UK jazz Archives - Backseat Mafia

Album Review: Lophae –‘Imagine More’: Another instalment of lyrical, melodic, shape-shifting jazz from the London quartet.

Now here’s something to hunker down with, ‘Imagine More’, a second instalment from new(ish) London jazz quartet Lophae. That’s a logical title for a follow up to the combo’s acclaimed…

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Album Review: Matters Unknown – ‘Silhouettes: A Dream Sphere Journal’ EP’: enriching nu-jazz, poignant and powerful.

Trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Enser is possibly best known as a key member of pioneering global beat collective Nubiyan Twist but away from that thriving collective he’s sculpting his own…

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Album Review: Lophae – ‘Perfect Strangers’: thrilling, fine-tuned jazz with subtle powers.

There’s a playful irony in both the band and album names chosen by this new London jazz quartet led by guitarist/composer Greg Sanders. For a start this lush, intricately woven…

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Track: Rising UK jazzers MATTERS UNKNOWN preview new EP with the sweeping ‘I Am The Birds’.

Brass player, multi-instrumentalist and composer, Jonathan Enser’s most recent project MATTERS UNKNOWN highlights the irrepressible fluidity of contemporary UK Jazz. Well known as a key member of pioneering global beat…

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Album Review: Raffy Bushman – ‘Here Today Gone Tomorrow’: More thrilling post-bop nu jazz from the London pianist and composer.

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…

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Album Review : Raffy Bushman – Silver Lines : a reviving reminder of the beauty of bop told with a new dynamic.

London based jazz pianist, composer and music educator Raffy Bushman has resumed his annual message to the listening public with the ‘Silver Lines’ EP, available through Bridge The Gap, and…

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Album Reviews: Claude Cooper & Brain Fog – More Myriad Sounds : Raucous rhymes and blistering jazz breaks make for one rebellious reworking.

Ah yes, the mysterious Claude Cooper – one person or many, illusive or illusion, prankster or producer, rumoured from Bristol but maybe not…still one thing is for certain, last year…

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Album Review: TC & The Groove Family – ‘First Home’: global beat today-jazz with a collective spirit.

Well Worm Discs may have started out as an outpost for Bristol-centric nu- jazz expressionism (Snazzback Run Logan Run, Dun Dun Dun, the luscious ‘New Horizons’ compilation album etc.) but…

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