2010-07-16 Richard Fairhurst's Triptych in Jazzwise feature plus lots of praise for new CD Amusia
Long-time established composer and pianist Richard Fairhurst's Triptych, his piano trio recently released their debut titled Amusia (with drummer Chris Vatalaro and Phronesis leader-double bassist Jasper Hoiby)has been interviewed for a main feature in the July issue of Jazzwise and a review in the magazine described the album as "...a welcome and distinctive addition to the crowded piano-trio scene" and Kevin Le Gendre on BBC Music website described "The technical standard as enviably high and the music expresses its own identity". With three Babel albums already under his belt as leader of Hungry Ants and one as co-leader in the leading duo Mesmer with trumpeter Tom Arthurs (another duo Pushkin is due next year) another Babel artist and current BBC New Generation Artist for jazz, Richard has been a Steinway International Artist since 1998. Amusia is available to purchase on the site here . Triptych performed as part of a double bill at the Vortex jazz club in Dalston with hip NYC piano trio led by Vijay Iyer in July 2010. If you missed you can still catch the band at the Con Cellar Bar in Camden Town on July 26th. See live page
2010-06-04 The Golden Age of Steam hailed in Metro, Jazzwise, BBC and FT features
The Golden Age of Steam (James Allsopp on reeds, Kit Downes on Hammond Organ and wurlitzer keys and Tim Giles on drums and percussion) hit the headlines in the music pages of london's Metro Newspaper in London with a lead review today with the following text, " Citing inspirations from Ligeti and Coltrane to Captain Beefheart, they sculpt progressive aural explorations of space that range in character from avant-garde classical to deconstructed blues. Their debut album, Raspberry Tongue (Babel), is about as far removed from dinner party music as you can get – unless, that is, you enjoy subjecting your guests to unsettling grooves and Hammer Horror atmospherics. Opener Mr Apricot/Imaginary Handbag is a masterclass in unease from rising keyboard star Kit Downes, who alternates between Hammond organ and Wurlitzer. Meanwhile, the title track and Eyepatch provide ample opportunities for ear-shattering ensemble wig-outs, Allsopp's sax squawking its way into the stratosphere above Tim Giles's brilliantly empathetic drumming. It's not an easy listen but patience is rewarded." The trio also went down brilliantly in a feature in Jazzwise with a *** review advising readers to check out this "intelligent debut" while Kevin LeGendre on BBC music online said, "The Golden Age of Steam offer a tasty spin on trio music, showing how much scope jazz has for new combinations of instruments, and as such stands loosely in the lineage of Tim Berne's feted Hard Cell and the not so feted Ibrahim Electric."You can read the Financial Times review here and purchase the new album online here
2010-04-09 trioVD rampage across Europe showcasing critically acclaimed Babel CD Fill It Up With Ghosts
With a headline at The Garage in Islington tomorrow (Saturday 1 May), Leeds based trioVD go where jazz improvisers fear to tread. They will be playing from their critically acclaimed Mojo jazz album of 2009 Fill it Up with Ghosts which you can purchase online at our shop here. The Garage date tomorrow is followed by a tour that takes in big international festivals in France, Sweden Norway, Bratislava and Glasgow and the North Sea Jazz Festival. For more details of all live dates click here. The Garage date gets a feature preview in Time Out Magazine this week with Mike Flynn describing trioVD as "making some of the most exciting, mind-expanding, ear-baffling sounds to emerge from the Uk in a long, long time." and their headline show at the Garage as " a much deserved step closer to their (hopefully global) mainstream ascendancy."
2010-04-
09 Richard Fairhurst launches piano trio Triptych's debut CD @ Vortex on 25th April
The pianist Richard Fairhurst is a longtime Babel recording artist, but his new release is a debut by his piano trio Triptych titled Amusia (with drummer Chris Vatalaro and leading Phronesis leader-double bassist Jasper Hoiby) and he launches the album, which is already available to purchase on the site here, at the Vortex Jazz Club in Dalston on 25th April. Tickets are available online here. With four Babel albums already under his belt as leader and one as co-leader in the leading duo Mesmer with trumpeter Tom Arthurs, another Babel artist and current BBC New Generation Artist for jazz, Richard is a Steinway International Artist since 1998 (he also appears in duo with the great British pianist John Taylor on 16th and then 19th of this month solo at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho) and has recorded three albums with Babel for his band Hungry Ants plus a BBC Jazz award winner for Best New Work Standing Tall from 2004. 'Triptych' is a highly appropriate name for pianist Richard Fairhurst's group, since it conveys both the stylistic homogeneity of the trio and (referring as it generally does to a central painted panel flanked by two side pieces whose content is shaped by the main picture) the artistic process at work within it. Fairhurst has been been playing professionally since his teens (he was performing with Iain Ballamy at Ronnie's way before he could legally drink there) and has recorded his seventh album for the Babel label, so his confidence and assurance as both composer and performer are givens; what is particularly striking about Triptych, however is the subtle cohesiveness, hardening where required into fierce interactiveness, of the group sound. Time Out Magazine said this about the band: Triptych are an exciting newly formed contemporary jazz trio led by prodigous young pianist Richard Fairhurst, with fleet-fingered Danish bassist Jasper Hoiby and skillful, energetic US drummer Chris Vatalro. Improvising in both cerebral and lyrical ways, Fairhurst's rabid imagination will doubtless further fuel the creativity of this trio.
