UK Jazz News

John Watson

The Cathedral Hotel, Lichfield. 15 January 2025

The group Freight Train, originally formed with Irish folk singer Cathy Jordan, drummer Paul Clarvis and pianist Liam Noble is a successful project blending jazz and folk music. Because of conflicting commitments, Jordan was unable to play three West Midland [...]

1 November 2024.

A dreadful tragedy cut short the Pancevo Jazz Festival, held in a town north of Belgrade, Serbia. Three days of national mourning were declared in the region after a concrete canopy collapsed at a railway station in the city of [...]

24-28 October 2024

The Belgrade Jazz Festival always offers a strong international line-up – from legendary performers to often astonishing rising stars – and despite financial constraints its 40th birthday programme produced a great deal of truly magnificent music. It opened at the [...]

Writer/ photographer John Watson heard and saw Dennis Rollin’s as special guest with the Nick Dewhurst Band at the Cathedral Hotel on Friday 7 June as part of the Lichfield Jazz and Blues Festival. Photos copyright John Watson/jazzcamera.co.uk John Watson [...]

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. 17 May 2024.

“Anyone who thinks they’ve got music all figured out – well, they’ve got a problem,” said guitar master Bill Frisell to a packed room of students at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. “I always feel I’m at the beginning. Every time.” [...]

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. 25 January 2024

Tenor saxophonist Rick Margitza became a member of what was probably Miles Davis’s finest group during the trumpeter’s electric era in 1988, and toured and recorded with him for two years, including albums for Warner such Amandla featuring the production [...]

18 January 2024.

Saxophonist Tim Garland and pianist Jason Rebello have created a very successful partnership as a duo, blending their individual styles to produce some captivating music. They have been on tour in the UK and abroad to promote their Whirlwind album [...]

Pancevo Culture Centre, Serbia. 3-5 Nov.

I’m going to let you into a little jazz secret. If you go to the small Serbian town of Pancevo, just north of Belgrade, you’ll find in early November one of the most extraordinary festivals on the international scene. In [...]

Dom Omladine concert halls. 24-29 Oct.

“I never thought we would be playing at a time like this,” said Israeli tenor saxophonist Oded Tzur. “But the music is about love.”  He didn’t have to spell out what he was referring to, nor was he going to [...]

Timisoara, Romania

I find the music of Shakti so captivating that concentrating on photographing the group in concert might be considered the biggest challenge I face.  I could almost forget that I have a camera in my hands, and be swept away [...]

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