Tim and Simon reflect on the process
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Sep 18
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IDST (If Destroyed Still True) Interview 2
Idst Interview 2
Here's the second extract from the interview with IDST band members. Here we talk about being part of the Jazz Services Promoter's Choice, about accessibility and influences, choosing what to play in a solo, and playing arranged music without an arranger.
Tim WallComments [0]
Sep 18
Dave O'Higgins 7 + Jazzcotech Dancers
Friday night ended on a high and entertaining note with a strong British jazz band and a group of dancers reinventing the jazz dance tradition.
I’ve long admired Dave O'Higgins through his many changes of musical style. In particular he has a nuanced sense of time on a ballad as well as any twisting headlong fast-tempo song the band throws at him. His solo tonight on ‘You don’t know what love is’ is a great example of the former. Part of the standard repertory, here he brings out its slinky essence. At its close he dedicated it to his baritone-playing wife who helped shaped the front-line of this set.
O'Higgins has a long and continuing interest in jazz fusion, but the septet he presented here is a more mainstream post-bop band displaying interesting and shifting arrangements and great ensemble playing. There’s strong support from a great rhythm section and the two sax, trumpet and trombone horn section made a joyous noise, especially when playing for the jazz dancers in the latter part of the set.
Jazz dance has its origins in the same folk culture that gave birth to jazz as a music, but reached its zenith in the lindy dancers of the swing-era. Jazzcotech take this tradition and, as their name suggests, give it a contemporary twist. The band play fast and furious, providing the dancers with a brilliant pulse on which to improvise, and lots of colour to shape their moves. Dancing to jazz takes enormous energy and skill (I can tell you from personal experience), and the twists and turns of the latin-infused numbers they danced to demanded even more.
Scarborough Grand Hall has a large stage which comfortably accommodates even a big band and provided enough room for the dancers, but I am not sure it gives them the best surface to dance on, nor the best space to perform on. It is great, though, to see dance programmed at a jazz festival, and O’Higgins clearly gets a lot from the collaboration. The band certainly do not give the dancers an easy ride; if anything their playing during this section was more complex. Both band and dancers, though, are gifted improvisers, and just as the musicians take standard themes and make innovative performances out of it, the dancers take a whole series of classic moves and twist them into personal long-lines of strikingly modern dance.
I think I’m right in saying that O’Higgins is a Brummy, and as the team that brings you this online report from Scarborough Jazz festival is from Birmingham City University we think of him as our own, even though he is a professor at Leeds College of Music. Our very own Jeremy Price, from Birmingham Conservatoire was also there on trombone. We’ll overlook that members of the band and the dancers are from elsewhere, and celebrate a great end to a great evening of music and, of course, dance.
Tim Wall
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Sep 18
The live blogging command center
We've been at it for eleven hours or so and still going strong. Such a wonderful atmosphere here at Scarborough Jazz and the performers, staff and audience members have all been so willing to contribute to make this experiment successful.
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Sep 18
Camaraderie and openness at The Scarborough Jazz Festival
It's beginning to get late at the Scarborough Jazz Festival. It's only the first day and I haven't really heard that much music yet. This is not because I'm disinterested but that there is so much material coming into us here at what we've called the Stagedoor that we are running just to keep up to date to make sure we capture and then upload the videos, photos, interviews, reviews and everything else inbetween.But what I really wanted to say was that I think Tim, Dubber, Simon and I have been bowled over by the friendliness and sense of camaraderie we've encountered with other people working with and for the organisers Mike and Marian. The staff at Scarborough Spa Hall, Stuart, John and Hannah have gone out of their way to make sure we get backstage and speak to the musicians; William Ellis and Mike Jackson, outstanding photographers have been wonderful by allowing us to put their photos on this site and some of the bands have provided us with their music.
We hope we are providing you with a sense of what the festival is like and that you get a sense that music is not all about protecting what you've got and just about making money. It is about shared experiences, collaborations based on trust and mutual understanding, about a love of music, about Music As Culture.
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Andrew Dubber
Hannah Lutkin
Jez Collins
John Rawling
Marian Gordon
Mike Gordon
Mike Jackson
Music As Culture
Simon Barber
Stagedoor
Stewart Ward
Tim Wall
William Ellis
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Sep 18
Mike Janisch Quintet plays tribute to Charles Mingus
The quintet’s final piece was dedicated to fellow bass-player, and clear influence, Charles Mingus. It was a brilliant choice for the closing number, featuring much of the theatrical musicality that characterised Mingus’ own performances and many of his compositions. The five members of the group often took on the scale and stature of the Mingus big band, and Janisch strong rhythmic playing and Booth’s tart sax work were then mellowed by the gentler timbres of Palmer’s trumpet and Hart’s vibes. This was another number that simmered, then rose slowly but inevitably to the boil. Penn is in there stirring, pushing the other ingredients around as the emotional intensity rises through the round robin of solos. Sitting here in the hall you can gaze at the whole band on the stage as the music washes over you, then you can turn to one of the large screens to see a close-up of individual players, and then your focus of attention moves to the individual player. This is music strong in its whole and in its parts. The thunderous climax that had the audience cheering and clapping. A splendid end to a great set.
This show coincided with the launch of their new CD. I haven’t heard it yet, but if it reflects anything of tonight’s performance it will be a joy to hear.
Tim Wall
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Sep 18
Backstage with Kyle Eastwood
I managed to get backstage after the Kyle Eastwood Band had finished. Tim managed to grab a couple of minutes with Kyle while I snapped a few photographs of the band and Kyle coming off stage and talking to a few people. Luckily for me, William Ellis was around to take some proper photographs and record Kyle's appearance at the Scarborough Festival.
Other posts about
Andrew Dubber
Backstage
Interview
Jez Collins
Kyle Eastwood Band
Mike Gordon
Photos
Tim Wall
William Ellis
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