Loz Speyer's Time Zone
Loz Speyer's TIME ZONE
Loz Speyer - trumpet, flugelhorn
Martin Hathaway - alto sax, bass clarinet
Phil Dawson - guitar
Dave Manington - double bass
Gaspar Sena - drums
Maurizio Ravalico - congas
“An ensemble led by a trumpeter/composer who has absorbed the essence of Cuban music and distilled it quite cunningly into an improvisatory context, with no compromise to either culture.”
- Kevin Legendre, Echoes Music Magazine
Time Zone is touring the new album, “Clave Sin Embargo”, released in October 2019 - a deep fusion of Cuban music and Jazz - soulful, catchy and rhythmically provocative.
REVIEWS OF THE ALBUM "CLAVE SIN EMBARGO" (click for complete reviews on Jazzfuel.com)
“He is more than simply a trumpeter blowing a wonderfully powerful horn, but a socially conscious artist making a somewhat angular statement… You would be hard-pressed to find music so vibrant and viscerally energetic than the eight pieces on Clave Sin Embargo.” - Raul de Gama, Latin Jazz Network (Canada)
“A fresh perspective on that [Cuban] heritage by way of his London-based ensemble’s taste for raw punky downtown improv via New York, all the way through to free-jazz elements. But the music’s convivial dance sensibility sourced from son, batá and salsa is always apparent... Cohesive and engaging.”
- Selwyn Harris, Jazzwise
“The album takes us from Cuba to Berlin 1989 then to Crossing the (fictitious?) Line of the equator to end in a carnival in London, in such a way as to indicate that borders and walls are only human constructions that music transcends… eight compositions that cajole, revisit, brush against or deepen different claves of Afro-Cuban music - for our greatest pleasure.”
- Patricia Martin, Gazette Bleue (France)
“A vibrant, rhythmically exciting exploration of Cuban music and wider jazz influences… Speyer’s music engages and makes you think – its global themes of movement, difference and change have never been more relevant.”
- John Adcock, Jazz Journal, UK
"Lightness and briskness with almost uninterrupted passion of sextet."
- Zdeněk Slabý, Uni Magazine (Czech)
"Through their own family ties Speyer, whose Britishness includes ancestors with packed suitcases, is highly sensitized to Cuban and air-human experiences. And so 'Stratosphere' takes off with enough hip swing and air hunger Cuban soil under it, ending up in killer 5/8 clave. 'Mood Swings' is something of the cradle that Time Zone 2003 crawled out of, the odd 11-beat clave reveals its stubbornness, the bass clarinet the swing-ready mood, the guitar roots in Son and whimsy."
- Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy magazine #103 (Germany)
"C'est tour à tour entrainant et chaleureux comme le sont les musiques cubaines, intense et léger, profond et joyeux"
- Patricia Martin, Gazette Bleue (France)
“Speyer’s sound is forged from a unique personal perspective and his Anglo-Cuban musical hybrid offers something that is both exciting and musically satisfying. His writing is colourful and insightful and the playing by a hand picked sextet is excellent throughout.”
- Ian Mann, the Jazz Mann
“It’s an album driven by placement – the distinctive variations of the clave rhythms that underpin each track – and displacements – those who seek asylum, who risk sea crossings and transcend walls to gain freedom. But that doesn’t mean the tone is mournful or in any way programmatic. The focus is a celebration of the rhythmic drive and melodic invention that Cuban forms inspire in Loz and his band of post-boppers…”
- Richard Lee, London Jazz News
“Great players in a very tight and impressive setting...” - Steve Berry
This unusual crossover music was born more than 15 years ago when trumpeter Loz Speyer was living between London and Santiago de Cuba, studying and performing there with local musicians and delving into the roots of Cuban music – which then began to reappear transformed in his own music for Time Zone. Meanwhile his new family life swung between these two far removed worlds - the collision of which shows through in the compositions, played with passion and commitment by this fine band. Time Zone takes the audience on a journey of the heart.
"Speyer’s ear for the exultant horn harmonies of traditional Cuban dance music informs a probing crossover composer’s intelligence, in which time signatures are shuffled and idioms overlaid… Nobody writes world music quite like Loz Speyer, and he’s long deserved a bigger stage, and the resources to match."
- John Fordham, the Guardian
"There is an intriguingly saturnine quality in both the leader's compositions and the band's execution, a sense of hard-edged modernity that has a side-winding thrust reminiscent of Dave Holland's ensemble... An ensemble led by a trumpeter/composer who has absorbed the essence of Cuban music and distilled it quite cunningly into an improvisatory context with no compromise to either culture. Gritty, graceful sounds with a dark-light intensity."
- Kevin Legendre, Echoes Music Magazine
The second album "Crossing the Line" (Spherical Records 2011) --- Loz Speyer, Martin Hathaway, Maurizio Ravalico... and Stefano Kalonaris (guitar), Davide Mantovani (bass), Simon Pearson (drums).
Launched at Rich Mix, London 18/10/11