Home » Jazz Musicians » Will Cleasby
Will Cleasby
Artie Zaitz & Mark Kavuma featuring William Cleasby: Back To Back
by Chris May
Trumpeter Mark Kavuma and his band The Banger Factory have released three of the most enjoyable and well-crafted albums to come out of London in recent years: Kavuma (Ubuntu, 2018), with The Banger Factory there in all but name, The Banger Factory (Ubuntu, 2019), made by the fully formed band, and Arashi No Ato (Banger Factory Records, 2021). But although the outfit does not qualify for “best kept secret" status, its audience base has so far remained a local one. ...
read moreKansas Smitty's: Things Happened Here
by Chris May
Kansas Smitty's is the house band at a London jazz bar of the same name. Band and bar are fronted by the American-Italian alto saxophonist, clarinetist and bass clarinetist Giacomo Smith, who with guitarist David Archer wrote most of the material on this album. The band's style embraces swing era Kansas City through to more recent styles and is chamber-jazz of elegance and substance. The group cites Django Reinhardt, Ahmad Jamal, Claude Debussy and Brian Eno as ...
read more
