Welcome to the Jazz Page of Rainlore's World of Music. This page deals with all types of jazz, though perhaps with a particular focus on world jazz.
News
2004/11/24 Due to ongoing severe health issues and complications, regrettably no updates could be posted for some considerable time now, and it's taken up till now to even get someone to post this note for me. There is a considerable backlog of reviews that are either ready, almost ready, or were still in preparation when I got too ill to continue. These will be posted as soon as I'm well enough to attend to these matters again. Apologies all round.
Could I please ask everybody to hold all email, especially requests for reviews etc., until "normal sevice" is resumed. I'm really in no condition yet to attend to any amount of email, and there is a backlog of some 1,000 messages already. I'll try and deal with these as soon as my condition permits, but please, don't add to this backlog if possible.
"I'll be back" - ASAP.
2004/04/27
The BBC Concert Orchestra's new residency at Chichester, comprising five concerts between October 2004 and February 2005 as well as a series of education workshops and broadcasts on BBC Radio 2 and Radio 3, includes a concert with renowned British pianist Julian Joseph and his trio on 20th January 2005. Full details are on the newly set up 2005 calendar page. Details of the other concerts in this series are also listed on the calendar pages. A price reduction is available for those attending all five concerts, and the BBC CO have also set up a special discounted room rate with The Ship Hotel in the centre of Chichester for those visiting for the occasion and wishing to stay overnight. Full details are in the BBC CO's new season brochure and shortly on the BBC CO web site.
Slowly catching up on the backlog of CD reviews - I'm doing the best I can. There are another six albums reviewed, four of which are of interest here, and what an outstanding crop they are!
There's Afro-Cuban jazz legend Mark Weinstein's extraordinary jazz homage to traditional Jewish music - klezmer, Yiddish song, Ladino song, Chassidic nigunim are covered -, "Shifra Tanzt". It's a work of sheer genius. This is Weinstein's heart. Also, we have the re-issue of the phenomenal album that most created the Weinstein legend, the seminal cult album "Cuban Roots" of 1967 which as a bonus also includes a re-issue of the equally exciting 1976/7 "The Orisha Suite". More from Mark Weinstein with the next batch of reviews, including the superb 1999 reworking of "Cuban Roots", "Cuban Roots Revisited". Last but by no means least, more from David Chevan, Warren Byrd and The Afro-Semitic Experience. "Let Us Break Bread Together" and "This Is The Afro-Semitic Experience" are outstanding albums.
The next site update will include an illustrated review of the fabulous Daphna Sadeh and The Voyagers in concert at London's Purcell Room late last month, with more illustrated live reviews coming up soon.
Staying with the latter topic for a moment, if tangentially, whenever an illustrated review goes online I tend to get a good few emails from aspiring music photographers asking about how they could make a start photographing live music events, gaining access to events and permissions, and what equipment and film I use and other technical matters. It is obviously impossible for me to answer such inquiries individually apart from a brief polite acknowledgement. So, if you're one of those people please accept my apologies but it simply can't be done. This site is dedicated to music, not photography, so an article addressing these kinds of queries would be rather tangential, and certain aspects of such queries would be difficult or impossible to address without mentioning brand names, which further disinclines me to engage in this matter. After all, that would practically amount to free product/brand advertising, something that goes totally against the grain as far as I am concerned.
Finally, the Other World Music page is active as of now. This will cover anything that broadly falls into the world music category and that generally isn't already covered in the main Jewish Music section of this site.
More soon.
2004/04/13
More computer problems, including the best part of two weeks offline, have unfortunately delayed this update further. (A proper replacement computer is now being sought, and then a few weeks will be taken up installing applications and migrating data - argh! The joys of computers!) Alas a temporary "migration" from home was also necessitated by a major utilities crisis and resultant lack of heating and cooking (still no proper heating, if at least electric cooking of sorts now).
While some long overdue artists' profiles had to wait yet again (the drafts are still awaiting retrieval from a dieing hard disk), there's a whole bunch of long overdue album reviews at least, with more to follow very shortly now.
