Photo: a Flamingo poster in Soho – photo: marlbank
Welcome to the latest podcast from Marlbank, your regular jazz blog and podcast bringing you fresh musical insights and weekly listening.
Our “Philosophy” on Album Reviews
We navigate, writes Jimmy Zimmer – the intern in for marlbank whose main panjandum – our spies tell us, confides JZ on the QT – apparently is nursing a non-sporting injury and is currently recuperating & requiring bed rest – a busy season of new releases.
I want, continues Stanmore’s finest Jimmy – a rising star on the new jazz journalism firmament or “Halley” as he is known to his mum tells us ever so ‘umbly to pull back the curtain on how reviews are approached here from what I gather in the note left to me when I began this stint on this ‘ere blog.
We, if I may be permitted to use the first person plural, get a steady stream of emails requesting reviews, and while I don’t reply to them in my role as PA and occasional cub reporter, because a guy’s gotta live, listen to records, earn a measly crust, make a few social calls, spend 6 hours a day on TikTok etc, write my regular column on IPAs for The Beer Tasting Journal, please know it’s because a proper review takes real time – usually around six hours per album.
All that for a one minute read.
Crazy, eh?!!!! Between deep listening and the sometimes tortuous writing process of finding the right words, it all takes time, the arranging and re-arranging of words on the non printed page. I know because while still young and syntactically unsure I have been writing since not long out of the womb.
As the poet, 81 this coming Monday as it happens, put it: “You know, yeah, you, you know what they’re writing about Baby you, you know what they’re talking about It’s a thing called love down through the ages It makes you wanna cry sometimes It makes you feel like you wanna lay down and die sometimes“
No drugs. No rubs. No drama.
Our focus, Jimmy concludes, is on delivering the core details of an album paired with honest, experienced opinion. You are always welcome to disregard the opinion, but the goal is to give you a strong sense of direction. Crucially, Marlbank is entirely independent.
No paid promotions snuck in without saying so: No one is handing over envelopes of cash or buying up ad space to influence coverage. We’re not like those channels on TV where pensioners are thought to congreagate and the ads interrupt you constantly with attractive looking ads for the local crematorium or caress you into purchasing a Revitive Circulative Booster
Grounded in experience: Decisions are backed by decades of listening to jazz, aiming to provide a justified, constructive framework rather than random social media commentary.
What Makes a Reviewable Record?
When analysing a performance or release, two major elements come into play:
Technique vs. Meaning: Incredible, acrobatic technique is impressive, but if it leaves the listener feeling emotionally empty or “blinded by science,” the music misses its mark. Conversely, if technical execution is too weak, it’s simply not reviewable, and I prefer not to write hatchet jobs.
Emotional Resonance: The records that truly matter are the ones that move you, whether through the comfort of a familiar piano trio setup or an incredibly executed arrangement.
Moving Beyond the Marketing of “Genre”
While Marlbank covers a massive umbrella of music under the jazz rubric, I try to avoid fetishising micro-genres. Terms like “acid jazz” or “trad” are frequently just clever marketing labels for styles that have evolved or been redone over decades. A great record doesn’t need to fit neatly into a cardboard divider in a record shop or hashtag.
Artists should have the freedom to experiment outside their comfort zones. For instance, Cécile McLorin Salvant’s new collaboration with the Metropole Orkest (featuring stunning arrangements by Darcy James Argue) is excellent, even if her electronic experiments last year didn’t quite hit the mark. Stepping outside of a comfort zone is vital for growth, even if it occasionally confuses the audience.
Get in Touch. What are your thoughts on genre, labels and musical experimentation? Drop us a line to stephen@marlbank.net and let us know what you think of the new site layout and anything that springs to mind.
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