Manchester Jazz Festival

Been looking at the Jazz Festival website to see what Jazz can be enjoyed this weekend. Graboschi is coming down 17th – 20th, (correction, WunderKind has bailed out like the backpedalling German he is, and we can enjoy the jazz without having to pretend we like him) and the rest of the MBS gang can make a weekend of it. A lot of it is nice and mostly free. So here’s a list of what we can look forward to:

Friday:

+ Festival Launch Party at The Deaf Institute
Starts: 8:00pm Price: £6 (adv.)/£8 on the door

Celebrate the opening of this year’s festival in conjunction with Freedom Principle and Sketch City with a feast for the ears. This selection of Mancunian urban jazz and DJs features loopy grooves from Cinematic Orchestra guitarist Stuart McCallum with guest flautist Finn Peters and vocalist Heidi Vogel; the up-and-coming, intense and energetic Chris Illingworth Trio; and experimental grooves from the 14-piece electronics-big band fusions of BPBB. Jazz, funk and world beats from DJs Ryan Hunn and Jonny Dub (Sketch City/Hoya:Hoya) top and tail the night.

Lineup:
Stuart McCallum
Chris Illingworth Trio
Beats & Pieces Big Band
DJs Ryan Hunn + Jonny Dub

Saturday:

+ Bossa Nouvelle at St. Ann’s Square
Starts: 12:00pm Price: free

Marking the 50th anniversary of the Bossa Nova, this specially-expanded line-up brings the sounds of Brazilian standards via Manchester, heralding a fresh, summery opening to this year’s St Ann’s stage gigs.

Lineup:
Suzanne Higgins – flute, tenor saxophone
Mike Davis – trumpet, flugelhorn
Andy Schofield – clarinet, alto saxophone
Jo McCallum – alto saxophone, bass clarinet
Alan Tokeley – French horn
Mike Walker – guitar
Les Chisnall – electric piano
Jake Newman – double bass, bass guitar
Steve Gilbert – drums
Bryan Hargreaves – percussion

+ John Ellis Band at St. Ann’s Square
Starts: 1:45pm Price: free

Sounds from West Africa and British folk music fuse with the jazz backgrounds of the players in the band, bringing new sounds and grooves to the party.

Lineup:
John Ellis – keyboards, vocals
Kenji Fenton – tenor saxophone, steel pans
Frank Grime – double bass
Rick Weedon – drums

+ 12twelve at St. Ann’s Square
Starts: 3:30pm Price: free

A refreshing, lively quartet from Barcelona influenced by the ‘free jazz’ of the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining features of contemporary music, psychedelia and electronic music. Their music displays both the restlessness and breadth of vision in the current Spanish independent music scene.

This performance is made possible with the generous support of Instituto Cervantes, Manchester.

Lineup:
Jens Neumaier – alto saxophone
Jaime Pantaleón – guitar
Javier García – double bass
José Roselló – drums, percussion, samples

+ Lunnetta Dean at City Inn Manchester
Starts: 5:30pm Price: free

Favourite Mancunian diva returns to mjf to set feet a-tapping, faces a-smiling and spines a-tingling – songs special to Doreen delivered with her warm, captivating and laid-back sensibility.

Lineup:
Doreen Edwards – vocals
George King – electric piano
Dave Tompkins – double bass

Sunday:

+ ‘Jazz – Manhattan to Manchester’: Photographs by William Ellis at The Bridgewater Hall
Starts: 12:55pm Price: free

William Ellis is recognised as one of the world’s leading jazz photographers. On view will be the largest presentation of jazz photography seen in the UK – over three hundred images from the Ellis archive will be projected and fifty photographs will be exhibited. On show until 3pm, Tuesday 22 July.

Presented by Gallery at The Cinnamon Club

+ Gareth Roberts Quintet at The Bridgewater Hall
Starts: 1:00pm Price: free

Based in Cardiff, this youthful band captures the driving energy of Charles Mingus and Horace Silver, fusing it with original compositions and elements of Welsh folksong.

Presented with the generous support of Jazz Services

Lineup:
Gareth Roberts – trombone
Gethin Liddington – trumpet
Paul Jones – piano
Chris O’Connor – double bass
Mark O’Connor – drums

+ Alcyona Mick Quintet at The Bridgewater Hall
Starts: 2:15pm Price: free

A graduate of the Birmingham Conservatoire, Alcyona’s playing and compositions amalgamate angular melodic lines and strong, block harmonies that reference both Lennie Tristano and Steve Reich; the resultant band sound is energetic and punchy.

Presented with the generous support of Jazz Services

Lineup:
Alcyona Mick – piano
Robbie Robson – trumpet
Mark Hanslip – tenor saxophone
Steve Watts – double bass
Paul Clarvis – drums

+ Free Spirits at The Bridgewater Hall
Starts: 3:30pm Price: free

Hailing from the North East, this exploratory ensemble brings together four virtuoso musicians from the world of jazz, rock, folk and classical Indian music to explore and expand the boundaries of Eastern and Western musical cultures. Spacious and evocative music that builds in momentum.

