Author: tamarosborn

New single and EFG London Jazz Festival 2022

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Brand new Collocutor single available for pre-order!

https://collocutor.bandcamp.com/album/pause-reprise-live-at-91

This live version of ‘Pause Reprise’ was recorded at 91 Living Room, London in March 2022. It was Collocutor’s first UK gig to a live audience in 2 years, since their album release at Church of Sound back in 2020. There was a huge amount of joy at being able to be in the same room again from both the musicians and audience – the band hopes this is palpable on this recording!

For the Londoners, the release of this track coincides with the band’s return to the same venue for the 2022 EFG London Jazz Festival on 13th November: 

91livingroom.com/whats-on/efg-london-jazz-festival-2022/efg-london-jazz-festival-collocutor/

Credits

Tamar Osborn – baritone sax
Josephine Davies – tenor sax
Giuliano Modarelli – guitar
Suman Joshi – bass
Maurizio Ravalico – percussion

recorded live at 91 Living Room, Brick Lane, London 26th March 2022

Live mix by Ivor Davies
Mastered by Emre Ramazanoglu

Review of Collocutor at Novara Jazz Festival 2022

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Thank you to Mario Grella for this lovely review (google translate version below for the non-Italian speakers!):

https://offtopicmagazine.net/2022/06/09/we3-e-collocutor-delocalizzazioni-a-novarajazz/?fbclid=IwAR39hTJWezdjSYXqMugWlyBE09EiXhYBlRS0Lv9ajVuz57iGciLs2IHZlco

Google translate says:

“There was only time for a small snack and a glass of good wine offered by the Barbaglia farm, and it is already time to move to the sacred heart of Novara, under the Antonellian dome of the Basilica of San Gaudenzio, for a great concert. prominence (also internationally), born precisely for sacred places: it is Church of Sound, a London project of the Collocutor ensemble of Tamar Osborn, charismatic leader of the group as well as saxophonist and flutist, already taken for a walk at the biggest jazz festivals in the UK; with her in the Basilica Christopher Williams on tenor sax, Suman Joshi on electric bass, Marco Piccioni on guitar, Maurizio Ravalico on percussion (an even restrictive term, given the equipment more similar to a ceremonial altar). It is undeniable that “any” music is not appropriate in a Basilica, and in fact the music of the ensemble is indelibly marked by the stylistic code of gentleness and, even in the most intense and rhythmic moments, the notes made vibrate and ascend under the broad spectrum of the Antonellian Dome, create a sound architecture of great spirituality, even when, or perhaps for this reason, the vibrations come from the creeping of copper cymbals on the floor of the basilica or from the strings of a monochord plucked electric bass, to which a naked saxophone player. Spirituality is all in the mental intentions and the sincerity of these intentions is automatically reflected in the music. A sound that is jazz, funk, punk and ethnic, yet exactly none of this and from which the classic training imprint of the multifaceted Tamar Osborn shines, especially in the songs that see her on the transverse flute.

In addition to the amiability of the more sweetly melodious jazz, the large Novara audience was also able to enjoy paths bristling with experimental and research peaks, especially thanks to the unconventional percussion of Maurizio Ravalico, a little second officiant, after the priestess Tamar. Because basically this is about the lay office of the spirituality of music in a sacred place. For several years now, NovaraJazz has been carrying out this discourse of relocation of jazz towards unusual “containers” such as courtyards, historic buildings, churches, natural environments. As regards the churches, it should be remembered that, in addition to the Basilica of San Gaudenzio, concerts have been held and will be held in other churches in the city and it is necessary to underline the far-sightedness and great openness of the Novara Curia, which has always granted the places of worship at the festival. In the particular circumstance, the organizers thanked both the Bishop, Monsignor Brambilla, and the Pastor of the United Parishes of the Center, Don Renzo Cozzi, for their hospitality and for their active collaboration in organizing the concert. These are not words of circumstance, since it is not such a normal circumstance for jazz to enter churches, although for NovaraJazz it is always jazz of the highest quality. It is a beautiful gesture of mental openness, as well as human, and which demonstrates how the dialogue between cultures and the contamination of environments are always seeds that fall into the fertile land, the one that bears fruit. A good sign for these horrible times we are going through.”

