Jazz

We are told ….. Side A: So What 2. On Green Dolphin Street (Part One) Side B: 1. On Green Dolphin Street (Part Two) 2. All Blues > The Theme

Continuing the fruitful creative partnership that began with 2016’s Upward Spiral, vocalist Kurt Elling once again pairs with saxophonist Branford Marsalis for the lyrical, ruminative 2018 effort The Questions. Joining them are pianist Joey Calderazzo, drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts, guitarist John McLean, pianist Stu Mindeman, bassist Clark Sommers, and trumpeter Marquis Hill. As the title […]

In 1985, Miles Davis shocked the music world by moving from Columbia to Warner Bros.. He immediately started working on an album called ‘Perfect Way’ after a tune by Scritti Politti, later renamed ‘Tutu’ by producer Tommy LiPuma. When ‘Tutu’ (a tribute to Desmond Tutu) was released in 1986, it re-ignited Miles Davis’ career, crossing […]

Originally posted September 2011 Robert Baird writes ….. Big bands died out back in the 1950s, right? They went away when the jitterbug faded and folks began dancing to music other than swing? And then real jazz fans departed when the bebop soloists came along and made big-band players look clumsy and quaint?Despite that widely […]

    We are told ….. Blue Note is proud to present a new batch of six “5 original albums” in one box sets celebrating legendary jazz artists from the Blue Note catalogue. These continue on from the successful Verve and Concord titles released earlier in the year. This run includes Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, […]

Recorded live for FM broadcast in the spring of 1969, this superb set captures the legendary jazz drummer putting his band through their paces on a series of incendiary extended tracks. Featuring the young Woody Shaw on trumpet, as well as Carlos Garnett (tenor saxophone), George Cables (piano) and Scotty Holt (bass), it’s presented here […]

Mike Westbrook was a key figure in the development of British jazz in the 1960s. He has released dozens of albums over the subsequent decades and is still working today. This album, now receiving a worldwide release for the first time, is being issued on Hux Records with the full approval of Mike Westbrook, who […]

  We are told ….. Oscar Peterson Quartet, live from Glenn Gould Studios, Toronto, Ontario, Canada on May 10th 1993Although this legendary Canadian jazz pianist won many awards (including eight Grammys) during his long career, the announcement that he was to become the third recipient of the Glenn Gould Prize had a special resonance, as […]

R. J. Deluke writes: Marshall Gilkes is a trombonist of monster chops and great taste whenever he puts the brass to his lips in any performance. He’s seen sitting in the trombone section of the Maria Schneider Orchestra in recent years, and has associations with other big bands, either subbing in, or as a member […]

Tenor Saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley Is One of the Greatest Ever to Play the Instrument His Final Project Was Big Man, a Musical Play Based on the Legend of John Henry Released as a 2-LP Set with a Libretto, BigMan Featured Music from Adderley and His Then-Current Musical Associates Including Brother Nat Adderley, George Duke […]

Martin Chilton (The Telegraph) writes … Danny Thompson is celebrating his 75th birthday with a series of concerts with musical collaborators such as Richard Thompson and Donovan. Here the acoustic bass maestro talks about his varied career playing with folk and jazz greats and pop stars such as Kate Bush and Cliff Richard Continue HERE

A great back story can make a band. Take Staff Benda Bilili, a bunch of veteran Congolese paraplegic musicians, discovered living on the streets around Kinshasa zoo, playing home-made guitars and driving around in scary-looking motorbike wheelchairs that might have done earlier service in a Mad Max movie. How could they fail to make international […]

    Classic JACK BRUCE album from 1980, the result of a unique collaboration between Bruce andmusicians BILLY COBHAM, CLEM CLEMPSON and DAVID SANCIOUS. A wonderful album of diversity, it saw JACK truly on form with such wonderful songs as ‘Hit And Run’, ‘Livin’ Without Ja’, ‘Dancing on Air’ and ‘Bird Alone’, all written with […]

  We are told: Portrait in Jazz was Bill Evans’ third album as a leader, following ‘New Jazz Conceptions’ (1956) and ‘Everybody Digs Bill Evans’ (1958). It was also Evans’ first album with the talented bassist Scott La Faro.Their superb chemistry is evident from the very first tune and Evans was surely aware of that. […]

  The great jazz pianist talks about racism, discovering Africa and the power of music to change lives Please click HERE to continue

The legendary Keith Jarrett Trio, playing live at NDR Funkhaus, Hamburg in July 1972, is captured at the very apex of its creativity on an album released for the first time by ECM. From the first notes, with its radiant piano, it is clear that something special is happening here. The trio with Charlie Haden […]

In 1932, a musician called Gage Brewer began performing on one of the first electrically amplified Hawaiian guitars. The idea soon appealed to guitarists rendered almost inaudible in big swing bands, but six years passed before a jazz guitarist, George Barnes, first ….. MORE

 Audiophile Audition / John Henry writes ….. This is a live version follow-up to an earlier studio album the pair entitled The Enchantment. Ten of the 11 tracks are repeats, but the improvisations go on about twice as long in each case. These are among the best duets ever recorded, and the rather strange combination […]