Ghostpoet, On tour
Damon Albarn’s Africa Express project – in which a delegation of Brit musicians visits and then records in Africa – turns the idea of being a fish out of water into an art form. For an artist such as Ghostpoet, whose lyrical world consists pretty much exclusively of call centres and Oyster cards, the challenge of rising to the occasion must have felt particularly acute. Nonetheless, when the last Africa Express album arrived in 2013, Obaro Ejimiwe’s impressionistic, bus-window view of his new environment proved his particular talent is to find a self-investigating way into every situation. On his new album, Shedding Skin, this has strayed from whispered MCing in the vein of Mike Skinner to something more like soul singing, albeit in his own uniquely comatose fashion, a nuance his followers might not have been expecting.
JR
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, London
These days, we know Noel Gallagher as much by what he says as what he does. Formerly the quiet one in the fraternal struggle of Oasis, Gallagher has in the past few years flowered in the spotlight, birthing along the way a generally very amusing media personality. When he comes to making a record, like his new one Chasing Yesterday, you have to wonder where this self-aware and witty individual goes. Not that it’s a bad record or anything, but it’s still a bit odd that someone who once piloted a Viking invasion into the world of southern charity shop indie should now content himself with music which at best delivers the thrill and danger of a Paul Weller appearance on Later… With Jools Holland in 1996. All that notwithstanding, this show for the Teenage Cancer Trust, with Future Islands in support, shows a heart still very much in the right place.
Royal Albert Hall, SW7, Sat
JR
Charli XCX, On tour
She calls it “gangsta pop”. Really, though, Charli XCX is more “omnipop”: such are the stylistic positions consumed by her hectic, modern music. An artist who made her initial impact as a writer, she’s still in huge demand, writing for the likes of Iggy Azalea and Gwen Stefani as well rejuvenating hoary old blokes Buckcherry and Simon Le Bon. Her own work, meanwhile, has seen her channelling her proliferation of hooks into a number of different forms, from emotional electro (with huge choruses) and bratty pop (with huge choruses), to R&B (with… you get the idea).
JR
Counterflows, Glasgow
Counterflows is the sort of festival that makes the rest of the UK jealous, bringing together a diverse range of folk, improv, noise, electronic and experimental music in venues across Glasgow. Its dense programme features computer noise by German sound artist Florian Hecker (CCA, Fri); a collaboration between one of British jazz’s most important figures, Evan Parker, and Swedish pianist Sten Sandell (4 Apr); and broken Japanese blues by Hisato Higuchi (Garnethill Multicultural Centre, Fri). One of the highlights comes at the close of the weekend, with Mauritanian musician Noura Mint Seymali (5 Apr, pictured) performing heavy psych on the ardine, a nine-string harp played only by women.
Various venues, Thu to 5 Apr
JA
Will Vinson Quartet, London
London saxophonist Will Vinson moved to New York in 1999 and made such a vivid impression in that challenging jazz hothouse that he has never returned. An original blender of the slow-burning and understated lines of the cool school saxophonists, the soul sound of Cannonball Adderley, and the multi-layered methods of contemporary stars such as Chris Potter, Vinson is as good a listener as he is a declaimer. His work in the sophisticated downtown bands of drummer Ari Hoenig and guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg has marked him out as a first-choice sideman. But his own compositions also fizz with the rhythmic complexities of 21st-century jazz, a mix that has given his own groups focus and vivacity, and helped Vinson stand out from an ever-swelling crowd of technically sharp young postbop saxists. He returns to London with his fine American quartet.
Pizza Express Jazz Club, W1, Mon & Tue
JF
The Ice Break, Birmingham
First performed at Covent Garden in 1977, The Ice Break was Michael Tippett’s fourth major opera. At that time, Tippett’s music was at the peak of its popularity, and after the death of Benjamin Britten the previous year he had become Britain’s most respected composer. Since his own death in 1998, though, the majority of Tippett’s works have disappeared from view, and one of the pieces that has been totally ignored is The Ice Break. Very much a 70s fable, it deals with political exile and racial conflict, psychedelia and renewal, to a libretto that Tippett concocted himself. But Birmingham Opera Company has never shirked a challenge, and its choice of this work as its latest community-based, immersive show, directed as ever by Graham Vick, is typically bold. The City of Birmingham Symphony, conducted by Andrew Gourlay, is supplying the orchestra.
B12 Warehouse, Fri to 9 Apr
AC
