Alan, Gilad & The Lowest Common Denominator (video)
Alan Barnes and Gilad Atzmon, two of Britain’s most celebrated virtuoso reeds players, join forces to produce an unforgettable jazz night of superb music spiced up with great humour.
Read MoreGilad Atzmon is a jazz & world music artist, a novelist and an author focusing on ID politics.
Welcome to Gilad Atzmon's webpage. This site provides information about Gilad's musical and intellectual activity.
Alan Barnes and Gilad Atzmon, two of Britain’s most celebrated virtuoso reeds players, join forces to produce an unforgettable jazz night of superb music spiced up with great humour.
Read MoreBlib-Blob may have summed it up. The blistering bebop-ish theme twisted and leapt through the rhythm changes sequence, tenor (Gilad Atzmon) and alto (Alan Barnes) locked together. The groove though, was a self-consciously heavy handed, funky shuffle injecting a subversive flavour into the passionate blowing, a riotously serious delivery that pervaded the whole evening. This was Atzmon and Barnes with Atzmon’s regular, equal to and up for anything rhythm section of Frank Harrison on piano, Yaron Stavi on bass and Chris Higinbottom on drums.
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By Tony Benjamin, January 25, 2016
http://www.bristol247.com/channel/culture/music/reviews/gilad-atzmon-alan-barnes
Hen & Chicken, Sunday 24 January
It had been, apparently, a marriage of convenience brought about by jazz festival organisers putting the two saxophonists on the same stage but now they had decided to take it on the road for themselves. It seemed a likely enough explanation for the otherwise unlikely pairing of Gilad Atzmon and Alan Barnes, two of the country’s top jazz players and band leaders. It was not, as had been advertised, Atzmon’s Orient House Ensemble plus (though promoter Ian Storrer doggedly refused to accept this to the last) but what Gilad dubbed The Lowest Common Denominator Band (“this is all that’s left of British jazz” he shrugged, wryly). The rhythm section of Frank Harrison (piano), Yari Stavon (bass) and Chris Higginbotham (drums) would, however, be familiar to fans of that other project and the prospect of the influence this new collaboration would have on their sound was in the air before they started.
Happily it proved delightful, not least for the way in which Alan Barnes took the metaphorical centre stage, both musically and as the main ‘voice’ of the band: a surprise, given Atzmon’s well-earned reputations for grandstanding soloing and polemical humour in equal measure. This may have disappointed some for whom the showmanship is the (ex-)Israeli player’s appeal but it freed him up to play to the top of his game in the company of a player whom he clearly respected. The agenda was set out nicely by the first number, Barnes’ Fat Catwith the composer playing baritone sax against Atzmon’s alto. A perfect full-tilt unison bop opening elaborated into a grand solo blast-off that contrasted Barnes’ roots in the British sound of Tubby Hayes and Bobby Wellins with Atzmon’s more American allegiance to Charlie Parker and John Coltrane (though the spirit of the latter would run through both players at times). In Atzmonesque style the number subsided into a sleazy cabaret jazz playout that ended with smiles all round.
The smiles - which were shared by the near capacity audience - stayed there for the rest of the evening as the two multi-instrumentalists swapped between bass clarinet, soprano, alto and tenor saxes (Atzmon) and clarinet, alto and baritone saxes (Barnes). At one point Atzmon even played two saxes - alto and tenor - at the same time, Roland Kirk style and all this variety added texture and context to a well-chosen sequence of all-too rarely identified tunes. Barnes’ tribute to his collaborator Giladiator unleashed Atzmon’s blustering confrontationalism in torrential Coltrane-style outbursts yet was soon tamed into an exchange of elaborations between the front men. The more modernist Phonus Balonus, by contrast had all the insouciance of a cool Charlie Mingus tune. Some of the best moments came in ballads like the elegant Old Folks (dedicated to the grey haired among the audience) which evolved into a fine free improvisation. At some point the soloists exchanged their alto saxes for clarinet and bass clarinet allowing a lyrical, unaccompanied double-solo ending that was one of several free-flowing exchanges that deserved to be developed into more of the material.
That number highlighted the delicate contribution of pianist Frank Harrison: balancing between Yaron Stavi’s ever-muscular bass and all that horn-blowing firepower he somehow always managed to shape the music while remaining never knowingly overplayed (though he was also always quick to seize any opportunity for a smart solo). Drummer Chris Higginbotham similarly reined himself in for much of the time, delivering crisp definition with occasional flutters of randomness. Happily everybody got to let their hair down for Spring in New York with its hip-hop grooviness and blistering bebop solos making an excellent closer for a set that had showcased two formidable musical personalities on a mutual quest to bring the best out of each other.
To donate: http://www.igiveyougive.org/Gift/27/gilad-atzmon-and-the-orient-house-ensemble/gaza-mon-amour
Gilad Atzmon and The Orient House Ensemble is giving away their track Gaza Mon Amour in return for donations to PTC(UK) Palestine Trauma Centre UK via I Give You Give!
