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 a springboard for international gigs and projects.
The Leaning In Underground featuring Paula Bilá: En Espãnol (Jazz In Amsterdam Records 24-001)
Linus Eppinger is both a...
Noah Peterson: Coming Home To You (Peterson Entertainment)
This is Noah Peterson’s seventh album as a leader, which, as usual has been released on his...
Chick Corea, Brian Blade, Christian McBride: Trilogy 3 (Candid Records CAN33543)
While there is always plenty to rave about when it comes to Return to...
Bill Evans: Further Ahead, Live in Finland 1964-1969 (Elemental Records 5990451)
This Bill Evans treasure chest is yet another “discovery/recovery” by the indefatigable Zev Feldman...
Artemis: Arboresque (Blue Note Records)
Nature and environmental beauty inspired this third Blue Note release from all-female quintet Artemis. The title means “tree-like”. The album...
Roy Haynes, Hip Ensemble (WeWantSounds WWSLP100)
This month’s arrivals on my doorstep included two drum-led releases. Previously issued on Mainstream (MDCD715), Roy Haynes’ Hip Ensemble...
The Third Stream Quartet: Déja Vu (Jersika Records JRA 027-001-1000)
Most of the records made by Latvian company Jersika, the jazz and improvised-music label founded...
One friendly patron jabs a finger at evidence of this street-level club’s raunchy past - red lightbulbs, wall-length mirrors and glittery golden frills hung...
Ron Magril: Inspired (GleAM Records AM7030)
The organ trio, like big bands, probably never completely went away. It's an observation worth making perhaps, given what...
Jim Mullen Quartet: For Heaven’s Sake (STUCD 24012)
Jim Mullen, one of the UK’s pre-eminent jazz guitarists, has teamed up with two Danish musicians Jan...
Fifty years ago Mike Shera thought Garbarek and Stenson's collection of pieces based on simple phrases or modes should be heard by those interested in that sort of thing
Fifty years ago Barry McRae was tempted to say that the real stars of another ECM session were the engineers, so good was the sound quality and balance
Fifty years ago, Sinclair Traill relished the undiluted pleasure produced by the harmonisations and exchanges of cornetist Ruby Braff and guitarist George Barnes
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 a springboard for international gigs and projects.
The Leaning In...
Noah Peterson: Coming Home To You (Peterson Entertainment)
This is Noah Peterson’s seventh album as a leader, which, as usual has been released on his own Peterson Entertainment label. He often doubles on soprano and tenor but confines himself here to the alto revealing an extrovert Cannonball Adderley influence with perhaps just a little Earl Bostic for good measure - but without Bostic’s pronounced vibrato.
He...
Racicot, Ariane: Danser avec le feu
They say : Ariane Racicot - winner of the 2022-2023 Révélation Radio-Canada prize for jazz - announces her second album...
O'Doherty, Caili: Bluer Than Blue
They say : Lillian “Lil” Hardin Armstrong is a name most jazz aficionados recognize, having read it in the annals and...
There has been a lot of excitement over the arrival yesterday in Denmark of one Miles Davis's paintings. It is a painting gifted by Davis to saxophonist Bill Evans for the latter's work in helping revive Davis's career in...
The publicity focus of this year's NSJF is on the appearance of "the legendary Queen of Motown" Diana Ross on the closing Sunday night of the festival, which runs 11-13 July at Rotterdam's Ahoy Centre. Also appearing on Sunday...
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...
In Brassroots Democracy, author Benjamin Barson presents a "music history from below", embracing the Haitian revolution, post-civil war reconstruction and early jazz. The term "brassroots democracy" is a synthesis of grassroots activism and New Orleans' historic brass-band tradition, and...
“The essence of me is writing songs and expressing experiences or what I see around me and just trying to spread some happiness,” declares London singer Emily Saunders. Certainly songs...
“I don’t rate myself,” asserts saxophonist Art Themen. “I’m just a jobbing musician who’s been very, very lucky.” It’s an astounding statement, for Themen,...
Milky smoke from an incense stick is pirouetting around a dozen porcelain cats and one bowl of dry-roasted peanuts. Alto saxophonist Caroline Davis lights...
Roy Ayers was a virtuoso jazz vibraphone player and multi-instrumentalist, but he was also able, in the 1970s, to bring jazz substance into R&B, funk and soul and later to inspire the style known as neo-soul. Everyone Loves The...
“Only posterity will show whether Howard Riley is a European Cecil Taylor, an avant-garde John Lewis, a jazz Stockhausen or the Howard Riley” reported Martin Davidson after hearing the pianist at the Purcell Room with Barry Guy and Paul...
Fifty years ago Mike Shera thought Garbarek and Stenson's collection of pieces based on simple phrases or modes should be heard by those interested in that sort of thing
Fifty years ago Barry McRae was tempted to say that the real stars of another ECM session were the engineers, so good was the sound quality and balance
