Patrick Cornelius - 606 AA Milne

Patrick Cornelius

Nick Vayenas

Patrick Cornelius - saxophone
Nick Vayenas - trombone
Alex Garnett - sax/clarinet
Andre Canniere - trumpet
Phil Robson - guitar
Steve Hamilton - piano
Andrew Bain - drums
Michael Janisch - bass.

Andre Canniere

Date - 8th February 2016
Venue - 606 Club, London
Current Album - While We're Still Young



 The UK CD launch of Patrick  Cornelius' "While We're Still Young," his suite for octet with songs inspired by the children's poetry of A.A. Milne, performed by a Anglo-American 8 piece band.

Cornelius' latest project is inspired by the book “When We Were Very Young” a collection of poetry written by AA Milne, the English author best known for the beloved children’s book “Winnie the Pooh”. The title of the project is “While We’re Still Young”, a title that, while similar, evokes a  bittersweet flavour.

Michael Janisch

Patrick Cornelius originally thought that he was going to be writing this suite for his children. He regularly read to his daughter Isabella from "When We Were Very Young". He assumed perhaps with unrealistic altruism that this project would be a musical homage that Isabella and her brother would someday listen to with wonder and appreciation, but as he got into the actual writing, he realized that the idea of creating this music for his kids was a vain fantasy.
 

Phil Robson

Cornelius said, "I wrote for my own childhood; remembering the wonder and spectacle of exploring our big, scary, beautiful world through new eyes. I also wrote for my music influences. For Ellington, Debussy, Evans, and Shorter, yes, but also for my peers; the wealth of talent that exists in the creative music world today, many of which I actually hired to record the music with me." Patrick Cornelius

Andrew Bain

He revels in the bittersweet step between innocence and wisdom. Despite having left the magic and fury of youth in his wake, both personally and musically, Patrick Cornelius finds himself as a parent discovering AA Milne's work again and igniting that spark of that wonder. The message of "While We're Still Young" is that we should all search for that flame of innocent joy in our own lives, remember that feeling of wonder, and try to nurture it as best we can, no matter what our age or life circumstance. 

Alex Garnett

"While We're Still Young" swells the belly in a very English affair, epitomised by 'The Invaders' which is as ripe and dripping as a Vale Of Evesham orchard. It is the rich stain of a summer pudding, the cheap white bread on the outside is slowly discoloured by the rising pink of burgeoning fruit. As the seeping fruit paints its shades of chapped hands to rope burns it finally rests on the lurid bleed of unforgettable sunsets. Don't forget the cream, the double cream, so pure and rich that it can only be balanced by the smarting twang of sour currants, reminding us of the mercurial English summer.

AL.

Steve Hamilton

 

Alex Garnett Bunch of Five

Alex Garnett

Alex Garnett Bunch of Five
Alex Garnett – tenor sax & compositions
Tim Armacost – tenor sax
Ross Stanley – piano
Michael Janisch – double bass
Andrew Bain – drums


Michael Janisch

Date - 22nd November 2015
Venue - Pizza Express Jazz Club, Dean St, Soho, London, UK.
Current Album - Andromeda (Whirlwind Recordings)

Ross Stanley

Hear him playing - Alex can be found in the depths of Soho at Ronnie Scott’s every Monday and Tuesday night for his weekly late-late show residency, when not on the road.

Raconteur Alex Garnett with his trim London/NYC five piece punch-in at the London Jazz Festival 2015.

Roundabouts and swings, never Fragonard nor My Fair Lady but those grubby shiny seats we love so dearly on this grimy isle. Wiping the dew, rain or damp off with a sleeve as the very British wind of Alex Garnett buffets us. There is a respect for our lead man, he is the big brother you always secretly yearned for with funny stories and an adoration that may well be unattainable.



Andrew Bain

Self depreciation is one of Alex Garnett's arts and that of Camp comic, not the effeminate kind but that of Hi-De-Hi, even the moustache would at first make you think of Clark Gable but it is Paul Shane that lingers in the mind.

Holmes - Happy chickens and steel-plated cats, Fritz get my coat! The happiness in not being superhuman but just a glorious fallible human, the happiness of the everyday, the happiness of you and me. Andrew Bain and Ross Stanley get you out of bed in the morning more quickly than a short circuiting Breville Teasmade. Tim Armacost is curiosity itself, evoking the spirit of playing in the street (whether imagined or real), fingers in dirty holes, young boy zeal and grubby knees.

Tim Armacost

Wipe away the silly string that Alex Garnett squirts in our eyes with his introductory patter and we see that here is a man of depth and poignancy. Dracula's Lullaby is a good example, it smears the actor's greasepaint to reveal a laid back Christopher Lee, a soporific villain relaxing with whiskey in hand.

