James Hamilton wins British Composer Award

Congratulations toLeeds-based James Hamilton on winning the British Composer Award for a contemporary jazz composition for his Causeway Suite. (link has sound-clips)

He is being given the plaudit for the most memorable acceptance speech: "I haven't had a poo for a week."

James Hamilton has previously won the Jazzorg/ Worshipful Company award for jazz composition. Causeway Suite was produced with help from Leeds College of Music and Jazz Yorkshire. Runners-up were Tim Whitehead and Nathaniel Facey.

Reese Witherspoon covers Glamour Magazine’s January 2011 issue

Madonna Launches Hard Candy Fitness Global Gym in Mexico

Singer Madonna launched her new Hard Candy Fitness Global Gym in Mexico City, on November 29, 2010.

Review: London Horns

London Horns, The Crypt, Camberwell. Friday 26 November. Photo by Mark Dodds. Review by Fran Hardcastle

After recent heated and public debate, it would be difficult not to observe that there has been a change in management at The Crypt in Camberwell. However, judging by punters’ opinions past, there is little noticeable change at the venue in terms of ambience and appeal. The cobwebbed charm is retained. You still need a map to find it if you’re not a South Londoner. The locals continue to convene and enjoy the cheap drinks and tasty food in a buzzing convivial atmosphere. And yes, it is still a little noisy.

Fortunately, the London Horns are a band that commanded all the right attention and cut through the din of the happy crowd. Kylie Minogue’s horn section, have worked with some of the biggest names in the jazz and pop industries. Their special guests in the rhythm section on Friday night were no exception. Loose Tubes guitarist John Parricelli replaced regular member Mike Outram for the night and Francesco Mendolia of Incognito appeared in place of Andy Fisenden on drums.

The band performed some original tracks from their new album, Don’t Look Down, which shot up to no. 6 in the iTunes charts just 2 days into its release.

Mendolia’s deeply satisfying fat sound on drums pounded the beat for opening chart, Let’s Bust a Move. Saxophonist Graeme Blevins created an interesting feature solo full of dynamic contrast. The first track appearing from the album, Chunk, hit us with a bit of dirty 70’s style funk. In demand trumpeter Graeme Flowers screamed the high notes with ease in amongst a deliciously tuneful solo. The more laid back chart of I Could Be Wrong allowed for a welcome appearance from the distinctive and divine guitarist John Parricelli.

The first highlight of the evening came from the luscious slow groove, Luxe, with rich building chords in the horns underpinned by military drumming from Mendolia and on the nose bass playing from Dishan Abraham. The chart was a great platform for the rich silky tone of Barnaby Dickinson on trombone.

Moving into the second set brought storming tune, Stiff Kittens, full of the tight funky riffs the Horns are known for. For me, the absolute sparkler of the night was the indelibly catchy Intent, written by Blevins and the first track on the new album. It featured a vibrant, pleasurably dance-influenced solo from Flowers.

All of the music, whilst certainly funk heavy, takes on the scope and influence of the bands’ vast and varied experience, allowing the individually striking players to bounce of each other with gleeful results. A very enthusiastic audience didn’t want to let them finish. I would encourage anyone to catch them live.

See the London Horns on youtube and myspace.

See here for future listings at the Crypt in Camberwell.

Thursdays in December at Zizzi's

Last Thursday a new initiative was launched at Zizzi Central in St Giles High Street. Presiding, musically at the launch was a major figure in British music, pianist/composer/arranger/ educator Laurie Holloway. Hosting, singing, and on tenor sax, was Becki Biggins. And, completing the picture above, with that improbable little finger stretch down the D-string: Jules Jackson.

Central St Giles is the newest addition in London to the Zizzi’s chain. Zizzi's have strong artistic instincts and leanings - they have previously worked to promote the careers of young designers and illustrators. For this project they are welcoming singers. For the five Thursdays of the Month of December. The venture will also be raising money for the Princes Trust , supporting their work with disadvantaged and vulnerable young people.

Zizzi's explain the logic in their press release: “Recognising how hard it can be for young people to get a break now, we see our role as a provider of both a platform for talent, as well as opportunities through our partnership with The Prince’s Trust.”

