Articles by Phil Barnes
Nick Malcolm: Real Isn't Real
by Phil Barnes
There's always a temptation to describe things we like as “the real jazz/soul/music..." out of a passion for a new musical discovery, but what does it actually mean? At the level of pure pedantry no piece of music can be more “real" than any other, yet what this unfortunate formulation is meant to signify is that the mother-lode of the inescapable quintessence of a particular type of music, the right stuff, has been found--the cat's pyjama's, the dog's (ahem) 'cojones' ...
read moreVarious Artists: The Sea at the End of Her String
by Phil Barnes
Genre is increasingly a problem in our modern musical world--it is all pervasive yet meaningless at the same time. If the internet only gives us what we search for, then a classification that is predicated on a formulaic 'if you like that then you'll love this" algorithm is never going to be good enough. Music as an art form is not specific, it implies emotion and feeling through the notes, tones and chords rather than itemising or cataloguing what a ...
read moreThe Spike Orchestra and John Zorn's "The Book Beriah"
by Phil Barnes
Sam Eastmond is the composer, arranger, and trumpet player best known for his work as bandleader and co-founder of the Spike Orchestra. That UK based large ensemble has released two studio albums to date, Ghetto on their own label followed by Cerberus as part of a collaboration with the legendary John Zorn on his Masada Book Two project.Great though Ghetto was, Cerberus has proved to be the more significant both in terms of creative development to date and ...
read moreErica Bramham: Songs From A Midnight Room
by Phil Barnes
Social media engagement can make all the difference for young artists seeking to build a following, but it can also distract. The virtual world demands constant novelty and 'events' and if you enter that maelstrom there is the ever-present fear of being forgotten as your posts slip off the bottom of your followers' phone screens. One artist looking to make sense of all this is Australian singer songwriter Erica Bramham, who you may remember from her exemplary 2016 debut Twelve ...
read moreWalter Smith III: Twio
by Phil Barnes
The awareness of an audience or home listener is a key rite of passage in the creative development of an artist. Its something that usually becomes an issue as a performer moves beyond that initial creative surge of their early work, that build-up of compositions that led to initial success and attention has been exhausted and audience expectations have grown. So Walter Smith III's decision to revisit classic jazz tunes on this collection was not one that initially quickened the ...
read moreNils Frahm: All Melody
by Phil Barnes
As we try and make sense of our world there is always a temptation to simplify the complex, to set parameters or limiting factors on a choice or decision to make it manageable. For many this translates into only feeling successful if particular pre-conditions are met--say if a particular person or clique acknowledges our worth, maybe it is by purchasing the latest shiny gadget or simply through winning some irrelevant competition with our peers. Hard won experience teaches us that ...
read moreGoGo Penguin: A Humdrum Star
by Phil Barnes
If 2016's Man Made Object, their first for Blue Note, was an exercise in consolidating past triumphs while signposting potential ways forward, then there can be no doubt that with A Humdrum Star GoGo Penguin have stepped into a version of that future. Ostensibly the title is a self-effacing reference to a Carl Sagan TV series “Cosmos," emphasising how small and insignificant our world is and by extension our own petty concerns are. The quote reads “We find that we ...
read moreAll That's Jazz
by Phil Barnes
All That's Jazz Sammy Stein 198 Pages ISBN: 13: 978-0-9557670-9-8 Tomahawk Press 2017 Sammy Stein is a brave woman. Take that title--not just a riff on “All That Jazz" to cover a personal memoir of time spent in the jazz trenches but ALL that IS jazz. This is a book that in the author's words attempts to ..."share this wonderful music with as many as possible, to allow people to understand that jazz ...
read moreMammal Hands: Shadow Work
by Phil Barnes
Our best musicians can soak up influences from many diverse sources, assimilate them into their own style, and allow them to emerge during improvisation. This is why, as readers of this site will surely be aware, a piece can sound different in the hands of two skilled jazz musicians even when the raw material of the composition is constant. When this level of openness is maintained over time it can allow musicians, such as Mammal Hands here, to show a ...
read moreZara McFarlane: Arise
by Phil Barnes
Zara McFarlane's If You Knew Her from 2014 promised much, being a wonderful, individual, mixture of jazz, reggae and soul that viewed the singer's Jamaican roots through the prism of her UK birth and London upbringing. It was an original blend that signaled the arrival of a major talent on the UK scene, setting a path that McFarlane has continued to purposefully stride down on this superb follow up. Everything about this collection has been thought through -from ...
read more
Giveaway
Days remaining: 5
