BBC 6 Music is one of those media outlets that I could not live without; a champion of independent music and a bastion for the elements of popular culture that I relate to, it's schedule is full of absorbing voices with interesting anecdotes discussing the songs of our time. For those who have never listened, perhaps my favourite element of the station's character is it's inherent ethic that music is to be talked about with interest and intrigue, rather than as a trend based commodity that merely reflects current consumer interest. It is no surprise then that jazz finds it's place amongst the masses at this most eclectic of establishments, in fact genre-specific shows or specialist features can often feature jazz in some capacity, but it is the DJ's that incorporate the genre amongst more commercially viable or on trend 21st century sounds that I find most important.

So being sure to tiptoe carefully along the edge of that teeth grinding chasm of sycophancy which, lets face it, none of us want me to slip into, I've picked out my favourite 2 shows from the stations schedule based on their stances on jazz and what they bring to the genre:

Gilles Peterson - Saturday @ 15:00

With Gilles Peterson's 6 Music show music discovery is not just an added incentive... it's a guaranteed byproduct. The ex radio one presenter and label owner is an endless source of the latest and most exciting sounds from the circuit, blending them expertly amongst a cacophony of other styles and sounds. This show is, for me, a driving force in consolidating a sense of identity within the contemporary UK jazz scene, all the front-runners get played; 'Portico Quartet', 'Melt Yourself Down', Matthew Halsall... I could go on.  

Cerys Matthews - Sunday @ 10:00

The 2013 Sony Gold winner is less likely to drop a contorted contemporary excursion, and at 10am on a Sunday morning she probably wouldn't have a job if she did, but what her show lacks in cutting edge jazz it more than rectifies in solid song choices. Matthews seems just as at home with a grainy blues track from Big Bill Broozy as she is with an upbeat offering from Senegalese ensemble 'Orchestra Baobob'. Cerys' show also offers a great window for musical discovery, more likely a gem from the past that has evaded you.

Throughout their existence Adam Waldmann's Kairos 4tet have cemented their place as one of the front runners in an emerging wave of young British jazz talent. Having received an impressive selection of accolades across two albums, including a 2011 MOBO Award for 'Best Jazz Artist' and a number 2 spot in MOJO Magazine's 'Jazz Abums Of The Year', it is safe to say that the ensemble's characteristically melodic style has proven popular amongst fans of the genre.

2013 sees the band return to the circuit with their recently released track Songs For The Open Road, which features as part of an announcement detailing live dates as well as an upcoming album. The song is a gentle, folk-esque excursion and blends the voices of prominent soul star Omar and London based jazz singer Emilia Martensson over an unmistakably 'Kairos' backing. There are strong suggestions throughout that the new album may signal a noticeable progression in the bands sound; compositionally mature jazz with traces of British folk and soul interspersed...definitely one to look forward to!

The New record Everything We Hold will be released on Naim Jazz on the 10th June.

http://www.kairos4tet.com

The stylistic development of music over time is a strange phenomenon; as public trends and tastes change generationally it is safe to speculate that there will always be hunger for new musical movements as previous vogues, linked to past years, fade. This most 'Black and white' form of development is fine for the 1% of pioneers that get the opportunity to spearhead a new musical subculture (punk, dubstep, synth-pop) but what about the other 99% of musicians who's influences are reflected in their work more transparently? In fact, could it not be reasonably assumed that the toughest form of musical innovation is the task of modernising music from a bygone era in an attempt to make it relatable for an entirely new generation... To an older demographic you run the risk of never living up to 'The greats' and to any younger element of society your sound could instantly be deemed 'Out of date'. Even more daunting, providing you agree with me so far, is the fact that the more historically significant the genre you are trying to modernise, the harder the task. Therefore, last week when I heard the latest record from UK soul vocalist Alice Russell, a record of new British soul, I was instantly intrigued.

To Dust is the singer's fourth studio release and sees her meander stylishly through a series of well crafted 21st century-soul bangers! With song writing stylistically reminiscent of the 1960's and a polarising production ethic as fresh as anything you're likely to hear in the top 40, To Dust brings with it a real sense of revitalisation for British soul. Russell's involvement in modern remix culture is conveyed smartly through the use of rigidly processed samples, whilst her inherent penchant for a 'distilled' classic song means that the record is full of powerful melodies and strong musicianship. Perhaps the thing that I like most about this album is it's sense of authenticity, it's unique approach to a classic genre defines it as a body of work which doesn't just attempt to breathe new life into an old style... it carves out a new direction for British soul.

