Ronny Graupe is a German guitarist, originally from Chemnitz (aka Karl-Marx-Stadt) in the former GDR, who studied in Leipzig from where he paid a short visit to Birmingham in the early 2000s with a young group as part of a [...]
This album is a re-issue on International Anthem Records of Ben LaMar Gay’s first album, which was a compilation from seven albums that LaMar Gay had recorded in seven years, but never actually issued. The eclectic music on this album [...]
This concert in the wonderful setting of Symphony Hall was a triumph for Xhosa Cole and his group of musicians and for the CBSO. The concert featured an opening set devoted to Monk with Xhosa leading a group with himself [...]
light.box is the duo of Alex Bonney and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, both on electronics, but with Bonney doubling on trumpet and Tremblay doubling on bass guitar. They have made four records, the first just as a duo, the others in [...]
Valentin Ceccaldi is an improvising cellist who is at the centre of the free improvisation scene in France in groups such as those led by his elder brother Theo Ceccaldi, also with the Hermia Ceccaldi Darrifourcq Trio and groups featuring [...]
The theme of the first residency of the Montreux Jazz Festival at London’s South Bank was the legacy of Nina Simone. The choice of Soweto Kinch for the second night of the programme seems particularly appropriate, given both his musical [...]
honey from a winter stone is Ambrose Akinmusire’s second album on the Nonesuch label. The first, ‘Owl Song’, was an acclaimed album described as having ‘great beauty, haunting melody, heightened sensitivity’ (Philip Watson, The Irish Times). The music is almost [...]
This intriguing album came about as a result of drummer/percussionist Thomas Strönen having time at the end of a recording session to record a series of percussion and drum solos. It was at the time of the Covid pandemic so, on the advice [...]
Lilaila Records, the new record label set up by saxophonists Maria Grand and Camila Nebbia plus pianist Marta Sánchez, is dedicated to work that brings musicians from different backgrounds together. The label’s first release, Altered Visions, features the three founders [...]
The opening track of Tullis Rennie‘s Safe Operating Space, Sometime Too Hot, opens with a striking sound, the source of which it is difficult to pin down; it is a dramatic opening that gives us an excellent idea of what [...]
