Known for his work with Scottish avant garde saxophonist Raymond MacDonald, Australian improvising pianist Alister Spence has a new solo piano double album out called Whirlpool. Think Marilyn Crispell, Craig Taborn… in that area to an extent… '[Some] where' drawn from the work, possessing a twinkling music box quality to it, is above. Whirlpool was recorded in a Sydney studio in October last year.
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Ronnie Greer, the 69-year-old guitar luminary who has lit up the all-Ireland blues scene down the years, has his first live album out at the moment. Greer, last heard by marlbank down in Fermanagh under a harvest moon last autumn when “cosmic” Clive Culbertson was in the house in a rare sighting, has the record billed under the Ronnie Greer Band & Friends moniker recording Live: Blues Constellation on homeground last year in Lisburn at the local Island Arts Centre.
Personnel on the album include trumpeter Linley Hamilton and saxophonist Dave Howell, singer/guitarists Grainne Duffy and Ken Haddock, Berts scene main man singer/keyboardist Kyron Bourke and bassist Gerry McWhinney plus the great Anthony Toner (guitar/vocals), Peter McKinney (drums), Nick Scott (bass) and pianist/Hammond organist John McCullough at the heart of it all.
The album includes songs identified with John Lee Hooker ('Five Long Years'), T-Bone Walker ('Stormy Monday Blues,' featuring Ken Haddock on vocals), Charles Mingus ('Nostalgia In Times Square,' with Linley Hamilton and Dave Howell on horns), Van Morrison ('Tupelo Honey,' feat. Haddock again), the Dan ('Do it Again') and Greer song 'Going Down To Clarksdale,' a storming homage to the blues.
Get hold of the album via the Ronnie Greer website. Photo of Ronnie Greer: Keery Irvine.
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