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Music Videos for William Blake and
Mello
Click here for the dedicated Max Roach Park page, new stuff added all the time
Click here for the dedicated Max Roach Park page, new stuff added all the time
For the past fifteen years they have been
packing out venues across London with their mix of solid Chicago
blues and vintage rock. You'll find them anywhere their style of
music is appreciated. They are a tight outfit who have paid their
dues delivering powerful music for listening and dancing to. The
musicians have years of experience dating from the late 60's:
R&B; Blues; Folk Blues; Soul and not to mention recording;
broadcasting and of course thousands of gigs. The band's style is
grounded in the blues and 60's rock. The gigs always feature a
large dose of 60's and 70's classics delivered with 60's style
commitment.
James Tartaglia Trio,
Where can I go
without you?
Free tracks
Prelude to a
kiss
Where can I go
without you?
Dear John
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Two of my favourite groupings are Sonny
Rollins' trios of the late '50s (not just Way out West, but also
similar units he used on live recordings, including the likes of
Kenny Clarke and Henry Grimes), and Ornette Coleman's trio with
David Izenzon and Charles Moffett. Nick and I are also strong
admirers of Tim Berne's recent trio work. None of these bands sound
"sparse": the horn-drum combination sees to that (unless by
"sparse" is meant "lacking a harmonic instrument", in which case
the objection is vacuously true). Neither are they
"self-indulgent". Quite the opposite, since the trio format
encourages players to work as a team. All three players are obliged
to interact. There is no room for "cruising", which means more
improvisation, and no room for "competitive" soloing. The saxophone
takes the front line most of the time, of course, but that is
simply its function within the jazz idiom.
What just about everybody has wanted to do since the eighties, has been to give classic '50s and '60s jazz a contemporary edge. The usual approach is to utilise advanced harmonies: stretching standard chord progressions to their limits through the systematic addition of dissonance. Sometimes the results are fascinating, sometimes they are grey. Our approach is different. We are a band influenced by free jazz, using a classic free jazz line-up. But we are playing changes: conventional, chord-based jazz. And this is what we think brings a freshness to the material. Rhythm and melody are to the fore. With our first album, Where can I go without you?, the focus is on jazz originals: all the compositions are by great jazz musicians. We hope that at least some of the excitement we feel about playing these fantastic tunes comes across in the recording.
What just about everybody has wanted to do since the eighties, has been to give classic '50s and '60s jazz a contemporary edge. The usual approach is to utilise advanced harmonies: stretching standard chord progressions to their limits through the systematic addition of dissonance. Sometimes the results are fascinating, sometimes they are grey. Our approach is different. We are a band influenced by free jazz, using a classic free jazz line-up. But we are playing changes: conventional, chord-based jazz. And this is what we think brings a freshness to the material. Rhythm and melody are to the fore. With our first album, Where can I go without you?, the focus is on jazz originals: all the compositions are by great jazz musicians. We hope that at least some of the excitement we feel about playing these fantastic tunes comes across in the recording.
James Tartaglia,
27/11/02
James Tartaglia Trio A free jazz treatise concerning current affairs
Free tracks
Peace Process
Asylum Seeker
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Paedophile Priest was conceived at once
whilst I listened to a Radio 4 programme in which an Irish man told
the story of how he had been abused in childhood by a local Priest.
The solo saxophone introduction tries to alternate between the
child and the Priest's perspectives on the situation described. The
child had been lured into the Priest's house, and was trying to
make innocent sense of what was going on, until this became
impossible. Then he was taken to church, to hear the Priest deliver
a sermon and sing hymns in a loud, impassioned voiceMy idea was to
use Ayler's style of jazz to express the atmosphere of Britain at
that time. But I also wanted to represent some of the difficult
issues that were stirring up the hysteria. Paedophile Priest, for
example, was conceived at once whilst I listened to a Radio 4
programme in which an Irish man told the story of how he had been
abused in childhood by a local Priest. The solo saxophone
introduction tries to alternate between the child and the Priest's
perspectives on the situation described. The child had been lured
into the Priest's house, and was trying to make innocent sense of
what was going on, until this became impossible. Then he was taken
to church, to hear the Priest deliver a sermon and sing hymns in a
loud, impassioned voice. Everything you hear on this album is a
first take. None of the musicians saw the charts until the day of
the recording. We met the singers for the first time on the day of
the recording. To prepare them for each track, I carefully
described what I wanted to represent. And that was it – the
tapes were rolling. Finally, the live recordings at the end of the
album offer a snapshot of one amazing night at the Old Crown on New
Oxford Street.
James Tartaglia,
10/6/03
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