News
Entertainment
Science & Technology
Life
Culture & Art
Hobbies
News
Entertainment
Science & Technology
Culture & Art
Hobbies
Reviewed: Sharel Cassity | Nicole Johänntgen | Rachel Therrien - Jazz Journal
Sharel Cassity: Gratitude (Sunnyside Records) As a youngster in Oklahoma, Sharel Cassity’s heart and soul got captured by bassist Christian McBride’s debut studio album Gettin’ To It (Verve Records, 1995). She later earned the chance to play with each of the three musicians from the rhythm section on that record. Now, the alto saxophonist reunites […]
Swanage jazz festival: 'the largest and purest' on England's south coast - Jazz Journal
Just as Nigel Jarrett laments the dilution – even hijacking – of the word “jazz” by festivals featuring pop and increasingly resting on “inclusion” as a justification, Swanage in Dorset lays claim to hosting “‘the largest and purest jazz festival on the south coast of England”. Whatever jazz is or may be, the festival’s 2025 […]
Reviewed: Ben Webster | Gerry Mulligan - Jazz Journal
Ben Webster: Soulville (WaxTime 772350-LP) The swing-era trinity of Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and Ben Webster really wrote the book on the tenor saxophone until John Coltrane and others came along. During the 30s Webster had worked with Andy Kirk, Fletcher Henderson and Benny Carter but it was probably his stay with Duke Ellington (1939-1943) […]
Reviewed: Jeb Patton Quartet | The Hemphill Stringtet | Play Misty For Me - Music From The Films Of Clint Eastwood - Jazz Journal
Jeb Patton Quartet: Whisper Not (Fresh Sound Records FSRCD 5134) It’s absolutely clear where this quartet’s heart lies from one look at the material and its composers. As well as Golson’s title track, we have Dexter Gordon’s Cheesecake, Miles’ Solar, Duke’s Take The Coltrane and two classic standards – Jimmy Van Heusen’s Darn That Dream […]
Reviewed: Jeremy Pelt | David Preston - Jazz Journal
Jeremy Pelt: Woven (HighNote Records HCD 7363) “I’m not interested in the new for the sake of newness” writes Jeremy Pelt in the liner notes for Woven. It is an interesting observation to make, because although Pelt puts his own stamp on his music and sounds very contemporary, there are throwbacks to be heard to […]
Reviewed: Kinan Azmeh and CityBand | Natural Artefacts | Billy Hart Quartet | Max Roach | Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Roy Eldridge - Jazz Journal
Kinan Azmeh and CityBand: Live In Berlin (Deyer Gaido 11796) The dialectical relation between unspeakable horror and subsequent inspiring human creativity continues to boggle the mind. In his short sleeve note the Syrian-born, Brooklyn-based clarinetist Azmeh (born 1976) tells us that most of the original and consistently arresting music here was composed and performed “during […]
Marvin Muoneké Quartet, Taunton - Jazz Journal
Trumpeter and singer Muoneké has become a favourite at this venue in Taunton’s Paul Street: as ever he charmed the audience (most of whom, including me, had seen him before) and impressed everyone with the wit and inventiveness of his playing and singing. Since I first saw him in 2023 his reputation in the South […]
Hearing Double - Jazz Journal
Brian Kane, the author of this book, is a Yale academic and an experienced jazz musician. And that may explain why some of the book was of no interest to me and some was very interesting indeed. The subtitle of the book is Jazz, Ontology, Auditory Culture and that word “ontology” covers the sections where […]
Count Me In… 05/25 - Jazz Journal
In 2024, having spluttered speechlessly at the non-jazz headline acts of major jazz festivals for several years, I came across Montreux and its 58th manifestation. Its promoters boasted it would “span all genres”. All genres of what? With a line-up that included Alice Cooper, P J Harvey, Kraftwerk, Soft Cell, Duran Duran, Sting and Massive […]
Jazzahead! 2025 - Jazz Journal
A few days ahead of International Jazz Day 2025 (30 April), the Hanseatic city of Bremen was once again, for a few days, an international capital of jazz as it hosted the 19th edition of Jazzahead! Having featured various partner countries since 2011, the aptly named “Reconnect Edition” blended three vintages of previous featured countries, […]
Reviewed: Webster Young | Classic Vanguard Jazz Piano Sessions | Cannonball Adderley - Jazz Journal
Webster Young: A Quiet Legend Live In Saint Louis 1961 (Fresh Sound FSR-CD 1158) Conspicuously absent from the reference books, the intriguingly named trumpeter and cornetist Webster Young (1932-2003), was born in South Carolina and raised by his mother in Washington, D.C. His first influence was Louis Armstrong, after seeing him perform in the all-black […]
April Jazz, Espoo, Finland - Jazz Journal
