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I must confess that I came to this album with a good deal of positive bias. Chick Corea’s output in the early-to-mid 1970s was a formative part of my musical education and those classic LP records, the Light as a [...]
Saxophonist Helena Kay and pianist Zoe Rahman will be appearing as a duo next month, as the first of the the new Jazz Thursdays series which she curates at Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh. Helena Kay will relive a moment from [...]
Herbie Hancock once opined that the spirit of jazz was the spirit of openness. The Herne Bay Jazz Festival organisers, including its musical director, vocalist Kai Hoffman, have tapped into that feeling perfectly. It’s a non-profit festival and most of [...]
Météo Mulhouse Festival (Six venues in Mulhouse, Alsace. 21-24 August 2024. Review by Tony Dudley-Evans) The Météo Mulhouse Festival, known as Jazz à Mulhouse from 1983, and under its current name since 2009, has always been known for its adventurous programming. In the [...]
The following is an interview between jazz journalist Morgan Enos and trombonist Michael Dease. His new album, Grove’s Groove – a tribute to Roy Hargrove – is out 23 August via Le Coq Records. The nine-song collection features Dease on baritone sax instead of trumpet, [...]
“Mothers In Jazz” reached its hundredth interview in early July. The 100th was with Dee Dee Bridgewater, the 99th was with Norma Winstone, and the 98th was with the creator of the series, Nicky Schrire. The series returns from a [...]
Franz Hackl, the trumpeter whose brainchild Outreach Festival is, splits his time between New York and Schwaz, his hometown, a few miles down-river from Innsbruck. The festival, now in its 32nd edition, is the highlight of the Outreach Academy, a [...]
For Tim Garland‘s gig at World HeartBeat on 6 September, his Lighthouse Trio – with Gwilym Simcock and Asaf Sirkis – will be joined by Yazz Ahmed. There is also going to be a pre-concert session beforehand in which Yazz [...]
The news of the death of guitarist Russell Malone on Friday 23 August 2024, at the age of just 60, comes as a totally unexpected shock. Fellow guitarist David O’Rourke remembers a friend – and one of the greats of [...]
BOP Jazz Theatre Company will present Jazz Conversations, “a double bill of soulful jazz dance and live jazz music,” at The Place, London, on 20 and 21 September. The programme combines two of BOP Jazz Theatre Company’s best-loved jazz dance [...]
Seven concerts… seventeen (so far) listed musicians. Lists below… Derek Hook started the Ambleside Days Festival, “a Contemporary Music Festival in the heart of the English Lake District”, in 2017. This year’s edition builds to a large ensemble concert [...]
Konfrontationen Festival takes place in Nickelsdorf, a small village about an hour east of Vienna, right on the Hungarian border. The festival has now reached its 44th edition. Report by Oliver Weindling on the 2024 festival’s middle day, 27 July. [...]
The following is an interview between jazz journalist Morgan Enos and pianist Bill Charlap, whose new trio album And Then Again, with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington, was recorded at New York’s Village Vanguard and released 16 August [...]
It’s a slam dunk. By general agreement Wayne Shorter was one of the greatest instrumentalists and composers in the history of jazz. Equally, his final quartet, with pianist Danilo Pérez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade is accepted to [...]
British guitarist Ant Law joins forces here with Milan-born Turkish-British singer Brigitte Beraha for a short but emotionally potent set. Law is a stalwart of the UK jazz scene, but this album represents a couple of significant musical departures for [...]
The Inntöne Festival gave more opportunities than ever to hear the carefully-curated selections of Paul Zauner. The Friday of the festival had just four main bands, but on Saturday and Sunday he had programmed 13 hours a day of non-stop [...]
In future years, Emmet Cohen should always be remembered as the ebullient jazz musician whose online performances during Covid, live from his Harlem apartment, raised our spirits and almost vanquished our lockdown blues. But now, with this album recorded early [...]
Duke Ellington, orch. Morton GouldSolitude, Mood Indigo, Sophisticated Lady, Caravan Mary Lou WilliamsZodiac Suite Anthony BraxtonComposition No. 27. (+46, 59, 63, 146, 147, 151, Language Music) It is of course in the tradition of the Proms to programme some examples [...]
Anthony Colwyn was a bandleader, jazz trumpeter, singer, dentist and hereditary peer who spoke up regularly in Parliament about the importance and the value of jazz, and did so with knowledge and passion. He died earlier this month. Nigel Tully [...]
NYJO (National Youth Jazz Orchestra) is announcing today that Yvette Griffith OBE, Chief Executive and Executive Director of Jazz re:freshed is joining NYJO as its new CEO . Yvette received an OBE in the 2024 New Year’s Honours for services [...]
The nominations for the 2024 Parliamentary Jazz Awards have been announced today. The Awards are organised by the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Group (APPJG) and supported by PPL. The recipients of the 2024 Parliamentary Jazz Awards will be announced at [...]
It was a lovely summer’s evening, the skies above the river and reed beds outside Snape Maltings were empty and silent, but inside the concert hall the audience was filling the seats in expectation of a great night of music, [...]
The following is an interview between jazz journalist Morgan Enos and drummer and composer Jonathan Barber. His new album with Vision Ahead, In Motion, released 2 August, features tenor saxophonist Matt Knoegel, guitarist Andrew Renfroe, pianist Taber Gable, and bassist [...]
The location of the Gǎrâna Jazz Festival is appropriately called Poiana Lupului, meaning “wolf’s glens”. Perhaps it reflects the attitude of the musicians: playful, sharp, fearless and cunning! A main focus of the first few days of the festival, which [...]
The word had surely got out in advance but there were still some present who genuinely didn’t know what they had come to hear. Which was Wynton Marsalis playing an unannounced gig to open Edinburgh International Festival’s Up Lates programme. [...]
Tales of the Skald is the first album from drummer Stephen Henderson‘s quintet, Modern Vikings, which has existed with unchanged personnel since 2018. The group includes his band mates Fergus McCreadie and David Bowden from the award-winning Fergus McCreadie Trio [...]
Swiss drummer Lucas Niggli pays tribute to Irène Schweizer, to her unique role as “the encourager“ and remembers the astonishing flow and incisiveness of her playing… and her laugh. “HA!”. Irene had a way of laughing which was short and [...]
Having seen this duo’s YouTube videos and deciding not to read this album’s press release on first listen, putting this record on was a big surprise. Those early videos were stripped back, piano and tap with some left-hand bass and, [...]
