robin loxley singer in 2 door cinema club

This is an accusation that has been levelled at fellow Chicagoan Anthony Braxton, but Threadgill’s peculiar talent has been to combine contemporary classical and free-jazz influences with rambunctious ragtime and marches: 'If you can’t move to Threadgill,' young Oxford pianist Alexander Hawkins told me earlier this year, 'you may be clinically dead.' Such a counterweight was lacking for much of the show last night (don't worry, I've checked my pulse). It was clever stuff, certainly, but - for all the bottom-end wallop when tuba joined the thunder and thump of the acoustic bass guitar - also rather cold. Much could often have passed for free improvisation, although a compositional hand was evident in the intricately tessellated rhythms and sudden, emphatic endings. This left the focus on his fellow musicians - a typically imaginative line-up of acoustic guitar, acoustic bass guitar, tuba/trombone, cello and drums - and on the material itself. He didn’t play at all during the opening minutes, and when he did join in he favoured feathery flute over the more familiar alto saxophone. Clad in green and brown and sporting a loose waistcoat, all from Barbour’s lesser-known Robin of Loxley range, Threadgill seemed largely content to act as ringmaster. Only when he switched to alto sax did the music acquire quite the grit it neededSad to report, however, the show was a mild anti-climax. The jazz avant-garde is a world dominated by improvisers Threadgill, who was associated with Chicago’s pioneering AACM in the 1960s and went on to lead groups including Air, has established himself as one of its few truly gifted composers.

The room wasn’t full for Henry Threadgill – maybe everyone was next door at the Portico Quartet – but for fans of more leftfield music, the multi-instrumentalist’s rare London appearance had been much anticipated.

Contemporary crooner Gregory Porter, who played the 'Jazz on 3' launch at Ronnie Scott’s, didn't do much for me, but it seems already to have been written that he is THE FUTURE OF JAZZ and it might just come to pass.

Robin loxley singer in 2 door cinema club