There is a very open, winningly laconic – reminiscent of the Cool School – feel to 'Endless Cruelties' from drummer Johnny Hunter's 4-movement Pale Blue Dot coming up, a live album recorded at Sheffield venue the Lescar to be released by Northern Contemporary on 14 January. Inspired by a photograph taken in 1990 by Voyager 1, Hunter is with a string quartet and Mark Hanslip, the tenor saxophonist who first made his mark more than a decade ago with the adventurous quartet Outhouse.
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From 2018. Jools Holland Rhythm and Blues Orchestra saxophonist/flautist, a founder member of legendary 1970s street funk Afrojazz pioneers Cymande Mike “Bammi” Rose, joined by Cymande pianist Adrian Reid on Nord keyboards continued their regular residency in the congenial and relaxed surroundings of the House of Tippler on London’s Lordship Lane in East Dulwich as World Cup fever began to grip the capital.
Performing after the Portugal v Spain game (a Portuguese supporter at the bar who had watched the match on television compared Ronaldo understandably to Eusébio) Bammi, you might remember hearing on Charlie Parker’s ‘Barbados’ from Jazz Jamaica’s excellent 1990s album Skaravan, got into his stride when he switched from flute to tenor as the pair performed with a backing rhythm that introduced a light Caribbean twist on such early set numbers as ‘Take Five’ and Billy Taylor’s joyous ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free’. Then, with more of a carnival feel, the classic ‘St Thomas’ synonymous with Sonny Rollins shone through. Reid’s own album Nyanza Street I enjoyed a few years ago and it was somehow fitting even if completely by chance to hear the pianist south of the river. Mike 'Bammi' Rose top left and Adrian Reid at the House of Tippler.