My Debut Blog

Hello everyone,

my first foray into blogging here....
Just to let you all know, a mini version of my band Fringe Magnetic are playing at Charlie Wrights in Old Street tomorrow night. The band will feature
me- trumpet/flugelhorn
Kit Massey- violin
Natalie Rozario- cello
James Allsopp- bass clarinet/ clarinet
Tori Freestone- flute
Ben Reynolds- drums/perc

very excited about this gig, we will be playing almost exclusively new music. We are recording this new set of music on thursday with the addition of Ivo Neame, Andrew Plummer and Elisabeth Nygaard on a few tunes. Going to be very fun. Please come down to the gig tomorrow, it is a double with a great German/English band called Paragon. And the current Fringe Magnetic album (Empty Spaces) will be available to buy on the night.


In the meantime, been really interesting reading what other Loopers are listening to at the moment. Here is my sunday morning playlist...
1. Henri Dutilleux- Symphony No 1
2. Dave Douglas- Witness (for the millionth time this year)
3. Jon Hopkins- Insides
4. Captain Beefheart- Ice Cream for Crow (specifically 'Hey Garland, I Dig Your Tweed Coat'!'
5. Chicago Underground Quartet


Fringe Magnetic- Empty Spaces officially released tomorrow in HMV/Amazon/Play etc etc ...

Best wishes
Rory

Loop Fest Facebook Event Page: come down - you know you want to!

Loop Website

FIXED------
The Loop Collective website is temporarily offline - we are working on this and it will be back up as soon as possible, apologies.

Hayward/Challenger/Doyne-Ditmas and Leverton Fox at Cafe Oto 23rd Jan 2010

We had a blast playing with Leverton Fox (with new member Sam Britton on laptop) on Saturday night at Oto, thanks for those who came down and thanks to promoters and label Gravid Hands for putting it on.

After accidentally missing Glockenspiel's set (sorry guys-we were in the wonderful Shanghai Chinese restaurant near Kingsland Station) it was great to hear the Charles Hayward group. It is refreshing to hear improvised music that is not afraid move into in time grooves, the great no-no of much of the improv scence. I've heard Tom refer to this open mindedness as a 'South London' improvisers mentality!
Tom certainly knows how to not get boxed in playing on grooves as he demonstrated with tireless energy and creativity. A particular favorite moment of mine was when Hayward played bowls (see one of the photos) creating a very intimate soundscape with the the other two members.

The rise and rise of Cafe Oto has been amazing to watch, in many ways summing up my favorite aspects of London (which seem harder and harder to find but that's another story): diverse, open minded people going to see refreshingly uncompromising music in a forward thinking independently run venue. Unfortunately in the weekends the ambient talking level is too high for my taste as a listener and performer (a problem always scrupulously avoided at The Vortex). It means that it feels very lonely when the band's volume drops below a certain threshold. I suppose this is the price you pay for an audience comprising as much of curious post pub Dalstonites as die hard improv fans. However if the audience for this music is going to expand as a result I'll live with it!  Nevertheless a great night was had by all.

----Alex

HELLO From Tom Challenger

Hello all. this is me saying hello...

Looking forward very much to the festival. Aside from playing with new music with Outhouse and for the first time ever with The Riff Raff, 'MA' will be performing on saturday night in front of the old BBC's mics. Very exciting.

This week has been pretty crap for me...did my back in on monday night which has meant nuff bumming about (I've actually been penning some new tunes), blowing out Outhouse rehearsals...RUBBISH. Been listening to lots of tunes:

1) Anthony Braxton - Six Compositions for Quartet (1984)
2) Jarrett - Live at the Deerhead inn (Motian and Peacock....brill)
3) Steve Lehman - On Meaning
4) Vijay Iyer - Historiocity (what ever it is...)
5) Johnny Griffin - Inroducing
6) Monk - Complete Solo on Columbia
7) Ornette on Tenor

ALL VERY GOOD!!!

Also saw Ex Pat John Escreets gig at ronnies. It was really good. Ambrose Akinmusire was really impressive. He made great stuff happen, definitely NOT going through the motions. Thats always nice to hear.

Got to try and rebuild my back now...will be writing more v. soon about some new things coming everybody's way.

Love to all

Thanks to our guests 'Q' from France for their fantastic music- some pictures from one of their London gigs

For the visiting French trio Q, think John Zorn’s Naked City in heavy grindcore mode minus the humour but with all its rampant and intoxicating presence. Drummer Sylvain Darrifourq brought a depth of beat and vigour of propulsion like that of Jim Black, while electric bassist Fanny Lafargues would have put many heavy metal players to shame with her menacing bass-lines. On guitar Julien Deprez wove into the music John Scofield-esque motifs and a Bill Frisell-nuanced textural palette. A sketched out cover of the 1980’s Miles classic ’You’re Under Arrest’ tied into the evening’s nostalgic undercurrent while a cameo appearance from tenor saxophonist Robin Fincker brought the set into softer yet equally compelling territory. We look forward to Q’s return visit.



---Review from Jazzwise magazine

More Details on February 2010's Loop Festival @ the Vortex

Balladyna

Another album I'm enjoying very much at the moment is this 70s ECM classic with a young Dave Holland and the amazing Edward Vesala. Stanko's trumpet playing is astonishing on this, as Chris Batchelor said to me, he sounds like Ayler!

