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Three recordings in 20 years for Inner Space, one of the two principal groups led by London-based trumpeter Loz Speyer, indicates a patient cultivation of their art. And the way that the group sound remains identifiable even though Speyer is [...]
It is always sheer delight to see and hear alto saxophonist Ben van Gelder and guitarist Reinier Bass. This is jazz without the brakes. Adventurous, challenging, unpredictable, the arrangements have a richness about them, and everything is played with a [...]
Seven years. It doesn’t seem likely, but it is, indeed, seven years since the Neil Cowley Trio decided to take a break, a short while after releasing Spacebound Apes. Now the trio has returned, with Entity, and it’s extremely good [...]
“He had the chops to explain music to other musicians and to laypersons. No one else did what Dave did. He knew the way things worked because he had slugged away in the trenches just as he’d knocked on record [...]
Plexus: (Carlotta Armbruster and Jonas Heck) / Unionen (Petter Eldh, Gard Nilssen, Per Texas Johansson, Ståle Storløkken) This was my third and last concert during Cologne Jazz Week, so I’m not attempting to do justice to the breadth of the [...]
The Jazz Repertory Company will present ‘Jazz in New York: The 1930s’, with Kerry Shale as presenter, and Vimala Rowe performing the songs of Billie Holiday, at Cadogan Hall, on Sunday 29 September at 6:30pm. Richard Pite writes: On Sunday [...]
Jazz Café POSK opens its autumn season with the inaugural POSK Festival of Jazz Voice on 4 and 5 October. It will feature a unique performance of an “Inspirations” programme by Norma Winstone “with songs that she seldom performs on [...]
The following is a review of revered bassist Dave Holland’s debut as a leader at Smoke Jazz Club in New York City. His “New Quartet” featured alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, pianist Kris Davis, and drummer Nasheet Waits. “They’re all musicians [...]
Lisa Buck is an artist manager, an artistic director and a key figure in the dynamic jazz community in Calgary, Canada. She started the successful house-concert series “BuckingJam Palace” where world-class jazz musicians quietly appear in Calgary one night a [...]
John Arnett writes: Taking place over four days in one of the cinemas of the very congenial Ambleside institution that is Zeffirellis, this four day festival was the seventh, annually, in what has proved to be a highly successful and [...]
Tom Step reports from Jazz in the Park. 30 August- 1 September 2024, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Artists: DAOUD, Qinta Spartă and Norzeatic, Oreglo, Jazzbois, Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, Isfar Sarabski, Cymande, Orchestra Baobab, Tigran Hamasyan Trio, Avishai Cohen Trio, Roni Kaspi [...]
“Marv’s total commitment to everything he did musically was truly humbling and I feel incredibly lucky that he graced so much of my music (and others) with his wonderful playing.” Saxophonist Mark Lockheart writes in tribute to his “dear collaborator [...]
The Soho Jazz Festival is growing and incorporates venues such as Crazy Coqs and Pizza Express Dean Street. This year’s eighth festival from Wednesday 11 September to Saturday 14 September involves fifteen stages, 35+ shows and 100 artists… PROGRAMME WEDNESDAY [...]
The very sad news of the death of drummer and drum teacher Martin France is announced. Nick Smart has posted this tribute on the Royal Academy of Music Website: “It is with great sadness that we learned today our dear [...]
At this point in his career, Oxford-born pianist, organist and composer Alexander Hawkins really needs little introduction. A virtuosic improviser who can draw on seemingly infinite musical frame of reference, each of his half dozen or so recordings for the [...]
Gaume Jazz Festival celebrated its 40th edition from 9 to 11 August. As with so many other festivals, this festival has been run from the beginning by one person, Jean-Pierre Bissot, who has carefully nurtured and adapted the programme. It [...]
Bakunawa is an album by three important players on the creative New York scene: drummer Andrew Barker, bassist William Parker and saxophonist Jon Irabagon. All three have performed together in different configurations, but this is their first album as a [...]
Lyrics by Sting, Joe Jackson and Kent-based singer-songwriter-activist Nina Clark feature alongside those of Great American Songbook contributors Lorenz Hart and Sammy Kahn and the singer himself in Kurt Elling’s latest concerts with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. Kurt Elling, [...]
This is the debut release for a remarkable document of a remarkable band, complete with cover art by the great drummer and jazz iconoclast Tony Oxley, who died last last year aged 85. It was recorded at the Ruhr Jazz [...]
This new album provides a feast of musical styles and influences: fiesta is just the word that it evokes. My memory has grown uncertain, but I think I first heard Jennifer Moore (Ayala) as a teenager, in Cambridge. I could [...]
Second of three evenings at Cologne Jazz Week I started trying to remember good quotes about lightness, and there was a reason. W.B.Yeats wrote “tread softly because you tread on my dreams ” and there’s a Sonny Rollins liner note where [...]
Saxophonist, composer and arranger Asha Parkinson draws on influences from many musical styles and cultures to create her own distinctive body of work. Ahead of the release of Possession, her debut album, Parkinson spoke about her musical development, the creation [...]
Ambrose Akinmusire QuartetSamora Pinderhughes/ EOS Kammerorchester I am spending a couple of days in Cologne, and this is going to be the first of three concert reviews from Cologne Jazz Week. CJW is a major festival, with a lot going [...]
Russian-born tenor sax maestro and flautist Art Baden delivers a stirring debut, evoking legends of his instrument such as Wayne Shorter, while finding a distinct voice and improvisational style. On How Much Of It Is Real? Baden is flanked by [...]
The following is an interview between jazz journalist Morgan Enos and trumpeter, composer, arranger, and vocalist Danny Jonokuchi. His new big band album, A Decade, was released 23 August via Bandstand Presents. Varying track by track, A Decade’s big band [...]
Cuban-American pianist/composer Fabian Almazan found his musical roots as a child in Havana. Cuba was where he first became involved in the classical piano tradition. As a performer, he has developed a personal voice through the electric manipulation of the [...]
Nigel Price announced the launch of his latest recording, Live ’23, with the Organ Trio in a performance at Alfie’s in Soho. It represents the culmination of a 43 date tour in 2023 that covered the length and breadth of [...]
What do flash mobs on public transport, synthetic ensembles of musical machinery and an impromptu concert on a rowing boat all have in common? Well, they were all regular sights during last week’s Jazzfestival Saalfelden in Austria. For several decades, [...]
Shez Raja writes: “I’m thrilled to share the news about a homecoming show that holds a lot of significance for me. “On Saturday 28 September I’ll be performing at Future Yard in the Wirral, NW England – the area where [...]
Led by Czech-born guitarist Honza Kourimsky, Mahuki is a funky, versatile ensemble whose debut CD recalls everything from Ezra Collective to Balkan and Eastern European folk music. Gratitude is a fusion record that deftly hops between musical influences, from synchronised [...]
Pat Thomas is becoming one of the prominent musicians in the UK, playing the music of Ahmed Abdul-Malik in Ahmed, with Orphy Robinson in Black Top, and with Rachel Musson and Mark Sanders in Shifa amongst other groups. He recently had a [...]
Sometimes two kindred spirits can follow long playing trajectories and reach similar points in jazz’s vast musical landscape. So it is with saxophonist Jon Lloyd and pianist John Law, who first worked together nearly 35 years ago. Their current quartet [...]
