Jazz Services - A voice for jazz

Fourth Page

The above band has received a Jazz Services National Touring Support Scheme grant for their new tour.

Line-Up:

Charlie Beresford – Vocals/Guitar

Carolyn Hume - Piano

Peter Marsh - Bass

Paul May - Drums/Percussion

http://www.brightfieldproductions.co.uk/4thpage/

Fourth Page came together informally in 2010 - the members had already performed together in various combinations but not as a quartet.  Carolyn Hume and Paul May had played as a duo over the last ten years, releasing five critically acclaimed albums on Leo Records, while Peter Marsh and Paul May had played together in various groups as well as recently providing the live rhythm section for Petra Jean Phillipson.  Charlie Beresford (known in the main for his solo work and studio production) came into the equation after a recent recording that he, Paul May and Duke Garwood made under the guise of Abdon Liberty, and both Hume and Marsh contributed to the sessions.

The quartet has released two albums - Along the Weak Rope (Forwind) and Blind Horizons (Leo).  The former album includes the first notes ever played by the quartet, and both recordings have garnered critical acclaim from the European jazz press.  The band have received regular airplay on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction (whose presenter Fiona Talkington is a fan) as well as on BBC 6 Music and elsewhere.

Charlie Beresford – Vocals/Guitar

Over the last decade Charlie has released four solo albums.  His last recording, Dark Transport (2009), was made with long term musical collaborator Tim Harries.  Charlie has been in demand as a freelance producer/engineer working on numerous albums in fields as diverse as large scale choral works (CBS) to folk artists such as June Tabor, and recently with poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan.  The last few years have seen him engineer for the likes of the BBC, Soundtree, and Smooth Operations.  As well as being a member of Fourth Page, he is part of Abdon Liberty with Paul May and Duke Garwood, and is also working with Tim Harries, DJ Flypaper and other collaborators on a new multi-media piece under the umbrella of Sister Rotunda.  He also plays in the improvising duet Five Turnings alongside viola player Mark Emerson.

Carolyn Hume - Piano

Carolyn has released seven albums over the last decade on Leo Records, five with long term collaborator Paul May and two solo albums consisting of compositions for cello and voice.  Over the years she has played and recorded with many artists, crossing genres from prog-rock to classical and free improvisation.  She has performed sparingly in Europe and the UK and also provided music for short films, including work by Darron Davies (Exhibition Ballarat Australia), Xaver Walser (Sub Gravity Films) and Bal Erotique-Montreal.

Peter Marsh - Bass

Marsh has played and recorded with a variety of bands tackling anything from avant-rock to electronica, from Breton folk music to electric jazz by way of free improve and more.  He was a founder member of electro-jazz improvisers Lob and its subsequent offshoot Moist.  During his career Peter has performed alongside improvisers including Paul Rutherford, Lol Coxhill, Mark Sanders, David Toop, Steve Beresford, Robert Dick, Rhodri Davies, Tony Bevan and many others, and done session work for the Orb's Alex Paterson, The Tiger Lillies and more.  As well as his ensemble work, he has performed solo bass gigs at the London Headphone Festival and De Sonis, and composed music for short films by Thomas Gray and for When There Was Grass by Juliette Buss.  Other than Fourth Page, his other current projects include working alongside Paul May in live electro-acoustic outfit Sonnamble, the free jazz trio Elvers, a quartet with Danish saxophonist Julie Kjaer and a trio with Viennese guitarist Martin Siewert.

Paul May - Drums/Percussion

Paul is a seasoned drummer and percussionist of 20 years experience - he has played the majority of England’s major venues as well as most of the left-field experimental clubs.  The past two decades have seen him tour extensively in Europe and the Scandinavian regions with both improvisation-based bands and pop acts.  He has either released or played on a variety of records on labels including Leo, Emanem, Loog, Butterfly, Fire, ATP, Four Eyes, Bo Weevil, Gronland, Forewind and Stuck Records, with artists such as Carolyn Hume, Dom Lash, Duke Garwood, Alexander Tucker, Rosie Brown, Dan Beban, and Petra Jean Philipson.

Reviews:

“…the music retains a consistent sound and mood, a delicate impressionism that is highly distinctive and makes compelling listening.  Stunning.” – All About Jazz online

END

Despite the slight hiatus of the summer weather, it seems as though the festival season is upon us, with only a week to go until the first match&fuse festival starts in Dalston, London.  

match&fuse will be bringing together thirteen bands from Europe and the UK, for a series of free concerts in Gillett Square and The Vortex held over the evening of Friday 15th and all day on Saturday 16th of June.  The festival is the brainchild of Dave Morecroft, keyboardist with WorldService Project, and as well as their performance the event sees sets from the UK's trioVD and Led Bib as well as bands from Italy, Poland, France, Norway, Holland and Spain.

