ART BLAKEY: Chicago Jazz Festival 1987 (2CD) by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers

We are told …. Art Blakey’s band was unofficially known as the ‘finishing school of jazz’, with celebrated players including Hank Mobley, Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Chuck Mangione, Wayne Shorter, Keith Jarrett and Wynton Marsalis passing through its ranks over the decades. Blakey continued to play and tour right up to the end […]

Read More

MICAH GAUGH: News

We are told: NYC-based avant-pop artist Micah Gaugh has announced that he will be releasing a new album ‘Stars Are a Harem’ on May 12. Ahead of that, he presents the first single from this album. ‘Remembering’ is a minimalistic, tranquil and spacious ballad resting on an underlying bed of jazz. ‘Stars are a Harem’ is a modern […]

Read More

TREVOR RABIN: All Colors Considered

  It wouldn’t be the norm, that’s for sure, but 23 years between solo albums is just one unusual facet of guitarist/composer Trevor Rabin’s career to date. Whether taking a stance against apartheid in the early ’70s in his native South Africa or turning down the opportunity to play in super group Asia for artistic […]

Read More

BILLIE HOLIDAY: Lady Day: The Master Takes And Singles (4CD Box Set)

This repackaged 4CD/80 track set collects highlights from Billie Holiday’s 1933-1944 tenure on Columbia, housed within a hardback book case. The enclosed book includes an incisive essay by Village Voice critic Gary Giddins, which provides context to those unfamiliar with Holiday’s unique story. Disc: 1 1. I Wished On the Moon – Billie Holiday with […]

Read More

Albert “Tootie” Heath: Class Personified

allaboutjazz Albert “Tootie” Heath is among the drummers who lived—and thrived—during what many call the golden age of jazz, the ’40s, ’50, early ’60s. He’s enjoyed the fruits of a varied and historic career, but never stayed put. Just kept working. He admires the musicians of today and the direction of jazz. The Philadelphia native […]

Read More

KAYLA TAYLOR: In conversation

Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, Kayla Taylor is a southern gal who, when it comes to torch songs and jazz standards, can sing with the best and surpass them.  Her new CD ‘You’d Be Surprised’ is the follow up to her 2005 release ‘A Night at Pacific & Vine’ and features a sophisticated array of classic […]

Read More

CHARLES MINGUS: Live At The Jazz Workshop, Boston, October 11th, 1971 (CD)

Following his relentless creativity in the 1950s and 60s, Charles Mingus was slowing down by the early 70s, having combated financial hardship and health issues in recent years. In 1971 he served as Slee Professor of Music at the University at Buffalo, New York, as well as performing intermittently. This superb set was taped at […]

Read More

CHUKA GEORGE AVAKIAN: That Rhythm Man!

Robert Baird (Stereophile magazine) writes: “So where did it all go wrong, George? When did the major-label record business begin slipping away?” Before he can answer, I recall something George Avakian once told me over the phone. “Goddard Lieberson [former president of Columbia Records] said, ‘I’m tired of sitting in A&R meetings with record guys. […]

Read More

ARVE HEN RIKSEN: Places of Worship (Rune Grammofon)

More moody, atmospheric evocations of sacred spaces and the natural world, with Norwegian trumpeter and sound-sculptor Henriksen once again assisted by producers Jan Bang and Erik Honoré on samples and programming, with Honoré also singing (very capably, and oddly for a Norwegian, in what appears to be an Irish accent) on the final track, “Shelter […]

Read More

ART BLAKEY and THE JAZZ MESSENGERS: The Complete 3 Blind Mice (2CD)

  We are told …. The Poll Winners series: classic albums reviewed in the legendary Downbeat magazine. Originally awarded 4 stars by Downbeat Mag. The sextet heard on ‘3 Blind Mice’ (United Artists),with Freddie Hubbard, Curtis Fuller, Wayne Shorter, Cedar Walton and Jymie Merritt, is widely regarded as one of the finest formations of Art […]

Read More
Quill

READERS’ LETTERS: Does musical enjoyment decrease with age?

JN writes: 80-90 % of the sources that run through my stereo set-up are multy channel capabele sources, TV settup box, Apple TV or the Amazon like alternatives, BluRay player, which provide surprisingly good sounding CD quality, MS X-box, Nintendo switch, and other great game consoles and yes I play vinyl too. But talking about […]

Read More

THELONIOUS MONK: The Complete Quartet Columbia Studio Recordings (6CD)

After nearly a decade of historic, career-defining LPs for top jazz independent labels Blue Note, Prestige and Riverside from 1952 to 1961, piano colossus Thelonious Monk (1917-1982) arrived in 1962 at Columbia, the first and only major record label affiliation of his career. There he released six masterful, distinctive albums (all produced by Teo Macero) […]

Read More

Wayne Shorter: one of the greatest saxophonists in history

Originally published November 2013 Ivan Hewett writes: Two great saxophone colossi have bestridden the London Jazz Festival (now the EFG London Jazz Festival) in recent years. One is Sonny Rollins, who despite health problems made a triumphant appearance at the 2012 festival, in his 83rd year. The other is Wayne Shorter, who turns 80 this […]

Read More