jazz
Live Review: SEED Ensemble & Guests- Celebrating Pharoah Sanders 14 /11/20 London Barbican
‘Jazz is cool’ must have been the mantra that the London Jazz Festival organisers offered up many times over the past few turbulent months as they tried maintain calm and keep the 2020 event afloat. In September they announced an ambitious mixed programme of live gigs and streamed events in a determined effort to retain …
NEWS: London Jazz Festival moves online – schedule updates
LIKE the music itself, the London Jazz Festival, which runs from November 13th to 22nd, just refuses to be silent. A month ago we brought you news of the ambitious mixed programme of live gigs and streamed events … and then lockdown 2 descended. Daunted but not defeated, the festival organisers have reconfigured the programme …
Album Review: Emily Kuhn – Sky Stories
New jazz… Chicago… must be another International Anthem release right? Well no, this is something from outside that powerhouse, the debut by Emily Kuhn, trumpet player out now on the BACE records. As a label BACE has been steadily releasing music from the jazz-tinged, electronic, experimental, post-rock whirlpool for a couple of years now and …
EP: Oscar Jerome- Breathe Deep Remixes
Although it’s been robbed of its live connection this year, the UK Nu- jazz train has kept up the momentum with a roll of dynamic and defining releases. Oscar Jerome’s ‘Breathe Deep’ album was one of those touchstones. It saw the KOKOROKO guitarist and super collaborator (with buddies like Shabaka Hutchings, Moses Boyd and Yussef …
Premiere: Cahill/Costello reveal beautifully ambient jazz in debut single, ‘lo II’
Two of Scotland’s most inventive musicians, classical/contemporary guitarist Kevin Daniel Cahill and drummer/composer Graham Costello (Graham Costello’s STRATA, AKU!, Corto Alto) have got together to record, and we’re delighted to premiere the stand alone track (and debut single) ‘lo II’, named after one of Jupiter’s moons, here on Backseat Mafia today. Mixing up elements of …
NEWS: Blue Note announce new series of vinyl-only remasters for 2021
BLUE NOTE, the jazz imprint absolutely without parallel since 1939, has announced a new series of vinyl-only remasters and reissues to run from December into the middle part of 2021. Sixteen titles, all all-time classics of the jazz world, are up for inclusion so far in the Blue Note Classic Vinyl Reissue Series – a …
PREMIERE: Lloyd Miller – ‘Dystopia Wind Dance’: spiritual beauty from master of Persian jazz
LLOYD MILLER is a polyglot, fluent in English, French, Persian and Dari, that being the Afghani Persian tongue; getting by in German, Swedish, and a few other languages; a multi-instrumentalist, reportedly at ease with three figures’ worth of different instruments at the last count; and a true statesman of not just jazz, but spiritual, Eastern …
SEE: Johanna Burnheart – ‘Silence Is Golden’: where jazz meets tUnE-yArDs
JOHANNA BURNHEART is something of a rarity in the jazz sphere, as her aural device of choice is the violin. She is, you could perhaps say, sat inside a niche inside a niche, looking out. Of course, observing from such a vantage point can give you perspective, a way of seeing things anew; as you …
Premiere: AKU! reveal the incredible new noise-jazz-funk single, Clawing The Earth Apart
Glaswegian Jazz / Noise / Experimental band AKU! which features members of corto.alto and & Graham Costello’s STRATA are releasing a second single ‘Clawing The Earth Apart’ from their new LP Blind Fury out now on Worm Discs, and we’re delighted to premiere it right here on Backseat Mafia today. Blasting into life with these …
TRACK: Jimi Tenor – ‘Afroeuropean’: rousing Afro grooves
FINNISH groovemeister Jimi Tenor, who’s all set to release his second album for Berlin’s Philophon imprint, has been out in Ghana getting deep into the Afro thang for new album Aulos; and commendably excellent his efforts have been. If you caught his 7″ release back in July, “Sugar And Spice”/”Lover’s Bridge (Instrumental)” your mouth will …