The most recent of Nik Bärtsch’s albums for ECM is “Entendre” for solo piano (review below). Bärtsch – who has four UK dates next week in London, Manchester and Norfolk (listed below) – has also published the sheet music. Writer/pianist [...]
Listening to guitarist Tom Ollendorff’s new release, his second under his own name, I’ve been trying to put my finger on why there’s an urge to play it again whenever the nine tracks are finished. There’s a lot to like [...]
A brooding piano rumble, then a grooving, funky riff and the band surges in behind Zoe Rahman’s piano. Click play on the pianist’s new release Colour of Sound and the music declares itself boldly. Rahman is on imperious form on this recording and has [...]
The phrases ‘Grammy award-winning artist’ and ‘debut album’ are not usually found together in introductions. Vicente Archer has shown himself to be exceptional throughout a garlanded career however, and this first release under his own name after 25 years of [...]
Press ‘play’ on Walter Smith III’s return to casual, his debut release on Blue Note Records, and an urgent, jagged, extended melodic pattern leaps out of the speaker, repeats and unfolds, grabbing the listener by the ears. Smith’s tenor and [...]
Antii Lötjönen’s Quintet East is something of a super group, drawing its personnel from the most in demand and feted players on the Finnish Jazz scene. The frontline of Veneri Pohjola on trumpet, Mikko Innanen on alto and bari, and [...]
“For my money, London-born Gabriel Latchin is the best straight-ahead jazz pianist to appear in the past few years,” wrote Dave Gelly in 2020. Latchin is about to release his fourth album in a new trio with first-call UK bassist [...]
Pianist Andrew McCormack has been expansive in his musical excursions since his return from Brooklyn a few years ago, notably with his band Graviton. More recently, his partnership with Ubuntu records has seen a return to the acoustic piano with [...]
A stone’s throw from the University of Bristol’s Student Union building, it’s easy to miss the steps down to the entrance of Bristol Music Club, current home of Fringe Jazz. The weekly jazz gig has been defying gravity for 10 [...]
With the release of Ghosts, pianist Michael Wollny reunites the trio that recorded Weltentraum, the 2014 album that brought his already mature and prodigious gifts to wider attention. Wollny has been busy since then and worked with bass player Tim [...]
