The free jazz and improvised music scenes in Europe, including UK, are so strong that it is sometimes easy to neglect the fact that the movement into freedom in jazz began in the USA with Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Cecil [...]
We’re used to jazz musicians being portrayed as tortured individuals, sacrificing themselves to push jazz forward. But guitarist/ banjo player/ songwriter Danny Barker’s autobiography tells of growing up with jazz in New Orleans, where the music was part of the [...]
Chilly Gonzales (the Canadian pianist and composer formerly known as Jason Beck) has written a book of 24 short piano pieces aimed at luring ‘lapsed pianists’ back into playing. First, let me count the ways I find to avoid practising…the [...]
