January 31, 2011

What people are saying about Denys Baptiste...

“Baptiste puts all the pieces together with rare dedication, imagination and emotion” - Jack Massarik, London Evening Standard

“It's been a few years since I last watched Denys Baptiste play Jazz in Norwich ... He was great back then and he's even better today” - blogmejazz.blogspot.com

“Baptiste...who sounds like a world-class star throughout” - Phil Johnson, The Independent

"(Identity By Subtraction)...is thoughtful, rich and has some real personality and depth" - Peter Bacon, thejazzbreakfast.com

“....the traditionally swaggering tenor-sax tone with a soulfully imploring contemporary edge is still fully functioning on this new quartet set” - John Fordham, The Guardian

“Denys Baptiste’s Identity By Subtraction is a valuable and important voice. It is also valuable and important as a jazz album” - adrianbalston.posterous.com

"(Identity By Subtraction)...is also a statement that Baptiste is one of the most important players on British jazz scene" - JazzWrap

“A robust and absorbing statement from one of the UK’s finest saxophonists...showing he is back for business and in fine form” - Stuart Nicholson, Jazzwise

January 25, 2011

Binker Golding joins Rhythmica

Saxophonist Binker Golding is joining up with his fellow Tomorrow's Warriors alumni in Rhythmica for their UK dates in February and March, and rehearsals are under way ahead of their first date at The Hideaway on 2 February. Their ltd edition hand made CD will only be available to buy at their gigs, and the album can be downloaded from the Dune Music Store or any of the major online retailers.

Wednesday 2 February

The Hideaway 2 Empire Mews, Streatham, SW16 2BF

Thursday 3 February

Watermill Jazz Club Friends Provident Social Club, Pixham Lane, Dorking, RH4 1QA

Saturday 5 February

Jazz On A Winter's Weekend Royal Clifton Hotel, Southport

Friday 11 February

Ray's Jazz at Foyles Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0EB

Friday 18 February

Friday Tonic, Queen Elizabeth Hall Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX

Tuesday 8 March

Oliver's Jazz & Piano Bar, 9 Nevada Street, Greenwich, London SE10 9JL

Sunday 13 March

Clare Jazz Clare Cellars, Memorial Court, Queen's Road, Cambridge CB3 9AJ

January 24, 2011

Tomorrow's Warriors Jazz Orchestra at the QEH... Evening Standard review

Gary Crosby sets the right example

By Jack Massarik 24 Jan 2011

Anyone who claims that an OBE stands for Other Blighters' Efforts hasn't met Gary Crosby. Nobody invests more hands-on time in jazz education than the deep-grooving double-bassist honoured in 2009. A musician who leads by example, his worthy projects, including Jazz Jamaica, are too numerous to list here. This one, which delighted a packed audience of all ages on Friday, expanded his gutsy Tomorrow's Warriors quintet into a polished 16-piece orchestra.

Variously conducted by three composers, trumpeter James McKay, altoist Binker Golding and pianist Peter Edwards, the youthful massive sightread their challenging pad flawlessly and swung with a leisurely grace that would have been astounding a couple of decades ago. Back then, too, a multi-racial line-up containing four females, two of them, Mary Perry and Yasmin Ahmed, in the trumpet section, would have been very hard to find.

Edwards, trombonist Harry Brown, tenorist Duncan Eagles and New Orleans-born trumpeter Abram Wilson were the star turns but embryonic altoist Tommy Andrews, guitarist Artie Zaitz and trumpeter Mark Crown also earned warm applause.

So should the South Bank for staging these free foyer events, so vital for students who love the music but cannot afford South Bank prices. These are tomorrow's concertgoers.

Jack Massarik's rating: 4 Stars.

January 23, 2011

Abram Wilson plays Porgy and Bess with Progression Ensemble

Friday 25 February Turner Sims Concert Hall

Highfield Campus, University Road, Southampton, SO17 1BJ

8.00pm. Tickets £14, concessions £13, Friends £12.60, students £7

Abram guests with the University of Southampton's Progression Ensemble conducted by DanMar-Moliero to perform the music from Miles Davis and Gil Evans' classic Porgy and Bess album - should be a great evening. More information and venue details here

January 17, 2011

Denys Baptiste... Identity By Subtraction review

Jazz CD of the week ****

Decide what's important, discard what's not and always keep it real. Such is the musical philosophy of Denys Baptiste, an award-winning London tenor and soprano saxophonist whose work reflects his Anglo-Caribbean roots as well as the shining example of America's master tenormen, notably Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. Stylishly supported by his regular group featuring bassist Gary Crosby, US drummer Rod Youngs and sparkling pianist Andrew McCormack, Baptiste puts all the pieces together with rare dedication, imagination and emotion. Nine mature originals complete a multi-faceted suite of straight-ahead contemporary jazz that repays repeated listening.

- JACK MASSARIK

January 17, 2011

Denys Baptiste... Identity By Subtraction review

Reviewed by Phil Johnson

Sunday, 16 January 2011

Tenor saxophonist Baptiste follows Let Freedom Ring!, his Martin Luther King dedication from 2003, with a more questioning reflection on "life's experience as a black man of Caribbean descent, playing jazz music in the UK".

It's a quartet set and the nine songs mix the personal and the political, dealing with family, racism and love. Everything is worth hearing but three or four are absolute knockouts, including the beautiful ballad "Special Times" and the joyful "Dance of the Maquiritari" in which Baptiste - who sounds like a world-class star throughout - sneaks in some witty Sonny Rollins quotes.

January 17, 2011

Denys Baptiste... Identity By Subtraction player

Denys Baptiste - Identity By Subtraction by dunemusic

January 14, 2011

Denys Baptiste... Identity By Subtraction review

London saxophonist Baptiste won a raft of prizes – a Mercury, a Mobo and a BritishJazz award – and much-deserved acclaim for 2003's Let Freedom Ring. Given that head-start, his seven-year absence from the recording studio has been surprising. But the traditionally swaggering tenor-sax tone with a soulfully imploring contemporary edge is still fully functioning on this new quartet set with pianist Andrew McCormack and the fine Jazz Jamaica rhythm duo of bassist Gary Crosby and drummer Rod Youngs. There's plenty of Coltrane-driven orthodox-postbop that largely avoids the rhythmically byzantine nu-jazz challenges of recent years. However, Baptiste's Caribbean and South American roots furnish the musical and extra-musical agendas he so often combines – reflected in the Sonny Rollins-reminiscent calypso Special Times, the group energy of the title track (dedicated to the civil rights struggles of his parents' generation), and Jamaican-born bass legend Coleridge Goode's spoken reminiscences purring over the clamour of the quartet. Baptiste's melodically sinuous The Long Night contains most of the album's boldest surprises, but if the set isn't as thematically memorable as Let Freedom Ring, it's still good to have Baptiste back on disc. 3/5.

John Fordham guardian.co.uk, Thursday 13 January 2011 23.00 GMT

January 13, 2011

Pianist Peter Edwards and artist Ben Jones @richmix tonight

Peter and Ben after the Peter Edwards Trio performed at Ben's Evolution - Revolution exhibition at the RichMix arts venue. The exhibition runs until February 24 and is free - details and more about Ben Jones here.

January 13, 2011

Sneak preview of the Rhythmica handmade slikcreened CD artwork

The debut album from Rhythmica will be released on CD for the first time next month as a hand made strictly limited edition. It will feature individually silk screened artwork and will only sold at the band's UK dates in February. You can buy the album digital download from the Dune Music Store or any of the major online retailers.