Marcus Strickland Twi-Life, The Universe’s Wildest Dream, Strick Muzik ***

Stylistically landing in the AfroFuturistic domain Marcus Strickland here on various saxes and bass clarinet with a core band of keyboardist Mitch Henry, bassist Kyle Miles and drummer Charles Haynes featured guests are guitarist Lionel Loueke, …

Published: 13 Jan 2023. Updated: 14 months.

Stylistically landing in the AfroFuturistic domain Marcus Strickland here on various saxes and bass clarinet with a core band of keyboardist Mitch Henry, bassist Kyle Miles and drummer Charles Haynes featured guests are guitarist Lionel Loueke, singer Christie Dashiell on the Black Lives Matter influenced 'Matter' and rapper Ras Stimulant. Lacking in great tunes I think it's fair to say and yet Strickland is dynamic as ever when he wails on 'Matter'. Best tunes I think are when Strickland chooses soprano sax on 'You and I, An Anomaly' his essential melodicism coming through and again later on 'Joy For Jupiter'. But there isn't a huge amount of response in the overall band sound and the overdubbed reedy riffing while interesting doesn't intertwine enough with the rhythm section. Strickland is a fine player live but on record hear him far more interestingly at the moment with Christian McBride's New Jawn on the latest track 'Head Bedlam.'

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Can the new controller at BBC Radio 3 up the parlous amount of jazz on the network and return the station to Roger Wright's pioneering template?

The new controller to take over the reins later this year at BBC Radio 3 - the only BBC network radio station to show any sort of real if very small commitment to jazz - is ex-Universal Records suit Sam Jackson. He's to also run the Proms. Will he …

Published: 13 Jan 2023. Updated: 14 months.

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The new controller to take over the reins later this year at BBC Radio 3 - the only BBC network radio station to show any sort of real if very small commitment to jazz - is ex-Universal Records suit Sam Jackson. He's to also run the Proms. Will he be able to support indie label output as well as listen to what the majors want is a fair question. Jackson has also run Classic FM, Smooth and Gold. Will Radio 3 become more like Classic or any other commercial smashy nicey station is another question worth asking. Jackson is also on the board at Trinity Laban which currently under Hans Koller has proved the front runner jazz studies programme in London in terms of faculty and progressive outlook even better than what Nick Smart is doing at the Royal Academy of Music. Will and indeed can Jackson partner more with less establishment music colleges like Leeds and indeed beyond conflict-of-interest Trinity? Jackson begins as controller in the spring replacing Alan Davey who has not been as much of a friend to jazz as Roger Wright was when Wright was controller. But of course let's be real, classical fans (who mainly tune into Radio 3) aren't necessarily jazz fans. Squaring that circle is mission impossible as Wright discovered when he championed jazz and made room for both musics within the output of the network.

Sam Jackson, photo: Carsten Windhorst/BBC