Rowley Gallery Blog
Stop motion animation by Ainslie Henderson in collaboration with Poppy Ackroyd.
“Poppy would send separate ‘stems’ — that’s where the film got its name — of each track of music. I would make characters and instruments that looked like they might make each of the sounds she’d given me and we’d go from there.”
I first knew Geri Allen when she played with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian. She was referred to then as the new Keith Jarrett, a lazy comparison just because he also played with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian. But she always played her own piano. She and Charlie and Paul made some great albums together, all three of them now sadly departed, and then I discovered this performance with Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette from 1993. And I’m so glad it exists, she is absolutely radiant, she shines with confidence and generosity and beauty. Play it again and again. For Geri Allen, 1957-2017.
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If you liked this you might also like to see – Perfection.
00:20 I Wish I Knew 08:50 If I Should Lose You / Late Lament 28:25 Rider 42:20 It’s Easy To Remember 50:10 So Tender 1:02:40 Prism 1:17:18 Stella By Starlight 1:27:50 God Bless The Child 1:44:50 Delaunay’s Dilemma – Koseinenkin Hall, Tokyo, 1985.
Prompted by the previous post, I was reminded of Keith Jarrett (there’s a live recording of him playing Still Life, Still Life, a lovely free-form ballad from 1973 at The Village Vanguard in New York with Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian) so I went searching for concert videos. I couldn’t find Still Life, Still Life but I found two beautiful recordings of the Standards trio. Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette first recorded together in 1977 for an album of compositions by Gary Peacock called Tales Of Another. Six years later they came together again to record a set of “standards”, which proved so successful that the trio went on to make another 21 albums, most of them recorded live in concert at venues all around the world. Continue reading “Standards”
We drove to the horizon for breakfast. Campomoro was the most distant point visible from our terrace. We followed the winding coast road south from Propriano through Portigliolo and up to Belvedère then down to Campomoro for coffee at the beach café where we shared the last croissant. We were headed for the headland, the Pointe de Campomoro and its Genoese tower dated 1568. Continue reading “Campomoro”
One day I will finally get to Wistman’s Wood. It’s haunted me for years. But for now here’s a glimpse of it lost on Dartmoor. An arboreal oasis in a wet desert, a vestigial reminder of the temperate rainforest that once grew on this now sodden moorland. Continue reading “The Wet Desert”
A short film about Jonny Hannah, with thanks to the Heart Agency for allowing us to share it.
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Jonny Hannah / The Rowley Gallery
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If you enjoyed this you might like to see a few more of Jonny’s blogposts:
Ouvrez Les Fenêtres De Votre Coeur / The Darktown Turbo Taxi / Main Street / Jonny Hannah At Kensington Place / Jonny’s Jackets / La Mer / A Wee Book Of British Folklore / Mingus Says…
Eastern Moss is a nine panel painting by Brice Marden in nine variations of terre verte (green earth) pigment. It was the first painting we met when we visited his recent exhibition at Gagosian in London.
I kept putting the same colour on – the same colour, the same colour – but every time I put it on it was different. Each time it was this whole new light/colour experience. It was not a revelation, but a whole wonderful new experience… To me, it involves harnessing some of the powers of the earth. Harnessing and communicating. Continue reading “Terre Verte”
This is a curiosity. I had hoped I might find the World Saxophone Quartet but instead I got the Salaya Saxophone Ensemble & the NAFA Saxophone Quintet. I have never seen such a choir of saxophones; three sopranos, eleven altos, five tenors, three baritones and one bass… I want to be in that number.
David Murray is for me the undisputed king of the saxophone, the living, breathing, embodiment of the music. I’ve seen him many times, in small groups, big bands, but most memorably playing solo. He is a force of nature, and every time it seems like his saxophone is connected directly to my heart.
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This video is one of a series, The Lullaby Project, from Opera North.
Colin Stetson‘s breathtaking pump-it-up saxophone fuelled by apparently effortless circular breathing turning the instrument into an extension of the body like some kind of external hand-held bronchial tree summoning music in the shape of a transcendental endurance sport is quite a good warm-up act.