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iG4 featuring Claire Martin, Nikki Iles, Karen Sharp and Ewan Hastie

There was a full house for this concert by iG4, which, Claire Martin explained, stood for "Inter-Generational 4’" owing to the presence of the young Scottish bassist Ewan Hastie. The set list featured a mix of some familiar standards and some less well-known tunes, each one chosen by the individual members of the band.  Among the less familiar tunes were Sunshower (Kenny Barron), Third World Man (Steely Dan), Cherry Tree Song (John Surman/Karin Krog) and Sister Moon (Sting), which was...

Reviewed: Ryan Truesdell | Shinken Shobu

Ryan Truesdell: Shades Of Sound - Gil Evans Project Live At Jazz Standard Vol. 2 (Outside In Music OIM2515) This is a superb tribute to the work...

Reviewed: Hakan Basar | Jordan VanHemert | Ari Joshua

Hakan Basar: Maiden Voyage (Red 180527) A swimmer that protects a piece of brittle porcelain from the waves. This is the way former prodigy Hakan...

New releases June-July 2025, C-D

Records offered for review to Jazz Journal in May-June 2025, including Candido, Colin Steele Quartet, Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra, Miles Davis and Eric Dolphy // Editor's pick: Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra

Edward Burra, leading painter and JJ enthusiast

The exhibition of the work of Edward Burra, one of Britain’s most distinctive 20th-century artists (Tate Britain, London, until 19 October) is well worth...

News in brief...

The 1919 UK visit of the Southern Syncopated Orchestra figures in Syncopated, a new ACE- and lottery-funded play that “explores the echoes of Black migration and culture in Britain”.

In a promotional wheeze, ticket agency SeatPick has scraped Reddit posts to rank jazz followers the fourth happiest among music fans, rebutting the received wisdom that they’re all grumpy old men.

The Daily Telegraph says new free-speech legislation comes too late for saxophonist Martin Speake, who is claiming constructive dismissal after contesting Trinity Laban’s embrace of critical race theory.

Vibist Joe Locke plays with organist Peter Johnstone’s band at Watermill, Dorking (8 July); 606 Club, London (9); Zeffirellis, Ambleside (10) and St Bride’s, Edinburgh (11).

New releases June-July 2025, A-B

Records offered for review to Jazz Journal in May-June 2025, including Rez Abbasi, Afro Cuban All Stars, Eric Alexander and Vincent Herring, Tim Boniface and Rick Braun // Editor's pick: Rez Abbasi

Reviewed: Ferdinando Romano | Carsten Dahl Ensemble | Peter Vuust Quartet

Ferdinando Romano: The Legends Of Otranto (GleAM Records AM7035) Romano is a fine Italian bass player, very much on the up in the current Italian...

Reviewed: Beiggja | Jay Davis | Goran Kajfeš and Andreas Tilliander | Geir Sundstøl

Beiggja: Morning (Hubro CD2671) Although not it's intended as a site-specific work, I can’t help thinking that the music on this debut album by Dutch-Norwegian...

Reviewed: Victoria Kirilova | Landaeus Trio | Trygve Fiske Sextet

Victoria Kirilova: Roots & Skies (Da Vinci Jazz C00997) There is something old school about bassist Victoria Kirilova’s debut album. With no tricks or gimmicks,...

Reviewed: Ewan Svensson Quartet | Cyrus Chestnut | Freddie Hubbard

Ewan Svensson Quartet: The Forks (ESMCD 2507) Swedish jazz guitarist Ewan Svensson will be 75 this summer. In the early days he played in rock,...

Bangkok After Dark

Have you ever heard of Maurice Rocco? Probably not, and I certainly hadn’t before receiving this book for review. But, look him up in...

Jim Mullen, Allison Neale, Gabrielle Stravelli and more for Battersea jazz festival

This year's Battersea Jazz Festival, 3-12 July, brings national and international names to south London in nine performances. Jim Mullen, appearing with his organ...
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Reviewed: Paul Bley | Chick Corea

Paul Bley: Open, To Love (ECM 4505319) By 1972, Bley had already released 18 records as...
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JJ 06/85: Cedar Walton at Ronnie Scott’s club, London

Forty years ago, Mike Hennessey marvelled at pianist Walton's flair for writing compelling hooks and pursuing neat little phrases through the changes

JJ 06/75: George Duke – Feel

Fifty years ago, Barry McRae dismissed one of the masters of modern jazz keyboard and arrangement in very few words, declining to hear in his latest record more than high-quality disco music

JJ 06/95: The Gibson ES175 / The Guitar Players / The Guitarist Book Of Guitar Players / Django’s Gypsies – The Mys­tique Of Django...