Palestine Trauma Centre (UK) supports Gaza’s mental health and community workers. It has direct links with Palestine Trauma Centre in Gaza City. By supporting us you will help - Deliver Therapeutic Approaches to Children and Families in Palestine - Provide Resilience to Traumatised People - Give Specialist Psychological Training & Supervision
Read MoreDespite Alan and Gilad’s very different backgrounds and approaches, their love of bop and post-bop as well as their mutual respect both professionally and personally makes the collaboration natural – it’s early days but I am sure more co-penned numbers will emerge and a CD will ensue.
Read Morevist: http://www.gilad.co.uk/tour-events-live/
Friday 2nd - Gilad Atzmon & The OHE – Unterfahrt, Munich, Germany
http://www.unterfahrt.de/index.php?language=en&action=overview&mo=10&yr=2015
Friday 3rd - Gilad Atzmon & The OHE , Mundelfingen, Germany
House Concert +49 7707/9770
Sunday 4th - Gilad Atzmon & The OHE, Porgy & Bess, Vienna, Austria
http://www.porgy.at/e-index.html
Monday 5th - Cognitive Partitioning And The War Against The Poor, A Talk In Prague, Cz Republic,
Location: A Maze in Tchaiovna
7 PM-Please reserve your place by emailing a.maze.in.tchaiovna@gmail.com
Tuesday - 6th Gilad Atzmon 4tet, Prague, Cz Republic with With, Tomáš Jochmann, Jan Fečo, Dušan Černák
19.30 The Maze in Tchaiovna Sochařská 8, Prague
Tonight Sep 25 Soner Ersen trio featuring Gilad Atzmon @ Green Lanes Bar
9pm, 7 salisbury promenade, Green Lanes, Harringay , London N8 0RX.
Sax: Gilad Atzmon , Bass: Cem Tuncer, Drums: Clark Tracey, Piano: Soner Ersen
Tomorrow Sep 26 Gilad Atzmon 4tet @ 606 Jazz Club chelsea, London
Sunday A Talk for the Leicester Secular Society
Subject: Truth and concealment in Palestine and beyond
http://www.leicestersecularsociety.org.uk
18:30 BST
Read MoreSaturday, 19th Sep 2015
Israeli-born, British Jazz saxophonist and Blockhead, Atzmon leads his Orient House Ensemble, performing his own music inspired by the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe.
“….he’s a gifted jazz musician to his core.” The Guardian
"Atzmon is surely the hardest-gigging man in British jazz..." The Times
"A formidable improvisational array...a local jazz giant steadily drawing himself up to his full height..." John Fordham, The Guardian
Read MoreRonnie Scott’s is privileged to welcome Gilad Atzmon performing the music of arguably the greatest alto sax player in jazz history, Charlie Parker. On the night, Gilad will be accompanied by a full string section adding depth to bird's classic compositions. This is a must-see show that has been earning rave reviews around the country!
As jazz critic Phil Johnson notes “While most jazz tribute projects are dry as dust, Gilad Atzmon's marvelous evocation of Charlie Parker's legendary 1949 Verve recording with strings somehow succeeds in conveying Bird's mercurial genius, as well as accurately re-presenting what counts as some of the most profoundly beautiful music ever made”.
Read MoreThe Whistle Blower is a wonderful and spectacular Jazz album I’ve listened to from start to finish. Since re-discovering Jazz when I was in College studying on my degree in Jazz Studies and falling in love with the music of John Coltrane ten years ago, this is an amazing album that would have the master proud. I have to listened to this about three times now and it is a real return to what Jazz music is all about.
Read MoreSunday 30th August, 9pm-10.15pm at Lauderdale House
http://brandonallen.co.uk/highgate-jazz-festival
We will be playing music from the Whistleblower as well as some old favourites.
Read MoreI am delighted to announce that our new album The Whistle Blower is available in the USA vi Moonjune Records (CD and Digital)
Read MorePizza Express Jazz Club, London
Thu 06 Aug 2015
Door Time: 7:00pm
Set: 8:30pm
To Book, click here
After an extensive world tour with his latest sell out album ‘The Whistle Blower’ (2015) the maverick saxophonist Gilad Atzmon and his OHE are back in London; this time featuring Sonny Rollin's guitarist, Saul Rubin. Expect astonishing virtuosity and a roller coaster of wit and pathos from this internationally renowned band of musicians.
Read MoreThe course is shaped as both intensive workshops and instrumental lesson during the day and a Jazz festival in the night. Jazz lovers and musicians of every level are invited to join. It is promised to be an unforgettable experience!!!
Read MoreVortex Jazz Club, London
12-13 June
8.00 pm
5 Stars review - Jazz Journal
“It’s quite a trip from the opening Middle Eastern ululations of the strongly driving Gaza to the stately dance measures and accordion musings of the folkish “Song” but somehow everything here – including the French-pop spoofs of the brief, concluding final track – gels to give a finely-focused picture of a man who, for all his complexity, describes himself in his poetically taut sleeve notes as an “avid admirer of simplicity and transparency”. (Jazz Journal, May 2015).
Read MoreDear friends and music lovers, don't miss this week of Jazz, improvisation and education combined with a music festival. An intense six days of tuition, concerts and jam sessions for all levels, led by some of the world's best teachers and performers.
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