London-based saxophonist and composer Tom Ridout has been running jazz jam nights every Monday at sYp, a bar and live music venue in the heart of the capital’s financial district, for over a year. Sat in the shadow of the [...]
London-based guitarist and composer Billy Marrows has a knack for choosing song names. His debut album, named for his late mum Penelope (Penny), is full of great ones, each with a story behind it. ‘Be Right Bold’, for instance, is [...]
Guitarist/composer Billy Marrows recorded his debut album with the 12-piece chamber-jazz ensemble A Grande Família in the summer of 2023 as a surprise for his mother Penny during her struggle with pancreatic cancer. The album was released in her memory [...]
Rising-star tenor saxophonist and composer Alex Hitchcock recently released ‘Dream Band: Live in London’ (Whirlwind Recordings), a triple album which documents three different bands led by him across consecutive nights at the Vortex. UKJazz News: First off- the record sounds [...]
Horntet are a quintet of young Polish musicians led by pianist Bartłomiej Leśniak. Despite only forming in 2019 while they were students at the Academies of Music in Krakow and Katowice, the group already have an impressive list of achievements [...]
The fifth International Jarek Smietana Jazz Guitar Competition in Krakow, from which musician/writer Sam Norris reported the results (link below), also gave him the opportunity to meet two of the international judges, Peter Bernstein, and Romain Pilon. Sam Norris asked them [...]
The winner of the 2023 Smietana International Jazz Guitar Competition is announced. This the 5th edition of the International Jarek Smietana Jazz Guitar Competition, hosted in Krakow in memory of the Polish jazz guitar icon (1951-2013). This year’s winner is [...]
Toots Thielemans centenary celebrations – with Vince Mendoza, Kenny Werner, Gregoire Maret, Philip Catherine, Ivan Lins. Jean ‘Toots’ Thielemans (1922-2016) was a jazz musician and composer like no other. Born in the Marolles district of Brussels, ‘Toots’ became known primarily [...]
Mars is the latest brainchild of veteran avant-garde alto saxophonist Tim Berne, released on the always impressive and boundary-pushing Swiss label Intakt Records. Berne’s career has been characterised by the relentless originality of both his own alto playing and the [...]
