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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. [...]
Where do they serve the best pizza? In London. Don’t laugh. First let me tell you why: it’s because it is ‘spiced’ with jazz. Since 1969, Pizza Express on Dean Street, founded by Peter Boizot, has combined the roles of [...]
Joni Mitchell has been famous for almost sixty years. Her early albums such as Blue, Court & Spark and Hejira soundtracked the lives of many who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s. Even though only one single, “Big Yellow [...]
The US alto player, cultural omnivore and all-round creative force John Zorn may have been a circus ringmaster in his other life. Invited to showcase multiple projects at Jazzaldia this year, the prolific composer mustered six different combinations from eight [...]
I was in the building when Killer Mike got arrested at the Grammy Awards. Well, sort of: I was in a darkened “war room” at Los Angeles’s Crypto.com Arena, exhaustedly working the show amid a sea of glowing screens, as [...]
Named after a magic number with both mathematical and mystical significance, 137 is what used to be called a supergroup playing a very contemporary and experimental update on what used to be called jazz-rock. Adrian Utley of Portishead plays guitar; [...]
After six decades, the annual festival in the breathtaking Basque seaside town San Sebastián (Donostia) has a tried and tested mix in its schedule. Overseas visitors take in a well-judged selection from the US artists on Summer visits to Europe. [...]
Could this year’s Sarah Vaughan Centenary be the gift which keeps on giving? Zara McFarlane has drawn inspiration from it to produce what is surely the best album of her career, “Sweet Whispers: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan” (links below), so last [...]
