The ex-Police guitarist Andy Summers has had a surprisingly successful solo-jazz career, producing consistently good albums that both demonstrate his love and knowledge of the music, but also his abilities as a re-arranger of the angular work of both Monk and Mingus.
Taking his awesome musicianship in to a completely new realm Atzmon reveals his anarchic, subversive and deeply hilarious alter ego Artie Fishel (aka Gilad Atzmon), "a brilliant but mad saxophonist who is convinced that jazz was born in the ghettos of Eastern Europe and is determined to bring it back home.
Versatile saxophonist Iain Ballamy’s insatiable thirst for a diverse range of projects sees him performing under the guise of another fascinating group, the superbly named Anorak, as he twists all preconceived notions of the clichéd jazz standard and ballad by framing some of his strongest writing to date within his new all acoustic band.
Tenor sax and clarinettist Mark Crooks has been seen in the recent past as one of the wonderful Clare Teal’s sidemen, now steadily building a respectable reputation of his own.
Jazz and house music producer Ludovic Navarre’s St Germain have been one of the true jazz-meets-dance music successes of the last few years, shifting units in the hundreds of thousands and selling out the likes of Brixton Academy and creating a new tolerance among a mainly leftfield-pop crowd for instrumental music and extended solos.
Following (albeit under their own steam) in the weighty, industrial strength beauty of fellow Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer’s electronica driven jazz sound, Generator X promise a similar assault of both soaring melodic ideas versus the controlled chaos of live sampling and broken beats.
British double bass ace continues his family’s much deserved reputation as one of the UK’s most significant in jazz with a startling new trio featuring the absurdly gifted Julian Arguelles on tenor and Phil Robson on guitar; Dankworth has inherited all of the good taste and heartfelt emotion of his father’s sax playing, possessing a dark-warmth to his solid bass playing.
Now in his fifth decade as a musical force to be reckoned with, maverick composer, songwriter and arranger David Axelrod means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
Dubbed the Gentle Giant of the Blues, Otis Grand has been acknowledged as one of the Top 50 Blues guitarists of all time, (edging out some unknown by the name of Eric Clapton), and has been voted Best British Blues guitarist seven years in a row.
Trio AAB discard much of the niceties of the traditional trio line-up and prefer a much more direct assault on the senses.