National Sawdust – March 2019
In Review: MaerzMusik Festival
Steve Smith
“Her performance at Silent Green – an old crematorium converted into a cultural center – hit hard.”
Press, Review
Press
The Wire – March 2019
Vocal Classics Of The Black Avant Garde – Cafe Oto, London, UK
Bleep x The Wire: The Rolling Calf – Bleep X, London, UK
Biba Kopf
“Digging deep into their own history is exactly the long run up Mitchener and her ensemble need to make their great musical leaps into the future.”
Press, Review
Morning Star – 10 January 2019
Classic case of black consciousness raising
Chris Searle
“It’s a marvel that such a small urban space as Cafe Oto, in the hard streets of Dalston, can contain all this music with its profound messages.”
Press, Review
London Jazz News – 16 December 2017
REVIEW: Elaine Mitchener, Moor Mother, Philip Corner at the 2017 LCMF
Geoff Winston
“They rose to the challenge with an impressive, tactile take on key compositions which blended activism with the avante-garde, highlighting bonds between jazz and poetry.”
Press, Review
London Jazz News – 14 January 2019
REVIEW: Vocal Classics of the Black Avant-Garde at Cafe Oto
Geoff Winston
“Whereas the originals pushed the envelope of their times and, on listening to recordings where available, still unnerve convincingly, the interpretations presented at Cafe Oto pushed today’s envelope in equally uncomfortable directions as, by implication, they reflected and acknowledged the issues in which society remains deeply mired.”
Press, Review
Il Manifesto – 6 January 2019
Elaine Mitchener e il suono della paura
Marcello Lorrai
An interview in Italian with national newspapaer Il Manifesto about Elaine Mitchener’s latest project SWEET TOOTH.
Interview, Press
Jazzwise Magazine – 10 January 2019
Mitchener And Yarde Break Blues Boundaries As Black Avant-Garde Comes To Cafe OTO
Kevin Le Gendre
“This gig is a potent, provocative event that underlines the blues as a foundation for progressive black culture”
Press, Review
Financial Time – 8 January 2019
Vocal Classics of the Black Avant-Garde, Café Oto, London — a taste of the age of experimentalism
The band captured the genre-bending energy of the 1960s and 70s
Mike Hobart
“The band captured the genre-bending energy of those times without imitation and added emotional force to the songs presented. (…) Mitchener was a syllable-stretching, sound-crunching force of nature throughout.”
Press, Review
The Sunday Times – 23 December 2018
Classical review: London Contemporary Music Festival
Paul Driver
“b r e a d t h b r e a t h had a genuine vitality”
Press, Review