JITR Nov: Glasshopper, Christos Stylianides, Big Massive + more TBA

Described as having “a sound and aesthetic that is very much their own”, these three musical voices make music with great gravity which is at once heavy as hell and soaring weightless.  The trio are proudly compared to pioneering British jazz bands like Acoustic Ladyland and Polar Bear, and carry a torch of personal influences from the likes of; Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, Radiohead, Paul Motian, John Scofield, John Coltrane to Robert Stillman. Their latest 2024 album release “I’m Not Telling You Anything” (on the Clonmell Jazz Social Label) crackles with their trademark exuberance but contains considerable emotional heft, even the occasional gut punch. In this album they showcase their fresh brand of interweaving composition and improvisation with complete reverence and abandon. Haring off at tangents, sparking off one another, intersecting, overlapping into something that delivers a unique jazz noise. Although only wee, this three-piece are fearless in challenging perceptions of what jazz is and draw audiences into moments pure of sonic bliss to high octane rock-outs. The bass-less line up builds on influences from Celtic folk to global grooves and across jazz, adding brasher beats and tones from indie and rock. Seldom settling, always searching.

---

Christos Stylianides [solo] - @christosstylianides_

Big Massive [EMERGENCE] - @_big.massive

Big massive is a new London jazz collective, unafraid to reinvent black music. Drawing from hip-hop to dub; jungle to videogame music, nothing compares to the energy of the BiG.MASSiVE sound. Big Massive are - Ky Osborne (keys), Michael Amosu (drums), Nathan Dawkins (bass), Finn Hori-Ohstrom (trumpet) and Jack Jules (saxophone).