Featured photo © Emanuele Meschini

‘Continuation’ review on OndaRock.it

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A(nother) lovely review from Italy! Thank you Gianfranco Marmoro at OndaRock.

https://www.ondarock.it/recensioni/2020-collocutor-continuation.htm?fbclid=IwAR1rR2szZ3E9MbJVI-VMVM-ZvWwE8nSadR3ZzF7NQsEmuOV4iQ2iHH_lR_o

Google translate says:

Eclectic musician graduated from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, Tamar Osborn is the leader and saxophonist of Collocutor, a band with which he has won over critics and audiences, thanks to a modal jazz with refined afrobeat nuances, fueled by a 70s jazz spirituality as well as contamination with polyphonic choral music and Indian classical music.

For the third album “Continuation”, Osborn pauses the complete formation of nine elements. With two percussionists (Magnus Mehta and Afla Sackey) and the trumpeter (Simon Finch) outside the ensemble, the instrumental set-up becomes more suffused, suspended. A creative situation that for the artist wants to depict the various emotional states that causes the pain of loss, of mourning.
There are only six tracks that follow a creative path that from peace and reflection (“Deep Peace”) evolves towards an anxiety-inducing state, cultivated by slight instrumental and thematic changes (“Continuation”), before the contamination of the rhythm releases a spiritual trance afro-jazz (“Pause”) which deflagrates (“The Angry One”) and then returns to the ranks (“Lost And Found”, “Pause Reprise”).

Exemplary the implementation by the band, between string sounds recorded in a Baptist church in London that offer ample breathing space to the initial track “Deep Peace”, Tibetan percussions that introduce a dialogue between wind instruments (Josephine Davies, and Tamar Osborn), to then celebrate a party of sounds with infinite details (guitar, bass, flute, sax, percussion and polyphonic voices) in the alchemical title track, reaching a first expressive ecstasy in the hypnotic “Pause”, where electronics, drone live together music and guitar solo and sax now ramshackle now more dense.
At this point it seems necessary to briefly present the other protagonists, namely the aforementioned saxophonist Mike Lesirge (Django Bates, Billy Cobham, Erykah Badu, Phoenix City All-Stars, Hackney Colliery Band), the blues guitarist Marco Piccioni (Julia Biel, Cleveland Watkiss, Lekan Babalola and Kate Luxmoore), bassist Suman Joshi (from the versatile curriculum that includes the Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra, the jazz-punk band The Destroyers, the folk-jazz of Trio Manouche and the Reggae Ska of Maroon Town), l other saxophonist Josephine Davies (Jamie Cullum, the Bbc Band, and Ronnie Scott’s Vanguard Band) and the only drummer left in the game for this record chapter, Maurizio Ravalico (Jamiroquai, Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Greg Osby, Kaidi Tatham, Dego McFarland, Finn Peters, Shabaka Huchkins).

With this varied technical and stylistic axis, the cocktail of funk, jazz, punk, ethnic and improvisation in an alt-rock key of the scratchy “The Angry One” resonates as a deflagrating expression of all the creative peculiarities of the group, a crazy piece of that which is in all respects a real suite in a jazz key.
The subsequent “Lost And Found” is therefore the apogee, the alchemical result of a research that is both interior and carnal, a minimal sound nemesis punctuated by a scratchy sax solo and the soothing touch of the flute.
And do not deceive the title “Pause Reprise”, the apparent return to meditation and solitude of the first good ones does not have the same taste nor the same sound representation. Something has happened in these thirty-nine minutes, the tension has taken possession of peace and the matter has become incandescent, despite its manifest calm.

The new Collocutor album is an artistic experience that leaves its mark and which will hardly migrate from the listener’s imagination. “Continuation” is one of those records destined to occupy your dreams: after listening to it, the music will never seem the same again

 

Review on indie-zone.it

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And another great review, this time from Italy (thanks again google translate!)

https://indie-zone.it/musica-fresh-4-dischi-che-vi-siete-persi-marzo-2020/?fbclid=IwAR0ng9Le9-aU04rPjsxeT54R3Kn1N2xB5jwcZQy1U8hmqFL9Y5m1I06mOM4

“Collocutor is a beautiful modal jazz project, formed and directed by saxophonist and composer Tamar Osborn (aka Tamar Collocutor). Drawing on far-reaching influences, from the electric era of Miles Davis to minimalism through Indian classical music and Ethiopian sound, the latter output is certainly the best: the disc is a suite, which cradles the ear through meditative situations and peak moments of absolute distortion. The soft sound of the winds takes the listener into a sort of continuous dialogue, between shooting themes and astral contemplations. The Indian percussion of the first songs creates a strong expectation for what is going to happen next, where in Pause the disc opens with a broken and more energetic groove. The climax is reached in The Angry One, a hysterical song bordering a certain radical free jazz. It is very interesting to observe how these songs work together so well, evolving continuously without being boring and repetitive. “Continuation” is proof that Collocutors are a formidable ensemble, and Tamar Osborn is confirmed as one of the best composers of this period.”