Becki Biggins will appear on all five Thursdays, and will introduce/ showcase other singers - see the list below. There are also two guest spots each evening. Singers who turn up will get a chance to sing one song, and get a meal. The house band is top notch: risen star Malcolm Edmonstone's trio.


Zizzi Sessions will run every Thursday evening from 2nd December – 30thDecember at: Zizzi Central St Giles, 8 Central St Giles Plaza, London, WC2H 8LA Nearest Tube: Tottenham Court Road .

Zizzi's St Giles Central is quite a big venue. Request a table near to the music. To book call 020 7240 8447


* * * * * * *

DECEMBER SINGERS

Becki Biggins (2nd Dec – 30th Dec)
BeckiBiggins is an award-winning singer and saxophonist. In the past two years, Becki has won the Marlborough Jazz Festival’s Best Newcomer Award, US Smooth Jazz’s Best Artist and has been nominated for a Grammy for her work with 80s legend Paul (N-n-n-Nineteen)Hardcastle.

Her current US album, Jazzmasters 6, on which Becki is both co-writer and lead vocalist, peaked at No. 1 in the US Billboard, iTunes and Amazon charts, and earned her a further US Smooth Jazz Award nomination.


Nell Ryder (2nd December)
Nell is a singer, songwriter and guitarist. She started her musical career at the age of 15. Now 19, Nell is working on her debut album with renowned record producer and writer Mike Chapman and songwriter LiliReinisch, who works with many artists, the latest including Ellie Goulding. The album is expected for release in mid 2011.

Nell's music is influenced by Blues, Folk, Americana and Country.

Sarah Ellen Hughes (9th December)

Sarah, familiar to readers of this site, has been singing on the London jazz scene since 2006. Championed by leading vocalists Claire Martin and Ian Shaw, Sarah has just released her first album: “Darning the Dream” on Say So Records. The album is a mix of standard songs and original tunes, showcasing the kind of material that makes Sarah unique – her versatility and confidence in many styles is second to none. While being a true jazz singer, the album has soul-inflected moments, and her arrangements show that this is an album from the hand of a true musician. The album was selected as UK Jazz Radio’s ‘CD of the month’ for both March and April 2010.

Sarah broke on to the London jazz scene whilst spending three years as the principal vocalist of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO). This year alone, Sarah's quartet performed at some of the UK's major jazz festivals including Swindon, Marlborough and Southport. Sarah has also gained International recognition, and in April 2010 Sarah won the International Jazz Singing Competition ‘Jazz Voices’ held in Lithuania.

Michael Lucas (9th December)
Michael has been playing guitar, singing and performing from an early age. He usually performs as a solo artist but is also at home performing with others. Michael is influenced by a wide range of music, including artists such as The Beatles, James Taylor and Frank Sinatra. Usually found gigging in the Bucks and Berks area and occasionally London, Michael relishes any opportunity to be involved in music.

Ella Davidson (16th December)
Ella is a 17 year-old singer/songwriter from Chelsea, London. As well as her incredible voice, Ella also plays the piano, guitar and clarinet. Taking inspiration from soul, jazz and mainstream pop, Ella has an individual sound and creates original songs.

Peter Thickett(23rd December)
Peter is a fresh new talent. He's 15 years old and attends the Latymer School in London. He started playing jazz piano at an early age and discovered a love for jazz singing as well. He also plays classical piano. During his evening at Zizzi's he will perform some classics standards. His musical influences include Chet Baker and Tina May.

Lily Osborne (30th December)
Lily Osborne was born into a musical family so she has plenty to live up to. Grandfather, Musical Director Tony Osborne, conducted for such legendary divas as Shirley Bassey, EarthaKitt and Judy Garland. Her uncle, drummer Kenney Jones, played with The Who, The Small Faces, and The Faces. And her father, songwriter Gary Osborne, works as a lyricist for the likes of Elton John. Over the last couple of years Lily has appeared in small parts in most of Britain’s top TV shows, from Eastenders to Bremner, Bird and Fortune.

In 2009 Lily toured Britain and Europe with Jeff Wayne’s spectacular Live War Of The Worlds tour. 2010 started with a tour of Holland with a show celebrating Eurovision, followed by a residency at the Floradita Club in Soho. The year will end with another UK War Of The Worlds tour culminating in shows at Wembley and the O2 in front of a crowd of 16,000.