2010-02-26 The Golden Age of Steam new album Raspberry Tongue now available in our CD shop here
The Golden Age of Steam is James Allsopp on reeds, Kit Downes on Hammond Organ and wurlitzer keys and Tim Giles on drums and percussion. Their debut CD has just arrived at Babel mansions and is available to purchase on the website here, part of the sell-out LOOP Festival taking place there this week. All compositions are written by James Allsopp, who with drummer Tim Giles formerly led the band Fraud who put out their eponymous album on Babel. The track titles have James' typically english surreal cartoon-ish touch ('Mr. Apricot/Imaginary Handbag' and 'For no Raisin') and the phantasmagoric CD sleeve illustration is also by James. The band blew away a full house at the Vortex in Dalston during the London Jazz festival in November and the CD lives up to the promise of their recent live outings. The CD will be on sale very shortly so watch this space.
2010-01-08 Babel in 2010: Golden Age of Steam, Twelves Trio, Paula Rae Gibson, Richard Fairhurst's Triptych
Following the success of last year's breakthough acts ZED-U and trioVD (winners of the Mojo CD of the Year), the Babel Label continues to lead the way with the exciting new wave of bands from the younger generation of jazz musicians in 2010 with the release of the debut from trio The Golden Age of Steam that includes reedsman-composer James Allsopp, drummer Tim Giles that people will remember as the co-leaders of Babel band Fraud and Troyka's Kit Downes on Hammond Organ. Meanwhile double bassist Riaan Vosloo's Twelves Trio make their second album (following the 2008 debut Here Comes the Woodman with his Splintered Soul), and include Tim Giles again on drums, ex-Outhouse saxophonist Mark Hanslip and the newest addition, the guitarist Rob Updegraff - a trio with a difference. Meanwhile singer-songwriter, artist, author and photographer Paula Rae Gibson who's first album Maybe Too Nude was released on Babel last year, brings out a special luxurious book You Gather My Darkness Like Snow, Watch it Melt for Babel that besides her photographic artwork and Novella, includes a CD featuring her new band with pianist Ivo Neame and vibraphonist Jim Hart who played a haunting set at the London Jazz festival Paula Rae Gibson. Meanwhile an established Babel artist though still only 32 years old , the pianist Richard Fairhurst (who has already recorded four albums as leader for Babel , three with the Hungry Ants and the BBC Jazz award winning Standing Tall from 2004), one as co-leader with tom Arthurs in the duo Mesmer and his piano trio Triptych make their debut titled Amusia (with drummer Chris Vatalaro and Phronesis leader-double bassist Jasper Hoiby). Richard is currently in duo with BBC New Generation artist and trumpeter Tom Arthurs and you can hear them live at Ronnie Scotts as featured on the BBC website here on this week's Radio 3's Jazz on 3 Programme.
2010-01-08 Leading author Amit Chaudhuri's This is Not Fusion CD out now on Babel-Vortex label
Amit Chaudhuri is one of India 's leading writers and novelists (click here and scroll down for leading newspaper reviews of his novel, The Immortals).This Is Not Fusion, a project in experimental music bringing together raga with jazz, rock, and the blues, is a new joint release from Babel and the Vortex jazz club label offshoot. Besides open, experimental structures, it also has an increasing number of songs composed by Chaudhuri in its repertoire. In June 2008, This Is Not Fusion played again to a full house at the Vortex in London , as well as to a hugely appreciative and large audience at the Jazz Night, the Master's Lodge, St John's College , Cambridge. Amit Chaudhuri then had a full house appearance in July at the Big Sky Jazz Festival at Margate , England. He also played at the London Jazz Festival in Nov 2009. Music critic Ivan Hewett said in the Daily Telegraph, London, 'Chaudhuri's 'non-fusion' music creates a striking metaphor for the urban sensibility, which today is increasingly the condition of everybody, even those who stay at home.'
For more info about the CD, the artist and to purchase click on the album sleeve above.