According to the press release, "WorldService Project have been tearing a path through the UK scene and touring with their ambitious initiative of match&fuse joint adventures in music with the brightest dirtiest young European and Scandinavian bands.  With 3 collaborations already and 2 more on the go, in June they bring it all together in London for 2 free-for-all days… the first match&fuse festival in a five year plan: 2012 London; 2013 Oslo; 2014 Rome…"

Watch the festival trailer below, go to www.matchandfuse.co.uk for more details, and keep your fingers crossed for a good weather!

The line-up for Brecon Jazz 2012 has been anounced, and can now be seen up on the festival's website:

www.breconjazz.com

The festival's organisation was taken over this year by events management company Orchard following the departure of the Hay Festival, who ran the event for the previous two years.  Brecon in 2012 is a smaller affair, planned by Orchard as an 'interim year', but it nonetheless features a wide choice of names - Roy Ayers, Dionne Warwick, Lighthouse, Neil Cowley Trio, Soweto Kinch, Claire Martin, Ginger Baker, Trio Libero, Kit Downes, Stan Tracey & Bobby Wellins, Alan Barnes, Neil Yates and more.  Welsh pianist Huw Warren also appears as the festival's Artist in Residence.

The festival runs from 10th - 12th August, with tickets on sale from 9th June.  See the website for full line-up and details.

Jazz Services has kindly been sent the following Q&A session between drummer David Lyttle and Eddie Lee, organiser of the International Jazz Summer School & Music Festival in Sligo, Ireland, held this year from 24th - 29th July.  

Putting on any event naturally involves a great deal of time and effort, and the amount of work involved is not always apparent to an outside observer.  The Sligo Jazz Project has been running since 2005, incorporating both a music festival and a summer educational programme.  Here, Eddie talks to David about his experiences in running the event, the challenges involved in organising the project and some of his memories from previous years.

http://www.sligojazz.ie/

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David: Ed, tell me how SJP started.  Did you have a vision, and was it as SJP is now?

Eddie: SJP started in 2005 when myself and three Sligo musician colleagues decided the only response to the dearth of jazz performance and educational activity in the Northwest of Ireland was to bring some people here to teach and perform - in the knowledge that with such a small population here, and consequently a small jazz audience, nobody else would start such an initiative.  So we set up SJP and with the aid of a small local authority grant hosted a pilot event over a wet weekend in October, with five tutors giving master-classes, workshops and concerts.

The vision was very simple: to bring world-class musicians to teach and perform and help the attendees develop their musicianship skills.  The event attracted about 35 participants, had good concert attendances and exceeded our expectations on every level.  We saw that there is a hunger for this type of event, which provides the soul food and brain food a musician needs to grow: namely information on theory, practice techniques, exercises, technique, and most importantly the inspiration to leave the event and take your musicianship to a higher level.  We also saw that the project also provided a unique entertainment event for the public who attended too.

Spurred on by this success we decided to run a summer school in August 2006, and successfully applied for funding to the Arts Council and other bodies.  This had a more international faculty which included Rufus Reid, Italian guitarist Sandro Gibellini, Italian based US pianist Greg Burk and previous tutors Steve Davis (N Ireland), Michael Buckley and Mike Nielsen (Ireland), along with Swiss singer Veronika Stalder.  This 5-day long event attracted 70 participants and we soon realised we had created a monster!

In those days it was pretty much divided responsibilities, but the ever growing workload and other pressures meant some of my colleagues had to withdraw over the years.  Strange, but as the event grew in size and stature, the organisation became more compact, and this year, with a major international faculty of sixteen tutors, I'm almost running it on my own, with a bit of help from volunteers.  This year I believe we have the best faculty of any jazz summer school ever held in Europe.

David: It’s got to be tough running that single handed?

Eddie: It’s very difficult, since there is a summer school, which in itself is pretty much a full time job, and on top of that a full blown jazz festival programme to do.  Fundraising is a huge part of the workload, as is the event management - main event programming, negotiating and booking acts, speaking to venues…  Then of course there is a very strong and ever-increasing jazz trail around local venues, hostelries, cafes and hotels, which is a whole programming job on its own.  They say you have to be crazy to organise something like this on a volunteer basis, but most of my friends will tell you I should have been certified a good while back!

Some things have gotten easier, though.  The faculty for this year almost picked itself – it’s the biggest we have had to date, a mixture of tutors from previous years but with a more ambitious programme, and for the first time, four drum/percussion tutors, two double bass and one electric bass tutor, and we’ve doubled up on all the other instruments bar trombone and vocals.  Since we develop more contacts as the years go by, and we treat the tutors very well when they are here, this I think the main reason the faculty is easier to assemble now, and of course it’s such a special week for all concerned that they are almost queuing up to come back!  We do like to vary the faculty members each year, but recognise that some continuity is good too.

