So we are near the end of this years London Jazz Festival. All in all I think its been a great festival this year. I’ve been to loads of incredible gigs where they have all been fully packed and the vibe has just been amazing, I’ve also brought a few tasty new CDs including:
- SimonPurcell – Red Circle
- Chris Potter – The Sirens
- Helen Merrill – Brownie (Homage to Clifford Brown)
Me and saxophonist Duncan Eagles from “Silver Stage Jazz” have recorded and released a collaborative Jazz CD which we couldn’t be happier with and have had some really nice reviews about it.
Heres our promo video:
And here Is a 4 out of 5 star review from John Fordham at the Guardian:
MARK PERRY/DUNCAN EAGLES QUINTET:
ROAD AHEAD – REVIEW
An intelligent and very musical set ... Duncan Eagles and Mark Perry
“The core lineup here (trumpet, sax and rhythm section) could fool you into thinking Road Ahead was just another expertly schooled exercise in generic retro-bop – but it’s a lot more than that. Trumpeter Perry and saxophonist Eagles are long-term collaborators whose ease together is evident, and here they have made an intelligent and very musical set. Perry’s Flip of a Coin opens as a fanfare for the two horns, and his clean-toned, slow-sliding sounds suggest Terence Blanchard and Ambrose Akinmusire may be influences; Eagles complements this with a beguilingly dry tenor-sax tone and canny timing. Chord Game starts as a postbop groover, but its countermelody invites a dreamier mood, then a briskly fluent piano solo from the excellent Sam Leak. Perry and Eagles are warmly inventive close-harmony composers on slow pieces such as the ballad Forever, while the skipping Barters Band suggests reinvented 1950s Cool School music, and the distantly Celtic One Last Kiss unfolds over a catchy piano hook.”