It was a thrill to hear the great Chicago-born alto player Steve Coleman in the intimate atmosphere of Pizza Express, in the middle of the trio’s European tour. ‘It’s hard to overstate Steve’s influence,’ Vijay Iyer once wrote, and there [...]
The writer and poet Mary Webb (1881-1927) provides the common ground between Roger Garfitt’s poetry and Nikki Iles’ compositions, the words and music together showing each other in a new light. Iles was commissioned in 1998 by saxophonist John Williams, [...]
The delicate fretwork on Stefanos Tsourelis’ oud made it look too fragile for a stage: his semi-acoustic guitar was on a stand, while the oud was comfortably resting in an amp bag. Tsourelis comes from Greece and studied its music, [...]
This warm-hearted documentary charts the swift rise of American singer and songwriter Gregory Porter. Surprisingly, Porter didn’t make his first album till nearly 40, and became popular in Europe before the US. Shot in black and white, there’s footage of [...]
This paradise isn’t warm and tropical, but cold. The award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter Sienna Dahlen grew up in the west of Canada, where her memories are of the beauty of the cold, and connection with nature. Dahlen sings and plays guitar [...]
An evening of (mostly) Italian improvising musicians, with an innovative new trio: leading Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava, with young pianist Giovanni Guidi– and British electronic musician Matthew Herbert. Sardinian singers Filomena Campus and Gavino Murgia (also on soprano sax and [...]
At last- a London premiere for accordionist Vincent Peirani, with fellow Frenchman, saxophonist Émile Parisien. The latter is no stranger to London Jazz Festival audiences, and it was wonderful to hear the two as a duo- they’ve developed a particularly [...]
The Yamaha Jazz Scholars Evening was held at Portcullis House in Westminster on Tuesday 25th October 2016. This is Alison Bentley’s report: The seven 2016 Yamaha Jazz Scholars were waiting shyly in the wings at the awards evening, hosted by [...]
German pianist Michael Wollny and French accordionist Vincent Peirani bring jazz, classical, folk and improvised music together in this fine recording- their first as a duo. ‘We prepared and arranged some of the pieces with great care, whereas we left [...]
A late-night busker was singing ‘60s folk songs outside the O2 in Cowley Road (Oxford’s ‘left bank’). Trio Moon Hooch honed their skills busking on the New York subway – and their music was a considerably more urban experience. They [...]
