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
Press
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
The Guardian – 22 December 2018
The week in classical: LCMF review
Fiona Maddocks
“Elaine Mitchener’s b r e a d t h b r e a t h (2018, world premiere LCMF commission) had an improvisatory mystery, arriving and departing slowly and delicately.”
Press, Review
Jazzwise Magazine – 23 February 2018
Elaine Mitchener delivers dramas of defiance at St. George’s, London
Kevin Le Gendre
“SWEET TOOTH is a vital black British addition to those seminal creative statements of resistance and defiance from the African Diaspora.”
Press, Review
The Blue Moment – 23 February 2018
Elaine Mitchener’s SWEET TOOTH
Richard Williams
“Last night Elaine Mitchener made Hawksmoor’s old stones shake.”
Press, Review