2009-11-27 trioVD
win the Mojo Jazz CD of the Year & bag 4-star reviews in both The
Guardian/BBC Music Mag
trio VD's new Babel CD Fill It Up With Ghosts has topped the jazz
albums of the year chart in Mojo magazine, January 2010 issue (click 
They
have also had very favourable reviews in leading music magazines and
newspapers with BBC Music Magazine calling it "breathtaking" (click here) and John Fordham from
The Guardian both giving a 4 star **** review. The Guardian review
reads as follows:
'Leeds-based trioVD – the thrashy
guitar, sax and drums trio – are likely to set Henry Purcell
whirling in his grave on Saturday when they play the concert hall named
after him for the London jazz festival's opening weekend. This group of
former free improvisers takes music to extremes, but it isn't prolix
– Fill It Up With Ghosts comes in at a lean 41 minutes. Melodic
shapes, rhythm patterns, moods and textures change constantly, as the
members (Acoustic Ladyland's Chris Sharkey on guitar, Christophe de
Bézenac on sax, effects and voice, Chris Bussey on drums)
shuffle and reshuffle improv and written material so you can't hear the
joins. From a wild improv feel at the outset (chicken-clucking sax
sounds, stop-start themes, collective instrumental chatter), the music
shifts to soulful sax-led jazz, skids into raw-noise creaks, sprints
into fast freebop, and then the compelling groove of the title track,
with its driving guitar vamp beneath. This is urgent, engaging music
with the longueurs knocked out, spanning jazz, world music and edgy
rock.' purchase the CD here or digital download here
2009-10-15 Full
list of Babel artists at the London Jazz Festival in November
Frid
13 Nov (7:30pm) Christine
Tobin & Phil Robson w Guildhall Jazz Ensemble @Guildhall,
EC2Y 8DT (020 7638 8891)
Sat 14 Nov (7.45pm) trioVD (plus World
Sanguine Report) Purcell Room, South Bank, SE1 8XX (0871 663 2500) Tkts £10
Sat 14 Nov (8.00pm) Amit Chaudhuri @ Arts
Depot, 5 Nether Street, N12 0GA (020 8369 5454) Tkts £14/12 conc.
Mon 16 Nov (8.00pm) Twelves (pic left)+Shabaka Hutchings+Seb Rochford@
Green Note,Parkway,NW1(020 7485 9899)
Frid 20 Nov (8.30pm) Michael Wollny + Finn Peters @ The Pheasantry, Kings Road, SW3. ( 084 5602 7017)
Tkts £10
Frid 20 Nov (8.30pm) Led Bib @ Vortex,
Gillett Square, Dalston, N16 8JH (020 7254 4097) Tkts. £9
Frid 20 Nov (9.30pm) Polar Bear + Zed-U + Troyka @ Jazz Cafe, Camden, Parkway,
NW1 ( 087 0060 3777) Tkts £12
Sat 21 Nov (Midnight) Paula Rae Gibson 'In
the Dark' @ Vortex, Gillett Square, Dalston, N16 8JH (020 7254 4097)
Tkts. £5
Sat 21 Nov (7.30pm) Christine Tobin @
Pizza Express Jazz Club, Soho, W1D 3RW ( 084 5602 7017) Tkts £15
Sat 21 Nov (8.30pm) Dave Kane's Rabbit Project + The
Golden Age of Steam + Twelves @
Vortex, Gillett Square, Dalston, N16 8JH (020 7254 4097)
2009-10-09 trioVD release debut CD Fill it Up with Ghosts on
November 9th plus launch dates
Recently
returning from a European Jazz Network showcase in which they went down
an absolute storm with European Jazz festival promoters, the Leeds
outfit Trio VD (electric guitarist Chris Sharkey, saxophonist Christophe De Bezenac
and drummer Chris Bussey) release their debut CD Fill It Up with Ghosts
(sleeve, left) on Babel on November 9th. Launch dates have been
anounced starting in Leeds at Seven Arts (recorded for BBC Radio 3'
Jazz on November 3rd. Then a London launch will take place at the
London Jazz Festival at the Purcell Room on November 14th. Described as
' "Tim Berne meets Queens of the Stone Age at a party thrown by Derek
Bailey" the trio have now recorded their debut CD. The band have
already attained cult status on the live circuit and are "rapidly
making a name for producing some of the most progressive sounds
anywhere in the country”, (Jazzwise) and for their
"...earth-shattering, taking a sledgehammer to preconceived limitations
of jazz... (Time Out). Last year's London Jazz Festival was hailed in
The Guardian: "The terrific Leeds-based Trio VD followed up with an
equally ferocious display, this time a fast, tight and awesomely expert
conjunction of spiky high-energy compositions, uninhibited sax and
guitar improv and machine-gun drumming".
