Featuring
Track of the day: In and Out from Masters in Paris
Simply beautiful. The rest is conversation, just listen to this in all its grandeur. Once the final note resounds, and the afternote, interrupted, disappears, the applause premature and in blushing...
Darren Beckett interview
Known for his work with Madeleine Peyroux and Brandon Flowers the Belfast drummer Darren Beckett back from the States these last few years and living in Brighton is in trio...
Wallace Roney has died
The trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Wallace Roney died yesterday in hospital in New Jersey at the age of 59 through complications incurred by contracting COVID-19. Roney was one of the...
Stunner: Tim Berne and Nasheet Waits, The Coandă Effect
I'm a sucker for sax and drums duo albums. Pick of the recent crop is certainly the new Ted Poor and Andrew d'Angelo You Already Know. And look at this...
Chronosphere, an introductory track from Tau Ceti, streams
For avant jazz (in the sense of free-improv or 'free jazz'), I usually turn to Intakt, Trost and Cleanfeed among the best labels to source reliable new releases. And over...
The lead-up to lockdown, NYC. How the world can change in 3 weeks
By Phil Robson. Feb 27, JFK terminal 5. I met up with my colleague and friend, saxophonist Aaron Johnson. We were heading for Portland Oregon to do a west coast...
John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, A Blessing
A magnum opus from John Hollenbeck up there with Royal Toast. Vocalist Theo Bleckmann provides a benign serenity to the title track right at the beginning, the album bookended by...
Ferdinando Romano emerges as a leader
Italian double bassist Ferdinando Romano, who has been working fairly recently with trombone great Robin Eubanks and emerges from both a classical and jazz background, has an upcoming album called...
Bon Iver, Jimmy Webb and Mark Knopfler covers feature nestled among originals on Americana
Harmonica player Grégoire Maret and pianist Romain Collin combine with the jazz guitar great Bill Frisell on a very individual, poised, version of Justin Vernon of Bon Iver's 'Re: Stacks'...
Kandace Springs, The Women Who Raised Me, Blue Note
In a few brief years Kandace Springs has become the female singer to turn to for her fresh way with classic jazz material and this surpasses all that has gone...
Reuben James: all positivity on 'My Line'
Ahead of the summertime release of pianist-singer Reuben James EP Slow Down here's the so very positive Pharrell-esque 'My Line' featuring Col3trane, Jay Prince, Vula and Soweto Kinch. “Slow Down...
Title track of Curtis Stigers' 'Gentleman' now up
The track is a pretty fetching laidback bluesy, brassy, co-write between Curtis Stigers and David Poe. More from 25 March here. Key words in the lyric, a gentleman has to...
Birthday release for Braxton Cook
The soulful, sunny Fire Sign released today on singer-saxophonist Braxton Cook's 29th birthday has got lots of positive reaction on social media. Twitter user @DigitalMayne for instance tweets: ''Listened all...
Dylan asks what is the truth, where did it go?
'The soul of a nation's been torn away': A first new Bob Dylan song in eight years, a stirring interior monologue intone/atone-ment begun over a droning bass with stripped down...
Shabaka and the Ancestors, We Are Sent Here By History, Impulse!
'Music is the seed from which new worlds must grow,' from a poem by Shabaka Hutchings. It is impossible to diminish the impact We Are Sent Here By History creates....
Threebop: a thrill
A three-part harmony vocal group piano-trio backed Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley inspired vocal event no less. Wonderful from newcomers Threebop on A Sleepin Bee. A memorable blend, Luca Manning's...
Jasper Høiby, Planet B
Less satisfying than anything by Phronesis or from Malija the eco-themed concept album Planet B shapes the great bassist Jasper Høiby's tonal surety of execution around the highly melodic saxophone...
Irreversible Entanglements, Who Sent You?
It's rare that you get something truly original entering your ears. And this is, truly, highly original. Not since The Epic has something so obviously important come along. And yet...
Cover of Gentleman revealed: a little of the Lowe down on the latest from Curtis Stigers
The legions of publicists at the label have so far only got round to revealing the cover of Gentleman, new from Curtis Stigers (cool photo) soon. If you believe in...
Pablo Held, Ascent
The only ''unlocking mechanism'' anyone is thinking about at the moment as events overtake just about everything is a Coronavirus vaccine, not the so-named first track of Ascent. The album...
Ray Mantilla, known for his work with Max Roach and Mingus, has died
Celebrated latin-jazz percussionist Ray Mantilla died last weekend at hospital in New York. The bandleader known for his group the Space Station and conguero was 85 and died from complications...
Tineke Postma, Freya
I've always liked saxophonist Tineke Postma. She made such a big impact at the beginning of her career. But it's been so long since I've heard anything by her and...
Manu Dibango succumbs to Coronavirus
Last week we reported that 'Soul Makossa' African jazz icon Manu Dibango had tested positive for COVID-19. Sadly news comes today that the Cameroonian saxophonist, a regular headliner at Ronnie...
Spectacular title track of Warmer Than Blood in all quietude streams
Whirlwind is going through a purple patch these last few weeks in spite of everything introducing new music week in week out. This intimate title track heralding ''Warmer Than Blood''...
Johnny Cash classic gets the Rudresh treatment
Now this throws me. The lead-off track to the upcoming Rudresh Mahanthappa album Hero Trio (Whirlwind) is a version of the June Carter-Merle Kilgore song made his own by Johnny...
Latest blow to a devastated Irish jazz scene as Sligo Jazz Project calls off this year's gathering
This summer's Sligo Jazz Festival and Summer School, one of the most significant series of events happening anywhere on the jazz festival calendar in Ireland, has been called off, another...
Introducing Howes3
Bit of a find this new band… out on the DeepMatter label next month, a very groovy trio who land in a Herbie Hancock/Ramsey Lewis space. Moving Forward marks the...