Location: set your location

Kenny Mathieson

Sorted by date / most viewed. Showing 25, 50, 100 per page.

The Blue Note 7 - Mosaic

The Blue Note 7 - Mosaic

(3 stars)5 Mar 2009

JAZZ This septet was convened to celebrate this year’s 70th anniversary of the founding of Blue Note Records by Alfred Lion, although both the recording and an extensive American tour took place last year. The band features a number of top names in…

Julian Argüelles - Inner Voices

Julian Argüelles - Inner Voices

(4 stars)19 Feb 2009

(Tone of Pitch Records) JAZZ These days saxophonist Julian Argüelles divides his time between homes in East Lothian and Frankfurt (where he plays with the acclaimed HR Radio Big Band), and it was during a stay in Germany that he created this solo…

John Warren - Finally Beginning

John Warren - Finally Beginning

(3 stars)19 Feb 2009

(Fuzzy Moon Records) JAZZ John Warren is best known as an arranger and composer for big band, but this disc features a selection of material he has written and arranged over the years for the slightly smaller forces of a nine-piece ensemble…

Ewan Wilkinson - Lost In The Day

Ewan Wilkinson - Lost In The Day

(3 stars)19 Feb 2009

(Brechin All Records) FOLK Born in the Borders and now based in Edinburgh, singer Ewan Wilkinson’s first album on accordionist Sandy Brechin’s label is a promising debut. His selection of material is strong, including capable covers of…

5 Reasons To Go See - Fife Jazz Festival

5 Reasons To Go See - Fife Jazz Festival

5 Feb 2009

1 It just got bigger This is the second jazz festival over in the Kingdom, and it has expanded a good deal, with more venues, more musicians and more diverse programming, not to mention the debut of the new Fife Jazz Orchestra (not to be confused with…

Dolphin Boy - Vertical Variations Vol. 1

Dolphin Boy - Vertical Variations Vol. 1

(3 stars)5 Feb 2009

FOLK Folk and club culture have been mixing and (sometimes mis-) matching for a while now, with the late Martyn Bennett as chief pioneer and figurehead of the enterprise. Edinburgh DJ Dolphin Boy, otherwise known as Andy Levy, acknowledges Martyn’s…

Aoife Mannix & Raymond MacDonald - Other Voices

Aoife Mannix & Raymond MacDonald - Other Voices

(3 stars)5 Feb 2009

JAZZ/POETRY Jazz and poetry has a lengthy if often problematic history of interaction, and remains a specialised taste. This collaboration between Irish poet and Glasgow saxophonist originated by accident. The two were brought together for an…

Joni Keen - Fragile

Joni Keen - Fragile

(3 stars)5 Feb 2009

JAZZ Like Lorna Reid’s album reviewed in these pages recently, this self-issued debut album by Glasgow-based singer Joni Keen is further evidence of the healthy state of jazz singing in Scotland these days. Fionna Duncan’s successful vocal workshops…

Branford Marsalis

Celtic Connections - Branford Marsalis

22 Jan 2009

Celtic Connections has never been overly troubled by any lack of an actual Celtic connection in the artists who visit the festival, but Branford Marsalis must surely qualify as one of the furthest stretches so far from any perceived Celtic-ness.

Michael Nyman

Celtic Connections - Michael Nyman

22 Jan 2009

CELTIC CONNECTIONS Despite his ongoing frustration at being shunned by the BBC Proms, Michael Nyman remains the most widely heard of contemporary ‘serious’ composers in the UK. An early experimentalist in the 60s avant-garde, Nyman is one of the very…

Follow That!

Celtic Connections - Follow That!

22 Jan 2009

CELTIC CONNECTIONS The title of this latest round of commissions inspired by the music of the late Martyn Bennett underlines the far-reaching influence of his eclectic, open-minded approach to traditional music (while simultaneously suggesting that…

Dave Milligan Trio - Shops

Dave Milligan Trio - Shops

(4 stars)22 Jan 2009

JAZZ Hard on the heels of the recent release of Aidan O’Rourke’s An Tobar on Navigator Records comes another excellent project instigated by the go-ahead Tobermory art centre An Tobar, this time on their own label. It is a welcome addition to pianist…

Patsy Reid - Bridging The Gap

Patsy Reid - Bridging The Gap

(4 stars)22 Jan 2009

FOLK Fiddler Patsy Reid's contribution to last year's New Voices series at Celtic Connections allowed her to exercise both her expertise in traditional music and her classical training in a suite designed to bring those poles together. It is…

Béla Fleck

Celtic Connections - Béla Fleck

8 Jan 2009

What’s in a name? In the case of Celtic Connections, not much, or at least, nothing too literal. Anyone who insisted on the strict application of the name would have found themselves left well behind almost from the launch of the festival back in 1994.