2009-09-01 Paula Rae Gibson In the Dark monthly series of
concerts at the Vortex start on 8 September
For the first of three In The Dark sessions Babel recording
singer-songwriter Paula Rae Gibson will be performing with DJ Dan
Lywood at the Vortex jazz Club in Dalston with whom she is recording a
dance album. on the 8 September, 6 October, 21 November they will do a
set in the dark, leaving the audience the chance to dance like they've
never danced... listen like they've never listened. Her dark lyrics
have more light and hope in them than ever, and when set to Dan's
electronic dance beats, create the perfect way to sustain you through
the week by chasing away all the demons. Paula is one of Babel's most
intriguing artists with a visual aesthetic permeating all her work and
has so far recorded an album titled Maybe Too Nude. To book click
here
2009-08-25 Christine Tobin tour plus singing Leonard Cohen next Monday on Radio
2's Big Band Special at 10pm
Next Monday 31st August at 10.00pm BBC Radio
2's Big Band Special will broadcast Christine Tobin singing 3 songs by
perhaps her biggest hero Leonard Cohen with stunning new arrangements
by Joerg Achim Keller for a pared down line-up (11piece) of the
BBC Big Band including Robin Aspland piano, Andy Panai and Sammy Maine
on saxes. The songs are: Take This Waltz, A Thousand Kisses Deep and
Dance Me To The End Of Love as part of the session of Joerg Achim
Keller with the BBC Big Band at the Maida vale Studios. Following
two more dates in Septmber in London Christine embarks on a big tour of
Ireland, her first since becoming the only Irish-born Singer to ever
win the BBC Jazz Vocalist Award. Seee all the dates on the Live page here
2009-08-18 Babel's 2008 Mercury nominated Portico Quartet set
off on October tour
Portico Quartet, who's Mercury prize debut album Knee Deep in the North Sea
was a joint venture between Babel and the Vortex Jazz Club, set off on
a big tour at the end of October with current Mercury nominated Sweet
Billy Pilgrim. The dates are as follows: Sat
24 Oct BRISTOL Old Vic; Thu 29
Oct BASINGSTOKE The Anvil Mon 2
Nov LONDON Koko 0870 264 3333); Tue 3 Nov MANCHESTER
RNCM; Wed 4 Nov EDINBURGH
Electric Circus Thu 5 Nov GLASGOW
The ArchesSat 6 Nov MIDDLESBROUGH Town
Hall Crypt Sat 7 Nov BIRMINGHAM
CBSO Centre; Sun 8 Nov BRIGHTON & HOVE The Old
Market. To purchase Knee Deep in the North Sea on CD
click here
or on digital download click here
2009-08-11 Kevin LeGendre's CD compilation 'Now's the Time II'
free launch party Frid 21 August @RFH Ballroom
A special launch event for the new CD
compilation 'Now's
The Time II' (Babel Records) will take place in the Clore Ballroom
athte Royal Festival Hall next Friday 21 August. The album that
received a four star review by John Fordham in the Guardian features a
superb set of contemporary jazz that covers everything from fusion to
avant-garde and all points in between. Loz Speyer, Babel artist Julie Sassoon and Jason
Yarde are amongst those performing live and Kevin Le Gendre, who
compiled the album, spins the tunes for this extended night of top free
music. You can purchase the CD for just £5 by clicking on the
sleeve above
2009-07-o8 Now's the Time
II earns **** CD review in The Guardian (available for just £5 here)
Jazz broadcaster and journalist Kevin LeGendre Journalist of the Year
at this year's Parliamentary Jazz Awards, has received a **** review
for his compilation of cutting edge contemporary jazz Now's the Time II
in today's Guardian Film and Music supplement.
The review read as follows: " Anyone familiar with the taste, breadth,
seriousness and good-humour of the critic and broadcaster Kevin
LeGendre will anticipate a rich contemporary mix with strong dancefloor
underpinnings on his second Now's the Time compilation. This one pulls
together pianist Lafayette Gilchrist (known for working with
free-jazzer David Murray), playing probing, rhythmically multilayered
but playful funk; UK trumpeter Loz Speyer's edgily free-flowing
reshufflings of Cuban dance beats; the two-sax lineups of the
Bloomdaddies and David Binney's and Donny McCaslin's Lan Xang (rocky
and free-jazzy respectively); young Blue Note piano star Robert
Glasper' and Britain's Jason Yarde in a typical piece of
time-stretching and startling harmony. Added to that are Seb Rochford's
drumming and the majestic soul- jazz voice of Eska Mtungwazi. M-base
guitarist turned session player David Gilmore is caught here in lyrical
acoustic mood with Sharif Simmons's atmospheric spoken text on Music
Revolutions, and saxophonist Steve Lehman can be heard on the tautly
twisting avant-funk track Vapors. As LeGendre writes: "Improvisation,
the overwhelming desire to pass comment on a given musical statement,
to subtitle the title, has its place in any jazz school of thought - be
it bebop, avant-garde, third stream or fusion." Now's the Time II says
amen to that." You can purchase the CD for just £5 by clicking on
the sleeve above
2009-07-21
Ex-Babel recording band Led Bib shortlisted for
this year's Mercury Prize with third album Sensible Shoes
Led
Bib, drummer Mark Holub's band who released their second album Sizewell Tea on Babel in 2007,
Have been shortlisted for the Mercury Prize with their new album
Sensible Shoes on American label Cunieform. This is what pop culture
journalist Paul Morley said about Sizewell Tea, their highly praised
previous CD on Babel, "If you don't go near jazz
because it just isn't damned noisy enough, then come back to life to
try the deliciously uncivil new Led Bib album." Led Bib are the
third Mercury nominated band from the jazz category to have a
connection with Babel, the first Polar Bear was nominated with a Babel
album, as was last year's entry Portico Quartet. You can buy Sizewell
Tea on CD by clicking here or on
high quality digital download here
2009-07-1
7 Christine Tobin plays Big Sky
Fest in Margate(25 July) & date at Vortex singing Carole King's
Tapestry album
The Big Sky Jazz Festival in sandy Margate kicks off on Friday 24
running until 26 July with Nigel Kennedy opening at the Winter Gardens
while on Saturday 25 July Babel artist and current BBC Jazz award
winning singer Christine Tobin appears on the main stage at 3pm with
her full band of Phil Robson guitar, Liam Noble
piano, Kate Shortt cello, Dave Whitford double bass, Thebe Lipere
percussion and Simon Lea drums. For more details click here.
