(Smoke Sessions Records) The Cookers are old school – in the best sense: an acoustic band that has extra energy and whose music seems to leap from the speakers. Groups that are as exciting as this playing fairly straight-ahead hard… Read More ›
london jazz festival
First names for 2016 London Jazz Festival
Spring hasn’t even really sprung yet, and already we have some names announced for the big autumn shindig, the London Jazz Festival. And pretty big names they are, too. In brief, concerts have been announced as follows: Saturday 12 November:… Read More ›
There’s a bit going on down South
You might have noticed but there is quite a lot of jazz in London at the moment. Something to do with the EFG London Jazz Festival, I’m guessing. Because there is also quite a lot going on in the West… Read More ›
New jazz radio station broadcasting from London from Thursday
Well, for four days, anyway. We get excited over little things in the jazz world, and this is one of them. BBC Music brings the pop-up concept to jazz from this Thursday with the help of Jazz FM and the… Read More ›
Maria Schneider – November 2015
Over eight superb albums, hundreds of live performances around the world, educational work and workshops, Maria Schneider has emerged as the pre-eminent jazz composer of her generation. Through her ground-breaking independent and fan-funded way of producing her music she has as close… Read More ›
Music that costs a million but that people want for free
“…self-producing records means that I take on tremendous financial burdens… I’ve worked extremely hard on these recordings for the past 12 years… So it’s fair to say that this is about a million dollars we’re looking at. Now why in the… Read More ›
Bob Brookmeyer, the divine line and Maria Schneider
“Of course Bob’s sense of development and line is divine, and Gil’s orchestration and linearity, is also ‘beyond’. But in the end, I had to look to find my own perspective…” Maria Schneider talks about what she learned from Bob… Read More ›
Bruno Heinen & Kristian Borring – Postcard To Bill Evans
(Babel Label) Bruno Heinen tells how, when he was 18 and playing classical piano, his uncle gave him a copy of Bill Evans’ Sunday At The Village Vanguard. Yep, that’s the way that young lives can be changed forever. Now,… Read More ›
London Jazz Festival – get booking
The first tranch of 2015 London Jazz Festival concerts went on sale this morning, and a damned fine set of gigs they are: Friday 13 November Jazz Voice – Barbican – the traditional gala opening with singers still to be announced…. Read More ›
‘How would Mary J Blige sing this phrase?’
Those words have passed through the mind of a jazz pianist in the middle of a performance, as he tells a fellow pianist and a jazz radio programme. The speaker is Jason Moran, the other pianist is Robert Glasper and the… Read More ›
South Africa’s Blue Notes – as re-imagined at LJF and now on the BBC
The South African exiles of the 1960s, The Blue Notes, were highly influential on British jazz. Now a South African and bunch of UK citizens, many of them Brummies I am delighted to report, have remembered The Blue Notes in… Read More ›
Harvey Mason and Tokyo Chutei Iki
Review by Andy Boeckstaens Ronnie Scott’s, London Part of the London Jazz Festival 20-11-2014 – 2nd of two nights. The 67-year-old drummer Harvey Mason has come a long way since his work in the 1960s with Erroll Garner and George Shearing. Perhaps… Read More ›
Monday at the Queen Elizabeth Hall
Review by Peter Vacher Trinity Laban Contemporary Jazz Ensemble / J.D. Allen Trio / Randy Weston-Billy Harper Duo London Jazz Festival QEH London 17-11-2014 Trinity Laban’s CJE exceeded expectations. Cohesive, creative, and enthusiastic under Mark Lockheart’s able direction, these students responded… Read More ›
Not Your Guide To The London Jazz Festival
Between this Friday and Sunday 23 November, our capital city will be awash with jazz. You won’t be able to get a seat on the tube – they’ll all be taken by double basses. They’ll be pulling saxophones out of the… Read More ›
South African artists at the London Jazz Festival – well sort of…
I received an email press release from the London Jazz Festival. In the subject field it read: “PRESS RELEASE: South African artists at the EFG London Jazz Festival.” I was all excited. The opportunity for some forward-thinking British jazz festival to… Read More ›
John Surman/Bergen Big Band – Another Sky
(Grappa GRCD4459) The guest composer/soloist with a big band is a tried and true recipe for stimulating and stretching an established ensemble while also giving the composer a chance to stretch themselves, often re-arranging smaller group music for greater instrumental forces…. Read More ›
Wadada Leo Smith – Ten Freedom Summers
Reviewed by Nick Malcolm EFG London Jazz Festival 2013 Cafe Oto, London 22/23/24-11-2013 Cafe Oto’s programmers really surpassed themselves with this one. A true master of contemporary music, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, giving the European premiere of his huge Ten Freedom… Read More ›
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