Monday, 15 February 2010 12:13

Atzmon:

The force of Israeli-born Gilad Atzmon’s world view – his anti-Zionism, but also what Robert Wyatt, a self-confessed “Gilad groupie”, calls the “intrinsically non-racialist philosophy that's implicit in jazz” – comes through loud and clear in his stage banter. Not many jazzers namecheck the Chilcot Inquiry or dedicate tunes to “the biggest arseholes on the planet”: ie a good handful of (named) British and Israeli politicians.

Crucially, though, that ideology comes through at least as strongly in the saxophonist’s music, the mix of jazz and Middle Eastern folk music pursued by his now decade-old Orient House Ensemble making exactly the same political point. And, at least at this performance at London’s Vortex club, it’s a quite spectacular triumph in artistic terms too.

http://www.birminghamjazz.co.uk/?p=2264

This concert had everything you need to make a really enjoyable and exciting evening.  It had a very strong theme, that is music inspired by the Charlie Parker with Strings album made in the early 1950s, virtuosic playing from Gilad Atzmon and the Sigamos String Quartet, a combination of  serious musical content and accessibility to keep both  the jazz fan and the more general fan happy, an excellent approach to presentation with clear and entertaining announcements and a good appreciative audience.

One of modern jazz's most controversial, wacky, and downright loud players, Gilad Atzmon renews his links with Norwich with a concert next week. ROB GARRATT spoke to him.

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Known as one of jazz's loudest players, Gilad Atzmon turned more than a few heads when he announced his latest release, a delicate album of ballads recorded with a string section.

What few people realise is that the Israeli-born saxophonist decided to record the album right here in Norwich, on stage at the Playhouse.

Appearing with a string quartet for the first time as part of a coup for the 2008 Norfolk and Norwich Festival, it was during the flights of exuberance associated with a premiere that saw him decide to devote the next 18 months to the project.

9:00am Thursday 19th November 2009

THERE is no doubt that the London-based Israeli musician Gilad Atzmon is one of the best alto saxophonists on the planet.

I know that is a serious claim to make, but genuinely believe it, having heard him live and listened to his recordings, particularly his most recent offering.

Atzmon fell in love with the sound of Charlie Parker as a 17-year-old in Jerusalem, awaiting conscription into the Israeli Army. He heard Bird playing April In Paris on a radio programme and was so moved that the following day he skipped school, rushed to the only music store in Jerusalem and bought every jazz album they had on the shelves. He is far from being the only fledgling musician to be motivated into copying the great Charlie Parker, but few, if any, have managed to recreate the Bird’s incomparable bebop virtuosity as successfully as Atzmon.

The American’s memorable album Charlie Parker With Strings is one of the biggest-selling jazz records of all time and, given his respect and admiration for the legendary alto saxophonist, it was only a matter of time before Atzmon travelled the same route.

His CD In Loving Memory of America, which features Atzmon, his superb Orient House Ensemble and the Sigamos String Quartet, is as close as possible to Parker’s offering. It even includes similar adaptations of tunes from The Great American Songbook, such as Everything Happens To Me, April in Paris, I Didn’t Know What Time It was and If I Should Lose You.

The Orient House Ensemble, which includes Frank Harrison (piano), Yaron Stavi (bass) and the brilliant Asaf Sirkis (drums), is as good as any I have heard, and Atzmon, besides being an outstandingly talented saxophonist, is an amusing and self-deprecating front man. He has been a regular visitor to the North West in recent years and I can thoroughly recommend you try to catch him live if you can. Failing that, buy his album, In Loving Memory of America, comes from the heart, and it shows in some inspirational playing. The biggest compliment I can pay Atzmon and his CD is to say that were Charlie Parker still around to hear it, he would surely approve.

http://londonjazz.blogspot.com/2009/11/review-gilad-atzmon.html

Gilad Atzmon's Cadogan Hall concert was based around his album "In Loving Memory of America. " But the complete Atzmon package contains, in addition to the music, his particular blend of lively entertainment and provocation.

First, though, the music. One of its starting points is Charlie Parker's With Strings album of 1950. Atzmon takes these songs, and particlularly the bitter-sweet ones which deal with feelings of displacement and loss- I didn't know what Time It was, If I should Lose You, Just Friends, Lovers no More , Yesterdays- and extends and enjoys them. I clocked in I didn't Know at a langorous, smoochy tempo of crotchet equals about 60. Lush.

"1st Jazz album of the Year  (2005)", John Lewis Time Out

"12the Best Album of the year", Time Out

Nominated 1st Jazz Album of the Year-BBC Jazz Awards 2004.

"A potently expressive musical angle on the world we live in". Jazzwise

"it's a taste well worth acquiring because you realise what a profound, moving experience Atzmon's lone voice raised in protest has been". The Observer

Exile-Best Jazz Album Of The Year, BBC Jazz Award 2003.

Exile-Best Jazz Album of the Year (2003), Time Out Magazine.

Exile -Number 14th Best Album of the Year (2003), The Observer.

Exile -Number 48 Best Album of the Year (2003), Jazz Time, USA.