Robert Mitchell solo live piano album set for the spring

Recorded live at the Jazz Café in London in July 2018 The Rainbow Mountain/Can We Care is new from pianist-composer Robert Mitchell via Depth of Field on 24 April, a landmark solo album first listens strongly suggest, it is dedicated to Cecil …

Published: 26 Feb 2020. Updated: 4 years.

Recorded live at the Jazz Café in London in July 2018 The Rainbow Mountain/Can We Care is new from pianist-composer Robert Mitchell via Depth of Field on 24 April, a landmark solo album first listens strongly suggest, it is dedicated to Cecil Taylor.

Mitchell in the liner notes writes: ''I have long admired this approach to pianistic expression. And so I had wanted to do a recording like this – and the opportunity felt right when I was asked to perform as a part of this concert (before the Grammy winner Vijay Iyer and his band). The further I have spent in reverence of a number of piano icons in Jazz and Improvised music – the more I consider this to be a rite of passage.''

Mitchell also this spring publishes new poetry collection ''City Of Sanctuary''. He plays the Hebden Bridge Piano Festival at Hebden Bridge Town Hall on 26 April.

Photo of Robert Mitchell: Przemek Nowak.

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Track of the day: Got Me a Plan by Kassa Overall

The witty Kassa Overall has a new record out I Think I'm Good on Brownswood from which 'Got me a Plan' is taken. Millennials step this way. Kassa is made for you. Heard last year on Carmen Lundy's superb Modern Ancestors, the drummer-rapper caught …

Published: 26 Feb 2020. Updated: 4 years.

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The witty Kassa Overall has a new record out I Think I'm Good on Brownswood from which 'Got me a Plan' is taken. Millennials step this way. Kassa is made for you. Heard last year on Carmen Lundy's superb Modern Ancestors, the drummer-rapper caught live by this very blog in duo with pianist Mike King at the Pizza Express in Soho during the London Jazz Festival last year was original and fun, in a smart laidback show. Bring him back!

Whether drawing on Satie or dreaming up funny little sounds mucked about with wholescale Overall in a well travelled onesie even stripped off to a vest to unwrap his comfortable alter ego as a zany rapper. As a drummer he has Karriem Riggins-level chops and operates in that space but his really literate often wry raps recalling Soweto Kinch's deft style when he MCs were a refreshing change and King, a young Herbie in some ways, not just in his Chicago origins but because the headphone wearing player showed great skill on the Steinway, using his left hand to reach up to the Nord electric piano sometimes for some squelchier house beats, proved an excellent sparring partner. I liked best of all the rap over was it the chords for the Bob Haggart standard 'What's New' later. I'd hear these guys again pretty much any day of the week. And to the more grizzled non-millennials out there put him on your bucket list too. Smiling doesn't hurt …

… Released on 28 February ****. Kassa Overall pic, Duane E. Savage.