Popping into my local, so to speak… Like so many seaside towns, Southend-on-Sea is wearing the malaise of over a decade’s austerity and *cough* certain political decisions, its High Street sprouting vape and phone shops while big names soldier on [...]
Sunday afternoon (just) in Cheltenham, and it’s Lizz Wright’s turn to comment on an unaccustomed early start in the jazz arena, asking if she’s been booked for a gospel brunch. It’s a kind of a late start too, as she [...]
The first post-Covid festival returned to Bergamo’s main venues, now beautifully restored – most notably, the magnificent Teatro Donizetti, with its frescoed ceiling. The first gig there was the Fred Hersch Trio with Drew Gress (bass) and Joey Baron (drums). [...]
“What the World Needs Now….” is – quite emphatically – more Bill Frisell. The gentleness, the bonhomie, the deeply civilised way of being…last night’s solo concert at Cadogan Hall was a sometimes poignant reminder of some of the values which [...]
The first of the quartet’s six performances at Ronnie’s, this early set completely blew me away. Part of the power was probably due to having been starved of live music for two whole years, and probably having forgotten what a [...]
The Nikki Iles Jazz Orchestra’s “Face to Face” tour was originally planned to take place in 2020. It has… finally…reached its joyous conclusion. Every musician on stage seemed to not just to be proving at every moment a deep belief [...]
Purists beware! — Interchanges, the inaugural live event curated by Written Records’ Evie Hill, was a sweet Sunday night programme exploring the cross-pollination and intersections between jazz, hiphop and spoken word that pleasingly exceeded expectations. High quality musicianship and an [...]
