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| In Two Parts | ||||
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Mark Lockheart: Imaginary
Dances
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More soundfiles below. Buy the CD over a secure credit card line: Mark Lockheart: Imaginary
Dances |
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| Mark Lockheart: Imaginary Dances | |
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"IMAGINARY DANCES" is the second album by Mark Lockheart & his 11 piece Scratch Band. This is the eagerly awaited follow-up to his critically acclaimed first album, "Through Rose-Coloured Glasses" released in 1998 - one of Time Out critic John Lewis's "top ten albums of 1998". This album was based on compositions written after being awarded the Peter Whittingham Award for composition in 1997. Marks new album "IMAGINARY DANCES" again features the Scratch Band and is an ambitious tour de force ranging from symphonic epics to tender duets. This is a mature album from a writer who is rapidly propelling himself to the forefront of UK jazz composers. Mark Lockheart is a well respected player on the UK & European jazz scene having played & recorded with many of the UK's leading artists. He first came to prominence in the 1980's with seminal UK big band Loose Tubes (one album produced by Miles Davis' producer Teo Macero). Since then |
he's been a regular member of Django Bates' Delightful Precipice as well as forming his own band Perfect Houseplants which has so far released 5 albums. These have included an album (with a second due next year) with the Orlando Consort - "a blend of medieval church music with contemporary jazz and eastern rhythms to create a new soundscape of original music" Mark currently also plays in John Parricelli's band & new young lions of the London scene Polar Bear. His past associations include Billy Jenkins & Annie Whitehead. Mark has also contributed to many pop sessions including Radiohead. Robert Wyatt, Jah Wobble, June Tabor & Prefab Sprout. He also plays in the Roger Beaujolais Quintet & Vibraphonic. Produced & arranged by Mark Lockheart, "IMAGINARY DANCES" was released March 2002 on StayTuned Records. More information about Mark can be found on his website at www.marklockheart.co.uk & the Perfect Houseplants website at www.perfecthouseplants.com |
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Mark
Lockheart: Imaginary Dances Released March 2002. Catalogue No. ST 004 |
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All tunes written by Mark Lockheart. |
Featuring: Richard Henry: bass trombone Jim Rattigan: french horn Produced & arranged by Mark Lockheart. Catalogue No. ST 004. |
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| Reviews | |
| From The Guardian
May 2nd 2000 by John Fordham:
World music is becoming ever more prominent at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival. The influence of world music was most strongly felt this year in the Scratch Band, led by former Loose Tubes saxophonist Mark Lockheart. The eight -part festival commission he composed for this group bore some telltale Loose Tubes signs. It featured abrupt tempo changes; folksy, busy counter-melodies under lurching jazzy horn lines; and a blend of the bluesy and the rustic. But it also marked the maturing of Lockheart as an ambitious composer. The suite was a compelling melange and had Tubesy clamour; dark, urgent bass ostinatatos with fast, car-chase horn themes on top; long brass fanfares reminiscent of Mike Gibbs and Carla Bley. In Rowland Sutherland, pianist Huw Warren, saxophonist Rob Townsend and Lockheart himself, the band has improvisers of real character. From The Times May 2nd 2000 by Alyn Shipton It took three movements of Mark Lockhearts new festival commission for a four-beat rhythm to turn up, as the first two of the eight dances for his 11-piece Scratch Band were written in six and three respectively. Lockheart's inventive writing was matched by his strong team of well-rehearsed players, built around the core of his regular band Perfect Houseplants. Most effective was the slow movement "From Another Time" where the brass section contrasted with reeds, guitar and piano. From Mojo April 2002 Saxist Mark Lockheart has done much striking work with quartet Perfect Houseplants in the past decade, but on Imaginary Dances his restless ingenuity (almost Zappa-esque in places) is given wing by a superb 10-piece band. With a huge stylistic and emotional range, Lockheart's music is contemporary and compelling. |
From The Observer April 2002 by Dave Gelly From Jazz UK April 2002 This album is expansive in scope, yet pays
careful attention to detail. One is struck by the immediacy of the tunes
and the fertility of ideas. Rapid changes of mood and pace create a constant
sense of surprise. Capital of the World, which disrupts a gliding samba
with punchy, dramatic riffs, is typically packed with incident. Other
pieces emulate the dash and elegance of dance (Fred Astaire and Busby
Berkeley are both honoured with tunes) with quirky transcendent themes,
or glow with gentle lyricism. From Jazz Review May 2002 The music slides in upon you with a mixture of imagination and craftsmanship that is irresistible. Lockheart's writing demands plenty of the musicians and equally, deserves the concentration of the listener. For while these pieces are overwhelmingly compositional, little themes and figures emerge unexpectedly from the score in a way that suggests improvisation, instant flickers of ideas which seem to keep their immediacy on the sheet. From The Times April 2002 Imaginary Dances is full of skittering rhythms and stabbing brass and even a tender soprano-piano duet. The arrangements are inspired and imaginative and doubtless the band is a glorious racket live. |
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