You feel part of the bunch, the five swell to include the wider audience and we are all conspirators in the tune Delusions of Grandma. The gangs all here, hear, here she is legs swinging, bingeing, laughing, crying, meowing, one hand, no hands, hand me downs, pass the hammer Jack, on your back Jack. We are the gang to entertain you.

AL.

Patrick Cornelius - Infinite Whirlwind

Patrick Cornelius - Alto saxophone

Patrick Cornelius got the last day (12/10/2013) of the Whirlwind Festival underway for me at King's Place. Arriving in a state of disarray after being pressed into action for one of London's Big Draw events, his quintet had an immediate calming effect. In fact I felt at home, here was a concert revolving around Cornelius' second album, Infinite Blue, and taking its title from a crayon no less.

Jason Rebello - Piano

Patrick Cornelius has a disarmingly unassuming demeanour yet he must possess a cohesive personality that builds a group around himself rather than play the despot. Looking every inch an old fashioned bank manager, bespectacled and tidy he brought his fellow players together with performance and composition.

Jason Rebello challenges preconceptions too, I had been banned from looking at his publicity photos for years by my mother. With a wild intense stare that reached beyond poster and flyer, I would have nightmares that Rebello had the power of ESP and telekinesis.

Michael Janisch - bass

Upon reading in John Chilton's "who's who" that he had entered a Buddhist Temple to hone his intense meditation skills I feared he might explode my head from 50 paces if our eyes ever locked. Of course totally unfounded, he looked absolutely approachable and yes there was an intensity to his playing but a buoyancy too.

Nick Vayenas - Trombone

"The Incident" wound every one up, audience and musicians alike. The hatless Michael Janisch giving way to Whirlwind Festival favourite Nick Vayenas, playing as crisply as his starched white shirt. Andrew Bain's nostrils flared wider than an asthmatic maori as he got involved too. It was the next tune "My Green Tara" that brought the performance of the set, the aforementioned Rebello producing a breath-taking turn. Delicate and balanced it described a shifting light that alternated between the opaque and transparent. Between these two planes I was caught like a fly in amber.

Andrew Bain - drums

The stillness of "In the Quiet Moments" was timely before the final "Regents Street" but I was still trapped in the resinous aspic of Jason Rebello's performance and his stare as the band took a bow in response to the audience's applause. My head didn't explode of course, well not through any Jedi mind tricks anyway, just good old fashioned music.

AL.

New Focus - Whirlwind Uplift



Konrad Wiszniewski - saxophone

Fresh and bright the New Focus project heralded the halfway point (11/10/2013) of the Whirlwind Festival at King's Place. After the audience had already devoured a plump meal of rich Jazz, they were in dire need of a cleansing breeze to reawaken their musical taste buds. Amongst the traditional quartet of sax, bass, piano and drums were the green shoots of violins, viola, cello and harp to give the crowd the chance of revival.

Euan Stevenson - piano

Playing from the their self titled debut album, we were immediately cast into a different landscape from the one we had trodden so far. The strings widened our blinkered perspectives to enable us see the horizon line rather than that which had previously been thrust in our laps. In poetic terms a chance to close the eyes and dream a little.

There was no chance of flying blind of course with a busy stage full of personalities and a short sandwiched set to negotiate. Front man Konrad Wiszniewski took the eye at centre stage but it was his writing and composition that left its mark rather than his stage prowess, except on their fourth tune "Music for a Northern Mining Town" when on soprano saxophone he was memorable. With more than just an echo in title with Basil Kirchin's "Abstractions of the Industrial North", there was a pastoral sound to this gritty theme, opening with Harp and then transporting us into expansive worlds.
New Focus' music helped us wander their set like a punter lost in the corridors of an arts cinema, opening doors onto imaginary letterboxed views.

Michael Janisch - Bass

None more cinematic than "El Paraiso" which started with a throaty jungle call from Michael Janisch on bass, rich and thick until the cello raised us into its lush canopy before the violins and viola dropped their threads of silk down with spidery dexterity.

Andrew Bain - Drums

Unfortunately I was stuck in my seat with only a view of Euan Stevenson's back, the hall was clearly filling up and spaces were more at a premium. I did however find myself attracted to the characterful Andrew Bain on drums in compensation. Difficult to capture but worth persevering with, he is a chomper, his mouth continually air biting as if he was a rabbit with a vitamin A deficiency.

It was an epic Finale with the penultimate "Dziadzio" juxtaposing a smiling Janisch, who was clearly enjoying himself, with a song that was a pinball of sadness and want.
The last tune "Parson's Green" with its chugging arrival like a underground train of ancient rolling stock, gave Stevenson's piano and Bains' drums the chance to shine after the introduction from the Harp's sweet levity.

Uplifting.

AL.