The great tenor saxophonist Ricky Ford (b.1954) as made a hugely enjoyable album that reflects back on his influences and musical forebears while always sounding right in the moment. It was recorded for Neal Weiss’ Whaling City Sound label based [...]
For such a small and relatively young country Israel consistently punches above its weight with its jazz education programmes. Here are two young Israeli jazz musicians making their recording debuts as leaders with plenty to be excited about. Ron Magril [...]
Ever since Binker Golding first performed the music on this album at Ronnie Scott’s a year ago I’ve been waiting for its release with great anticipation. It’s been a long three years since his excellent and hugely enjoyable Abstractions Of [...]
Charlie Gabriel is a fourth generation New Orleans jazz musician and the most senior member of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. He made his professional debut at eleven playing clarinet with the Eureka Brass Band and later depped for his [...]
This album is a homage to the Kinetika Bloco carnival group who are celebrating their 21st Anniversary, and especially to its founder and guiding light, Mat Fox, who died in 2014. This is in every sense an in-house project featuring [...]
This really is quite a find. In early 1961 a stellar Jazz Messengers lineup of Art Blakey, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt set off for a two week tour of Japan, becoming one of the first [...]
Over the last few years since graduating from Trinity Laban Conservatoire, the Manchester-born and London-based tenor saxophonist Chelsea Carmichael has carved out a powerful presence touring alongside key new generation artists Theon Cross and Joe Armon-Jones and as a member [...]
Burnt Sugar is a New York-based improv unit currently comprising over two dozen members that was first established in 1999 by Greg Tate, the Village Voice writer and co-founder of the Black Rock Coalition. It was described by David Fricke [...]
Steve Tyrell is a larger-than-life 76 year old who has practically done it all in the music business. A former R&B band singer from Houston Texas, who chose his professional name while driving through the town of Tyrell, he moved [...]
One of the most impressive scenes I’ve ever witnessed in a jazz club was at the Sunset Sunrise in Paris three years ago, when Kirk Lightsey cowed a group of exuberant audience members into silence with a stare that was [...]
