Une couple d'articles...

...on a theme of French jazz.

The Jazz à Saint-Germain-Des-Prés festival happened in Paris back in May and my review is in this month's Jazzwise magazine (August 2010, the one with Phronesis on the cover), on page 59.

And my review of the Barbican's 'Django Drom' is on the LondonJazz blog.

But enough of the French. The Brit Jazz festival is at Ronnie Scott's from this Saturday and for the second half I'll be working as a writer in residence, with my reviews appearing on the club's site and the Jazzwise site. The line-up is outstanding.

Minnie Rip(p)erton, major typo

You know an artist is criminally overlooked when her own label can't even spell her name. I've just realised that I've mentally been adding a superfluous P to 'Minnie Riperton' on account of this glaring typo on my copy of her incredible 1970 album Come To My Garden. Give it a listen. Both Riperton and her producer Charles Stepney, pioneer of the 'chamber soul' sound, died too young (Riperton at 32, Stepney at 45) but they certainly left wonderful, strange, enriching music behind.

Paris Zoo

I'm back in London for the summer, but my full set of 'Paris Zoo' fake animal pictures, as alluded to a couple of posts ago, can be found here or here. Reports of any further sightings welcomed.