Neil Cowley Trio

I dare you to watch this video without even a single smile. Stanley Bell makes some interestingly nice family videos. This one has the Neil Cowley Trio's Degree in Intuition as soundtrack.

At a time when Neil Cowley Trio releases its third full length album, Radio Silence, I managed to get hold (FINALLY) of their first two. I knew some of the songs, from here and there. But I'm just blown away after listening to them non-stop. You can always get them through Amazon.co.uk - the trio is British so it's a lot cheaper through the uk based sites. Don't bother searching for them in Portugal. Since Fnac holds the monopoly of on-site music commerce - after Valentim de Carvalho closed its doors, the only option left is Jo-Jo's Music (CDGO). But if they don't have it on the shelves (the store is near Cedofeita) just order from the internet...

This Trio came to my knoledge when I went to a double venue inserted in Le Festival Jazz à Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris last year - some footage of THAT concert here. I went to see Andre Manoukian who played the first half. Afterwards came Neil Cowley Trio. During the presentation the host let me know that Cowley had previously worked in the keyboards of Zero7 and The Brand New Heavies. But the true surprise came afterwards. The guy kicked, jumped in his bench, banged his head and played with his eyes shut. The drummer Evan Jenkins just banged away with beats I could listen to on their own. All topped with bassist Richard Sadler shifting swiftly between bass styles.

The following on is from the latest album and it's called Box Lily:

There, Jazz you can bang your head to.

Some more videos:
Making of Radio Silence
His Nibs on Later with Jools Holland
Degree In Intution at Jazz Sous Les Pommiers via Mezzo
How Do We Catch Up on The View