Streamed
Video Interviews and Gigs
Nils Petter Molvaer Live From the Marquee
Molvaer
is a man whose openness and willingness to explore such
a diverse range of sounds and colours in his music – his
distinctive trumpet sound as sure and true, and as well
versed in the traditions of jazz as any other aspiring
horn player. Yet he has stepped sideways from the hard
blowing bebop clichés of some of his contemporaries and
created a completely original audio framework in which
to place each carefully chosen note. In an exclusive
interview with iJazz editor Mike Flynn Nils talked about
his music making process, his influences – from dance
music to John Hassle – and the role of remixing in his
creative progress, and the future of what some people
like to call ‘fusion’ and what others simply refer to
as ‘great music’.
Exclusive Nils Petter Molvaer Interview and Concert Footage
Real Player
High
Medium
Low
Windows Player
High
Medium
Low
See three songs performed by NPM from his UK show last year in London.
Real Player
Low Medium High
Windows Player
Low Medium High
Beady Belle Live From Cargo
With a mane of fuzzy hair and a twinkle in her eye, Beate and her regular band, that features bassist and co-producer Marius Reksjo, are tearing down the house. Showcasing the new songs from the cutely titled ‘Cewbeagappic’ album due for release in late April, the crowd are treated to a finely balanced sound that sits squarely between subtle, jazz-infused song writing and frenetic house music dynamics. Flighty keyboard solos are given room to stretch and burn while the rhythm section is simply cooking on a tightly woven groove. Meanwhile Beate is completely in her element, effortlessly reaching high and low notes, carving melodic shapes in the air as fluidly as she moves her arms and hips to the beats. The crowd at first slightly disinterested, persist in chattering, yet within moments of the first of these hypnotic slices of cinematic soul and jazz, they become entranced, eventually begging for more as the band retires having achieved the desired effect.
Real Player Low Medium High
Windows Player
Low Medium High
John Scofield Interview & Live
Always happy to talk about his work John Scofield chatted to us before his
Barbican gig, and told us how his band and his music have evolved over the
last couple
of years, as well as his plans of the future.
Hear tracks from his Up All Night Album
Real Player
High Medium Low
Windows Media Player
High Medium Low
We also caught up with him when he played to packed Barbican Hall, getting some
exclusive footage of the soundcheck where the band often find themselves creating
brand new pieces and furthering the group’s interplay and creativity. See Sco and the boys in action:
Real Player
High Medium Low
Windows Media Player
High Medium Low
Roy Hargrove Talks About Hard Groove - Exclusive Video Interview
Roy
Hargrove has been at the cutting edge of bop and Cuban trumpet playing ever
since he was feted as the ‘Young Lion’ to watch, with Hard Groove’ he breaks this mould to become a new force in soul, jazz and hip-hop, iJazz editor Mike Flynn met him to find out more. For many years Roy Hargrove has been constantly referred to as a ‘Young Lion’ so a coming of age was always imminent and that came with his barnstorming performance as part of the Directions In Music group last year. After that project won two Grammy Awards and its two musical deities, Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker, departed to projects new the time was ripe for Hargrove himself to step from the shadows in his most radical musical guise to date. It was a collaboration of critical timing for Hargrove; “Being
on stage with Herbie and Michael, there are no words for it, these are two
icons in the music and definitely cats that have reinvented themselves so
many times, so really it was a preparation for me to do this record, almost
(Laughs).
Being around them, two people who have definitely been around all the different
scopes with their music, just sort of prepared me to deal with this recording.”
See and hear more of what Roy had to say in this video interview with him:
Real Player
High Medium Low
Windows Player
High Medium Low
Jesse Harris - Live Tracks & Interview
Jesse Harris is a
songwriter in a league of his own right now, having been an integral part
of Norah Jones’ huge success; he also won a Grammy for ‘Don’t Know Why’ in the Song Of The Year Category. Now he’s
going solo himself with a laid back, summery sounding album The Secret Sun.
The Secret Sun, which showcases his talents as a tune-smith extraordinaire
plus his wonderful band, The Ferdinandos, who breeze through jazz, rock,
blues and folk with an easy going style. See some footage of his debut London
showcase
as he performs songs from the album and hear him talk about this and his
Grammy success in our exclusive video interview.
Real Player
High Medium Low
Windows Media Player
High Medium Low
Lizz Wright – Live
Lizz Wright is a jazz-soul singer
for a new generation and her inspirational debut solo album ‘Salt’ has
just been released to wide acclaim. Making her London, and European,
debut last
month she wowed
a select crowd with songs from this album and demonstrated her amazingly rich
and versatile voice.
See and hear Lizz perform live:
Real Player
High Medium Low
Windows Media Player
High Medium Low
Richard Bona - Video Interview
Emerging over the last seven or eight years from relative obscurity Richard Bona
has become one of the most widely acclaimed bassists of his generation – with
a voice to match. Crude summations of his talents (that are wide and many) have
called him both “the African Sting” and “Africa’s Jaco Pastorius”, though he
can sing and play as well as either – he is very much his own musician. ‘Munia – The
Tale’ is his debut album for Verve and showcases his innate sense of melody and
rhythm as he writes, produces, plays and sings the majority of the music himself
to create his best album to date. A fascinating and worldly individual he spoke
to iJazz recently about his new album and a whole lot more.
Real Player High Medium Low
Windows
Player High Medium Low
Michael Brecker - Video Interview
Charting the course of an artist, in particular one as significant as Michael Brecker, can sometimes run in tandem with an evolution of a technique or style or genre. Yet
few have been as true to that course as Brecker, and the evidence is there
aplenty both in and out of the studio, of his creative instincts guiding
ever fibre of
his soul towards and as yet unattained goal. His last three albums for Verve
show a man retracing his roots on ‘Time Is Of The Essence’ then exploring his soft, emotional underbelly on ‘Nearness Of You - The Ballad Book’ and now this, ‘Wide Angles’ his most expansive work since the seminal freeform ‘80/81’.
The latter early 1980s album saw Brecker reach deep inside his technical
super powers to find a richer more meaningful and expressive side to his
musical
personality, with the helping hands of Dewey Redman, Pat Metheny and Charlie
Haden, and as
such Brecker mentions this as a musical turning point his life. Yet the history
of Wide Angles is even broader, encompassing the densely terse horn partnership
of his years alongside his brother Randy as the sharp shooting Brecker Brothers,
that spawned legions of imitators and fans of their angular gymnastics in
taking the rock, funk and soul elements of their early years and fusing them
with
a lethal dose of spiky jazz harmony and exceptional virtuosity. So it is
from these
elements, and his recent Grammy Award winning Directions In Music project
with Herbie Hancock and Roy Hargrove, that this new and surprising masterpiece
rises.
Speaking in depth about this stunning new project Michael Brecker explained
how he undertook this mamouth project and how his playing has been developing
and
many more topics in our exclusive video chat.
Real Player
High Low
Windows Player
HIgh Low
Text © Mike Flynn