Brooke Hogan in bikini on Miami Beach

Brooke Hogan was spotted out on the beach in Miami, Florida on November 28, 2010.

This Thursday at The Miller

I definitely like the look of a gig on this Thursday Dec 2nd at The Miller in Snowfields road in the back-streets of Borough SE1, very near Guys Hospital.

Here's the blurb off The Miller's website

FURNITURE and MATT STEVENS
A superb double header featuring Jazz/funk/avant trio Furniture and renowned guitarist Matt Stevens.

Furniture plays originals, contemporary interpretations and a few classic tunes. Sometimes its funky, sometimes it swings and sometimes it just mellows out.

Matt plays solo acoustic guitar/post-rock instrumentals using loop pedals and other electronics. Acoustic Magazine UK calls him a "one man guitar orchestra."


But I've been researching, and there are all sorts of back-stories here.

-Both Philip Wain, the bassist of Furniture, and Matt Stevens, are making returns from painful illness. Maybe those are the gigs which musicians really look forward to. The discovery, the re-discovery that one can still get out there and make it happen.

-The pianist of Furniture Rob Grundel wrote to me: "We are not trying to be the next big thing - we are just trying to be. Rob Grundel likes funk and Monk and plays keyboards. Tadas Petrikas likes The Bad Plus and plays drums. Phil Wain likes Mingus and Frisell and plays bass."

-Why "Furniture?" "The music is half original and the standards we play have had their upholstery replaced."

-Rob is a Tasmanian, has been in London since 2009. His story (worth a read, quite instructive as to how to get up and running as a musician in London) is on his well-written blog Dimaug. The tale of how this band got together is definiely worth a read.

They'll be starting quite early, 7 30. Admission is a fiver. Twenty-five folk have signed up for it on Facebook. I hope I get to hear some. See you there?

It's Brubeck Week!

Dave Brubeck will be 90 on Saturday. And there's LOADS going on.

-Dave Brubeck's sons (Darius, Chris and Dan) are on tour with Dave O'Higgins, and that hits Birmingham tonight, as curtain-raised by Peter Bacon with an interview at the Jazz Breakfast Blog

-Tomorrow the action is on the radio. There's the first half of a two -part interview Jamie Cullum did with Dave Brubeck at the Newport Jazz Festival, being broadcast on Radio 2 at 7pm. I've heard the beginning, and Brubeck tells his story really engagingly. E.g. he was being pushed into vetinary studies, until his professor said to him : "Your mind is not here with these frogs and formaldehyde..."

-On Thursday at 11 30am on BBC Radio 4, Paul Gambaccini interviews Brubeck, recorded at Brubeck's home in Connecticut.

- There is a 90-minute Arena TV documentary by and with Clint Eastwood on BBC4 this Friday. More on this in our previous post

-There's a 2-CD retrospective of tracks chosen by Dave Brubeck on Columbia Legacy

And a sad note. The designer of Time Out (above), just a few months younger than Brubeck, died a few weeks ago. A Guardian obituary of Neil Fujita is HERE

Rihanna Covers British GQ January 2011

Singer Rihanna sizzles on the cover of British GQ Magazine January 2011

Review: Alexander von Schlippenbach Trio

Alexander von Schlippenbach Trio
(Vortex, Thursday 25 November 2010 - Day 2 of a two-day residency - review and drawings by Geoff Winston)

Alexander von Schlippenbach launched his trio's set with a full-on burst that elided into a tight duet - the first of many during the evening - with the resoundingly robust percussionist Paul Lovens. This was followed, as the pace eased off, by a spell with the evergreen saxophonist Evan Parker offering quietly bouncy phrases alongside the piano which became more of a stutter, which was then joined by Loven's thrashing drums for maximum impact.

Von Schlippenbach's musical journey has its roots in post-war West Germany, where Willis Conover's 'Jazz Hour' provided a life-line to American jazz. And maybe there is still something of the fifties rocker about von Schlippenbach's appearance. Enlightened local radio stations in Germany were inspired to pull together jazz and contemporary 'classical' strands, and this notion of a continuum in music provided the impetus for Schlippenbach's Globe Unity Orchestra in the mid-sixties, and set him on the road which has led to his 40 years collaboration with Parker and Lovens (below).

