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The spotlight shone on Nai Palm as Eventim Apollo welcomed Melbourne-based band Hiatus Kaiyote back to London, in the wake of their fourth studio album “Love Heart Cheat Code” (Brainfeeder/ Ninja Tune) released in June. If, like me, you’ve listened [...]
Scintillating, celebrated Britjazz marvels Empirical call in at Newhampton Arts Centre in Wolverhampton for a keenly awaited gig – with a fresh line-up. The reconfigured band comes to the Midlands minus vibraphone player Lewis Wright, who had been a stalwart [...]
Peter Slavid attended the concerts on Saturday 5 October at this year’s Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music. He writes: The penultimate day of this, now well established festival saw a fine triple bill in the wonderful Literary and [...]
Bernd Zimmermann and Susanne Pohlen’s New Colours Festival is now in its third year. The promoters – who also present the monthly series FineArtJazz – are determined to show that Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr does have interesting things to offer, [...]
Samara Joy’s eponymous first album (Whirlwind, 2021) was one of the most impressive debuts by an artist that I’ve ever heard. It had everything – Joy’s incredible voice, the extraordinary guitarist Pasquale Grasso, the swinging rhythm section of double bassist [...]
Hudson Hall almost wasn’t here. The arts organisation and venue is housed at the historic Hudson Opera House, constructed in 1855, initially as Hudson’s city hall. In 1975, the last cement plant shipped out of town and neglect staked its [...]
“I have a long relationship with Ronnie Scott’s,” remarks vibraphonist Joe Locke, who next plays there with his working American quartet on October 29, one day before the venerable London jazz club celebrates its 65th anniversary. As on his last [...]
This was the concert as conundrum; Kit Armstrong and Michael Wollny are two very different pianists. Alfred Brendel has praised Kit Armstrong’s “understanding of the great piano works that combines freshness and subtlety, emotion and intellect”, whereas Richard Williams has [...]
Sarah Weller is the Head of Music at Ronnie Scott’s Club in London.There are few positions in the UK music industry to equal the authority of her position at one of the leading jazz clubs of Europe. With a multi-faceted [...]
Luminescence is an ongoing collaboration between saxophonist Tommy Smith and the Edinburgh-based visual artist Maria Rud. As Smith improvises, Rud paints, the ever-changing images projected for the audience to see. In his accompanying notes, Smith says two other factors are [...]
What a wonderful opportunity for the Royal Academy of Music jazz students this was: a few days’ work culminating in this one-off concert with the double bass and composer legend that is Dave Holland. Now, unbelievably, 78, the evergreen maestro’s [...]
Wakefield Jazz have been hosting top quality gigs for over 30 years at their Wakefield Sports Club home, and Friday night’s event was no exception. Following a successful performance at The Vortex on Wednesday, Alexander Hawkins and Marco Colonna brought [...]
I was probably only a toddler when I first heard Nelson Riddle. My Grandfather would have Sinatra/Fitzgerald records playing all the time, but it wasn’t until my late teens that I knew him by name. My housemate at music college [...]
This, the opening gig of the 2024 Southend Jazz Festival set an assured, good-time tone with a superbly played evening of predominantly pre-bop blues standards and straightahead jazz blowing. Trumpeter Pete Horsfall‘s Mighty Like The Blues project is a quintet [...]
Peter Bernstein commented “There’s an old joke in show business. You play a venue twice – once on the way up and once on the way down”. Fortunately for us, he had miscalculated and this was actually the third time [...]
The avant-garde has won the battle for jazz history, the critic Phil Freeman observed recently. The 1960s, it’s agreed, saw the loud stirrings of a new approach to jazz. Though disturbing to some at the time, its proponents, such as [...]
Catherine Russell’s duo album with pianist Sean Mason “My Ideal” (Dot Time) from earlier this year is a gem. I reviewed it for The Arts Desk (link below), and have gone on listening to it for pure pleasure, often wondering [...]
Kalpadruma (which means ‘tree of life’ in Indian-origin religions) is an ensemble led by saxophonist/composer Asha Parkinson, a rising star who reached the semi-finals in the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year in 2016, 2018 and 2020, and who [...]
The following is an interview between jazz journalist Morgan Enos and Ropeadope’s CEO, Louis Marks, and president, Fabian Brown. The pair are ringing in the anniversary of this multifarious label with a scrolling multimedia documentary, a series of panel discussions, [...]
“Our aim is that when audiences leave, they feel like they know us and that they’ll come back and see us again.” Top UK swing orchestra Down for the Count is returning to Cadogan Hall with an iconic show on 12 October. Lovers of [...]
At Pizza Express in Dean Street on 27 November, the audience will experience “a very special one-off appearance by the Pete Allen Jazz Band… whole-hearted ensemble playing, and confident, out-going solo work, a driving rhythm section, some sparky vocals, and [...]
Shabaka, who will be at the Royal Festival Hall on 30 November, is “an emblematic artist for the age.” Much of the well-deserved attention for ‘Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace’, the debut solo album by Shabaka – the artist [...]
For more than two decades pianist Liam Noble has been a key figure on the vibrant British Jazz scene, both as a sideman and leader. He has collaborated with musicians including Dave Liebman, Tim Berne, Tom Herbert and Seb Rochford. [...]
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Admirers of Tord Gustavsen’s breakthrough series of trio albums beginning with the inspired ECM debut, Changing Places in 2003, will find much to please them in this very enjoyable continued return to the [...]
On Thursday 10 October, French guitarist / singer / band leader Benoit Viellefon is launching his new album Out of Dates at The Brunswick, Hove with a concert by his Hot Club. Benoit Viellefon, originally from Northern France, has led [...]
The release of Dance, No One’s Watching sees London quintet Ezra Collective riding the crest of a wave of popularity that started building in 2018. Their last album Where I’m Meant to Be took them to places few thought a [...]
Since 2023, Livia Records have meticulously restored and re-released three Louis Stewart albums: Some Other Blues, Out On His Own and Louis the First. Now they’ve released a rarity that will surely have jazz-guitar fans salivating: a cleaned-up and previously [...]
The Kris Davis Trio featuring Robert Hurst and Johnathan Blake – Run The Gauntlet In the 20 years since pianist composer Kris Davis released her debut album Lifespan, she has been the lead/co-lead on more than 30 albums, and has [...]
“This story tells me that if we wish to change the world, we will all need to change individually. I feel it’s time to tell this tale, with its universal message of spiritual awakening.” Tigran Hamasyan’s new double album, The [...]
This performance by Rob Cope’s ‘Gemini’ was the second half of the opening concert of the 15th series of concerts in Sandbach. Originally setup in 2010 by local musicians Andy and Lauren Scott, the momentum for the series has really [...]
Tommy Smith & John Taylor – Love Unrequited(Available from Bandcamp. Download Review by Patrick Hadfield) Recorded in New York at the same time as saxophonist Tommy Smith‘s 2003 release Evolution, on which pianist John Taylor also appears, Love Unrequited is [...]
