The Mighty Warriors is a recording of a 1995 concert in Antwerp held in honour of Mal Waldron’s 70th birthday and released now for the first time. It features a combination of two of Waldron’s greatest groups – a duo with Steve Lacy, [...]
In the spring of 1964 Archie Shepp had yet to record as a sole leader. There were co-led sessions with Bill Dixon and Lars Gullin, four albums by the New York Contemporary Five and of course the two groundbreaking appearances [...]
Richard Davis. Born Chicago, Illinois, 15 April 1930. Died Madison, Wisconsin. 6 September 2023… UK Bassist Olie Brice’s tribute to a very great bassist takes the form of a “Ten Tracks” Feature. He writes: Richard Davis – who has died [...]
In March 1961 the Duke Ellington band were given two weeks off mid-European tour, to allow Ellington to complete work on the soundtrack to the film Paris Blues. The band used the time to go on the road under Johnny [...]
The Finnish record label TUM has been doing an impressive job of documenting Wadada Leo Smith’s work for more than a decade, and this year – Smith’s 80th – they have taken the job even more seriously. A solo boxset, [...]
2 Blues for Cecil – the first recording of the trio of Enrico Rava, William Parker and Andrew Cyrille – is a beautiful and relaxed exploration of swing, melody and the blues within a free context. The trio’s first gig [...]
Lee Morgan’s Live at the Lighthouse was already a classic album, in its original double LP format and then the longer 3 CD set released in the 1990’s. This 8 CD box of all the music the band played over [...]
This wonderful record of a 1985 solo Lol Coxhill gig really captures the experience of hearing Lol live in a small venue, something I did more times than I can count. Lol Coxhill was a genius of an improviser, an [...]
