New Music Reviews
Chick Corea, BarbicanTuesday, 20 May 2014
Jazz pianist Chick Corea put a bomb under his reverential “rare solo concert” billing at the Barbican last night, with an outrageously showmanlike variety performance that seemed to take in everyone from Keith Jarrett to Gareth Malone. Corea’s two ECM albums, Piano Improvisations (1971 and 1972), blazed a trail for similar work, music that was cerebral, even austere, from Paul Bley and the arguably even more distinguished Jarrett. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Philadelphia International RecordsSunday, 18 May 2014
|
Katy Perry, LG Arena, BirminghamWednesday, 14 May 2014
As her rendition of “Double Rainbow”, from recent album Prism, draws to end, Katy Perry announces into her microphone that “It was the music that brought you here! You like the costumes and lights but the music brought you here!” The funny thing is that actually the music is the least of things in the Katy Perry live spectacular. Read more... |
Drive-By Truckers, Shepherd's Bush EmpireWednesday, 14 May 2014
“We're gonna hit the road harder than we've hit it in a long time… There's no bullshit going on.” So said Drive-By Truckers’ co-frontman Patterson Hood last February. From the grin he wore while he took to the stage last night, it was evident this had been no empty promise. Despite a sound quality that was decidedly meh throughout, the band succeeded in filling the Shepherd’s Bush Empire with the atmosphere of an Alabama roadhouse. Read more... |
Chaka Khan, Ronnie Scott'sTuesday, 13 May 2014
Did you know that Chaka Khan has her own brand of gourmet chocolate she calls Chakalate? Or that she recently extended a helping hand to the media's favourite punchball, Lindsay Lohan, after they spent some time in the same rehab centre (Chaka for prescribed meds following a foot operation)? Read more... |
Kelis, Brighton DomeMonday, 12 May 2014
When Kelis first walks onstage in a shimmering blue ball dress, a gigantic mane of black hair falling down her back, gay men all about me in the circle seats spring to life, some veering into “Go girl!” territory, others simply shrieking, and one in the row behind calmly saying to a neighbour, “She is just magnificent.” I'd not realised she was quite such a gay icon but this concert offered definitive proof. Read more... |
Zara McFarlane, The Old Market, BrightonMonday, 12 May 2014
Zara McFarlane’s exquisite synthesis of jazz and nu-soul, an intoxicating proposition on CD, breathes more freely live, we discovered, in last night’s Brighton Festival performance. A recent appearance on Later... with Jools Holland was mentioned discreetly, and has clearly buoyed her confidence, as she gave an utterly engrossing demonstration of why Holland, and before him, Brownswood Recordings’ Gilles Peterson are supporting her. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Josef KSunday, 11 May 2014
|
Janelle Monae, O2 Brixton AcademySaturday, 10 May 2014
Before Janelle Monáe even materialises at Brixton’s O2 Academy, her presence is already felt in the stagecraft. Lab-coated, bow-tied techies unsheath the instruments from their black covers, revealing a glimmering monochrome set-up in the centre of a giant white cube reminiscent of the "Q.U.E.E.N." video. Three - count ‘em, three - men see to the polishing of Monáe’s microphone. Read more... |
Bo Ningen, Hare and Hounds, BirminghamSaturday, 10 May 2014
Tonight Birmingham was treated to a guitar fest of epic proportions, as the Japanese, Hawkwind-esque experience that is Bo Ningen hit town. Prior to the main event, we were treated to the boisterous thrash of The Scenes, who finished their set with the flippant yet amusingly named “Anorexia Is Boring”, and the Teenage Fanclub-esque 12-strings of Younghusband. Neither, however, quite prepared the crowd for the ear-lacerating noise and mesmerising groove of the headliners. Read more... |
Various Artists: Philadelphia International Records – The Collection
Josef K: The Only Fun in TownPages
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
latest in today
Help to give theartsdesk a future!
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Ridout, 12 Ensemble, Wigmore Hall review - brilliant Britten...
Last night was the first time I had heard the 12 Ensemble, a string group currently Artist-in-Residence at the Wigmore Hall, and I was very...
Mickalene Thomas, All About Love, Hayward Gallery review - a...
On walking into Mikalene Thomas’s exhibition at the...
Helen Charlston, Sholto Kynoch, Temple Church review - fine...
Mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston just gets better and better, both as singer and as actor. Last night’s recital at Temple Church had an unusual and...
Album: bdrmm - Microtonic
Microtonic comes into focus on its third track, “Infinity Peaking.” Album opener “Goit,” featuring a guest vocal by Working Men’s Club’s...
Argerich, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Papadopoulos, Barbi...
At the age of 83, Martha Argerich contains more personality in...
Jessica Duchen: Myra Hess - National Treasure review - well-...
Myra Hess was one of the most important figures in British cultural life in the mid-20th century: the pre-eminent...
Interview: Polar photographer Sebastian Copeland talks about...
Sebastian Copeland’s images of the Arctic may look otherworldly – with their tilting cathedrals of ice, hypnotic light, and fractured seascapes...
Rats on Rafts, The Victoria review - crepuscular Dutch quint...
An album is one thing, a live show is another. A truism of course, but one which is inescapable during this London date by the Rotterdam-based...
Blu-ray: Drugstore Cowboy
Rehab people will tell you there are three stages to drug abuse: fun; fun with problems; problems. There’s also a fourth phase, where there aren't...