All recent Jazz News from around the UK and beyond.
Dick Esmond became an early and enthusiastic jazz fan and especially of big band jazz, and having started to play the drums he began to follow various bands, including the Ted Heath Orchestra in particular, when he also got to [...]
If you happen to be the world’s biggest jazz trade fair in Bremen this week…. come and meet members of the UK Jazz News team. Stop by and say hi at stand 6A30. Romy Summers is our advertising manager. She [...]
It’s been twelve years since vocalist Georgia Mancio and pianist Alan Broadbent began to collaborate as performers and songwriters. As well as numerous live shows, the collaboration has produced three albums: Songbook in 2017, Quiet is the Star in 2021 [...]
The following is jazz journalist Morgan Enos’s interview with pianist and electronicist Vijay Iyer and trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith. Their second duo album, Defiant Life, was released 21 March via ECM Records. Links to purchase the album, and [...]
Fini Bearman’s fifth studio album, Last Night of the World, features ten original songs performed by the singer and songwriter in the company of some of the finest UK-based musicians. It’s a highly melodic recording, packed with memorable tunes, from [...]
American pianist Noah Haidu is an in-demand pianist who gained the attention of the jazz world through live appearances and recordings with heavyweights such as Mike Stern, Ambrose Akinmusire, Jon Irabagon, Vincent Herring, Eddie Henderson, and Duane Eubanks. He has [...]
As a Cheltenham girl born and bred, I am totally committed to my home town and to the wonderful local community who continue to support me on my ongoing ‘journey’ as a jazz musician. It has been a long time [...]
This striking new quintet sport an ambitious name, and while it’s not stated what it is they are transcending, their debut gig certainly showed that they have a lot to offer. You’d know that from the personnel, all richly experienced [...]
Paris-based vocalist Gabi Hartmann – who is set to be one of the stars of the Grand Opening concert at jazzahead! 2025 – emerged two years ago with her eponymous debut album which was acclaimed for its inventive breadth and [...]
Ronny Graupe is a German guitarist, originally from Chemnitz (aka Karl-Marx-Stadt) in the former GDR, who studied in Leipzig from where he paid a short visit to Birmingham in the early 2000s with a young group as part of a [...]
Ahead of the Jazz FM Awards ceremony next Thursday 24 April at Koko in Camden, the organisers have announced all three of the special or non-competitive awards, recognising “individuals who have not only shaped jazz history but continue to inspire [...]
The picturesque ski resort of Vossevangen near Bergen has just a few thousand inhabitants. And yet it hosts several significant cultural events – including a jazz festival which celebrated its 50th edition two years ago. This year’s event – traditionally [...]
Mingus lives. But what lives on in the Mingus Big Band? Is it his music…or his spirit? The right answer is probably both. That the two are inextricably linked, and can’t be separated. That was powerfully demonstrated by the final [...]
The following is an interview between jazz journalist Morgan Enos and jazz pianist, organist, composer, and arranger Larry Goldings. His new album, I Will, featuring bassist Karl McComas-Reichl and drummer Christian Euman, was released 14 February via Sam First Records. [...]
Who needs another album of Gershwin interpretations? Well, it turns out we do. Pianist Gabriel Latchin’s The Man I Love is something of a revelation right from its opening moments. The pointillist delicacy of his introduction to ‘Summertime’ – like [...]
I have been to three of the ten concerts of Ralph Moore’s “Homecoming Tour” in the past week. It has, quite simply put, been a joy – even if occasionally surreal – to hear and to connect with the real [...]
Bad Trad is the name of the band, as well as the album – led by London-resident drummer Jay Davis who here offers the first recording with a top drawer quartet of James Allsopp on reeds, Mike Soper on trumpet [...]
A tiny “yay!” split the sacred silence prior to performance, and audience and musicians alike broke into laughter. Sonic Bothy shortly commenced their noisemaking, but the smiles never left their faces. With a staggering array of tools at their disposal, [...]
For years Peter Eldridge has remained at the forefront of both the singer-songwriter and jazz realms as a vocalist, pianist, composer, and arranger. Peter was head of the Manhattan School of Music’s jazz voice department for eighteen years and is [...]
“With any type of good music, you can do what you want with it, even twist everything into a jazz format,” says Janette Mason, whose excellent new album ReWired features covers of a range of her favourite chart classics, including [...]
This was in many ways a homecoming gig for Shuteen Erdenebaatar. The young pianist moved from Mongolia to Munich to study jazz six years ago, and on evidence of the packed room at Unterfahrt, the city’s prestigious jazz club, she [...]
There was something magical about Tracey Thorn’s and Ben Watt’s return to live performance together as Everything But The Girl after a 25-year hiatus. The intimate MOTH Club in Hackney was the perfect setting for their two-day residency, with its [...]
Strap yourself in and let go of any fixed ideas of how music should sound. Free-jazz ensemble, A Bigger MOUTH have turned it up a notch for their second album, ‘Band Stand’. The single, ‘Structural Nonsense’ is out now and [...]
Kansas City-born jazz vocalist Deborah Brown lights up the room. She connects with her fellow musicians, and her audience, like no one else. Her vocal range remains incredible…. Mātyās Gayer and Deborah read each other beautifully, with a connection that [...]
Chamber recordings always reward my deepest attention, regardless of their style. Even more so when they involve musicians I admire. So it is with Flint, created by double bassist Joëlle Léandre and pianist Andrzej Karałow. These artists are from different [...]
This album is a re-issue on International Anthem Records of Ben LaMar Gay’s first album, which was a compilation from seven albums that LaMar Gay had recorded in seven years, but never actually issued. The eclectic music on this album [...]
Multi-award-winning trumpeter/bandleader Henry Spencer’s album The Defector received an abundance of critical praise around its release in September 2023. Featuring fellow stalwarts of the British jazz scene Ant Law (guitar), Matt Robinson (keyboards), Andrew Robb (bass) and Dave Ingamells (drums) – [...]
When I first met the singer and actor Jacqui Dankworth on a story for Jazz UK magazine in 2004, I have a suspicion I’d already mentally sketched the arc of a moving tale about a quietly eloquent performer searching for [...]
On the final day of registration for this year’s Jazzahead, Nicky Schrire reflects on the value of the event, and on the build-up over the past two years which has led to a more cohesive and substantial UK presence. One [...]
Anything by trumpeter Kenny Dorham instantly commands attention, and this Record Store Day release, on vinyl from Resonance Records, immediately moved to the top of my wish list. Resonance has a flair for finding and releasing rare sessions, unheard since [...]
The acorn was a discussion between Jonathan Nason and John Bowman, two residents of the village of Kings Bromley, a few miles north of Lichfield in Staffordshire. The sapling was a modest jazz club which first met a year ago [...]
Jazzdor, based in Strasbourg, fosters a spirit of collaboration and co-operation across national boundaries. In addition to its annual ‘home’ festival, it added Berlin more than 15 years ago. The Budapest festival is a relatively new addition, run in partnership [...]
