Benjamin Moussay Trio

28th June 2011 8:00 pm Venue: Lit & Phil Map Tickets: £10 - £8 concs

Eric Echampard (Percussion) Benjamin Moussay (Piano) Arnault Cuisinier (Double Bass)

A joint promotion with Jazz North East

Skein

31st May 2011 8:30 pm Venue: The Cluny Map Tickets: £7 - £5 - £3

Rachel Musson (tenor sax); Alcyona Mick (keyboards); Will Collier (bass); Javier Carmona & Josh Morrison (drums)

EMERGING from the E17 Collective, London’s newest hotbed of creativity, Skein is led by Welsh-born Rachel Musson, who is rapidly building a reputation as saxophonist, composer, and organiser.

The band’s debut CD ‘Flight Line’ has been highly praised for its “patient unfolding of idiosyncratic themes”, and particularly for the interplay between the leader and pianist Alcyona Mick – whose own group won a Promoters’ Choice award a couple of years back – with one reviewer writing that “Mick’s nudging and cajoling of Musson represents backup of world-class ingenuity”.

The repertoire, almost all of it written by Musson, covers the range from haunting melodies through Latin swingers to stuttery postboppers, all of it handled with huge assurance by the whole band. Bassist Will Collier lays down a powerful underpinning, while the dual drum team of Javier Carmona and Josh Morrison provide a rich rhythmic tapestry that keeps the pot boiling.

Outhouse with Hilmar Jensson

26th April 2011 8:30 pm Venue: The Cluny Map Tickets: £7 / £5 / £3

Robin Fincker & Tom Challenger (reeds); Johnny Brierley (bass); Dave Smith (drums); Hilmar Jensson (guitar)

OUTHOUSE has been widely acclaimed as one of the most interesting and innovative line-ups in contemporary UK jazz, and also as one that is constantly seeking out the challenge of new situations.

A couple of years ago they worked with Ruhabi, a quintet of traditional Gambian drummers, and now they come to the Cluny in a collaboration with outstanding guitarist Hilmar Jensson, who divides his time between his native Iceland and downtown New York, where he has been a regular member of drummer Jim Black’s quartet AlasNoAxis. Black reciprocates by playing in Jensson’s own trio, Tyft, where the guitarist takes a thoroughly post-millenium approach, with heavy metal riffs and electronic samples mixed into a fundamental jazz feel.

While he still sometimes lets rip in his work with Outhouse, he very much shares the front line with the two saxes. This is a partnership of equals, combining semi-abstract free passages and grooving riffs in frantic and arresting music that – as with everything Outhouse do – is constantly up for a challenge.

Outhouse Review

Zed-U

29th March 2011 8:30 pm Venue: The Cluny Map

Shabaka Hutchings (reeds); Neil Charles (electric bass); Tom Skinner (drums)

WE’VE been trying for at least two years to get Zed-U to the Cluny, but the members of the band are so busy that it’s been hard to pin them down. Reedsman Shabaka Hutchings in particular is in huge demand, his rising star status confirmed last year when he became only the third jazz musician to join the ranks of Radio 3’s ‘New Generation Artists’ (following Gwilym Simcock and Tom Arthurs).

Zed-U has been described as “a band that knows how to make punchy music without the usual clichés”, and they are certainly unlike anything that Schmazz has presented in over a decade of promotions. There’s a strong undertow of dub reggae, driven along by bone-shaking electric bass. But all three musicians just use this as a launch pad for playing that combines burning intensity with a strong sense of melody, with Shabaka’s ferocious tenor playing contrasted with haunting excursions on clarinet. Critic Peter Bacon calls this “music of acute intellectual rigour but also of deep spirit . . . Damn fine!” Damn right!

Zed-U Review

Centre-Line

22nd February 2011 8:30 pm Venue: The Cluny Map Tickets: £7 / £5 / £3

Centre-Line

Russell van den Berg (sax and ewi); Jez Franks (guitar); John Harvey (bass); Darren Altman (drums)

When we went to Centre-Line’s MySpace page and found a tune called ‘Pop Soul Funk Love Shuffle’, we just knew that we had to book them for the Cluny!
Co-led by Darren Altman and saxophonist Russell van den Berg (who also features the extraordinary ‘electronic wind instrument’), Centre-Line is a fresh, vibrant and creative group based in London, and priding itself on the remarkable empathy between its musicians.

The band’s repertoire of original compositions (including the above mentioned ‘Love Shuffle’) stimulates an interaction among the members which is truly exciting. No two gigs are the same, as the musicians have a mutual understanding about the freedom, expression and spontaneity that jazz offers: the group simply open their ears and play! As a consequence, Centre-Line is a fresh sounding and constantly surprising contemporary jazz group that delivers exciting, creative, organic music to audiences wherever they play.

Centre-Line Website