Sandy Brown Jazz

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Jazz As Art

Mark Kavuma

Church

from the album Kavuma

When you listen to music, you sometimes conjure images in your mind. Our Jazz As Art series invites you to listen to a piece of jazz and as it plays, scroll down the page and see which of the pieces of art I have chosen comes closest to the pictures in your mind. Hopefully, this will introduce you to recordings and art works you might not have spent time with before.

Kavuma album

Trumpeter Mark Kavuma's debut album, Kavuma, released on the 15th June 2018 on the Ubuntu label is a real pleasure. Engineer and guitarist Jake Zaitz describes the band as resembling: ' .. the finest amalgam of classic '50s Blue Note and Prestige line ups. Perhaps what attracted them to jazz in the first place was the energy, vibe, blues, rhythm, gospel and emotions found on these influential sides" . 'Kavuma's music is original contemporary jazz with historical roots planted deep in American post-bop, blues and African rhythms'.

On this cut of the tune Church, many of these influences are present - marching band, tap dancing by Michela Marino Lerman to Conor Chaplin's bass, the African rhythms and joyful, post-bop solos.

Born and partly raised in Uganda, Mark Kavuma is a prominent young trumpet player on the British jazz scene, leading his own Quartet, the Floor Rippers house band and his main outfit The Banger Factory as well as playing with Jean Toussaint's Young Lions, Jazz Jamaica, Nu Civilisation Orchestra and also one of the brass leaders at London based carnival band Kinetika Bloco. In 2012 Mark was featured as guest soloist with Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra having been voted best soloist at the very first 'Essentially Ellington' competition in the UK. In 2016 Mark had another opportunity to play as guest soloist with Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra performing the Gershwin songbook at the Barbican, before resuming his studies at Trinity College of Music. He featured in Hoagy B Carmichael's production of 'This Joint Is Jumpin' at the Other Palace Theatre (2017) before starting to work on this debut album. (Hoagy B. Carmichael is Hoagy Carmichael's son).

Play the track and then scroll down to see ten paintings I have chosen to go with the music - (I think this only really works if you spend time with each painting) - and see which work for you.