All recent Jazz News from around the UK and beyond.
It seems a fair bet that the voice was the first instrument, and ever since humans began to sing, music, language, and musical language have been mixed together. They remain hard to disentangle. We turn to music to express what [...]
This was one of those gigs where it all comes together. The enthusiastic buzz of the audience beforehand, the smiling musicians stepping onto the stage and most of all the instant chemistry between them when they start to play. Julian [...]
Brigitte Berman’s documentary ‘Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got’ won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature Film in 1986 but has not been screened since 1987. It will be shown in a newly restored version – in fact it [...]
Tony Kinsey, who died earlier this month, was a member of the Way Out West collective of musicians in South West London, founded in 2004. Five musicians and friends who are fellow members of the collective – Chris Biscoe, Pete [...]
Sara Colman is part of the team offering a new jazz course for young people in Birmingham. “All the places are fully funded so that there are absolutely no barriers to anyone taking part.” The first edition will be during [...]
This was not just a really special evening of music, it was a happy occasion too. At World Heartbeat in Nine Elms, the music is so close you’re almost in it. No, I’ll correct that: you *are* in it (*) [...]
Effra, Misha Mullov-Abbado’s fourth album as bandleader, is in many ways a love letter to Brixton: the London neighbourhood that he calls his home. So it might seem slightly ironic that the composer and double bassist would play the album’s [...]
The following is jazz journalist Morgan Enos’s interview with saxophonist, arranger, and composer Pureum Jin, baritone saxophonist Lauren Sevian, and saxophonist, flautist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, and educator Erena Terakubo. They are three fourths of The Empress, an all-female saxophone quartet, [...]
If someone stated the opinion “man, woman or child, Ella’s the greatest” it might well be dismissed as outrageous press agent hype. But the words were uttered by Bing Crosby, a man who knew a bit about the art of [...]
Canadian vocalist Gillian Margot and American pianist Geoffrey Keezer are acclaimed both as individuals and as a duo, in music and in life. Geoffrey has been a major figure in New York’s jazz piano scene since 1989, when he became [...]
Arnaud Dolmen’s lively French Caribbean rhythms brought great cheer to his Ladbroke Hall audience on a dreary and drizzly Friday evening. The Guadeloupean drummer’s Adjusting Quartet (with pianist Leonardo Montana, acoustic bassist Samuel F’Hima and tenor saxophonist Francesco Geminiani) performed [...]
Spondance is a 1986 octet performance of a jazz suite written by the pianist Jim Doherty, featuring his close friend Louis Stewart on guitar, plus six Los Angeles musicians: Bobby Shew (trumpet, flugelhorn), Bob Sheppard (alto sax), Gordon Brisker (tenor [...]
Anna B Savage has moved on considerably since last seen at Cafe Oto in June 2015, supporting Jenny Hval. That memorable solo acoustic performance made an impact with the powerful, reverberating quality of her voice and the incision of her [...]
Spanish trumpeter/vocalist Andrea Motis, a star of the European jazz scene, wrote one of the early pieces in Nicky Schrire’s Mothers in Jazz/ Parents in Jazz series in February 2023. Two years on, she reflects further on the themes of [...]
What a pleasure to hear and see this band of top-class musicians so obviously enjoying themselves, playing the music they love with colleagues whom they so clearly respect and want to play with! This was so much more than a [...]
UPDATE 21 Feb: This good news from the organisers of Jazz at the Parakeet: Quoting from their re-named Instagram page: “HI EVERYONE! Since receiving the message from the Parakeet that we couldn’t continue after the end of February, we’ve been [...]
“A Year in the Life celebrates the joy of making music in London, with each track telling a distinct story”, according to the press release for the album. And for its composer and arranger Tom Smith, “…the band sounds like [...]
Anyone who knows Norwegian saxophonist Marius Neset for his jazz-classical crossovers is in for a surprise with Cabaret – a joyous, often boisterous album that sounds deeply inspired by eighties fusion music such as Weather Report and Michael Brecker-era Steps [...]
Drummer and bandleader Matt Skelton has put together a new programme for quintet, in celebration of the work of drumming legend Shelly Manne, and of the five volumes of ‘At the Blackhawk’ records that are – Matt says “the centrepiece [...]
David West, who set up the petition for the Blue Note London club to be granted a licence, briefly closed it. but it is now open again as : “Approve The Blue Note London Late License” David has written an [...]
Piano/vocal powerhouse Philippa Healey is bringing her high energy, funk-as-hell original music to London this March. With a stellar line-up of musicians, including legendary bassist Paul Turner and drummer Derrick McKenzie, these shows are a must see! Philippa has had [...]
I am very excited to announce that the Elaine Delmar Quintet is performing for our Herne Bay Jazz Festival 2025 benefit concert in partnership with The Kings Hall, in Herne Bay, Kent, on Friday 28th February 2025. Following her sold-out [...]
Compiled by Colin Harper and Jon Harrington, with an introductory essay by Duncan Heining and notes on the selections by Lois Wilson, this 3 CD, 48 track compendium of British (well, mainly English) jazz and jazz-rock is – as collections [...]
The following is jazz journalist Morgan Enos’s interview with pianist, composer, arranger, and educator Caili O’Doherty. Her new album, Bluer Than Blue, out 7 March via Outside In Music, celebrates the legacy of pianist, composer, and arranger Lil Hardin Armstrong. [...]
Dann Zinn is a Bay Area-based tenor saxophonist and educator. He has worked with the likes of Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Terri Lyne Carrington, Peter Erskine, Taylor Eigsti, Allison Miller, and Derrick Hodge. As a leader, he has recorded six [...]
It’s easy to get angry about the state of music and its fascination with bandleaders over bands, backstories over music, pictures over sound. People like Marshall Allen (is there anyone else like him?) should keep us all hopeful. Making his [...]
Rachael Cohen’s alto sax playing just gets better and better. How can it be that she hasn’t recorded an album in her own name since 2012? On Friday evening she called a very slow ballad tempo for “Tea for Two” [...]
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “Grassroots venues are the lifeblood of London’s music scene, providing a platform for up-and-coming artists and giving audiences an opportunity to enjoy music in intimate spaces. The world-renowned Blue Note Jazz club [...]
On 23 April 2025, Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox will begin their shows at the Royal Albert Hall. Mike Southon tells the story of ‘how a regular guy from New Jersey turned 1.2Bn hits on YouTube into a globetrotting musical phenomenon‘: [...]
Jazz North have been in touch to tell us about the five “genre-bending, northern-flag-sailing jazz artists” who will form the next cohort for Northern Line – “the live talent development programme for jazz across the North.” The artists, announced today, [...]
Very sad news to report: the death a couple of days ago of the great drummer and bandleader Tony Kinsey at the age of 97. John Bungey wrote a preview for UKJN of the celebratory evening which Way Out West [...]
This was a marathon. A remarkable marathon. As the lights dimmed, percussionist Tyshawn Sorey led out his illustrious trio partners, pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist Harish Raghavan, and set out his terms of engagement. ‘It’s gonna be a long set,’ [...]
