Italian Mauro Sigura is a jazz oud player and recent winner of the international 7VirtualJazz contest. Although he has played across the world, he has never played in the UK and brings his Electric Quartet – with Marcello Peghin, Pierpaolo [...]
It is always interesting to listen to an artist who challenges being pigeonholed into a particular genre or style. Belgian-Japanese pianist Alex Koo’s new album surprises you from one track to the next, while at the same time assuring the [...]
Pianist Johanna Summer and saxophonist Jakob Manz are two young leading lights of the German jazz scene, and this album featuring them in a duo setting shows us why. The many varied pleasures of this album come and go in [...]
Electric bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma brought his distinguished brew of hefty jazz funk to Cafe Oto with flair, driven intensity and a glowing, light touch. Funk is deeply rooted in his DNA, and flows in his blood, no question. Ornette Coleman [...]
Vocalist Emily Masser’s second album continues her ascent with pin-sharp singing, scat, polished vocalese and some original material honouring her late mother and very-much-present father saxophonist Dean Masser. It’s a delight from beginning to end. Still only 20 years old, [...]
Bruno Heinen brought together his band The W (Heidi Vogel, Andrea di Biase, Gene Calderazzo) and an orchestra from Trinity Laban with two special string players as guests, Alice Zawadzki and Sascha Bota. It can be regarded as the “coming [...]
Morgan Enos writes: “Apologies for this one-off Tuesday publication — instead of the column’s titular Monday. But my interview with saxophonist and educator Alexa Tarantino needed to be lined up with Tarantino’s touring schedule….” Last year, longtime Jazz at Lincoln [...]
Unleashed Cooperation set what you might call a leisurely pace for their new releases; fans have had to wait more than two years for ‘Trust’, their second album. “8 Years”, released in 2022, was a success, and led to a [...]
It has been clear for some time that Emma Rawicz is the rising star of UK jazz, but her jazz orchestra’s performance at Ronnie’s on 30 January 2025 has moved her into a new league. We knew that she is [...]
We list the jazz winners at the 2025 Grammys (*). First the jazz categories – with all nominees listed, and winners in bold – then other winners with a jazz connection. This is done at speed, and readers are welcome [...]
Pascal Le Boeuf is an American composer, jazz pianist, and electronic artist. His track “Strands” from the album “Are We Dreaming the Same Dream” with the Akropolis Reed Quintet and Christian Euman won the Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition at [...]
The 3rd annual Southport Jazz festival got off to an explosive start on Friday 31 January with the newly formed duo of pianist Gwilym Simcock and soprano and tenor saxophonist Emma Rawicz. They were the second of the three acts [...]
The theme of the first residency of the Montreux Jazz Festival at London’s South Bank was the legacy of Nina Simone. The choice of Soweto Kinch for the second night of the programme seems particularly appropriate, given both his musical [...]
Today, 2 February 2025, would have been Martin Hummel’s 70th birthday. In this tribute, jazz pianist, composer, author, and retired university professor Darius Brubeck remembers a “great enabler” with respect and gratitude and – inevitably – in sadness. The principle [...]
Safe Place sees brothers Julian Wasserfuhr (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Roman Wasserfuhr (piano) joined by cellist Jörg Brinkmann for a set of originals played with the intimacy of a family fireside chat. It’s the trio’s second recording after Relaxin’ in Ireland [...]
Nina Simone stood frozen on the big screen, towering over the Royal Festival Hall. One hand rested on a grand piano; she was otherwise alone. An invisible audience cheered wildly. The applause died down, then cautiously resumed, and faltered again. [...]
For the second in the series of four concerts that saxophonist Helena Kay has been invited to curate at the venue the saxophonist’s quartet will be revisiting Golden Sands, Kay’s second album. It’s the opening act, improvising folk duo Norman&Corrie, [...]
One of the most in demand jazz guitarists on the UK scene today, Nick Costley-White is gearing up to release his third album Poncha (Ubuntu Music), which will be celebrated with a not-to-be-missed live show at the intimate World Heart [...]
The full-hearted roar of a capacity audience in Theater Regensburg is something special. The theatre is a horseshoe-shaped opera house modelled after La Scala in Milan. It is at the heart of a cultural city with UNESCO world heritage status, [...]
honey from a winter stone is Ambrose Akinmusire’s second album on the Nonesuch label. The first, ‘Owl Song’, was an acclaimed album described as having ‘great beauty, haunting melody, heightened sensitivity’ (Philip Watson, The Irish Times). The music is almost [...]
Bedmakers is an occasional Anglo-French quartet of improvisers associated with the Toulouse based collective Freddy Morezon. They use the strapline “Tribute To An Imaginary Folk Band”. The album title, as well as meaning the mountain pass shown on the album [...]
On Portraits, his eighth album on the ACT label, violinist Adam Bałdych has formed an all-Polish quintet with tenor saxophone, piano, double bass and drums to play original compositions informed equally by jazz and contemporary classical chamber music. Bałdych was [...]
Double bassist/composer Avishai Cohen, one of the most celebrated jazz musicians touring the world right now, is about to hit the road again to showcase music from his new album, Brightlight, released last October on Believe. As Cohen explains, Brightlight [...]
The latest candidate for ECM’s audiophile vinyl Luminessence series is this 1981 album by keyboardist and composer Rainer Brüninghaus (b.1949), familiar to listeners from his long association with Jan Garbarek, and before that with Eberhard Weber in the group Colours [...]
From early childhood, Misha Mullov-Abbado felt he had one destiny in his life. He was born to two international classical celebrities (Russian violinist Viktoria Mullova and superstar conductor Claudio Abbado), and music filled his childhood homes and dominated his education [...]
Rob Adams reviews Gary West’s biography of celebrated piper Martyn Bennett. Brave New Music: The Martyn Bennett Story was launched at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on 30 January, 2025. He was the piper who caused a sensation at Glasgow Jazz [...]
The following is an interview between jazz journalist Morgan Enos and pianist, composer, and vocalist Rachel Eckroth, along with drummer, percussionist, and composer John Hadfield. The duo’s debut album, Speaking in Tongues, will be released 28 February via Adhyâropa Records. [...]
Nel Begley is a British vocalist, composer and teacher. She has performed across the UK and Europe with ensembles Rafe’s Dilemma, London Vocal Project and The After Hours, highlights include Pizza Express, EFG London Jazz Festival, Manchester Jazz Festival, an [...]
Zena James took command of the jazz room at the Bull’s Head on a wintry Friday night with an admirable collection of songs and a crack trio to help her deliver them — Dominic Ashworth on guitar, Mike Bradley on [...]
Last night at the Brighton Dome, the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra presented a fascinatingly innovative and varied concert. The evening opened with the Gwilym Simcock Trio on stellar form, with Simcock, Conor Chaplin on bass and James Maddren on drums all [...]
With What Happened There, legends of Japanese avant-garde music Keiji Haino and Natsuki Tamura come together for a wild set of jagged and intriguing improvised music that is a thrilling journey into the minds and approaches of two left-field virtuosos. [...]
This is just to wish the very great Gary Crosby a very happy 70th birthday today. Double bassist… composer… arranger… educator..possibly the most influential and definitely one of the nicest, kindest and most thoughtful people on the UK jazz scene. [...]