Afro-Latin Jazz legend Mark Weinstein's latest superb album Tudo de Bom, a selection of compositions from leading Brazilian composer Hermeto Pascoal's "Calendario do Som" series, is reviewed as the first of a number of his recent as well as classic re-issue albums that will follow in the coming weeks. With his previous album, Shifra Tanzt, Mark Weinstein entered a deeply personal exploration of his Jewish musical roots, and a review of this exquisite recording will be included in the next site update, as will be the re-issue of the legendary seminal 1967 Cuban Roots which as a bonus also includes the almost equally legendary Orisha Suite from 1976.
David Chevan's latest album, The Days of Awe, is a series of truly awesome instrumental interpretation of prayers from the Jewish High Holy Days. A sensitive blend of Jewish liturgical material and styles with contemporary jazz, this album is sub-titled Meditations for Selichot, Rosh Hshanah and Yom Kippur, and also features Warren Byrd and other members of Chevan's band The Afro-Semitic Experience as well as ace trumpeter Frank London. More from The Afro-Semitic Experience next time.
More soon.
2004/03/04
Just another quick interim update. Regrettably, I've been falling further behind, not least thanks to an uncooperative computer that insists on being on its last leg (a couple of its aging disks have been failing intermittently). However, things are running reasonably smoothly again now (for now!), and a whole bunch of album reviews should be up in the early part of next week. Some real gems among them, too. Indeed, there's a veritable feast of jazz album reviews coming along over the coming weeks, including some outstanding and legendary classics by Afro-Cuban jazz legend Mark Weinstein, as well as his most recent releases. Then there's David Chevan and Warren Byrd's The Afro-Semitic Experience, and there's jazz from Israel as well as from young British talent.
Also don't miss Daphna Sadeh and the Voyagers live on Charlie Gillett's The Sound of the World show on BBC London Radio (94.9 FM) on Saturday, 13th March, 8-10pm. If you're not in the London area, you can listen anywhere on the planet online anytime during the week following the broadcast.
Finally, anybody I owe email, please accept my apologies, I'll try and catch up as quickly as I can after Shabbes. I estimate I should be more or less up-to-date with mail by the end of next week, with a bit of luck.
More soon.
2004/02/15
Just an interim update today, but what an update! The previously announced review of the legendary Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble's dynamite gig at the Pizza in January is finally ready and online, lavishly illustrated with photos from the gig. This amazing jazz colossus just keeps on surprising with his innovative and adventurous genius and through his uncanny ability to keep on surpassing himself. Atzmon's gigs recapture all the raw excitement of past greats like Bird (Charlie Parker) and 'Trane (John Coltrane) and add considerably to it.
Also, the "All Live Music Reviews" (index) page is now active and lists all current reviews of live gigs available on Rainlore's World of Music.
More soon.
2004/02/04
Two new album reviews. Drum genius Asaf Sirkis will be more familiar as the engine of the rhythm section of Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble, but the album under review is with his own trio, Asaf Sirkis & The Inner Noise, and titled "Inner Noise". A kind of fusion for the 21st century, "Inner Noise" goes far beyond the fusion familiar from Miles Davis and John McLaughlin and followers, combining elements of jazz, progressive rock, classical and Middle Eastern music and influences as diverse as Olivier Messiaen and Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
Monsieur Camembert's "Live On Stage" was their previous, second, album and won the 2002 ARIA Award for Best World Music Album. Eclectic as ever, this provides a super taster of this zany Aussie band live in action.
A fully illustrated review of the phenomenal Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble live at the Pizza Express Jazz Club, Soho, has had to be held over for next time, too many shots to select and edit, too little time. The gig was devastatingly great!
More soon.
