Stories Without Words is an energetic, richly complex, global musical carnival of an album. So, when we hear a piece with multiple excursions in it such as the charming Valse#5, there is a palpable and enjoyable sense of homecoming when [...]
A “supremely gifted musician” who “always conveyed the sheer pleasure of making music.” In this tribute, Richard Pite remembers Keith Nichols, who passed away on 20 January 2021: One evening back in 1975, when I was still at school, I’d [...]
The fourth of Jon Turney’s weekly selections of tracks with staying power (introduced HERE) is a Carla Bley tune treated beautifully by vibraphonist Gary Burton and guitarist Mick Goodrick. Gary Burton’s virtuosity is widely admired, but his ability to conjure [...]
The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra has released a video of a Robert Burns song to mark the band’s absence from its habitual gig at Ronnie Scott’s on the birthday of Scotland’s national poet (25 January). Available free on the SNJO’s [...]
Starting out as a one-off gig paying tribute to Sonny Rollins, this sax-bass-drums trio took on a life of its own as three generations of jazz musicians brought both their shared influences and different playing experiences to form QOW Trio. [...]
David Lewis, the host of the ‘Straight Ahead’ radio show on Solar Radio – also available as a podcast – is interviewed by Laura G Thorne (*). UKJazz News: You host a radio programme on Solar Radio called ‘Straight-Ahead’. How [...]
Fred Thomas’s new album on the Babel label, Dick Wag – A Tribute to Richard Wagner, “brings a fresh perspective to some best-loved Wagnerian moments by stripping its forces back to the bone”, writes Sandy Burnett. He sourced the stories…he [...]
Pianist Paul Edis established himself as one of the leading lights of contemporary jazz and other genres in his native north-east England, over the past fifteen years or so – the instigator of numerous compositional, performance and recording projects (including [...]
It’s tough to stand out as an up-and-coming piano trio. Record labels the world over turn out a stream of albums by technically excellent young keyboardists all dreaming of a slot at Ronnie’s, the Blue Note or maybe just the [...]
Girls in Airports is one of the few young Danish indie jazz bands to have established itself internationally, with two of their albums, their fourth, Fable (2015), and fifth Live (2017) appearing on the British label Edition Records. The band [...]
