Learning by listening

Posted by on Mar 7, 2015

Learning  by listening

Jazz musicians learn and develop by listening as well as by playing. It doesn’t matter which starts first in my opinion, but I know that going to hear live jazz and exploring it on record and through radio have been vital aspects in my own musical growth. It has both excited me about the possibilities for my own music and taught me invaluable lessons of approach and execution. There may be exceptions – maybe – who have pursued a solitary path with originality and inventiveness. Even so they probably need other musicians to play with in order to fulfil their creative impulses, and in jazz ‘playing with’ has to mean ‘listening to’ in my book. What brings this to mind? I was recently the guest on Alan Musson’s excellent show ‘Jazz Kaleidoscope’ (The Bridge Radio) which afforded me the opportunity to choose almost two hours of music for the show. As you would expect, I spent a considerable time trawling through my CDs to put my playlist together. With so much to choose from I had to deal sternly with myself to arrive at a list that truly justified its selection. So what criteria carried the day? In the end there were two themes: one was to do with people crossing boundaries and playing in someone else’s yard. It’s more than ‘crossover’, which for me occasionally suggests cleverness without a further musical need or justification, like riding two bicycles at once. So for example ‘Hands’, Dave Holland’s collaboration with Spanish guitarist and head of Flamenco dynasty Pepe Habichuela; Dave confides in the liner notes that it took him a couple of years to work out what he should really play! Or Roland Kirk’s treatment of ‘Say A Little Prayer’, which expands a brilliant popular song into an anthem for Martin Luther King and all the tribulations of the African-American people, regretfully as relevant today as it was in the 1960s. The other strand was about me acknowledging those who inspired me, and whose creativity and artistry helped to illuminate my path as I was finding my way. This rather large number of artists comprises many American but also many British musicians. Thinking again about Jack Bruce, (see my post ‘Jack Bruce – Recollections and Reflections’) I was thrilled to rediscover on Gilles Peterson’s ‘Impressed Vol. 1’ the marvellous ‘Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe’ by the New Jazz Orchestra. Not only is Jack Bruce on double bass, helping to hold Neil Ardley’s superb...

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Global Jazz Double Header at Warwick Arts Centre

Posted by on May 7, 2014

Global Jazz Double Header at Warwick Arts Centre

Lovers of globally-inspired world music and jazz are in for a special night at Warwick Arts Centre on June 8th, when two of the region’s best bands join forces. Sonrisa brings its joyous blend of mainly Latin rhythms while Interplay casts its net a little wider, taking in African and Indian sounds as well as expressive modern jazz. Despite their musical common ground this will be the first time the two bands have appeared together.   Interplay and Sonrisa are both well established across the Midlands, playing to concert and festival audiences, in clubs and on rural touring circuits for several years. Each band released an album last year too. ‘Global’, on the part of Interplay, was hailed by Gilles Peterson as a ‘beautiful record’, while Sonrisa’s ‘Taste Of Latin’ has resulted in the band being taken up by Tom Robinson for BBC Introducing on 6Music.   The gig is presented on the ‘Under The Radar’ strand, through which the Arts Centre gives exposure to artists thought deserving of a wider audience. The evening promises an uplifting musical journey infused with different cultures, with rhythmic excitement and instrumental creativity to the fore. Details and booking link here...

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Gilles Peterson really likes ‘Global’ by Interplay!

Posted by on Dec 15, 2013

Gilles Peterson really likes ‘Global’ by Interplay!

Gilles Peterson, the much-admired BBC 6Music presenter and long-standing aficionado of British contemporary jazz, has been in touch after listening to Interplay’s ‘Global’. In a brief email to Adrian Litvinoff he commented: ‘Beautiful record – thanks so much for sending!’ Just a few words, but the fact that he took the trouble to pass them on means a lot to us. After all, this is the man who put out two volumes of ground-breaking British jazz of the 1960s and 70s, under the title ‘Impressed’. Thanks very much...

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