On 8 August Christine will play a gig accompanied by pianist Liam Noble
at the Vortex, in Dalston N16 interpreting the songs from the
classic 1971 album Tapestry by great singer-songwriter Carole King. For
more details click here
2009-07-07 Excellent reviews coming in thick and fast for
Partisans' new CD 'By Proxy'
The Partisans' fourth album By Proxy officially
released this month has been receiving rave reviews from all corners of
the jazz media. Alongside the Nationals The Times and The Guardian giving the album
4-star **** reviews over the past week and the Scotsman calling it,
"one of the most consistently inventive and original bandscurrently
operating in jazz", Jazzwise Magazine has already given the thumbs up
along with several top jazz websites and blogs including Birmingham
Post jazz editor Peter Bacon's award winning Jazzbreakfast that halied
the CD as "Thoroughly original, thoroughly of its time", "inspiring" by
Londonjazz and "Marvellous" by Jazzmann. You can buy the album directly
and easily here by clicking on the sleeve left.
2009-07-03 Zed-U earns praise in CD reviews for
The Guardian and Jazz Journal Magazine
The
Guardian jazz critic John Fordham chose Zed-U's new
album Night
Time on the Middle Passage for one of his picks of the week with
the review reading as follows: "For anybody whose first acquaintance
with sax/clarinet newcomer Shabaka Hutchings came via his imposing
contribution to the Anglo-US Liberation Music Orchestra at Ornette
Coleman's Meltdown last week, this trio recording - also featuring Neil
Charles, formerly bassist with Empirical, and drummer Tom Skinner -
might be surprising in its reserved impressionism and subtly textured
reflection. Hutchings's skills as a fierce free-blaster were called
upon at Meltdown, but here he plays more sparingly and wistfully, at
times almost classically. The set confirms Zed-U as a group of real
promise, from the folksy feel of The Forest through the initially smoky
and then rougher feel of Roki. Hutchings pulls off an emotional Albert
Ayler vibrato on Surman 1, and there's a stomping, thrashy feel
suggestive of Acoustic Ladyland on Chief. This is a band that knows how
to make punchy music without the usual cliches." Garry Booth in Jazz
Journal Magazine meanwhile told us to, "seek
out Zed-U's experimentalists and they'll give you something to think
about." See full review here
2009-06-09 Big Air CD described as 'the best British jazz record
for 20 years by journalist Brian Morton
Distinguished
journalist Brian Morton (co-editor of famous
Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD) gave an incredible endorsement of the
recent Big CD in this month's Jazz Journal. Here is the full text of
the review : "
This is the best British jazz record for 20 years, even if two of the
members are from across the pond. It's funky, edgy, raw,
polished,
full of wry humour. It opens misterioso, then The Wizard kicks in,
driven along by the composer's soaring trumpet and an equally
good reply from Buckley. Black's downtown approach keeps things
deliciously simple and Melford plays with both muscle and delicacy; her
harmonium intro to The Road, The Sky, The Moon is a delight in
itself. Batchelor's Song For The Garlic Seller has its own kind of
pungency, with less of the rhythmic bustle his partner seems to favour,
though it does eventually explode into life. The electronic sweetenings
don't always seem integral to individual tracks and the loopy
intro to Garlic Seller is the only dull spot on the record; why didn't
it simply begin with that sinister whistle and piano melody? Airlock,
also by Batchelor, is again piloted by Marshall and Black, with the
composer weaving a nice line over the top; not much evidence of Melford
at first, but she's there, keeping it all in shape. There are folkish
elements, of a vaguely Balkan provenance, and plenty echoes
– it's already a cliché about this group - of Ornette and
Don Cherry back in the day. And so it progresses: strong writing,
impeccable playing from all concerned, and delivered in Peter
Beckmann's flawless, detailed sound. It's probably one track too long
for perfection, but it's so nearly there, and it stands up strongly
against anything comparable out of the US at the moment.
Brian Morton
2009-06-05 Ingrid Laubrock wins SWR Jazz Prize
Ingrid Laubrock has won the SWR Jazz Prize, worth €15,000, and one
of Germany's most prestigious jazz prizes. She released the album Let's Call This
with Liam Noble on Babel in 2007.
2009-05-26 Phil Robson wins Jazz Musician and
Kevin LeGendre, Journalist of the Year at Parliamentary Jazz Awards
Babel's leading guitarist Phil
Robson, (who has recently performed with Dave Liebman and Donny
McCaslin and whose most recent album Six Strings and
the Beat also received a nomination for Best CD) received the Jazz
Musician of the Year award
and Kevin LeGendre (whose compilation of cutting
edge contemporary jazz Now's the Time II
is a new release on Babel), won Journalist of the Year award at last
week's Parliamentary Jazz Awards held in the Terrace Pavilion of the
House of Commons. Hosted by broadcaster Paul Gambaccini, the awards
were organised by the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group
and sponsored by music licensing company PPL and Jazz Services.