David: Any notable additions to the faculty this year?

Eddie: US bass legend Rufus Reid returns for the first time since 2007, and this year he is joined by John Goldsby, with whom he teaches just prior to our event in Kentucky at the massive Jamey Aebersold summer school.  I think they have sixty odd tutors and 400 plus participants - now that’s a major event!

David: This is a guy who had played with Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, Dizzy, Dexter, Getz, Lee Konitz...  How did you manage to get Rufus to come to Ireland to teach back in 2006, on what was then an unknown pilot project?

Eddie: It’s something I remember every detail of.  In spring 2006 I returned from a family trip to USA, still without a bass tutor for the summer school.  Fortuitously, in the mail was an instructional bass DVD by Rufus Reid that I had ordered online sometime before.  I put it into the computer and it had a web link, so I thought I'd chance my arm.  I sent an email which opened "Dear Rufus, I know this is a long shot, but a silent priest never got a parish... this is what we are putting together, these are the dates, and this is how much money we've got..."  And he replied ten minutes later with, "Dear Eddie, it’s just as well you are not a silent priest, as I am available on those dates and I would love to be part of your project".  I think the word is serendipity!

David: Who else is onboard this year?

Eddie: We had been trying since 2007 to get John Riley to come.  He's probably the greatest drum educator in jazz history - if I'm not mistaken, you yourself, David, have travelled Stateside to study with him - every jazz drummer worth his salt has at least one Riley book.  We met him on a weekend in NYC at the village Vanguard where he was performing in the big band on the legendary Monday night session.  My colleague Eddie McFarlane plucked up the courage to approach him and told him where we were from.  "Oh I've heard of you guys, Rufus Reid told me all about you", came the answer.  We finally got him to Sligo - four years later, last year.  He guested with Dublin City Jazz Orchestra then, and with John Taylor co-lead the complete faculty "SJP All Stars" headline concert.  Like most of the guys who come here, he was happy to come back for a return visit this time when he'll be performing with Marshall Gilkes on his show and Rufus on the All Star gig.  He's kind of like a drum god!  It’s amazing the reverence even seasoned drummers I know have for him.

David: What about UK and European tutors?

Eddie: Having secured the best in the USA we didn’t rest on our laurels and have also got Paul Clarvis to teach percussion again this year.  Paul is a gentleman and a great teacher.  I think it was (N. Ireland) drummer Steve Davis who recommended Paul, who's played with everyone from Nina Simone to Mick Jagger, notably Kenny Wheeler, John Williams and Bernstein.  I think a great testament to our event is that Paul is prepared to take a week from his busy schedule and potentially big recording dates to come to Sligo, where he teaches by day and gets involved with all the jams and pub sessions each evening too.  This year he told me he would do the project again as long as I gave him a gig in Hargadons, a charming little pub on the main street with a band stand a little bigger than a matchbox.  Such is the charm of Sligo, I guess!

On the European front we also have of course piano legend John Taylor and his colleague Italian singer Diana Torto; two German-based Americans, WDR Big Band players John Goldsby and Marshall Gilkes, the trombonist who blew everyone away last year, he truly is a phenomenon.  Closer to home we have your good self and N. Ireland drum colleague Steve Davis, Irish guitar virtuoso Mike Nielsen, Italian guitarist Sandro Gibellini, BBC presenter, trumpeter and bandleader Linley Hamilton, young Berklee Presidential Scholar saxophonist Matthew Halpin and pianist & writer Brian Priestley, who is based in Ireland in his semi-retirement where he also is a radio presenter and finds time to write for Jazzwise magazine too.

David: Is it just faculty members that perform at the evening concerts?

Eddie: No, this year more than ever we have a plethora of guest acts, both in the main concert programme and the jazz trail.  Kenny Wheeler is our guest of honour this year and we are thrilled that he has agreed to come.  He will give a concert and a workshop with John Taylor and Diana, both of whom have been in his "Somethin' Else Quartet" for some time.  As well as Kenny, Phronesis, Zakir Hussain and Femi Temowo are amongst the festival acts, so the tutors will get a couple of nights off in what is a pretty intense week for them.

David: What makes SJP so unique?

Eddie: I think it’s that we host so many one-off events.  Right from the first concert we ever hosted up to the present, SJP has been full of world-premieres, bringing together musicians from different parts of the globe, who have never performed together before and placing them on a stage together.  It’s the beauty of jazz that this can be done with supreme confidence, we know that the standard of musicians we bring is so world-class that they will weave magic every time.  It’s happened from that first summer school in 2006 when Rufus Reid performed with Steve Davis, Greg Burk and Irish sax man Michael Buckley, a truly memorable, astonishing concert.  It happened again in 2007 when Rufus performed with Louis Stewart and Sandro Gibellini, when Paul Wertico and Rufus shared a stage for the first time, and when we put Wertico in a trio of Mike Nielsen and Dominique DiPiazza.  It’s the magic of jazz.  Last year when you and Michael Manring along with young Andreas Varady provided the rhythm section for the cracking session with Soweto Kinch, Jean Toussaint and Cleveland Watkiss, that magic was there - that once in a lifetime feeling.  I think our SJP All Stars concert each year has created that feeling every time, when every single tune is a one off, world exclusive combination of musicians.

