Joe Browne - Waitrose Kings Cross

Joe Browne

Joe Browne - saxophone
John Williamson - bass
Mat Skeaping - drums

Waitrose, Granary Square, Kings Cross, London

9th January 2020

John Williamson - bass

Customers at Waitrose Kings Cross are treated to a free jazz concert every Thursday night. The London Granary Square store is part of a recent re-development of the area next to the Regent’s Canal. The store (a converted railway engine-shed) is a meeting point for listeners warming up their evening with a cheeky Chablis or fiery Barbera before reaching out into London's nightlife.

Mat Skeaping

Joe Browne is a saxophonist, composer and educator based in London. After completing a degree in Music and English, he continued to study jazz saxophone as a postgraduate at Birmingham Conservatoire and Berklee College of Music in Boston. During this period he was lucky enough to learn from some great saxophone players on both sides of the Atlantic, including Julian Siegel, Jean Toussaint and Joe Lovano.  On returning from the US he settled in London where he now works as a musician and educator. As well as a healthy schedule as a sideman in various jazz, pop and classical ensembles, his own group, Last Summer’s Tealights, can regularly be heard at venues across London and beyond.

The Balagan Café Band - Album launch

Christian Miller

The Balagan Café Band
Christian Miller - guitar
Shirley Smart - Cello
Richard Jones - violin
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Joe Browne - saxophone
Alice Zawadzki - voice
Mike Guy - accordion

Date - 23rd March 2018
Venue - The Green Note, Camden, London, UK
Current album - The Balagan Café Band (F-IRE 2018)

Mike Guy

Future performance
3rd May 2018 - Inventions and Dimensions, Kingston-upon-Thames, UK
13th May 2018 - Southampton Modern Jazz Club, UK
18th May 2018 - Paxton Centre, Paxton Arms Hotel, SE19 2AE, UK

The Balagan Cafe Band launched their debut album in the atmospheric candlelight of the Green Note in Camden this week. The trio draw inspiration from a broad range of feisty cultures around the world but are very much grounded here in London. There is a zesty pleasure in their music, a liveliness that sparks with passion and intelligence. Special guests included Joe Browne (soprano saxophone), Alice Zawadzki (vocals) and Mike Guy (accordion).

Joe Browne

An eclectic new project, this group combines the worlds of jazz, world music and classical, featuring the intimate chamber instrumentation of violin, guitar, cello and accordion and an elegant yet fiery fusion of improvisation and written music. Ranging from Parisian and American Jazz, the Chaabi music of Algeria, Tango from Argentina, Balkan folk melodies through to the early modern and folk music of Western Europe, Balagan fuses these threads into a coherent and characteristic sound world.​

‘…this is music for the ears, heart and feet.’

Alice Zawadzki

The past couple of years have seen the band perform at venues including the Elgar Room, Omnibus and National Portrait Gallery to enthusiastic public responses. The ensemble features some of the UK’s most versatile and capable artists.

Having traded Astronomy for jazz, Christian Miller has played guitar with the broadest possible spectrum of UK jazz musicians – including Heidi Vogel, Mike Mondesir, Adrian Cox, Alex Garnett and Nigel Price, as well New York swing scene favourite Gordon Webster. Equally at home on electric and acoustic instruments, his current projects include Kit Massey’s Hot Club of Jupiter, the Southside Gypsy Trio and his own trio and quartets playing modern and contemporary jazz.

Richard Jones

Richard Jones is a dynamic, exciting young British musician who strives to forge and unearth musical collaborations between a wide range of musical contexts. Since completing his Masters studies at the Guildhall, he has immersed himself in the London music scene and has found a seat within a plethora of different bands. Far removing the violin from the orchestral setting, he delves into rock, folk, world music and jazz to find his sounds. Already, Richard has had the pleasure of working with a host of renowned musicians, including Nicolas Meier, Audrey Riley, Robert Mitchell, Alex Hutton and Christine Tobin.

