Tag / Anthony Kerr

by mikeraggett

Super Saturday in Southend

It was freezing cold outside but the temperature inside the Jazz Centre UK’s Southend premises soared on Saturday 11 January as Alan Skidmore joined Anthony Kerr, Dominic Howles and Trevor Taylor for a special concert of music by Coltrane, Monk and Miles. The Centre holds an amazing collection of jazz memorabilia to which Alan contributed back in 2017 when he was honoured by the Centre. He repaid the compliment with a great afternoon of high quality jazz.

To kick things off Anthony Kerr on vibraphone played a set with Dominic on bass and Trevor at the drum kit. Anthony’s improvisations on standards like Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s Isfahan are always enchanting and were greeted with enthusaistic applause, as were all the tunes in this opening set.

After a short break the trio were joined by Alan for an hour long set of superb variety. We all know that Alan can play more notes per second than most but he is also a sensitive interpreter of ballads as we learned from the 1999 album with the Hannover Philharmonie symphony orchestra After the Rain which you can get from Miles Music, now run by Peter Watts, or on Amazon if you must. The set started with the lively Thelonius Monk tune Nutty followed by the lovely John Coltrane ballad Lonnie’s Lament (see below). Mikes Davis’s catchy So What followed – it’s the first track on the iconic Kind of Blue album – and this segued into another Coltrane favourite of Alan’s Impressions. They finished with Duke Ellington’s Take the Coltrane and Blue Monk another characteristically jagged and captivating Thelonius composition.

The Stage is set … with Humphrey Lyttleton’s trumpet foreground
Jazz Centre UK’s Digby Fairweather introduces Alan
The audience were delighted
Alan, Dominic and Anthony

And for those of you who missed out on this fantastic gig here’s a short three minute taster from the ballad Lonnie’s Lament. It starts at the end of Anthony Kerr’s fine solo and features Alan’s lyrical solo and conclusion.

Words, photographs and video courtesy of Mike Raggett

by mikeraggett

AS, AK and KB

COME IN OUT OF THE COLD! Saturday 11 January sees Alan joining his good friend and outstanding vibraphone player Antony Kerr for a special gig at the National Jazz Centre in Southend. Here’s more info. It’s from 14:00 to 16:00 in this fascinating location filled with jazz memorabilia, information, archives, workshops and live music. Come on down and hear their take on the music of Coltrane, Miles and Monk.

Skid and Anthony as a duet on a previous occasion at Jazz Centre UK. This time he’s a guest with the Anthony Kerr Trio.

2024 concluded with a rather unusual request for Alan to participate in a podcast. It took him back to 1976 when he was booked to record the iconic solo on the song The Saxophone Man on the album The Kick Inside that shot the teenaged Kate Bush to fame.

Professor Darrell Babidge, Chair of the Faculty of Vocal Arts at the prestigious Juillard School in New York runs the Kate Bush Fan Podcast and asked Alan to recall the session. It will doubtless introduce a whole new audience to a different kind of music too. Darrell asked if he could play out the podcast with a favourite track of Alan’s. He chose Giant Steps acknowledged to be the hardest tune in jazz to play. You can listen here. Enjoy!

by mikeraggett

A Supreme Love makes Jazzwise magazine’s top 20

The six-CD boxset of Alan Skidmore’s life as a musician has made it into the influential magazine Jazzwise’s Top 20 Reissues and Archive albums of 2023. And with the vast majority of tracks (more than 80%) previously unreleased it leans heavily towards the Archive rather than the Reissues sector.

With his inspiration, John Coltrane, featuring twice in the list and colleagues Stan Tracey, Sony Rollins and Kenny Wheeler also listed, Skid is in very good company. There are a very few copies left so if you don’t want to miss out on one of the albums of the year head over to Confront Recordings to get your copy.

Since writing this the physical box set has sold out but all tracks are available to download from the link above.

Watch this space for other year end awards that may come in for this superb collection.

November in Southend

And in other news, Alan joined outstanding vibraphone player and good friend Anthony Kerr for an impromptu gig at The Jazz Centre UK in Southend at the beginning of November. Long-term collaborators in Georgie Fame’s New Blue Flames it was great to hear the two playing together in this intimate space.

by mikeraggett

Sun Ship burns and fans the Flames

“It’s always nice to play a gig close to home,” said Alan Skidmore, “they are very rare and then like the buses, two come along at once.”

In his sixtieth year in the business, tenor saxophonist Alan Skidmore has travelled far and wide making his unique contribution to modern jazz music – Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Aylesbury, Huddersfield, Llandudno, London – and that’s just this year. Then in October he played twice at the Herts Jazz Festival 2018 in Letchworth all of half an hour’s drive from home. They were two gigs that showcased the amazing versatility of the veteran tenorist.

For the first gig he was the guest star with the Paul Dunmall Sun Ship Quartet which showcases the music of one of John Coltrane’s last albums, Sun Ship. This is post-bop jazz with fire and pace and fury from the classic Coltrane quartet in 1965 and it sounds as fresh, vibrant and spiritual today in the hands of these devotees of John Coltrane.

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Howard Cottle, Paul Dunmall and Alan Skidmore play Sun Ship

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Alan giving it some ‘welly’

As Skid says:

“It’s great music and gives you a chance to give it some ‘welly’ on the tenor.”

That welly results in streams of notes that make you wonder how anybody can play that fast or with such inventiveness. Very impressive blowing from all three. The Sun Ship set was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in the Jazz Now slot on 17 December. You can hear it as a podcast here.

Then the closing set of the Festival on Sunday 7 October saw Alan joining the line up with Georgie Fame’s New Blue Flames of which he’s been a member since 1970. Slightly less ‘welly’ is involved in the polished arrangements for the front line that surround Georgie Fame’s bluesy vocals. It is always a festival show-closing hit and Alan’s solos were met with great acclaim by a large and enthusiastic audience.

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Georgie Fame Hammond Organ, Alec Dankworth bass (hidden), James Powell drums, Guy Barker trumpet, Alan Skidmore tenor saxophone, Tristan Powell guitar (hidden), Anthony Kerr vibraphone

Photographs: Graham Mullett