Presented with the generous support of Jazz Services

Lineup:
Lewis Watson – soprano and tenor saxophone
Dharambir Singh – sitar
Neil Harland – double bass, bass guitar
Bhupinder Singh Chaggar – tabla, electric percussion

+ Festival Jam Session at Matt & Phred’s Jazz Club
Starts: 9:00pm Price: free

All jazz musicians are welcome to bring their assorted horns, axes and Hobson’s choices to join in the fun. Saxophonist Ed Kainyek leads tonight’s house band.

Presented in association with Matt & Phred’s

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by naz on 15 July, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by naz on 15 July, 2008

https://nazmania.co.uk/2008/07/15/manchester/

Perspective

It was thought that what differentiated man from beast was the ability to see things from another being’s perspective. This has proved not to be the case (see: Signs of empathy seen in mice)

I think what differentiates man from beast is the desire to make another being see from one’s own perspective.

Do you understand what I mean? Did you get it?

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by naz on 11 July, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by naz on 11 July, 2008

https://nazmania.co.uk/2008/07/11/perspective/

Comments

I stumbled across a link to a story in The Telegraph online travel section titled “Creation Museum: Among the believers”. The author describes his experience in an American museum in Kentucky taking a creationist rather than evolutionist view of history.

You might expect me to write a serious post on the absurdity of those ‘Mericans.

However, as I’ve mentioned before, I just love the comments to articles that are bound to polarise opinions. Examples to follow speak volumes:

…does the museum explain just where… in the middle of the palistine desert… noah got a penguin..??

In a state park in Texas, near Glenrose, there are dino tracks with human foot prints in the dino tracks, in an ancient riverbed. So Humans did not exsist with dinos? Most evos never want to talk about this evidence! Wonder why?

Schnoopy,i bet you have outdone yourself, you must be proud…you have succeded in making the beauty of christianity into a zombie horror movie…..i must say its quite a feat… but all said and done and admitting that i can’t compete with your sensibility, i must result to the age old truth, that after hating Him and crucifying Him with your words, making him into a zombie.He created you and he still loves you deeply.IT WAS BECAUSE YOU HE PRAYED ON THE CROSS AND SAID FATHER FORGIVE THEM FOR THEY KNOW WHAT THEY DO… “and SAY”…. LORD HAVE MERCY!!!

Wow the creationist have used such logic and well thought out arguments that I can see no way around their truths–I now believe Xenu loves us all.

D Burt (09:07 PM) said

“In a state park in Texas, near Glenrose, there are dino tracks with human foot prints in the dino tracks, in an ancient riverbed. … Most evos never want to talk about this evidence! Wonder why?”

See http://paleo.cc/paluxy/paluxy.htm for the answer to this question.

The “human footprints” are nothing of the kind. As the site says … “A few individuals continue to promote the Paluxy “man tracks” … but such claims are not considered credible by either mainstream scientists or major creationist groups.”

Where did Noah keep the termites?
If he only took two of each species, how did he feed the carnivores?
What about marsupials? Isn’ it strange they are not mentioned at all, even though they must have been a very unfamiliar sight in that region?
What about Rimpelstiltskin? Why wasn’t he in the story? Do you worship him? I mean, you do like fairy tales.

What a depressing debate! Re-running the debates of the 19th century in the 21st doesn’t seem likely to generate a whole lot of new insight.

The much more interesting question left hanging by the original article is why so many people (whatever the numbers really are) persist in believing the stuff presented at this “museum”.

I am shocked by the rudeness and intolerance displayed by evolutionists against christians in these posts. Evolution is definitely not a harmless theory. The Nazi’s used it to justify the extermination of the Jews. Abortion and euthanasia are all practical outcomes from its ‘survival of the fittest’ law and, as you can see from the posts, it produces an intolerance in those who hold to it today. Whereas the christian message is that we should protect the weak and the vulnerable. The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.

The rather intolerant Darwinists in the UK postng here are living in a society that is apparently ready to accept incredibly backward and intolerant circa 7th Century Sharia law. Enjoy.

“Evolution is definitely not a harmless theory.”

Neither is religion.

“The Nazi’s used it to justify the extermination of the Jews.”

And what has religion been used to justify?

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by naz on 5 July, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by naz on 5 July, 2008

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Death visits a squirrel

Woke up to a nice sunny morning today. Left home whistling, saw a fearless little squirrel munching on fallen stuff outside my home, said hello to him, went and waited at the busstop, saw the squirrel jump out on to the middle of the road, saw the taxi car racing down the road, saw him hit the brakes and horn, saw the front wheels miss the squirrel, saw him jump to escape from under the car, saw the back wheel roll him.

How things can change in seconds.

It was still flopping about and I stood there thinking, “Do I go over and stomp on it, or shall I find a brick or something; what do I do?” I couldn’t, and still can’t believe with my “worldliness” how shocked I felt.

Then the bus came, I got on and looked out the window. It had stopped moving and there was a pool of blood around its head.

