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3 weeks ago | 
allaboutjazz.com | Ian Patterson
Home » Jazz Articles » Interview » Hayeli: Mirrors Unto The Improvising Soul I think improvisation is the ultimate form of music making because it requires everything... you have to be really open minded, open hearted and humble. —Donna Khalifé Two double basses is an uncommon lineup, particularly when it comes to improvised music.
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3 weeks ago | 
allaboutjazz.com | Ian Patterson
Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Izumi Kimura: Butterfly Effect Japanese pianist Izumi Kimura has earned plaudits through her various improvisation-based projects with double bassist Barry Guy, percussionist Gerry Hemingway, and guitarists Christy Doran and Tommy Halferty, to cite just a few of her principal collaborators. But Kimura, a long-term resident in Ireland, is equally compelling when going it alone.
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4 weeks ago | 
theatre-news.com | Ian Patterson
"To say the truth, reason and love keep little company together these days."Not for nothing is a four-poster bed centre-stage in Blackwater Valley Opera’s performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. After all, what other aspect of the human psyche can match the libido when it comes to unleashing chaos?
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1 month ago | 
allaboutjazz.com | Ian Patterson
Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Eve Beuvens: Lysis It is often said that music begins when poetry ends. But it might be more accurate to suggest that each expresses something the other cannot. For Belgian pianist Eve Beuvens the boundaries between poetry and music are amorphous—each inspiring the other. With Lysis—a biological term describing the breakdown of a cell membrane—music and words bleed into each other.
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1 month ago | 
allaboutjazz.com | Ian Patterson
Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Ronan Guilfoyle's Bemusement Arcade: At Swing, Two Birds If there were Grammys for the most punning name for a jazz band, or for the most enigmatic album title, then Irish bassist Ronan Guilfoyle could well bag a brace.
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1 month ago | 
allaboutjazz.com | Ian Patterson
Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Organ Freeman: Busywork Organ Freeman: Busywork Not to be confused with the Los Angles-based organ trio of the same name—though it is hard to see how confusion will not reign—this Organ Freeman hails from Dublin, Ireland, where guitarist/vocalist Charlie Moon, organist Darragh Hennessy and drummer Dominic Mullan have held a Sunday residency at The Big Romance since 2018.
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2 months ago | 
allaboutjazz.com | Ian Patterson
An early spring vacation to New York saw Michael Buckley and his wife take in what he describes as "the usual sights." But for the Dublin saxophonist that also meant trips to "three or four saxophone shops." Once a tenor saxophonist, always a tenor saxophonist. Buckley, in fact, started out on the flute, playing with George Coleman no less, on the stage of Dublin's National Concert Hall when aged just ten.
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2 months ago | 
allaboutjazz.com | Ian Patterson
Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Stéphane Mercier: Live At The Jazz Station Stéphane Mercier: Live At The Jazz Station Play Stéphane Mercier on Amazon Music Unlimited (ad) A graduate of the Conservatoire Royale de Bruxelles and Berkley College of Music—where he was lead alto in Herb Pomeroy 's big band—Belgian saxophonist Stéphane Mercier has been leading/co-leading groups since the mid-'90s. This live album, captured from a gig at The Jazz Station, the famous Brussels venue in whose...
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2 months ago | 
allaboutjazz.com | Ian Patterson
Home » Jazz Articles » Book Review » Song For Someone: The Musical Life of Kenny Wheeler Song For Someone The Musical Life of Kenny Wheeler Brian Shaw and Nick Smart 509 Pages ISBN: # ISBN-13-978-178179 Equinox Publishing 2025 If only for his trumpet and flugelhorn playing Kenny Wheeler stands as one of the modern greats, marrying linear lyricism and free-jazz expression like no-one else.
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2 months ago | 
allaboutjazz.com | Ian Patterson
Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Michael Buckley: Ebb And Flow Given his world-class chops, tenor saxophonist Michael Buckley's albums have been too infrequent. This is a man who has played with George Coleman when he was still in shorts (Buckley that is), backed Jerry Lee Lewis, collaborated with Dave Liebman and Kenny Wheeler, and toured with The Mingus Big Band.