The trio has held together through thick and thin - Parker has referred to 'testing the thing to breaking point', and at the Vortex there was a sense of that mutual understanding which allowed them to change gear seamlessly and often, taking the music from maximum intensity to contemplative quietitude. At the core there was a sharing of rhythms expressed with a raw edge. The sound had a metallic quality; Lovens has a small kit to which he constantly added and subtracted small metal discs and an octagonal metal piece - plinks and clangs countering the flattened drum sound which he carefully nurtured. Von Schlippebach started the second set with sound of prepared piano wires being brought to the fore like a harpsichord, after which he extracted the metal additions to restore its more conventional timbres. Parker threw in fast foghorn passages alongside dense, syncopated piano clusterings. Harmonics from the keyboard were interspersed with Loven's rushing cymbal and Parker's vibrato tenor and sprints alternated with rhythmic and melodic cascades from all three.

Their programme took in Monk, a major interest and influence, with 'Work' in the first set and 'Blue Monk' just detectable in the second. It was fascinating to watch Von Schlippenbach's hands - his classical training was apparent as it became clear that he was playing exactly what he wanted - his hands were his instruments with the piano as the vehicle - a demanding task, yet defined, even in the most dense passages by a clarity of intent. During a lovely piano solo he quietly sang along with his improvisation, before Lovens joined almost inaudibly, demonstrating the respect each has for the other's playing, perhaps the overriding theme of the evening.

Preview: Chris Garrick Flight Mode CD Launch

PREVIEW: Flight Mode by Chris Garrick
(CD Launch at the 606 Club, 30th November 2010, Preview by Tim Woodall)

Flight Mode (Fly), the new album from top jazz violinist Chris Garrick, is dominated by ‘5-way Suite.’ In this 23-minute programmatic piece, running over five tracks, Garrick leads his rhythm section on a merry dance of moods and styles, switching between acoustic and electric fiddle with ease, and generally displaying his own special brand of high-wire improvisation and compositional flair. Each movement has its own title and corresponding mood. ‘Pigeon Among the Cats’ is suitably mischievous, and Garrick delives both a surprise, and a contrast with what has gone before, with the final piece: ‘When We Wake Up We’ll Be Somewhere Else’ is the most delicate of ballads.

Speaking to me ahead of the London launch of Flight Mode at 606 Club on Tuesday (Nov. 30th), Garrick referred to this latest recording with David Gordon (keys), Ole Rasmussen (bass) and Tom Hooper (drums) as "the most personal sort of project I do". As a much sought-after session musician and sideman – he comes to the capital following a tour with John Etheridge – Garrick cherishes his solo recordings as an outlet for ambitious music like ‘5-way Suite’. "As I play a lot of more traditional music of one sort or another, it’s nice to also keep the contemporary side up," he says.

This is the first album Garrick has recorded with this group of players since Firewire five years ago, but the quartet has been developing this new music over some time, and it shows. "It’s great to log another chapter with the guys" he says. As well as the new suite, the new record features a couple of standards, including a hard-driving adaption of ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’ ("trying to squeeze something new out of a well known piece," is how Garrick puts it), and compositions by Garrick and current and former band members. With a magnetic groove that motors towards a breakneck finale, ‘June’, by former Chris Garrick Quartet pianist Pete James, is a particular highlight.

One new innovation on Flight Mode is Garrick’s use of a newish seven-stringed Jordan fiddle. "It’s a specific animal and is only useful for special occasions," he explains. "It’s very well designed, but it’s a question of using it only when it fits with the music." Apparently, Nigel Kennedy told Garrick that he personally wouldn’t play anything more than a five-string, but for Garrick the range of the instrument gives it appeal. "In a solo piece, it’s amazing to be able to go down low," he says. It’s a typical standpoint to take for a musician who, unlike Kennedy, is an improviser first and a virtuoso second.

It will be interesting to see how a through-composed piece like the ‘5-way Suite’ will play out in 606, how far Garrick and Co. will stray from its neat architecture. Either way, I'll wager that plenty of copies of Flight Mode will be shifted post-show.

Tim Woodall runs the Culture Capital blog

Jennifer Aniston in a black bikini in Los Cabos

Jennifer Aniston in a black bikini and chatted with a male friend outside her villa in Los Cabos, Mexico on November 26, 2010.