Dylan Howe's Personal blog

I left the Blockheads tonight after 13 years - I'd like to thank the band and everyone involved with the group and all that came to the gigs over the years - it's been great, thank you all so much

Steve Howe Trio tour: 13 dates in March - starts this Sunday in Birkenhead

DYLAN HOWE

Tour Announcement

SHOW SCHEDULE Pacific Road Arts Centre Birkenhead, UK Sun Mar 07 10 08:00 PM   The Sage Gateshead Newcastle, UK Mon Mar 08 10 08:00 PM   Assembly Rooms Derby, UK Wed Mar 10 10 08:00 PM   Band on the Wall Manchester, MAN, UK Thu Mar 11 10 08:00 PM Tickets Huntingdon Hall Worcester, WOR, UK Fri Mar 12 10 08:00 PM Tickets Muni Arts Centre Pontypridd, UK Sat Mar 13 10 08:00 PM   Norwich Arts Centre Norwich, UK Mon Mar 15 10 08:00 PM   The Junction Cambridge, UK Tue Mar 16 10 08:00 PM   The Stables Milton Keynes, MIK, UK Wed Mar 17 10 08:00 PM   LANDMARK THEATRE ilracombe, DEVON, UK Fri Mar 19 10 08:00 PM   Electric Palace Bridport, DOR, UK Sun Mar 21 10 08:00 PM Tickets Pizza on the Park London, UK Mon Mar 22 10 08:00 PM Tickets Pizza on the Park London, UK Tue Mar 23 10 08:00 PM Tickets > See More / Details

To launch our new album 'Travelling - live in 2008' The Steve Howe Trio are touring the UK this month   13 dates above  More at  http://www.myspace.com/stevehowetrio

Sunday at the Dysart Arms + Motorik Recordings / Proper Note Distribution are go!

Hi - Will and I are playing on Sunday night at this great venue in Richmond. First set at 7.45 - £8 on the door.

THE DYSART ARMS

135 Petersham Road

Richmond

Surrey

TW10 7AA

020 8940 8005

enquiries@thedysartarms.co.uk

 AND - The new album: 

Dylan Howe / Will Butterworth Duo 

Stravinsky - The Rite Of Spring Part 1  (Motorik Recordings. MR1003)

 is now available at Amazon.co.uk - here's the link:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0036PVUBY

 Also in shops now at Ray's Jazz in Foyles and Harold Moores Records - with more to come WITH .. ..

the official release with Proper Note Distribution at the end of March!

How good is that?

Here is 'that' in a quite good poster:

Look forward to seeing you Sunday  - Cheers Dylan 

Jazzwise review + Stravinsky album now available at Amazon.co.uk!

Here's the review by Selwyn Harris in the latest edition of Jazzwise (Feb 2010) - it's on page 36 (and Will's 'Taking Off' feature is on P16). 

Jazzwise Feb '10

Dylan Howe / Will Butterworth Duo

The Rite of Spring - Part 1

 The 32 year old pianist Edinburgh-born pianist Will Butterworth made a quiet splash with his ambitious yet very impressive solo piano debut in 207. Destined for a career as a classical cellist. Butterworth improvised on the piano at a young age allowing him a personal expression he hadn't been able to find in his classical studies.

For this second CD he joins the competently versatile drummer Dylan Howe, who has a similar sense or adventure as Butterworth. Howe can switch from swinging his arse off Blue Note style one minute to a sombre reading of David Bowie's 1970's electronic phase next.

Together they turn to the classical canon with their reimagining of Stravinsky's revolutionary early twentieth century ballet The Rite Of Spring ((this is Part 1: Part 2 is on it's way later in the year). Thankfully, as is the case with Howe's Bowie project, there's no attempt to reframe the work in a more traditional setting. Instead the pianist introduces the works mayor folk based motifs and deconstructs them for piano improv, mainly with a propulsive left hand ostinati underlying right hand with classical music's dynamics that sometimes recalls Ethan Inverson of Keith Jarrett.

As each piece segues into the next Howe lends nicely understated support, intervening with percussive counterpoint and adding layers of polyrhythm. It's a stoical, monochromatic set that keeps it's healthy distance from the original.

Next to emphasizing its motifs, dissonances and primitive, ritualistic sense of rhythm, some subtle connections with jazz harmony and rhythm are also explored. It's a pretty absorbing reading an one that marks Butterworth as one of the more original young prospects of today's scene.