Thirty years ago, Mark Gilbert enjoyed seeing the rubber grommet which appeared under the Gibson ES175's pickup selector switch in the late fifties given proper recognition

JJ 06/75: Donald Byrd – Stepping Into Tomorrow

Fifty years ago, Mark Gardner heard in trumpeter Byrd's incorporation of funk and rock not the advent of a new jazz suggested by the title but a shallow pursuit of fashion

iG4 featuring Claire Martin, Nikki Iles, Karen Sharp and Ewan Hastie

There was a full house for this concert by iG4, which, Claire Martin explained, stood for "Inter-Generational 4’" owing to the presence of the young Scottish bassist Ewan Hastie. The set list featured a mix of some familiar standards and some less well-known tunes, each one chosen by the individual members of the band.  Among the less familiar tunes were Sunshower (Kenny Barron), Third World...

Reviewed: Ryan Truesdell | Shinken Shobu

Ryan Truesdell: Shades Of Sound - Gil Evans Project Live At Jazz Standard Vol. 2 (Outside In Music OIM2515) This is a superb tribute to the work of jazz master Gil Evans. The wonderful textures that Evans exploited – especially using tuba and French horns, but also viola, woodwinds and brass – are heard to full advantage here. The album features interpretations of some of Evans' classic...

New releases June-July 2025, C-D

Records offered for review to Jazz Journal in May-June 2025, including Candido, Colin Steele Quartet, Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra, Miles Davis and Eric Dolphy // Editor's pick: Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra

New releases June-July 2025, A-B

Records offered for review to Jazz Journal in May-June 2025, including Rez Abbasi, Afro Cuban All Stars, Eric Alexander and Vincent Herring, Tim Boniface and Rick Braun // Editor's pick: Rez Abbasi

New releases April-May 2025, T-Z

Records offered for review to Jazz Journal in March-April 2025, including Pete McGuiness Jazz Orchestra, Theo Travis, Bugge Wesseltoft, Becca Wilkins and Savina Yannatou // Editor's pick: The Action 4s

Edward Burra, leading painter and JJ enthusiast

The exhibition of the work of Edward Burra, one of Britain’s most distinctive 20th-century artists (Tate Britain, London, until 19 October) is well worth a visit, if only to enjoy the many paintings he produced of New York and...

Jim Mullen, Allison Neale, Gabrielle Stravelli and more for Battersea jazz festival

This year's Battersea Jazz Festival, 3-12 July, brings national and international names to south London in nine performances. Jim Mullen, appearing with his organ trio, will be perhaps the best known among the British performers, while American singer Gabrielle...

German Jazz Prize performances reflect the fraught political scene

Musicians from across Germany and around the globe flocked to Cologne for the German Jazz Prize on 13 June - and that’s no surprise. All 76 nominees got €4,000, while winners in 22 categories departed E-Werk’s brick-and-steel interior with...

James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”

James Baldwin (1924-1987) is considered by many to be one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Born into poverty in Harlem, New York, he became an activist and broke new ground with his exploration of racial...

Tracking the mystery woman of jazz: Mama X Plus / 2

Above all else, music and musicians remained constant anchors throughout Gale Madden's life. She had no end to the stories of musicians with whom she had been associated. Like...

Tracking the mystery woman of jazz: Mama X Plus / 1

I first met Gale Madden at a record shop in Bellingham, Washington in the late 80s. As we stood digging a CD of vintage...

Emily Saunders: ‘For me, technique is freedom’

“The essence of me is writing songs and expressing experiences or what I see around me and just trying to spread some happiness,” declares...

Obituary: Louis Moholo-Moholo

With the death of drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo in Cape Town on Friday 13 June a great sadness reverberated through the jazz world. He was the final member of the widely acclaimed, well-loved and influential Blue Notes, who in 1964...

Count Me In… 05/25

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...

JJ 07/65: In My Opinion – Ben Webster

Sixty years ago, the renowned saxophonist reflected on music from Fats Waller, Willie The Lion Smith, James P. Johnson, Earl Hines, Art Tatum and more

JJ 06/95: The Gibson ES175 / The Guitar Players / The Guitarist Book Of Guitar Players / Django’s Gypsies – The Mys­tique Of Django...

Thirty years ago, Mark Gilbert enjoyed seeing the rubber grommet which appeared under the Gibson ES175's pickup selector switch in the late fifties given proper recognition

JJ 06/95: Findings – My Experience With The Soprano Saxophone

Thirty years ago, Lol Coxhill welcomed the first substantial writing on Steve Lacy's saxophone style and technique - done by the man himself