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by naz on 4 July, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by naz on 4 July, 2008

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Denmark v Zimbabwe

Denmark is officially the world’s happiest country.

Zimbabwe, torn by political and social strife, is the least happy.

According to the director of the study Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan:

“I strongly suspect that there is a strong correlation between peace and happiness”

I strongly suspect this man is a genius for deducing that.

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by naz on 3 July, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by naz on 3 July, 2008

https://nazmania.co.uk/2008/07/03/denmark-v-zimbabwe/

Cloverfield

Ok, saw the film, definitely not going to buy the t-shirt.

What is it with these fucking bi-pedal slavering mutant monsters attacking New York but not finishing it off?

The whole pic is about Godzilla(tm) giving birth to little Aliens(tm), shot from a Handycam(tm) by a person who has no reason to be at the scene, in fact has every reason not to be at the scene, and who, although fortuitously catching almost all the action on video also manages to give a running commentary of what is happening off-camera even as monstrous-jawed Godzillitas are running around on the ceilings and nibbling on his gonads.

I seriously didn’t buy in to that belief system, and a pathetic use of Deus ex-machina of a sort I thought.

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by naz on 2 July, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by naz on 2 July, 2008

https://nazmania.co.uk/2008/07/02/c/

Fiction better than fact

Ok, catching up on the weekend: Went snowboarding with Tech guys from work and others to Chill Factor on Saturday, had a spicy chicken enchillada with 3 Dos Equis. Off to Ioannis’ for a quick change and then out to the Saints and Scholars in Didsbury. More beer, then caught up with everyone in the Pitcher & Piano. From there we headed off to La Tasca for Hannah’s birthday meal, where we had mixed tapas, beers and wine before heading off to Mojo’s. Met up with more people there before heading off to Sugar Lounge. We ended the night dancing in Copacabana.

Phew.

Football was great yesterday, Pareto got beat 7-0 and I got a nasty scrape on my knee. Went home to catch Murray beating Pasquel/Gasquet/Rasquel or some similarly named Frenchie in a thrilling 5 set match. Tried to watch Cloverfield but was too damn knackered.

In this weeks New Scientist I see an aticle called ‘The Science of Ficion’ that says “…reading novels isn’t just entertaining, it helps you navigate the complex social world. It reminded me of an old sci-fi compilation book I have which has the story ‘The Saturn Game’ by Poul Andersen. It explores the repercussions of active imaginations by talking about people creating imaginary game scenarios when idle for long periods, such as the time it takes an interplantary vessel to reach Saturn perhaps?

Interesting.

I’ve always tried to read some of the “classics” to get an education (following the BBC’s Big Read Top 100 list) and rate my prodigious sci-fi reading as just entertainment. This research has turned that theory upside down!

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by naz on 1 July, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by naz on 1 July, 2008

https://nazmania.co.uk/2008/07/01/fiction-better-than-fact/

Lies and videotape

As a kid I used to cycle out to libraries to rent videos for the family. There was one movie on the shelves called “Sex, lies and videotape” that always caught my eye, but the 18 certificate meant I couldn’t rent it. That movie title really teased me all my youth.

So imagine my disappointment when I watched it over the weekend. It was just “Lies and videotape”.

Note to self: Any adult movie around when I was a kid will not live up to the expectations.

This James Spader fella also seems to be in a lot of oddball movies. He was in Crash, and in Secretary. Looking on imdb.com I see he’s been in The Rachel Papers as well, but not as Charles Highway.

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by naz on 30 June, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by naz on 30 June, 2008

https://nazmania.co.uk/2008/06/30/lies-and-videotape/

Spam update

Received this. Nuff said.

Stalin took this pills two times per day before food.
Big Ben in London will seem not so big in front of you.

the next day:

One of our Directors sent this in this entry for the competition:

“Harry Potter loves hottie lover, who loves mighty shocker poker.”

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by naz on 26 June, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by naz on 26 June, 2008

https://nazmania.co.uk/2008/06/26/spam-update/

Well that’ll learn ‘im!

On the bus this morning like every morning I was reading the Metro’s Letters to the Editor pages. They are a source of great amusement to me, and I belive there are no persons with a higher degree of genuine moral outrage at life’s little foibles than the persons who write these letters.

Anyway, two of the letters of genuine moral outrage published were concerning Robert Mugabe; more specifically the lack of UK and global action to castigate him.

Imagine then how pleased I was when, on arriving at work, I saw the news that Zimbabwe is indeed about to face a ban from a joint England and Wales board. Specifically the England and Wales Cricket Board. This action was prompted by the withdrawal of Cricket South Africa from games committments.

What a remarkable display of multinational solidarity by such powerful and respected bodies in condemnation of the atrocious acts of barbarianism like torture, rape and murder orchestrated by Mugabe and conducted by his henchmen. Yes, you heard it. We won’t play cricket with you.

That’ll learn ‘im!!

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by naz on 25 June, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by naz on 25 June, 2008

https://nazmania.co.uk/2008/06/25/well-that-showed-him/

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