Shirley Smart

After 10 years living in Jerusalem, Shirley Smart now lives in London, where she has quickly established herself on the jazz and world music scenes. She has performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Yasmin Levy, Neil Cowley, Gilad Atzmon, Antonio Forcione, Shekoyokh, Kosmos, London Klezmer Quartet, Avishai Cohen, Omer Avital, Sabreen, Ross Daly, Arun Ghosh, Alice Zawadski, Maurizio Minardi, Sefiroth Ensemble and Partikel as well as leading her own projects, including North African and Middle Eastern group the Melange Collective. She also performs on releases by singer Alice Zawadski on Whirlwind label, and Maurizio Minardi’s Piano Ambulance.

Shirley Smart - Melange

Shirley Smart - Cello

Sometimes a group of musicians suit their venue so well it makes the evening all the more powerful. The faded glory and peeling walls of Wilton's Music Hall played host to the flavoursome music of Melange last month (20/06/2014). Wait a minute, this 7 piece group are neither fading in their talents nor afflicted with shabbiness. It was the earthy and rooted quality of their music that sat so wonderfully at Wilton's. The grade II listed building was built in 1859 and understandably still wears it scars. It has a pock marked honesty that interior decorators often try to imitate but everything on show here had authenticity.

Like their surroundings the Melange Collective have gathered their music and narratives through an equally interesting journey. Formed by cellist Shirley Smart after returning from 10 years living, working and studying in Jerusalem they blend music from North  Africa, Turkey, Asia, Brazil and the Middle East anmongst other

Stefanos Tsourelis - Oud

Despite Smart taking centre stage it was Stefanos Tsourelis who immediately caught the eye with his oud. It is my job to translate what I hear to the sketchbook and before me was the musical equivalent. The sound of Tsourelis' pear shaped palette was light and colourful, more watercolour but with the occasional charcoal swipe. His pursed lips also gave him the air of a painter who, standing back from his canvas, squints his eyes to admire his handiwork.

Peter Michaels - Guitar

The stage lighting shot off the guitar of Peter Michaels as if he were being baked under the midday sun or trying to send Morse code via signal mirror. On his Bulgarian yogurt inspired tune his playing was fractious and bubbling. His head was bowed with the memory of the after-effects of eating the aforementioned bacterially fermented milk product.

One of the delights of this performance was the interaction between Shirley Smart and her fellow collective members. Amongst Michaels whirls and slides she was messy in the most seductive of ways. We picked through her repertoire as though she had spread it out on her bedroom floor, exotic coloured scarfs churned with postcards. There was intricate jewellery and a rich but pungent layer of foreign detritus like a gap-year student who had just returned from 6 months InterRailing. It was a delight to pick through her Turkish souvenirs in particular.

Maurizio Minardi - Accordion

Like any good collective, Melange were only as good as the sum of their parts. Lets kick fair play into the long grass though, we didn't hear enough of Maurizio Minardi. His 'This is not a Rhumba' was one of the tunes that the rest of the evening pivoted around. Wilton's Hall was so busy that I viewed just a flank of the dynamic accordionist, and amongst the further tunes we tasted his talents but were never sated.

Joe Browne - Saxophone

Joe Browne featured on selected tunes throughout the evening and he made up for his absences with a spirited performance when he did step into the spotlight. He blowed hard and fervent on soprano saxophone in particular, often his face turned a scorching puce, the commitment to the cause evident even to those in the rear seats.

Often second sets can be a disappointment after a successful first but Melange came back stronger. Michele Montolli bowing on bass, his resonance filling the high ceilinged hall. The tension as Demi Garcia Sabat worked up a lather on percussion and those glasses which slid closer and closer to the end of his nose. Fortunately never falling into his lap.

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The oud with its throaty beginning was conversational on the Iraqi tune 'Foq El-Nakhal' and Stefanos Tsourelis brought to it a humour that was thoughtful and dare I say (without sounding pretentious) philosophical. It was the playful jousting between Michaels and Minardi that brought the most joy. They teased one another with affection, like two old friends.

Demi Garcia Sabat - Percussion

Relationships were the theme for the night, of the future and the past, east and west and that between music and the atmospheric hall it flourished in. The mind and the hand which guided my pencil were happy bedfellows too. Both eye and ear would like to experience the richness of Melange again, and so shall I, for where they go I shall follow.

AL.