2009-05-08 Tom Arthurs and Richard Fairhurst duo
at BBC Proms on 31 August and City of London Jazz Festival in July
Babel recording artists, the
pianist Richard Fairhurst
and trumpeter Tom Arthurs
(a BBC New Generation artist), who recorded their duo for the 2007
Babel release Mesmer, are
one of very few jazz artists to perform at this year's BBC Proms on 31
August. Previous to this on 8 July they play at the City of London Jazz
Festival for a special commision and live broadcast.
2009-04-17
Zed-U and Partisans new releases coming in June
and Triptych (Richard Fairhurst) in September
Babel announces the exciting release of the
third album for the label from Partisans (see pic
nearest left)co-led by guitarist Phil Robson and multi-reedist Julian
Siegel with the incendiary rhythm section of bassist Thaddeus Kelly and
drummer Gene Calderazzo. Partisans have been a major player over the
last decade on the UK jazz scene as well as being an inspiration to the
current new generation of London bands, the album is set for release in
June is titled 'By Proxy' and contains mostly originals by Robson and
Siegel with a couple of covers, one by New York downtown legend and
previous collaborator, guitarist Wayne Krantz especially written for
the band and a rather special Julian Siegel arrangement of Ellington's
'Prelude to a Kiss' remixed by bassist Thad Kelly. Look out for an
exclusive interview feature in the June issue of Jazzwise Magazine.
Meanwhile one of the new generation of bands coming out of the scene
Zed-U (see pic furthest left) make their awaited debut for Babel.
There's currently a feature on the band in the current Jazzwise. Making
an impact already with their heady live performances last year at the
London Jazz Festival and supporting Polar Bear at Ronnie Scotts, The
trio's energetic, improvised-driven kind of ‘jazz-thrash' makes
considerable use of electronic loops and effects and features electric
bass from Neil Charles, saxophonist and clarinettist Shabaka Hutchings
and key F-IRE collective member/drummer, Tom Skinner. News also of an
album by Triptych featuring Babel artist pianist Richard Fairhurst,
LOOP Collective bassist Jasper Hoiby and US drummer Chris Vatalaro
about to be recorded and due for release in September. More on this
soon.
2009-04-07 Big Air CD bags hat trick of
5-star reviews in Guardian, List, BBC Music Magazine
Following The Guardian's maximum star review at
the beginning of last month, the five star ratings keep rolling in with
another two appearing very recently. First the April edition of BBC
Music Magazine in which Roger Thomas states 'International bands like
this one are usually about finding common ground; the Big Air quintet
on the other hand is more a celebration of uncommon ground." describing
the CD as containing "some wonderfully rumbustious music " and "the
kind of uninhibited yet articulate roar-up that only a group of this
calibre could handle. " While Kenny Matheison in The List in Scotland
says " There are no passengers here – all five players make
telling contributions to what is already shaping up to be one of the
most engaging, exuberant and inventive albums of the year. " Purchase
the CD now online here
2009-03-31 Revised tracklisting:
Sampler covermount CD from Babel on Jazzwise April Issue
To celebrate 15 years of the Babel Label issued
another Jazzwise Magazine covermount 
CD
in our series of samplers, this one entitled 'View from
the Tower' (sleeve left). The Magazine is now in the shops or you can subscribe
or place an early order at the Jazzwise website.
Our sincere apologies for wrong track listing. The actual track listing
is as follows,
The actual track listing is below:
1/ Billy Jenkins & the Fun Horns - Arrival of the Tourists (from
Mayfest '94)
2/ Finn Peters - NR Shackleton Goes to the Circus (from Su-Ling)
3/ Polar Bear - To Touch the Red Brick (from Held on the Tips of
Fingers)
4/ Outhouse - Foreign Meat (from Outhouse)
5/ Julian Arguelles Octet - Qaanaaq (from Skull View)
6/ Zed-U - Forest (from Zed-U)
7/ Paula Rae Gibson - Black Hole (from Maybe too Nude)
8/ The Hungry Ants - Manhatta (from Myrmidons)
9/ Huw Warren - Xibaba (from Infinite Riches in a little Room)
10/ Phil Robson - Louisiana (extract) (from Six Strings and a Beat)
11/ Christine Tobin - Dreamland (from Secret Life of a Girl)
12/ Fraud - Wrong Brain (extract) (from Fraud)
13/ Acoustic Ladyland - Om Konz (from Last Chance Disco)
14/ Big Air - The Road, The Sky, The Moon (from Big Air)
15/Led Bib - Shower (from Sizewell Tea)
16/ Portico Quartet - Zavodovski Island (from Knee Deep in the North
Sea)
2009-03-10 Zed-U monthly Electro Jazz residence at Trouble Tune
continues on 18 March
Held on every 18th of the month, Trouble Tune is trio Zed-U's monthly
residency at Hayward's Gallery's Concrete Bar on the South Bank of two
improvised live sets of music. It continues in March with special guest
and Babel recording artist multi-reedsman Finn Peters. The band takes
creative control of the programme each month selecting their own
special guest performer from a peer group which includes some of the
UK's most successful jazz musicians. Recent highlights include
Leafcutter John, Dave Okumu and Jason Yarde and last month's appearance
by Seb Rochford.