Tomasz Stanko – Balladyna

-Alex

This is my favorite album at the moment. Listen to it on Spotify, it's great:

Konono N°1 – Congotronics

Here's truly remarkable music from a streetcorner band that hails from the Congolese capital, Kinshasa. "Discovered" by awesome Dutch avant-punk act the Ex during a tour in the embattled region, Konono #1 makes hypnotic, beautiful, heavily rhythmic dance music with an often heavily-distorted electric thumb piano as the lead instrument. Fans of Fela and the Ethiopiques discs will dig this, as will fans of the Notwist, Prefuse 73 and Aphex Twin. Thankfully, Vincent Kenis' production allows the music to sound truly live, with plenty of distortion, frenzied call and response, and shambling percussion. Most of the instruments (including the twelve-piece group's renowned sound system itself) were scrounged ingeniously from scraps while microphones were carved from wood, so it's really important that the rough edges do show through. That's not to say there isn't inventive grace throughout, just that it's rad there's no candy-coated Daniel Lanois-type sheen here. In fact, it sounds like the whole studio was dancing up and down while making this awesome document. --Mike McGonigal

- Alex

Knuckle Biter

We are trying to book some gigs in the UK in March for this band. Have a free listen to an EP we made in Northern Ireland last year here

-Alex Bonney


steve 'dakiz' davis - drums/laptop, alex bonney - trumpet/electronics, simon jermyn - bass/electronics

Loop Collective Festival at the Vortex Feb 17th to 21st 2010

We are all very excited about the forthcoming Loop Festival. The progamme is being finalised but is looking like:

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Wednesday 17 February

8:00pm / Loop Friends series: F-ire: Seb Rochford + Leafcutter John
Seb Rochford - drums / John Burton - laptop

9:00pm / Sam Crockatt 4tet
SamCrockatt – tenor saxophone / Kit Downes – piano / Oli Hayhurst – bass / Ben Reynolds - drums

10:00pm / Alex Bonney's Tribute to Ayler w/ special guests Mark Sanders & Paul Dunmall

Alex Bonney – trumpets / Robin Fincker – saxophone / Paul Dunmall – saxophone / Dylan Bates – violin / Dave Kane – bass / Johnny Brierley – bass / Mark Sanders - drums

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Thursday 18 February

8:00pm / Dog Soup

Robbie Robson – trumpet & fx / John Turville – keyboards / Johnny Brierley – bass guitar /

Tim Giles – drums

9:00pm / Tom Mix
Mark Hanslip – tenor saxophone / Oli Brice – bass / Tony Marsh - drums

10:00pm / Phronesis

Ivo Neame – piano / Jasper Hoiby – bass / Anton Eger - drums

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Friday 19 February

8:00pm / Loop Friends series: Yolk: European TV brass trio

Matthias Schriefl – trumpet / Daniel Casimir – trombone / Francois Thuillier - tuba

9:00pm / Blink w/special guest Vincent Courtois
Robin Fincker – sax & clarinet / Alcyona Mick – Piano / Paul Clarvis – drums /

Vincent Courtois – cello

10:00pm / Dave Manington’s Riff-Raff
Brigitte Beraha – vocals / Mark Hanslip – tenor saxophone / Ivo Neame – rhodes /

Dave Manington – bass / Tim Giles - drums

11:00pm / The Golden Age of Steam (ALBUM LAUNCH)
James Allsopp – Tenor Sax / Kit Downes – organ / Tim Giles - drums

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Saturday 20 February - Recorded by BBC radio3 for Jazz on 3

8:00pm / Ma


Tom Challenger – tenor sax / Ross Stanley – organ / Dave Smith – drums / Matt Calvert - laptop.

9:00pm / Fringe Magnetic (ALBUM LAUNCH)
Rory Simmons- trumpet/flugel/composer / Tori Freestone - flute / Natalie Rosario - cello /

Kit Massey - violin / Robin Fincker - clarinet  / James Allsopp - bass clarinet / Ivo Neame - piano /

Jasper Hoiby - double bass/bass guitar /  Ben Reynolds - drums / Elisabeth Nygaard - vocals

10:00pm / Loop Friends series: Umlaut: Peeping Tom w/ special guest Evan Parker

Pierre-Antoine Badaroux – alto sax / Joel Grip – bass / Antonin Gerbal – drums / Evan Parker – sax

11:00pm Gemini
Jim Hart – vibraphone / Ivo Neame – alto sax / Jasper Hoiby – bass / Dave Smith - drums

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Sunday 21 February

8:00pm / Loop Friends series: LIMA:Matt Bourne solo

Matt Bourne – keyboards & laptop

9:00pm / Outhouse

Robin Fincker – tenor sax & clarinet / Tom Challenger – tenor sax / Johnny Brierley – bass / Dave Smith - drums

10:00pm / Ivo Neame quartet (ALBUM LAUNCH)

Jim Hart – vibraphone / Ivo Neame – piano / Jasper Hoiby – bass / James Maddren - drums

+ SUNDAY EARLY EVENING - 6 to 8pm  Duos series
Bonney/Simmons: Al Bonney - tpt / Rory Simmons - tpt 

Hanslip/Carmona: Mark Hanslip - tenor sax / Javier Carmona - drums

Hans Koller new record with Bill Frisell

Just starting mixing this large ensemble record with Hans and Jeff Williams which was recorded on November 10th 2009. It's a corker of a album featuring the one and only Bill Frisell. It's going to be out on Emanem at some point this year, so check it out...I'll post more info as it comes.

- Alex Bonney

Photo - Caroline Forbes

Jazz at the Oxford - new Facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=236873986009&ref=nf

Background

Loop is a collective of musicians that was founded in 2005 in London. Its members represent a generation of like-minded Jazz musicians who wanted to create a network of shared resources and a platform for artistic collaborations, events organisation and the promotion of recorded creative music.

Although its music is contemporary by nature, Loop does not aim to represent a specific style or genre; on the contrary it encourages the artistic diversity of its community. Thus, since the collective’s foundation, each member has developed a strong individual voice.

This blog is a chance to for members of the collective to post info about their gigs, what they are working on/listening to and other musings!