Lakecia Benjamin New York alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin charged right out of the gate with her “warmup tune” Trane – which was even more hair-raising than the version on last year’s Grammy-shortlisted Phoenix Reimagined live album. She’s on a tour named after the live album, and repeated much of it, even beginning her set with […]
Nightmare In The Pacific: The World War II Saga Of Artie Shaw And His Navy Band - Jazz Journal
Michael Doyle’s title is striking but also misleading. Ostensibly about the adventures (and misadventures) of Artie Shaw’s Navy Band 501, popularly known as Shaw’s Rangers, which saw active service in the South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand, it adds little to the putative title. Curiously, Shaw devotes only a few pages to his wartime musical […]
Tracking the mystery woman of jazz: Mama X Plus - Jazz Journal
I first met Gale Madden at a record shop in Bellingham, Washington in the late 80s. As we stood digging a CD of vintage Roy Eldridge, Gale (1) regaled me with fantastic stories of her life with the modern jazz greats in the two main jazz centers of the 40s and 50s, New York City […]
Reviewed: Rebecca Vasmant | Emily Saunders | Robert Lee - Jazz Journal
Rebecca Vasmant: Who We Are, Becoming: (New Soil x Women in Jazz NS01 123D) Born in Paris and raised in Scotland, Rebecca Vasmant has become an unofficial ambassador for contemporary jazz. Drawing deeply on personal experiences that have shaped her, Vasmant – a DJ producer as well as performer – has put together a haunting […]
Reviewed: John Coltrane | Ray Barretto - Jazz Journal
John Coltrane: Soultrane (20th Century Masterworks 350280) This was originally released in 1958 via Prestige and recorded three days after a Columbia session for the Miles Davis album Milestones. The year marked a transitional moment for John Coltrane, who went on to form his own quartet featuring McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones in 1960. […]
Reviewed: Jim Doherty with Louis Stewart | Satoko Fujii | Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith - Jazz Journal
Jim Doherty with Louis Stewart et al: Spondance (Livia Records LRCD2403) Pianist-composer Jim Doherty’s octet album was recorded in 1986 with close friends Louis Stewart (guitar) and Bobby Shew (trumpet). The band features the finest Los Angeles musicians – Bob Sheppard: alto, Gordon Brisker: tenor, Randy Aldcroft: trombone, Tom Warrington: bass, and Billy Mintz: drums. […]
Reviewed: Allison Miller with The One O’Clock Lab Band | Terence Collie | Rachael Calladine Quartet | Steve Sieck - Jazz Journal
Allison Miller with The One O’Clock Lab Band: Big & Lovely (Royal Potato Family RPF 2502) I had the pleasure of seeing New-York-based drummer and composer Allison Miller seven years ago when she was playing Newport Jazz Festival in Parlour Game, the quartet co-led by her and violinist Jenny Scheinman with Carmen Staaf (p) and […]
Reviewed: Miķelis Dzenuška + Victory Boulevard | Karl Latham - Jazz Journal
Miķelis Dzenuška + Victory Boulevard: The Fish Suite 02024 (Jersika Records JRA023-00-1100 – LP) My knowledge of the Latvian jazz scene is lamentably sparse but it was, arguably, broadened by the information sheet inside the sturdy cover of this LP which relates to a different album by a different band. For more info about the […]
Reviewed: Andy Hague Big Band | Stephane Mercier | Alison Rayner Quintet - Jazz Journal
Andy Hague Big Band: Live At The Lantern (Ooh-Err 10) Andy Hague is a well-respected trumpet player from Bristol and within the 10 tracks here you get a snippet of what to expect if you catch his big band in action. The recording seems a little bit “bootleg” (by that I mean it’s not too […]
Reviewed: ECHT! | light.box + Tom Challenger | Jo David Meyer Lysne | Nicolas Masson | Ingi Bjarni Skúlason - Jazz Journal
ECHT!: Boilerism (SDBAN Ultra SDBANULP42) In recent times I’ve written extensively on the new Scandinavian ambient-jazz, a free-floating music which for the most part incorporates electronics and signal processing into an established vocabulary. Brussels-based electro-jazzers ECHT! take a rather different approach, fusing instrumental jazz with dominant hip-hop beats. Both of their previous albums have seen […]
Reviewed: The Leaning In Underground featuring Paula Bilá | Joan Fort | Dikeman, Hong, Lumley & Warelis | Walter Davis Jr. | Luis Rivera: - Jazz Journal
Three-fifths of this month’s reviewed albums – see immediately below – are made by Amsterdam-based musicians from all over the world. Though, for various reasons, the jazz infrastructure in The Netherlands is in poor health, expats flock to the highly regarded conservatories or blow in from the underground and take the big city scenes as […]