It's free entry and starts at 7-10pm. Zed-U will make their debut on
Babel, one of the bands to watch on the London jazz scene they've
played the Vortex, two live dates at last year's London Jazz Festival
and supporting Polar Bear at Ronnie Scott's.
2009-03-06 Big Air new CD
receives ***** 5-star review in The Guardian
In today's Guardian John
Fordham gives a maximum 5 star review to the new CD on Babel by Big
Air. The text is as follows: "Former Loose Tubes
musicians Batchelor and Buckley formed this occasional international
quintet in 2001. They involved the Cecil Taylor and Andrew
Hill-inspired (but
more contemplative and invitingly lyrical) American piano virtuoso Myra
Melford, New York downtown drummer Jim
Black and the extraordinary UK tuba innovator Oren Marshall. The group
always sounded somewhere between the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the Art
Ensemble of Chicago and Mike Westbrook, with Melford's piano torrent
gushing through the middle - and this long-postponed recorded example
of that chemistry has been worth the wait. Tight, funky episodes with
Marshall pumping the bassline and Melford jamming clustered runs and
jagged chords into the spaces give way to brooding grooves in which
Batchelor's flaring, late-Miles sound unfurls over Black's implacable
pulse. Softly hooting, echoing loops spin across dark space, underpin
penny-whistle folk melodies and then erupt into whirling Balkan dances;
staccato sax-led polyrhythmic shuffles over ducking and diving tuba
figures suggest Tim Berne; and Melford's harmonium imparts a hypnotic
hum to the intro of The Road, the Sky, the Moon before the lovely
contrapuntal weave of this standout track develops for trumpet, tuba
and bass clarinet solos in succession. The tunes are all terrific, and
they're explored with a shifting variation of mood that's never off the
boil." Purchase the CD online here
2009-02-09 Indie CD market to open monthly in the
Vortex
On Sunday 22 February, the
Vortex Jazz club in Dalston, London and Babel will host the first of
what promises to be monthly CD music markets for
independent jazz labels. The market will run from 1pm-6pm (For more
information about taking a stall please contact stephanie@vortexjazz.co.uk )
This is also a chance for fans to buy direct and for labels to set out
their wares at minimal cost. If it works, then Vortex will look to
expand into the Square for the summer. The Babel Shop is already up and
running at 9 Gillett Square next to the Vortex and is gradually
building up a stock of new CDs that, with the demise of CD retailers in
the UK, is becoming hard to get hold of. So please visit the shop if
you are at the Vortex or in the area or just want to be able to see the
CDs that you're purchasing.
2009-01-19 Christine Tobin Group first live gig of 2009 at the
Vortex on Saturday
Don't miss one of the UK's most unique jazz
singer-songwriters Christine Tobin's first gig at the Vortex since
April last year. This Saturday 24th of January, she will be singing
with her full band at the Vortex. It's also her first gig of 2009 with
her full band. Expect a selection of Tobin classics from a range of her
own CDs as well as some beautiful Brazilian songs and striking
renditions of Leonard Cohen. There will be a special surprise song for
the much spoken of "credit crunch" (not an original).
The band are Phil Robson guitar, Liam Noble piano, Kate Shortt cello,
Dave Whitford double bass, Thebe Lipere percussion and Simon Lea drums.
('A jewel of the London jazz scene, streets ahead of the pack. She
should be on a global stage, rubbing shoulders with fellow troubadours
like Cave, Mitchell and Cohen' (**** John L Walters – The
Guardian).
For bookings see: The Vortex Jazz Club, 11 Gillett Square, London N16
8JH or click here
| Bookings 020 7254 4097
ALSO On Sunday 25th Christine Tobin will be at The Stables, Stockwell
Lane, Wavendon, Milton Keynes, MK17 8LU. Box
Office - 01908 280800 /email: stables@stables.org. For more
info about the gig click here
2008-11-19 A warning....
...only that we'll be releasing some
new albums in 2009. Including Big Air, Zed-U (Shabaka Hutchings, Neal
Charles, Tom Skinner and produced by none other than John Surman),
Indian writer-musician Amit Chaudhuri, and a new Now's The Time Vol. 2
compilation put together by Broadcaster/DJ Kevin Le Gendre based around
his now sadly defunkt contemporary jazz show on BBC Radio London.
2008-12-28 Portico
Quartet feature in Time Out, The Guardian, Evening Standard!
Titled
'The Buskers who Came in From the Cold', The Guardian music writer Jude
Rogers' interview feature with the Mercury nominated Portico Quartet
appeared in the newspaper on Monday 18th August. Here is a sample:
"The Portico Quartet are arguing about whether they make jazz or not.
They do so good-naturedly over coffees and pastries on London's South
Bank, a few metres from the place where their career began - not on a
glamorous stage in one of the grand halls, but on a concrete walkway
where they busked for loose change. They have come a long way: two days
before we meet, their debut album, Knee-Deep in the North Sea, was
nominated for the Mercury prize. The winner will be announced next
month.