Selwyn Harris 

AND - here's the Amazon link (£10): http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0036PVUBY

Dylan howe / Will Butterworth Duo album

 

Dylan Howe / Will Butterworth Duo - Command House, Chatham Jan 27

Come to Brutally Honest Promotions - Col jazz's (Colin Erswell's) new gig night featuring the more experimental side o stuff

- this Wednesday night feat. Will and I's duo - playing Stravinsky for piano (Rhodes and elect piano at this gig) and drums. 

Check it out and support some alt / creative musics in Chatham (!) - why don't ya.. :-)

The Cellar 

Command House

Gun Wharf 

Dock Road

Chatham, 

ME4 4TX

8.30-11pm

01634 362 704

http://www.thecommandhouse.co.uk

£5 on door

Also there are a few copies left of the prerelease run at our Myspace via the old Pay Pal OR you can mail me back and I'll send you a £ request (£11 Uk/ £14 Worldw)

 

Had to be done really...:)

“

The details of my life are quite inconsequential.... Very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a 15-year-oldFrench prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize; he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes, he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of generalmalaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament... My childhood was typical: summers in Rangoon... luge lessons... In the spring, we'd make meat helmets... When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds — pretty standard, really. At the age of 12, I received my first scribe. At the age of 14, a Zoroastrian named Vilmer ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum — it's breathtaking... I suggest you try it.

”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Evil

Dylan Howe / Will Butterworth Duo - this Thursday in Coventry and three more

Dylan Howe / Will Butterworth Duo - this Thursday in Coventry and three more

Hi - hope you're well and thank you to those that came to the Vortex, it was a great night! + we got a nice review in the Guardian too (below)

Also, for those that weren't able to make it to the Vortex, here are the other dates in Will and I's UK mini tour during Jan/Feb -spread the word if you can to those near if pos and see you somewhere along the way - this Thursday in Coventry is the next one + there is a really good preview piece about this gig in The Coventry Telegraph (below as well). 

Finally, the limited pre-release copies of our debut CD are selling well. I have all the tracks up now on the Myspace and the Paypal link is working for those that want to buy a copy (you can always email me back about this and I'll send you a copy). 

Here are those dates: (all gigs start around 8 or 8.30pm) - best wishes Dylan 

 

PS. if it's icy, putting a pair of socks OVER your shoes totally stops you slipping...really

 

JANUARY:

 

21st - COVENTRY: Taylor John's House. £6 (£5 advance) - www.thetinangel.co.uk

 

27th  - CHATHAM: The Cellar, Command House. £5 - http://coljazz.webs.com

 

FEBRUARY:

5th - COLCHESTER: The Fleece at Stoke by Nayland. £8 - www.jazzatthefleece.org.uk 

21st - RICHMOND: The Dysart Arms. £8 - www.thedysartarms.co.uk

===================

Coventry Telegraph preview: 

Dylan Howe and Will Butterworth dip into Stravinsky’s back catalogue

Jan 15 2010 With Martin Longley 

DRUMMER Dylan Howe is mainly known for leading a sharply-attacking hard bop quintet. They’re regularly burning up on the London scene and beyond but Howe will be bringing a more contemplative repertoire to Coventry on Thursday in a duo with pianist Will Butterworth.

The pair will be playing at Taylor John’s House, previewing material drawn from their forthcoming album of jazz improvisations based on The Rite Of Spring.Igor Stravinsky’s 1913 work is subjected to a syncopated dissection, accumulating a melancholic intensity as it works though its multiple “scenes.”

Howe also dives into a fully expressive drum solo during The Procession Of The Wise Elders.

Butterworth, who was born in Edinburgh, also leads his own jazz trio, mostly gigging around London.

Howe is the offspring of Yes guitarist Steve Howe and, besides his obvious drumming skills, he’s particularly impressive as a kinetic conceptualiser, constantly creating fresh platforms for his music, whether penning originals or embarking on unusual interpretative journeys.

Next week’s gig will doubtless feature episodes from Stravinsky’s Firebird suite as well as the Rites pieces, and the stance adopted by Howe and Butterworth is such that classical and jazz audiences will achieve fulfilment. The duo melds pre-scripted arrangements with fully-improvised stretches, travelling from pale transparency to fully-charging density. Recommended.

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/whats-on-coventry-warwickshire/music-news/jazz-classical-folk/2010/01/15/dylan-howe-and-will-butterworth-dip-into-stravinsky-s-back-catalogue-92746-25609331/

===================

Guardian review:

Stravinsky Duo

Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring gets a jazzed-up reinterpretation packed with catchy hooks

John L Walters The Guardian, Thursday 14 January 2010

It is thrilling to hear Stravinsky in a Dalston jazz dive with a beer in your hand. Pianist Will Butterworth and drummer Dylan Howe's version of the first part of The Rite of Spring digs out Igor's Slavic jazz soul without losing the work's essence.