Check it out!

http://www.alicerussell.com/

Disappointed as I am to have missed out on what would arguably have been the most exciting event I've ever had the privilege of attending for the blog (I had tickets for Ravi Coltrane and Dave Douglas amongst others) I must concede that I rarely struggle to extract at least some slither of positivy from a week in bed... although I'm glad to be back to health.

Consider this a formal statement of JazzShaped's restart. Sorry I've been away!

Manchester based guitarist Stuart McCallum has always struck me as a relatively polarising figure within the world of modern jazz music. His ambient, downbeat sound could easily be dismissed as having no bearing towards the genre at all, and there will no doubt be traditionalists who subscribe to such a viewpoint...but I don't have time for traditionalists on this blog. Regardless of what the 'Cinematic Orchestra' members music is or isn't labelled, it carries with it an undoubted ethereal quality common amongst the current crop of Manchester based musicians on the circuit (Matthew Halsall, Nat Birchall, Gogo Penguin etc) and McCallum's music undoubtedly pushes the boundaries as to what jazz is developing into further than most.

His latest release comes in the form of a free track commissioned by the British Council who asked the genre defying musician to compose a piece for the Japanese 'Roppongi Art Night Festival'. McCallum created The Seventh Tree, a piece referring  to the growth and destruction of the country's Roppongi district which was reputedly built around six tree's, all of which have now been destroyed.

http://stuartmccallum.com/

Kit Performing Live

As I understand the album is largely inspired by elements of science, why did you decide to do this? and can you explain some of the complexities in more detail?

It happened that me and Lesley Barnes, who is the animator that I work with but also the illustrator for all of my CD's, had been asked by Cheltenham jazz festival to do a project about DNA migration. The organizer's ended up really liking what we had put together, a multimedia type-work with live band and live film illustrating the relationship between musical concepts and DNA migration, and we got asked to do the science branch of Cheltenham the following year (2012). It was during this next science festival that I ended up talking to NASA astro-biologist Daniella Scalice. We got chatting and she explained to me a lot that I got really excited by, particularly the concept of scale and how her knowledge conveyed the universe as such a massive relative expanse. This album intends to convey some of these concepts (timespan, time travel and celestial scale) through the music of someone who knows enough about science to be very intrigued by it, but who holds a very normal understanding of it's intricate complexities.

I worked from the title that I first had which was Light From Old Stars. The reason I liked that phrase was that it alludes to two things; It alludes to that phenomenon whereby you look into the sky (at a star) and are potentially seeing something which doesn't exist any more... that idea of scale is so alien to us because you're talking about such an enormous distance and vast amount of time that you are forced to think outside of the box as to how long things exist! The title also alludes to a sense of history; the term 'Light from old stars' can be taken as a metaphor of taking musical traditions from the greats, whether that's the older generation of this country or historic American and African music, and incorporating them into my own music. It's not a record about science directly, but more based around a sense of wonder and a sense of something bigger than that which we can comprehend.

Moving on to the music itself, there seems to be a lot more blues influence than in your previous work?

Yeah, I guess I was listening to that music more when I made this new record than in previous years, and in a sense I think things like that tend to come out more than you expect... you are essentially a product of your musical tastes at the time. That said, there are tracks such as 'Skip James' from the first CD which utilize a language that I like to improvise with that's based largely around that form of music. I did, however, set out create an album that sounded like a mixture between a blues and a jazz album, especially because of the rough way in which we recorded it.

Track 3 Outlaws is probably my favourite track on the record and seems the most prominently blues influenced, can you explain how this track was conceived?

I really like Bill Frisell, I've been listening to him for a really long time, and for me he was a gateway into all of the old masters; so through him I really got into the music of 'Howlin Wolfe' which in combination with my like for 'Skip James' and 'Muddy Waters'. This particular track came from me buying a Frisell record entitled 'Good Dog Happy Man' and didn't start out very bluesy at all, the very opening of it was essentially what it was and was based around a hocket (a musical technique whereby you hold one note on instrument and progress through a melody using a different member of the ensemble for each note/phrase). 

Light From Old Stars contains some real hooks for listeners to 'Get their teeth into', but these are often interspersed between periods of dissonance or heavy improvisation, is this something that you do consciously or are these contrasts a natural byproduct of your compositional style?

Hopefully that is a natural part of assimilating what I like, I think that particular characteristic comes from both a love of songs that always have very melodic content, and also a love or Ornette Coleman and Paul Bley where everything is always melodic and even if the texture is very free it's always got a strong melodic element to it. I write so that even when those more improvised sections do come around there's still something melodic going through it, I try to imagine that the melodic thing never stops it just becomes more obvious when everything around it becomes more inward; I think what gives melodies meaning is tension and release so I believe that you need tension around it for the 'Bright to be bright'...pointless sentimental melodies on their own don't really say anything, you need that darkness around it to make the melody speak more.