Hallaig - A Celebration of Sorley MacLean

Hallaig - A Celebration of Sorley MacLean

8 Jan 2009

CELTIC CONNECTIONS A gathering of Gaelic musical talent will celebrate the work of Sorley MacLean (Somhairle MacGill-Eain) in this concert, which will feature both vocal settings of the poet’s work and instrumental pieces inspired by it. The show…

David Heath

Conflict and Resolution

8 Jan 2009

CELTIC CONNECTIONS The life of Scottish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh will be celebrated in unusual fashion in this concert featuring a specially commissioned new work for musicians from Scotland and Catalonia, with the BBC…

Issie Barrett - Astral Pleasures

Issie Barrett - Astral Pleasures

(4 stars)8 Jan 2009

JAZZ Issie Barrett’s debut recording directing a 20-piece orchestra is brimming over with arresting music. A composer and conductor pushing at the boundaries of conventional big band music, Barrett has a considerable reputation in jazz education…

Julian Siegel Trio - Live at the Vortex

Julian Siegel Trio - Live at the Vortex

(4 stars)8 Jan 2009

JAZZ Named Best Instrumentalist at the BBC UK Jazz Awards in 2007, saxophonist Julian Siegel is joined by New York-based musicians Greg Cohen (bass) and Joey Baron (drums) on this tough but exciting two-CD set, recorded at London’s Vortex in early…

Lorna Reid - Gypsy in My Soul

Lorna Reid - Gypsy in My Soul

(3 stars)11 Dec 2008

JAZZ Jazz singers are not in short supply these days, and there is plenty of competition in the kind of straight-ahead standard repertoire that Edinburgh singer Lorna Reid tackles in this self-produced debut release on her own label. I can’t say that…

Doorley/Fowlis/Martin/Nic Amhlaoibh - Dual

Doorley/Fowlis/Martin/Nic Amhlaoibh - Dual

(4 stars)11 Dec 2008

FOLK Julie Fowlis has been the most prominent success among the new generation of Gaelic singers, and her award-winning exploits have done much to help raise the profile of Gaelic song. On this session, though, she takes equal billing with her…

Aaron Parks - Invisible Cinema

Aaron Parks - Invisible Cinema

(4 stars)11 Dec 2008

JAZZ The Seattle-born, New York-based pianist’s debut for Blue Note is an impressive one. Jazz piano is a currently crowded field, but Parks makes his mark in convincing fashion. All but three of the tracks also feature the guitar work of Mike…

Brian Kellock - The Nine Mile Burn Sessions

Brian Kellock - The Nine Mile Burn Sessions

(4 stars)27 Nov 2008

JAZZ It has been too a long a wait for a follow up to pianist Brian Kellock’s award-winning Live At Henry’s set. This album is an excellent launch for a potentially significant new recording project from Cathie Rae’s Thick Skinned Productions, and…

Joe Zawinul & The Zawinul Syndicate - 75th

Joe Zawinul & The Zawinul Syndicate - 75th

(3 stars)13 Nov 2008

JAZZ JOE ZAWINUL & THE ZAWINUL SYNDICATE 75th (BHM/Birdjam) The concert represented on this live 2-CD set was recorded on the late Joe Zawinul’s 75th birthday on 7 July 2007 in his native Vienna (he died only a couple of months later). Despite the…

Portico Quartet

Portico Quartet

13 Nov 2008

The Arches, Glasgow, Mon 24 Nov The Portico Quartet’s debut album Knee Deep in the North Sea was attracting considerable attention even before it was included among this year’s Mercury Prize nominations, including a prestigious award as Time Out’s…

Corrina Hewat - Harp I Do

Corrina Hewat - Harp I Do

(4 stars)13 Nov 2008

Corrina Hewat forsakes the chumminess of the various groups in which she is involved – including co-directing the might Unusual Suspects – for the more isolated terrain of solo harp. As the title says, harp she does, and very well too. She approaches…

420 articles.

Sorted by date / most viewed. Showing 25, 50, 100 per page.

RSS feed