New Release Round-up,
Jazz New Release Round-Up - 14th June 2019
This week, in the wet Britsh summertime, I can whole-heartedly recommend British Traditional Jazz - At A Tangent Vol. 9 - The Mainstream Bands (note, not to be confused with the Coldstream Guards) a hugely enjoyable, oh so slightly stiff, compilation of British hepcats in the fifties. Also there are some super compilations cerebrating Resonance's 10th birthday, trumpet king Zeal Onyia's Return (at least to print), the awkwardly titled, and let's be honest, awkward sounding Phalanx Ambassadors, and French rocker Johnny Hallyday somehow makes an appearance - he knows he shouldn't really be in the jazz department but I didn't have the heart to boot him out.
I’m quite excited about this British bop comp and will be checking out the earlier issues. ‘Mainstream’ was a term coined in the early 1950s to describe a more arranged style of Jazz sitting somewhere between Trad/Dixieland and Bebop/Modern - it is closely akin to Small Band Swing of the 1930s/40s. This stuff really rocks, and can I detect some surreal elements that would inform the Bonzo Dog Band’s music just a decade later?
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
‘The highlife hep cat of Nigerian jazz trumpet’ was Louis Armstrong’s comment upon hearing Zeal Onyia’s inimitable tone, rhythm and sheer breath-power. If your African music collection starts and ends with Ladysmith Black Mambazo or Fela Kuti you owe it to yourself to acquire this beauty. If played loud enough the clouds might even part long enough for a shaft of sunlight to hit you.
Available Format: CD
It says here ‘The eponymously-named band - with Mitchell on piano and keyboards, Okazaki on guitars, Patricia Brennan on vibraphone and marimba, Kim Cass on bass, and Kate Gentile on drums - rehearsed for eight months in advance of their first performance in 2016, evidence not just of the music’s difficulty, but of the shared commitment to this music from each of the band’s members.’ Sounds like a rollicking good time to me – and a possible Record of the Week. Yet more edification from the stellar release from Pi Records.
Available Format: CD
Here's Johnny! Apparently M. Hallyday often arrived on stage by jumping from a helicopter.
Available Format: 2 Vinyl Records
Matt Groom - Head of Jazz