David: What is the hardest thing about organising an event of this magnitude?

Eddie: Has to be finding the time to put it all together, persuading other people that it’s worth not having a life for a while to help run this event with me, and not going insane in the process.  That and keeping hold of my family.

David: Obviously it's been worth it or you wouldn't still be doing it?

Eddie: Unbelievably so.  When the event is in full flow and the participants are coming out of a once-in-a-lifetime show, every face beaming with surprise, joy and a common love of great music, I know it’s been worth it.

We're always trying to improve the facilities we offer, and naturally the Jazz Services website is a big part of that.  It's going through a continued period of streamlining and refinement, with some areas still to be addressed, but we've set up a short introductory poll where you can answer a few brief questions and let us know how we're getting on.  Check it out here, and thanks for the feedback!

Jazz Services website poll.

Here at Jazz Services, we're always looking for feedback from our users.  As part of the on-going refinement and upgrade to our online portals, we'd be grateful if you could take the time to answer a few brief questions about the website so that we can continue improve the experiences and resources we offer.

Click here to take the survey!

Jazz Services has received the following press release from the July Jazz Smolyan festival in Bulgaria, offering opportunities for UK artists to perform at the event this summer.  See below for more details:

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The International Ethno-Jazz festival “JULY JAZZ Smolyan”, taking place in Smolyan, Bulgaria, from Wednesday 25^th to Saturday 28^th July 2012, will be presenting artists from Bulgaria and the Balkan neighbourhood during the three Festival days.

http://www.julyjazzbg.com/main.php?theme=1

The event is an initiative by Open Space Foundation and local partners in Rhodope Mountains.  It is supported by the Ministry of Culture in Bulgaria.

The call for showcase proposals for JULY JAZZ MY STAGE is now open, with a deadline of Monday, 25^th June.

Are you a professional musician/band and ready to go international?  Do you deserve wider audiences and have the professional standards necessary to tour?  If so, this call is for you!  Come perform at July Jazz Smolyan 2012, where the audience will choose the 3 BEST bands.

Winners are awarded: participation in 4 festivals in Italy, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom – all costs covered including fee.

Funding: Please note that the organisers of JULY JAZZ Smolyan are not in the position to cover any fees and travel expenses.  What will be provided is a 45-55 minutes showcase slot, the stage, the necessary equipment to perform and extensive promotional treatment.  That includes promotion of the show itself, newsletters, online promo, publication of full bios and contact details in the JULY JAZZ Guide, and much more.  Additionally, all invited artists will get free full access to all features of the JULY JAZZ event and PERELIK Pure Jazz, plus accommodation and catering.

So, if you want to propose a showcase, think carefully about financing and let us know what support or funding you have.

Interested? Here's how to submit…

Please load the application form (application form) fill out and send by email to  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Please include in this email:

- subject line: JULY JAZZ MY STAGE proposal + name of artist

- a biography in English

- a discography (if available)

- full technical rider (including backline) & stage plot

- a selection of internet links (Youtube, Facebook, homepage, etc) or 2 musical files (mp3)

To be considered by the jury you need to send ALL the above items, without exception.  Please send them in English.  The application for performing on JULY JAZZ MY STAGE is free of charge.  Deadline is Monday, 25^th June.

On 30^th June you will receive a reply regarding your approved for participation.  If you have been selected, you will receive your timing and stage details.

Please direct all questions to:   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

We've recently received this glowing report on British jazz artists at April's JazzAhead! conference in Bremen, Germany, as reported by the good folks at Jazzwise magazine.  Read the full article here: link

Our listings are going digital - check out the new listings online form!

The Jazz Services website is a great source of information and our aim is to make it as useful as possible, whether you're looking for news, bands, tutors or latest gigs in the area.  We are working hard to make it better and much more interesting, and as part of the process we've updated our online listings submission form. 

While you can currently still send an email to our friendly Listings Editor Sabina Czaijkowska, we will be phasing this out in the next few months, so why not use our ready-made template?  All you need is to follow the simple steps and ensure you provide all the details we require.  We hope this provides a very easy and user friendly service - give it a try now and let us know what you think:

http://www.jazzservices.org.uk/index.php/enter-gigs

Issue no. 105 has a special report from this year's JazzAhead! conference, interviews with drummers Tony Kinsey and Bill Bruford, and a round-up of the summer's forthcoming festivals and workshops, as well as the usual reviews and listings.