They base their arrangement on the composer's own piano reduction, taking inspiration from Bernstein's subsequent version while also adding developments of their own. When ­Butterworth plays the urgent 5/4 ostinato of the introduction, Howe adds a busy EST-style groove that morphs crisply and naturally into hammering riffs. For all its notated precision, Stravinsky's music, like Bach's, lends itself to a wide range of interpretations – as long as the feel is right.

The Augurs of Spring develops into a rolling 12/8 pattern over which Butterworth improvises before picking out the swaggering melody in octaves. They twist the theme of Mock ­Abduction into a Monkish passage over swinging drums, while the emotional Spring Round Dances moves gradually from tenderness to brutality. All they lack is the really close ensemble sound that comes from extended touring.

The Rite hardly pauses, and it's packed with big gestures and catchy hooks – things Howe knows all about. (He's the son of Yes guitarist Steve Howe, and drums in the ­Blockheads.)

Howe traces his enthusiasm for Stravinsky to the time when Yes used Firebird Suite as an intro tape; the second part of the duo's set is a version of this equally celebrated score. The Stravinsky Duo might be an ambitious project, but it is fresh and immediate and engaged the full house.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jan/13/stravinsky-duo-review

===========

Martin Longley DH / WB Duo preview piece in Coventry Telegraph

Dylan Howe and Will Butterworth dip into Stravinsky’s back catalogue

Jan 15 2010 With Martin Longley

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DRUMMER Dylan Howe is mainly known for leading a sharply-attacking hard bop quintet.

They’re regularly burning up on the London scene and beyond but Howe will be bringing a more contemplative repertoire to Coventry on Thursday in a duo with pianist Will Butterworth.

The pair will be playing at Taylor John’s House, previewing material drawn from their forthcoming album of jazz improvisations based on The Rite Of Spring.

Igor Stravinsky’s 1913 work is subjected to a syncopated dissection, accumulating a melancholic intensity as it works though its multiple “scenes.”

Howe also dives into a fully expressive drum solo during The Procession Of The Wise Elders.

Butterworth, who was born in Edinburgh, also leads his own jazz trio, mostly gigging around London.

Howe is the offspring of Yes guitarist Steve Howe and, besides his obvious drumming skills, he’s particularly impressive as a kinetic conceptualiser, constantly creating fresh platforms for his music, whether penning originals or embarking on unusual interpretative journeys.

Next week’s gig will doubtless feature episodes from Stravinsky’s Firebird suite as well as the Rites pieces, and the stance adopted by Howe and Butterworth is such that classical and jazz audiences will achieve fulfilment. The duo melds pre-scripted arrangements with fully-improvised stretches, travelling from pale transparency to fully-charging density. Recommended.

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/whats-on-coventry-warwickshire/music-news/jazz-classical-folk/2010/01/15/dylan-howe-and-will-butterworth-dip-into-stravinsky-s-back-catalogue-92746-25609331/

Bolyan's Rules

Bolyan's Rules (c/o Elliot Randall) - truisms in recording and music to live by :) http://tweetphoto.com/8694240

Vortex gig by John L Walters

Good review of the Vortex gig by John L Walters online today

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jan/13/stravinsky-duo-review

It is thrilling to hear Stravinsky in a Dalston jazz

 dive with a beer in your hand. Pianist Will Butterworth and drummer Dylan Howe's version of the first part of The Rite of Spring digs out Igor's Slavic jazz soul without losing the work's essence.

They base their arrangement on the composer's own piano reduction, taking inspiration from Bernstein's subsequent version while also adding developments of their own. When Butterworth plays the urgent 5/4 ostinato of the introduction, Howe adds a busy EST-style groove that morphs crisply and naturally into hammering riffs. For all its notated precision, Stravinsky's music, like Bach's, lends itself to a wide range of interpretations – as long as the feel is right.

The Augurs of Spring develops into a rolling 12/8 pattern over which Butterworth improvises before picking out the swaggering melody in octaves. They twist the theme of Mock Abduction into a Monkish passage over swinging drums, while the emotional Spring Round Dances moves gradually from tenderness to brutality. All they lack is the really close ensemble sound that comes from extended touring.

The Rite hardly pauses, and it's packed with big gestures and catchy hooks – things Howe knows all about. (He's the son of Yes guitarist Steve Howe, and drums in the Blockheads.)

Howe traces his enthusiasm for Stravinsky to the time when Yes used Firebird Suite as an intro tape; the second part of the duo's set is a version of this equally celebrated score. The Stravinsky Duo might be an ambitious project, but it is fresh and immediate and engaged the full house.