Get The New Record Here

http://www.kitdownes.com/ 

Early indications suggest an aggressively composed collection of cacophony could be unleashed on the jazz circuit in June 2013.

http://www.worldserviceproject.co.uk/

The New Album Packshot From The Band

Produced and directed by American film maker Morgan Beringer, the ensemble's two videos to date have accumulated an impressive 22,000 collective youtube views and enjoyed extensive online attention. London based Beringer's videos often contain a more abstract, repetitive visual component set against a rhythmically solid piece of music; this creates a quintisstential hypnotic characteristic that pairs his work so perfectly to the music of 'Melt Yourself Down'.

So I'm presuming you want to watch them now...

Strangely enough, the press statement that accompanies the bands first video 'Fix My Life' suggests that you watch in a darkened room and NOT if you are adverse to strobe effects, a statement that I simply cannot better in terms of concisely prefacing a viewing. What I can suggest however is that you make the below videos full screen, plug your computer into your best speakers, and allow yourself to truly indulge in the hedonistic feast for the senses that is a 'Melt Yourself Down' video.

*Warning* Seriously though there are many many many strobes *Warning*

http://vimeo.com/morganism

http://meltyourselfdown.com/

Fix My Life

Release

José James

Earlier this week as I made my way into east London's 'The Shoreditch Butchery', home of the areas intrinsically on-trend XOYO, I couldn't help but smile wryly to myself. Granted, my facial muscles had already contorted into a grin following my conversation with The Guest List Guy; "Name?"... "Josh Jennings"... "Yep you're here, have a good night Josh", I can almost feel the inflated sense of self worth rushing back to me. The majority of my good mood however, had come at the realisation that the venue I had entered to watch a contemporary jazz/soul artist, had played host to me only two months prior at the album launch of major label sweethearts 'FOALS'. Needless to say it was nice to experience a first-hand example of jazz transcending genre divides and entering a more mainstream forum. My smile was short lived though... as I grabbed myself a drink (Coke with ice and a straw) and meandered down the stairwell into the venue, I soon realised that this was not the night for nonchalant smiling... I had to focus on exhibiting a surly demeanor, this crowd were really cool.

As the evening unfolded, the level of effort required not to be my usual slightly goofy, mockney-tinged self increased; A cocktail of wonderfully trendy crowd members, the sharply dressed José James (complete with shades for the first track) and the unrelenting strength of rhythm that persisted throughout the set meant that I was socially somewhat out of my depth... but musically I felt entirely at home.

The band, lead by the Brooklyn soul man, rattled through a series of infectious tunes from James' 2012 excursion 'No Beginning No End' as well as incorporating a series of riff based covers throughout. James' ability to direct his ensemble was striking, but perhaps even more impressive was his band's seemingly ever-present synchronicity with their front man's thought process. Like a true soul leader he signalled and instructed when he wanted something different dynamically, or alter the tone of his voice when a piece needed to 'Go somewhere', and everyone of his musicians would fall into line without question.

Complete with his own 21st century take on scat vocals, a scratching vinyl-esque vocal attribute, and one of the tightest ensembles on the circuit, José James is well worth checking out live... just be cooler than me.

http://josejamesmusic.com/

As the undoubted highlight of musical resurgence in 2013, David Bowie has re-invigorated the nations previously shelved interest in him with the release of last month's The Next Day. It seems relatively unsurprising that an artist estimated to have sold in excess of 140 million albums worldwide has caused such widespread excitement, but the announcement of the V&A's 2013 spring/summer 'David Bowie Is' exhibition cements him socially as one of the UK's great icons of popular culture.   

The exhibition features more than 300 objects including handwritten lyrics, original costumes, fashion, photography, film, music videos, set designs and Bowie's own instruments. Running since 23rd March and up until 11th August, it will also play host to Bowie inspired lectures, speeches and an exciting evening of free music from Parliamentary Jazz nominees 'Troyka'.

The London trio, which includes mercury nominated Kit Downes on organs, will be performing a number of tracks from across their two albums as well as incorporating a selection of well known Bowie riffs and motifs into improvised sections of the set. Entitled 'A Witty Blend', the performance will take place in the Rapahel Gallery and the characteristically sporadic music of Troyka promises to compliment the outlandish, extrovert past of the UK's premier glam-rock legend perfectly.

Date: Fri 19th April, 19:00

Admission: FREE

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/david-bowie-is/