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Jonathan Gee
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Jonathan is one the most prolific and imaginative composer-pianists operating today, with a succession of ever-enticing bands and projects with world class line-ups from Europe and the USA. Aside from his own bands with which he has recorded 10 albums, he has also worked closely with Bobby Wellins, Claire Martin and Tim Whitehead, Pharoah Sanders, Mark Murphy and Art Farmer. With Tony Kofi he co-founded the Monk Liberation Front, whose legendary performances of the complete Thelonious Monk catalogue have led to award-winning recordings.
He has performed in groups comprised of leading musicians from France, Finland and Italy, and a fantastic trio emerging from the hothouse of the New York jazz scene featuring Joseph Lepore and Nasheet Waits which has packed out Dizzy’s at Lincoln Centre. All About Jazz’s John Corroto describes the “amazing communication between [the] players. Today, cutting-edge jazz trios require interaction between players and expect both drummer and bassist to be more than just disciples. Trio leaders such as Jason Moran, John Escreet, Matthew Shipp all write and perform their music as a three-way conversation. Add to that list, London-based pianist Jonathan Gee. Gee negotiates the track as if he is taking shorthand — hopping, skipping and jumping as he accelerates across the melody.” Mike Hobart, writing in the FT about Jonathan’s duo with the incomparable Mike Westbrook comments: “Then came the duet, it was something special. The two pianists swapped dissonance, embellished each other’s trills and thumps, and supported each other’s fancies. Westbrook rolled, Gee decorated with sensitivity, vigour and a gravelly voice.”
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Tony Kofi Quartet: Plays Monk
by Chris May
When it was first released in autumn 2004, Tony Kofi's Plays Monk: All Is Know (as it was then titled) was the saxophonist's first release as leader, a full thirteen years after his emergence with high-profile young Turks the Jazz Warriors. The album went on to win the BBC Jazz Awards Album Of The Year prize. To celebrate its approximate twentieth anniversary, Plays Monk has been released for the first time on vinyl, as a double album, alongside the rereleased ...
read moreOhisashiburi: Reimagining The Beatles
by Chris May
One might imagine that making an album of Lennon & McCartney covers is as easy as falling off the proverbial log. Not so. For starters, even if the listener has never bought a Beatles record in his or her life, they will have heard the songs countless times and boredom may have set in. More than that, singular as the Beatles' original material is when set against run-of-the-mill 1960s pop music, it is, when push comes to shove, still pop ...
read moreJonathan Gee: Dragonfly
by Mark Corroto
50 years ago, modern jazz piano trios would barely be recognizable to the majority of their counterparts--except perhaps Bill Evans' trio. Today, cutting-edge jazz trios require interaction between players and expect both drummer and bassist to be more than just disciples. Trio leaders such as Jason Moran, John Escreet, Matthew Shipp all write and perform their music as a three-way conversation. Add to that list, London-based pianist Jonathan Gee. Gee, a contributor to the UK scene with ...
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