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John Law

John Law started classical piano aged four and performed first in public at six. After winning an Open Scholarship he studied piano and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, London, where he won prizes for piano playing. Despite then winning an Austrian government scholarship to study in Vienna with the pianist Badura-Skoda, and receiving encouragement from an early classical influence, pianist Alfred Brendel, he turned to jazz in 1986, forming his first group ATLAS, a mainly freely-improvising trio with Paul Rogers, bass and Mark Sanders, drums.

From 1986 to 1996 John concentrated more on the experimental end of jazz, particularly in his association with the South African drummer Louis Moholo, with the Jon Lloyd Quartet and with his own quartet. The John Law/Louis Moholo Duo recorded the acclaimed CD em>The Boat Is Sinking, Apartheid Is Sinking (Impetus 19322), appeared on British radio and toured extensively in the UK, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France and Canada, appearing at many major festivals. The Jon Lloyd Quartet appeared on British radio, made three acclaimed CDs, the last for Hat Hut called By Confusion, and played at festivals, including the 1995 FMP Festival, Berlin. With his own small groups John recorded and toured in the UK, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Russia, Lithuania and Belarus, including many festivals. A later quartet, formed 1993, with Paul Dunmall (saxophones), Barry Guy (double-bass) and Louis Moholo, called Extremely Quartet, toured the UK and appeared to great acclaim at the 1998 Nickelsdorf Festival, Austria. They released the CD Extremely Quartet (Hat Hut CD6199) in 1997. John was also involved occasionally during this period with the Evan Parker Quartet. One-off collaborations also included the Dedication Orchestra, a duo performance with the pianist Keith Tippett and a London Festival concert in a septet with David Murray and Chico Freeman.

While John Law was exploring the more radical and freely improvised areas of jazz he also began a series of solo CDs which were to lead him back to an exploration of his classical roots. The four-CD series Chants (Cornucopia, 1993), Talitha Cumi (FMR, 1994), Pentecost (FMR, 1996) and The Hours (FMR, 1997) Thanatos (FMR, 1997) was based on plainchant and, as well as jazz, explored the history and techniques associated with classical piano as well as introducing certain harmonic elements derived from early and mediaeval music. The CDs received outstanding reviews around the world. Concentrating on this music, John gave concerts in the UK in concert halls, churches and universities, and appeared at major festivals in London, Le Mans and Clusone.

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10
Album Review

John Law's Congregation: Configuration

Read "Configuration" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


John Law's Congregation is a quartet led by British pianist and composer Law and completed by three musicians from the UK jazz scene--James Mainwaring (Roller Trio), Ashley John Long and Billy Weir--who are part of what Brian Morton's sleeve notes calls the “new generation players." Law has been performing since the 1980s, releasing over 40 albums, some solo, others featuring a host of collaborators including Andy Sheppard, Asaf Sirkis and Tim Garland. Configuration is this quartet's first release ...

6
Multiple Reviews

John Law: The Re-Creations Trilogy

Read "John Law: The Re-Creations Trilogy" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard


John Law is one of the most prominent pianists on the British jazz scene and he is also a distinctive composer. So far, he has focused primarily on building a substantial compositional body of work, culminating in his ambitious Art of Sound tetralogy (33 Jazz, 2007-2009), followed by strong records like Three Leaps of the Gazelle (33 Jazz, 2012) and the double-album These Skies In Which We Rust (33extreme, 2015). However, Law's focus on refining his own ...

5
Album Review

John Law: Goldberg

Read "Goldberg" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard


J.S. Bach's The Goldberg Variations is one of the most famous works in the literature of the piano and an endless source of inspiration for pianist around the world -and not only classical pianists. Bach's music simply transcends genres and his ability to develop and sculpt variations on a theme remain unsurpassed. It is no coincidence that the legendary saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, himself a master in the art of thematic variation, deeply admired Bach. In the informative ...

30
Album Review

John Law / Yuri Goloubev / Asaf Sirkis: Three Leaps of the Gazelle

Read "Three Leaps of the Gazelle" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard


Making changes in a trio can be risky a thing. If there's a special chemistry in a group, the slightest change in the lineup could spoil the magic of the music. For years, pianist John Law has had an effective formula with his Art of Sound Trio, with drummer Asaf Sirkis and bassist Sam Burgess, but Three Leaps of the Gazelle announces a significant change: Burgess is replaced by bassist Yuri Goloubev, a virtuoso musician and an old acquaintance of ...

228
Live Review

John Law, Sam Burgess, and Asaf Sirkis at Norwich Arts Centre, UK

Read "John Law, Sam Burgess, and Asaf Sirkis at Norwich Arts Centre, UK" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


John Law, Sam Burgess, and Asaf Sirkis Norwich Arts Centre Norwich, UK November 30, 2009

The piano trio is a well-established jazz line-up, and its popularity is at something of a high on the British scene. The apparent ubiquity of the format makes it difficult to see how there can be room for originality, then along comes the combination of pianist John Law, bassist Sam Burgess and drummer Asaf Sirkis and such ...

1,488
Interview

John Law: Deeper into the Music

Read "John Law: Deeper into the Music" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard


Classical music and jazz are often perceived as two radically different art forms that cannot be merged. Historically, the idea of a so-called “third stream" that is able to combine the language of jazz and classical music into a coherent whole has proved rather difficult to translate into praxis, and yet it is undeniable that a bond, however fragile, exists between the two musics. This was evident from the very beginning, with pianist Scott Joplin's ambition to create a musical ...

353
Album Review

John Law / Sam Burgess / Asaf Sirkis: Congregation: The Art of Sound Volume 4

Read "Congregation: The Art of Sound Volume 4" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard


In music, the material of the artist is sound. Music is the shaping of sound. It's no coincidence, then, that British pianist John Law has named his ambitious tetralogy The Art of Sound. The final installment, Congregation: The Art of Sound Volume 4, finds Law working with the same trio--bassist Sam Burgess and drummer Asaf Sirkis--as he did on the very first release in the series, The Art of Sound (33 Jazz, 2007).

One of the advantages of ...

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