“We Jazz Together” – that was the theme of the JAZZx Festival, held in the beautiful Romanian city of Timisoara. You may agree that it’s as good a slogan as any for such an international event. The programme, performed in [...]
The bass artistry of Stanley Clarke inspired me to take these photographs at his band’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2023 concert. I have tried to capture the joy and amazing energy of this great musician – he is in his early [...]
Concerts by touring American bands have been rather thin on the ground in recent times in Birmingham, though thankfully the city is blessed with a very active live scene featuring some of the UK’s finest musicians. So it was particularly [...]
A second night of big band jazz brought more joy to fans of large ensembles in Birmingham. Following the concert by the Julian Siegel Jazz Orchestra on Tuesday, promoters B:Music combined with TDE Promotions to bring the vibrant Manchester-based Beats [...]
The Julian Siegel Jazz Orchestra has won critical acclaim for the new album “Tales From The Jacquard”, an extraordinary suite inspired by his family background in the Nottingham lace industry. On Tuesday the 19-strong orchestra opened a UK tour at [...]
UKJN provides the most extensive review coverage of the EFG London Jazz Festival. By far. This year we will have done over thirty of them. We have also asked our writers and other friends (*) to comment in brief on [...]
There is certainly a great deal of fine music on the international jazz scene – but once in a while a performance is so overwhelmingly wonderful that you know it will stay in the mind forever. And this was the [...]
So many European festivals have lost funding this year, as political crisis piles on economic crisis and governments cut back. The Belgrade Jazz Festival was no exception, though the budget cuts came at alarmingly short notice, and not only from [...]
John Watson went to hear, see and photograph virtuoso harpist Alina Bzhezhinska and her guests in rehearsal and in concert. Their concert in Symphony Hall in Birmingham brought the second B:Jazz Festival to a moving and often thrilling climax. The [...]
Large ensemble Monk is back – thanks to a stimulating new collaboration between UK saxophonist Tony Kofi and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. This special celebration had its premiere at the Ipswich Jazz and Global Rhythm Festival on Saturday 2 [...]