Review on Jazzport.cz

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a lovely review from the Czech Republic. Google translate version below!

https://jazzport.cz/2020/03/27/collocutor-pokracuje-v-uzasne-spolupraci/

“A prominent figure in the progressive London scene is the saxophonist, bass clarinetist, flutist and composer Tamar Osborn, who also performs under the stage name Tamar Collocutor. A COLLOCUTOR is named also her ensemble, whom 21.2. The third album has been released on London’s On The Corner Records. Zove is typically “Continuation”; The six-headed band continues with the exciting mix of electric jazz a’la Miles Davis, modal jazz, minimalism, Indian classical music and Ethiopian jazz. As a result, with a considerable spiritual and afro-futuristic charge…

The six musicians collaborate truly exemplary, congenial. However, these are highly creative types of instrumentalists without borders, both in the transferred and real meaning of the word. Tamar Osborn (baritone, bass clarinet, flute), the author of all the repertoire of Collocutor, has worked with world-music and jazz such as Baaba Maal, Rokia Traore, Bassekou Kouyate, Tony Allen, Jessica Lauren and Sarathy Korwar. By the way, she performed in the trio of the latter drummer of Indian origin at the Jazzinec Trutnov Festival in 2017.

Tenor saxophonist Josephine Davies played with Jamie Cullum, London Jazz Orchestra and BBC Big-Band. Another tenor’s voice is Mike Lesirge (Django Bates, Billy Cobham, Erykah Badu, Andreya Trian…). Guitarist Marco Piccioni, originally Italian, has his own blues-rock trio and moves across genres at all (Dele Sosini Afrobeat Orchestra, Julia Biel, Cleveland Watkiss). Extremely rich, multi-genre rhythm is formed by bassist Suman Joshi (punk-jazz The Destroyers, “Americano” playing Trio Manouche) and percussionist Maurizio Ravalico, who studied music in Havana and has been based in London since 1991; His portfolio includes Jamiroquai, Paul McCartney, Greg Osby and Andrea Parkins.

The opening track of the album “Deep Peace” was recorded in the sacred space of the Babtist Church in London’s Heath Street in August 2018. That’s why the beautifully arched timber arches of the Saxons, but initially disturbed by some industrial smog; but it will turn into ambient breath at the end…

Other songs Collocutor recorded in Soup Studio last January. The title “Continuation” opens the sound of Tibetan dishes; then there will be excited guitar riffs and an undocked bass line, over which the almost saxes will spread again and a bass clarinet will be added. He also cuts the solo, while percussion becomes very thick and intertwined with polyphonic voices of sax and flute in a distinctive theme. The masterful “Pause” is fed by an industrial drone, heavy bass, flushing of saxis, and then a riveting stream of percussion; it has a hypnotic thrust in which tenor solo, electronic noise, uncompromising guitar attacks explode, then massively graded by dense saxas. If jazz-rock fusion is to be reborn in a new, fresh sound, then it should sound like this! Or the following “The Angry One”, a punk cocktail of punk-jazz and free-rock. The composition “Lost and Found” brings tranquility, although in the first half it is gargling with a minimalist flow of saxes, from which it will penetrate into the listener’s ears a rousing solo baritone; then the chord of the breaths (tenorsax and flute) make a delicious melody with a regular, sometimes obscured rhythm. The album concludes with “Pause Reprise”, where the nuclear power of the original song is suppressed due to a loose structure that is only slowly cemented; the resulting intensity is not in the power of the sound mass, but in the tension within the material…”

“Sound = 100%
Cover = 100%
Music = 100%”

Beat Caffeine feature ‘Continuation’

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“one of the most dynamic jazz groups to emerge out of London”

“another brilliant recording from Tamar and Collocutor, continuing to explore and expand musically, while making their mark as one of the most innovative groups in jazz right now”

Thank you to TJ Gorton for featuring ‘Continuation’ on Beat Caffeine.com!

Read the full write-up here:

http://beatcaffeine.com/londons-collocutor-led-by-tamar-osborn-releases-highly-anticipated-third-album-continuation/

New album to be released in February 2020

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We’re very pleased to announce our 3rd album will be released in February 2020, again with the fantastic On The Corner Records.

Marking a transition to a slightly smaller band line-up, it is at heart a very personal album about coping with grief and the aftermath of loss, with the realisation that grief does not exist without love.

Previews and pre-orders are up on bandcamp – we hope the music connects with you.

 

Artwork by Victoria Topping