Posts in tag

contemporary jazz


Album Review : Adam Moezinia’s ‘ Folk Element Trio’ – A Sonic Travelogue

Read More

For a musician who puts out an annual album release, pianist, cellist and composer Raffy Bushman manages to keep surprisingly under the muso-radar but you sense that’s just how he likes it. His music is part, yes a significant part, of what he recognises as his whole life. Watching any of the documentary shorts, which …

0 44

It’s tricky to summarise the range and significance of pianist and composer Bill Laurance’s musical CV to date. The chance hook-up as a student in Leeds, backing a young Michael League during his sojourn from the States; the subsequent return invitation to travel to the US to play in League’s new band the then unknown …

0 2

Straight after any hugs or handshakes the first thing musicians ask each other when they meet up is ‘Are you busy’? For sax-player, clarinettist and composer Benjamin Samuels the answer for some time now has been a ‘yes’. He’s worked with Californian fusionist Balkan Bump and Brighton’s own global beat pioneer Seb Taylor (aka Kaya …

0 0

For many the jazz piano trio is an edifice that shouldn’t be tampered with, the classic enactment of pure jazz, a rhythm section suddenly given license to express itself but with a heritage that binds them together. So any messing with the tradition needs to be done well, with a purpose and conviction. Plucking at …

0 0

Operating out of Zurich the brothers Kiss, Georg and Christoph (a.k.a Okvsho) are on some kind of a mission to shake up the music scene in their city. Unlike say Geneva that throbs to pulse of a vibrant underground art network, Zurich may lack some impetus but the producer/ instrumentalist brothers are looking to pick …

0 0

Vocalist, song writer, dancer and visual artist, Andrea Isabelle Phillips (aka And Is Phi) talks about her first album ‘Double Pink’ out now on Albert’s Favourites as something that’s been cultivated over time. Well it may have been simmering in her imagination for a while but that doesn’t mean we have a recording that’s stewed, …

0 0

You have to be paying close attention to pick up on the whispers and murmurings from the dynamic Finnish underground scene but when you catch the signals it’s usually something that needs shouting about. That certainly goes for multi-instrumentalist Antti Vauhkonen’s Oiro Pena project which has been beaming messages packed with outsider jazz innovation for …

0 0

It’s always a pleasure to champion female artists, and one day I do hope we can all champion each other. Serbian pianist Maja Alvanovij is no exception to this with her fourth studio album ‘ Wind Rose’ out and already making waves across the musical spectrum. Hailed as ‘ spiritually sublime jazz music ‘ ( …

0 1

There is a need to begin this review with a direct quote from its band leader, saxophonist Arnaud Guichard : “This record is dedicated to all the victims of sexual violences in DRC and to Dr. Denis Mukwege and his team who work hard at restoring the pride and dignity of all the victims of …

0 0

New York based guitarist Adam Moezinia first debut album ,’Folk Element Trio’ is what we at Backseat Mafia have suspected it would be , after premiering its single ‘Celebration’ last month : a triumphant celebration. It is a union of global folk traditions featuring elements of Beninese, Malian, Welsh and American folk music in a contemporary …

0 0