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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Had Alan Dawson lived, 14 July 2024 would have been his 95th birthday. But for many in the drum-playing fraternity, he is still very much alive. The Boston-area native stands as one of the most dynamic drummers in the history [...]
“As a drummer he had it all: the sound, the touch, the ability to communicate and to react at the drop of a hat. “ Canadian drummer and writer T Bruce Wittet remembers Danish drummer Alex Riel. Although he no [...]
Nordic jazz vocalist/saxophonist Mads Mathias has written this personal tribute to drummer Alex Riel, an important figure in the history of Danish jazz, who has died aged 83. Alex Riel was supposed to become a hairdresser like his father and [...]
Palle Danielsson has died, and with him, one of the most instantly identifiable bass sounds of all time. For many of us, his greatest work was with the Keith Jarrett band, for a brief period in the mid 1970s. Several [...]
The news of saxophonist David Sanborn’s death on 12 May 2024 at the age of 78 left many in the music world in sadness and shock. He had spent much of his life battling illness. Whether it was the serious [...]
The great arranger Bill Holman passed away at the age of 96 last Monday. A three-time Grammy Award winner nominated on sixteen occasions, he was at the forefront of West Coast Jazz in the fifties and helped to shape the [...]
“Once it’s released, the music exists.” (Michael Cuscuna) Producer of new and archival recordings, radio presenter, writer, researcher, discographer, co-founder of Mosaic Records (which he ran for over forty years), winner of three Grammys and a Downbeat Lifetime Achievement in [...]
