorded and toured extensively together, their highly developed mutual sympathy making for an agile, self-sufficient duo. The same goes for the equally [...]
Swiss, London-based accordionist and producer Anatole Muster came to London almost four years ago to study at the Royal Academy of Music, where he is set to complete his undergraduate jazz studies this September. Though only 23, he has already [...]
Arnaud Dolmen’s lively French Caribbean rhythms brought great cheer to his Ladbroke Hall audience on a dreary and drizzly Friday evening. The Guadeloupean drummer’s Adjusting Quartet (with pianist Leonardo Montana, acoustic bassist Samuel F’Hima and tenor saxophonist Francesco Geminiani) performed [...]
This is a three-part report. “Veinards!” (lucky so-and-so’s) was how a commenter on Facebook described us. We were participants in something of an experiment, the first try-out of a new venture called Jazz Export Days, organized by a partnership of [...]
The biggest (*) jazz festival in the world is back. The 42nd Montreal International Jazz Festival starts this Thursday 30 June. It has a very special atmosphere where crowds flock to the centre of the city. After two years of [...]
36-year-old drummer and composer Arnaud Dolmen is taking the rhythms and musical traditions of his native Guadeloupe, the French Caribbean island, in decidedly new directions. Five years on from his acclaimed 2017 debut Tonbé Lévé, his new album Adjusting, combines [...]
The Oxford-based singer, singing teacher and jazz writer Alison Bentley died at the age of 65 in the early hours of last Friday morning, after a long illness, at her home in East Oxford. Saxophonist Jamie O’Donnell, a member of [...]
