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John Watson writes: I have long admired the creativity and keyboard eloquence of Brad Mehldau, but opportunities to photograph him have been few. However, for the first volume of his autobiography (link to Scott Flanigan’s review below), I was able [...]
In his sleeve notes to this, the second album by Swiss super-trio Helveticus, Manfred Papst wryly observes that the three musicians “could be grandfather, father and son”. In terms of their ages they are indeed separated by several generations, but [...]
The Cheltenham Jazz Festival has has always presented a wide range of jazz and genres of near-jazz music in the main festival. But for those who like their jazz at the more adventurous end of the spectrum, there is no [...]
Hearing this beautifully absorbing short set, it seems surprising that trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and pianist and organist Amina Claudine Myers’ musical paths have not crossed more often. Both were associated with earliest days of the Chicago-based Association for the [...]
Unlike many classical, rock and pop concerts, where the audience is there to hear old favourites, the jazz gig, with improvisation at its heart, is always about ‘the new’. On Wednesday night at the excellent Vortex club in Dalston, an [...]
This boisterous album takes us back to Seattle in 1972, with organ maestro ‘Brother’ Jack McDuff leading a full band through an evening of grooving full-on jazz. McDuff’s arrangements expertly orchestrate the tension and release that’s so important to this [...]
Asked to justify the low level of grant support for jazz when compared to, say, opera, an Arts Council functionary once answered, “Jazz takes care of itself, doesn’t it?” In other words, grass-roots jazz promotion depends on unpaid enthusiasts and [...]
Starting with their critically-acclaimed debut, ‘Zero, released in the year 2000, the duo of pianist Carolyn Hume and drummer Paul May has produced seven albums on Leo Records, mixing unusually sensitive, rhapsodic even, free improv with intensely percussive, often drum [...]
It’s been almost two years since I wrote about Jasmine Myra’s beautiful debut album Horizons (LINK TO REVIEW), which was one of the best UK jazz releases of 2022. Now the composer, alto saxophonist and flautist releases Rising, her second [...]
I suppose there must have been other moments in life when I felt as giddily happy as seeing Sonny Rollins dive head first into a heroic opening solo on “Falling in Love with Love” at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in [...]
