SIMON DUFF recommends a new album from renowned composer and oud player Anour Brahem.
Best of 2108: Jazz Albums
by CHRIS SEARLE
Percussive pioneer: Lorraine Baker
JAMES WALSH has a great night in the company of basketball players, quantum physicists and the exquisite timing of Rosie Jones
A New Awakening: Adventures In British Jazz 1966 - 1971, G3, and Buck Owens
JAMES WALSH is moved by an exhibition of graphic art that relates horrors that would be much less immediate in other media
RON JACOBS welcomes the translation into English of an angry cry from the place they call the periphery
GUILLERMO THOMAS recommends a useful book aimed at informing activists with local examples of solidarity in action around the world
HENRY BELL is provoked by a book that looks toward, but does not fully explore the question of who gets to imagine the shapes of cities to come
This year was definitely a year of the jazz woman, with some fine albums telling a story of a profound and innovative direction in British jazz.
Young Kentish drummer Lorraine Baker, whose first album Spark! is a tribute to her musical hero, the New Orleans-born drummer Ed Blackwell, joined forces with her band on the album Eden to play tunes associated with Blackwell, with tenor saxophonist Binker Golding, bassist Paul Michael and protean pianist Liam Noble all in powerful fettle.
Her childhood love of tap-dancing inspired Baker's drumming and of Blackwell she says: “He sounds like he's dancing when he's playing.”
More from this author
CHRIS SEARLE wallows in an evening of high class improvised jazz, and recommends upcoming highlights in May
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to drummer Steve Noble
CHRIS SEARLE interviews saxophonist Chris Williams about the extraordinary electro-acoustic album LEDLEY - a bold fusion of Jazz, football, and community spirit
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Rwanda-born jazz vocalist INEZA