2003/12/30
To get things started, a couple of new album reviews. New to this site are the phenomenal British multi-woodwind ace Stewart Curtis' K-Groove's most recent album, "Smoked Salmon Salsa", and Curtis' facing up to the trio trial in the form of his most recent release, "Saracubana - The Stewart Curtis Trio Plays B.B. Cooper". Extraordinary albums both. Also new is a profile of outstanding and highly eclectic Australian world jazz band Monsieur Camembert, whose latest ARIA Award winning album "Absynthe" was reviewed earlier in the year.A number of previous reviews as well as artists' profiles also exist, including jazz colossus Gilad Atzmon and three of his albums with his Orient House Ensemble, including the 2003 BBC Jazz Award winning Exile. Atzmon's superb scorching political satire, "A Guide To The Perplexed" is also reviewed.
More soon.
Generally, reviews feature CD albums, but they are by no means limited to CD releases. Previews and live performances, and even the odd demo, will also be covered as and when opportunities present themselves. Also, reviews are not necessarily of the latest releases only, rather, I aim to generally cover the best of what's around and that will often include reviews of older releases. Also, there is a page listing all CD reviews available on Rainlore's World of Music, and another one listing all live music reviews.
Latest reviews as of 2004/04/27:
Mark Weinstein : Cuban Roots & The Orisha Suite (2004/04/22)
Mark Weinstein : Shifra Tanzt (2004/04/21)
David Chevan and Warren Byrd : Let Us Break Bread Together (2004/04/19)
Warren Byrd and David Chevan : This Is The Afro-Semitic Experience (2004/04/19)
Latest reviews as of 2004/04/13:
Mark Weinstein : Tudo de Bom (2004/03/08)
David Chevan : The Days Of Awe (2004/02/23)
Latest reviews as of 2004/02/15:
Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble : Live at The Pizza Express Jazz Club, Soho, London, 13th January 2004 (2004/01/14)
Latest reviews as of 2004/02/04:
Monsieur Camembert : Live On Stage (2004/01/21)
Asaf Sirkis & The Inner Noise : Inner Noise (2004/01/18)
Latest reviews as of 2003/12/30:
The Stewart Curtis Trio : Saracubana - The Stewart Curtis Trio Plays B.B. Cooper (2003/12/30)
Stewart Curtis' K-Groove : Smoked Salmon Salsa (2003/12/29)
Previous jazz reviews:
Stewart Curtis' K-Groove : Too Loud For Dinner (2003/12/17)
The World Quintet (formerly known as Kol Simcha) : Live at Union Chapel, Islington, London, 20th November 2003 (2003/11/26)
Daphna Sadeh And The Voyagers : Brighton Festival of Jewish Music, Komedia, Brighton, 10th November 2003 (2003/11/12)
Daphna Sadeh And The Voyagers : Live at Momo, Mayfair, London, 14th October 2003 (2003/10/20)
Gilad Atzmon : A Guide To The Perplexed (book review) (2003/09/20)
Monsieur Camembert : Absynthe (2003/08/26)
Daphna Sadeh And The Voyagers : Live at Leo Baeck College, London, 3rd July 2003 (2003/07/04)
Daphna Sadeh : Out of Border (2003/06/30)
Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble, Feat. Reem Kelani & Dhafer Youssef : Exile (2003/05/16)
Koby Israelite : Dance of the Idiots (2003/05/02)
Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble : Nostalgico (2003/04/14)
Meshuggenismo : Demo (2003/03/19)
Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble : Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble (2003/02/25)
Rainlore's World of Music's artists' pages consist of brief profiles, complete with discographies, contact/booking and other useful information, for artists whose work has been reviewed on Rainlore's World of Music, or that have been given a special feature or profile. Additionally, in some cases, these pages may be styled to serve as the artist's or band's home page if they don't have a web site/page of their own yet; these are identified accordingly.
Latest profiles of jazz artists as of 2003/12/30:
Previous profiles:
Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble
| Home | Jewish Music Page | Steel Pan Page | Other World Music Page | Jazz Page | Classical Music Page | Other Music Page | Artists' Pages | The Guzikow Archives | Links | Contact || Jazz Reviews | All CD Reviews | All Live Music Reviews |
