In this tribute, Denny Ilett (*) remembers his close colleague and friend Pee Wee Ellis, who passed away on 23 September 2021 at the age of 80. Alfred ‘Pee Wee’ Ellis has rightfully received a truly global outpouring of love [...]
Serving as a fitting memorial to trombonist Chris Barber’s extraordinary career, A Trailblazer’s Legacy is a beautifully packaged 4-CD boxed set containing 69 tracks covering the entirety of his nearly 70 years as a bandleader. An 18,000-word biography/discography by Alyn [...]
John McLaughlin’s decision to retire from touring in 2017 was greeted with shock and sadness by his legions of fans. In an interview he stated “God bless my mother; I inherited music from her but I also inherited arthritis!” After [...]
The great trumpeter and educator Clark Terry used a phrase that became somewhat of a mantra for budding jazz musicians; it read “Imitate, assimilate, innovate”. Each and every musician featured in this fascinating new compilation, until the early 1960s, when [...]
There’s a very good reason why the music of Wes Montgomery continues to inspire guitarists some 53 years after his untimely passing. Wes’ patent blend of bebop and blues is music with a smile on its face; deceptively simple at [...]
There can sometimes be something slightly voyeuristic about listening to an artist’s final recordings. One might become preoccupied with listening out for signs or clues; did they know what was just around the corner? Often, these recordings, released posthumously, take [...]
It goes without saying that any new release bearing Wes Montgomery’s name is a highly-anticipated and welcome event. The last few years, particularly, saw important and valuable releases from Resonance Records. In The Beginning (REVIEW)and Back On Indiana Avenue (REVIEW) [...]
That glorious body of 20th Century musical work known as The Great American Songbook has long provided artists with an almost bottomless pit of musical magic upon which to draw. Almost a century after many of them were written, new [...]
Canadian Lorne Lofsky (b.1954) is a name that guitarists of all persuasions, over the last four decades, have consistently held in awe for his extensive harmonic and melodic language which, at times, has his guitar sounding almost like a piano. [...]