Percussionist Duncan Bellamy, the youngest of the
group at 22, is ticking off baby-faced saxophonist Jack Wyllie: "You
hate the jazz critics, don't you, Jack? You're so militant about it! I
don't think you need to worry, you know. They'll get old and die soon,
and we'll be the new guard and it'll be fine. So fuck it!" The laughter
of the group's other members, percussionist Nick Mulvey and double-bass
player Milo Fitzpatrick, ripples out over the river. Bellamy, who has a
pierced eyebrow, is confirming what many people already suspect: that
if the Portico Quartet are a jazz group, it's not jazz as we know it.
(For the rest of the article click here)
Portico Quartet feature in Time Out
An interview with Jack Wyllie here
ahead of their London Jazz Festival show.
Yesterday's Evening Standard carried the following strapline under
'Mercury's mystery band':
" Portico Quartet are the surprise on this year's album of the year
shortlist, and their vibrant sound could make them the winners in 10
days' time" The rest of the article can be read here
2008-08-06 Portico Quartet four-star live review at Rough Trade
East in Independent
Shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize last
month, Portico Quartet step out on the live circuit through August (see
the live page for details). Just before their
appearance at the excellent Big Chill Festival the band played a set at
Rough Trade Records shop in Brick Lane, East London on the 30th July, a
**** review in the Independent appearing as follows:
"Get yourself down to the National Theatre without delay. There's a
good chance that you might catch Portico Quartet busking outside it. To
see this genre-defying south London four-piece is to witness four
young, very talented instrumentalists crafting sounds like you've never
heard. Besides, how many Mercury Prize nominees do you know who still
work the streets? An intimate crowd assembled for another free gig in
Rough Trade East, the now award-winning Brick Lane record store. In the
heart of London's über-cool east, 50 seated Shoreditch
fashionistas, plus a gabble of standing aficionados and casual
shoppers, were treated to 45 minutes of songs from Portico Quartet's
critically acclaimed album Knee-Deep in the North Sea – with
three new tracks thrown in, too. For those who've never heard Portico
Quartet, the band's sound revolves around the hang, like a steel drum
only with more of a dull oomph to it. Having picked it up at Womad,
Portico experimented – playing with hands and mallets – and
eventually made the sound their signature. The hang is used by front
man Nick Mulvey for different effects: to lilt the beautiful melodies
of the album's title track; to whip up the mesmeric drones of "Steps in
the Wrong Direction"; and to thrash out catchy, infectious hooks as on
the accomplished "Cittagazze", where drummer Duncan Bellamy joins in,
also playing on a hang, and double bassist Milo Fitzpatrick pats out a
rhythm on the body of his upright. All of which is to say nothing of
the majestic saxophone played by Jack Wyllie. For listeners attracted
by Portico's minimalism, its gentle chord progressions and its African
rhythms, the sax will be the most difficult presence to get used to.
That's jazz, they say. But, aside from some astounding,
attention-grabbing solos, it's easy to forget that Wyllie is there at
all, busting a gut on soprano as the sound is used to such good effect
it simply adds another layer to this musically complex whole. Each
performer has the freedom of spirit that his jazz roots demand; yet the
sound they produce has a strange, comforting simplicity to it. And if
tonight's selection is anything to go by, the band's new material is
even better than Knee-Deep. Gone is some of the whimsy that crept on to
that album, to be replaced by pared-down hypnotism. Much more attention
seems to have been paid to the art of building and releasing tension.
Yes, there were times when the group appeared to lose its way. Elements
of timing and tuning were botched. But they always came back together.
They always returned to that grass-roots, organic sound that has taken
them from the South Bank, via intimate venues like this, to – who
knows: Mercury Music triumph?" Andy Sharman (The Independent)
The Channel 4 website also has a review of the gig, ending with the following: "Try to imagine the coolest film never made. We mean really cool. Steve McQueen and Samuel L, on 'Easy Rider' choppers, in a French film-noir spy film, infiltrating a Yakuza Samurai cult. Portico Quartet would provide the soundtrack. Whichever side of the jazz fence you sit on, they deserve your attention."
2008-07-18
Phil Robson's Six Strings and the Beat is CD of the Week in the Evening
Standard
Already acclaimed by John Fordham in the Guardian as a "hot contender
among European releases for 2008", guitarist Phil Robson's 3rd album
for Babel has now just received album of the week in the Evening
Standard. Jack Massarik gave it a **** stars writing the following
review:
"Jazz and strings make uneasy bedfellows but guitarist Phil Robson
avoids the usual pitfalls with this sparkling suite for viola, three
violins, cellist Kate Shortt and Austrian double-bass maestro Peter
Herbert. Boosted by Gene Calderazzo's propulsive drumming, his 10
original pieces stay strong, forsaking syrupy sweetness in favour of
nimble bluegrass, grungy punk, supple straight-ahead swing and two
unsentimental ballads, gracefully sung by Christine Tobin. This is
innovative music, performed with crisp precision and rhythmic elan, and
it's a substantial achievement by a fine player who has not hitherto
been particularly noted for his writing.“
