TUBBY HAYES: Dancing in the Dark – review by John Fordham

  The Savage-Solveig label devotes itself to the archive of previously unreleased live material by the dazzling British sax star of the 50s and 60s, Edward Brian “Tubby” Hayes. This session finds the bop virtuoso at Nottingham’s Dancing Slipper club (a favourite haunt of a jazz-loving teenager who would become Kenneth Clarke MP) on 12 […]

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KOMEDA: The giant of Polish jazz

MARTYNA KIELEK / Senior Music Editor It is not possible to talk about Polish jazz (which I intend to make one of my regular topics here, among other types of jazz and occasionally blues music) without bringing up the composer and pianist Krzysztof Komeda. His enormous talent (displayed during a time in communist-governed Poland when […]

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CHARLES MINGUS: Passions Of A Man: The Complete Atlantic Recordings (6CD + Book) Box Set. Track list shown here

The greatest bassist leader jazz has ever known, Charles Mingus, with his spirited playing and spontaneity, always kept his ears and fingers on the pulse. The albums this giant of music recorded for Atlantic between 1956 and 1961 are rightly considered his best. This lavish collection of the jazz legend’s entire mid-’50s to early ’60s […]

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THE DUDLEY MOORE TRIO: Today (CD)

We are told: • Regardless of the brilliance of Dudley Moore’s celebrated comic partnership with Peter Cook, his marriages and abundant romantic assignations, the relationship which was surely most dear to him was with music. He could pull hilarious classical pastiches – like Beethoven ‘variations on Colonel Bogey’, and Britten’s ‘Little Miss Muffett’ – out of […]

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Brad Mehldau – Dragons & Dreams

Ian Patterson (All About Jazz magazine) writes: For many, pianist Brad Mehldau’s recording Day is Done (Nonesuch Records, 2005) with drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Larry Grenadier came as close to trio perfection as is reasonable to expect in your wildest dreams. Perhaps perfection is a chimera, yet even if attainable it’s at best fleeting […]

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Orrin Keepnews: Classic Producer of Classics

This interview was originally published in August 2007. As a city boy who took a liking to jazz music and extended it into a budding career as a journalist, Orrin Keepnews may have inadvertently veered into the record-producing arena that generated classic albums from a wide range of unforgettable artists. Maybe it was a fortunate […]

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MAN TRAN: The Manhattan Transfer / The Junction

An eclectic, brightly attenuated recording, 2018’s The Junction is the Manhattan Transfer’s first studio album since the death of founding member Tim Hauser from a heart attack in 2014. It’s also the first album the legendary vocal group has recorded with his replacement, M-Pact vocalist Trist Curless. Along with Curless, once again showcased are the […]

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HERBIE MANN: Live At The Whisky 1969 – The Unreleased Masters (2CD)

  While Jazz Flautist Herbie Mann Is Often Remembered as a Pop-Jazz Player, He Was Actually a Pioneer in Popularizing World Music and Even Prog-Rock with Recordings Released on His Own Embryo Imprint In the Late ‘60s, He Was Fronting One of the Most Progressive and Electrifying Bands in the World: Guitarist Sonny Sharrock, Miroslav […]

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Sélène: A Trip to the Moon with Sélène

MARTYNA KIELEK While Sélène Saint-Aimé is still to some extent in the “young and promising” category (she does not have a Wikipedia entry yet, which in 2021 probably does imply being a “rising star”), her talent is increasingly earning much-deserved recognition in the world of French jazz. Just like many of the artists I intend […]

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MO FOSTER: ….. ‘back in February 2016, I put together a band of the finest players for a gig at the Pizza Express Jazz Club’ …..

NB: The above is just one of Mo’s extensive instrument collection. It has no relevance to the post below; we just happened to like the image. Yes, it is ‘effectively an EB3 and an SG on one body’ says Mo. Anyway, moving on ….. Mo tells us ….. I had been a fan of Gil […]

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JOHN COLTRANE: Düsseldorf. March 28th 1960 (Limited 140g Vinyl LP)

This 1960s set recorded live in Dusseldorf capture the evolution of John Coltrane’s journey from sideman to bandleader. Coltrane was unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight when Miles Davis was unable play that day. It’s basically a performance of the Miles Davis Quintet without Davis. The lineup includes Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Wynton Kelly on piano, […]

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It is said that somewhere in the world a Gershwin melody is played in one form or another every 35 seconds.

Gramophone write: During the 13 years of their almost exclusive collaboration, George and Ira Gershwin produced nearly 1000 songs, for a dozen shows and four films. Imagine the fruits of that partnership if George had been granted even 10 more years – let alone 40. Someone once told me – and even if it’s not […]

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