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Resuscitated Middelheim jazz festival attracts 11,000

It all started in 1969 when musician and radio producer Elias Gistelinck dared to create a jazz festival at a time when pop music was flourishing. Little did David Linx’s father know back then that his festival set in the Park Den Brandt in the south of Antwerp would become Belgium’s oldest jazz festival until it came to an abrupt stop in 2022. The organisation in charge of the two biggest jazz festivals in Belgium, Ghent Jazz and Jazz...

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....

Reviewed: Atlantic Jazz Collective featuring Norma Winstone and Joe LaBarbera | Fini Bearman | Martin Speake and Will Butterworth | Janette Mason

Atlantic Jazz Collective featuring Norma Winstone and Joe LaBarbera: Seascape (Alma Records ACD50252) As the title implies, Seascape is inspired by the ocean, its rhythm...

Reviewed: Jan Gunnar Hoff Group | The Furgos | Becca Wilkins

Jan Gunnar Hoff Group: Voyage (Losen Records LOS 304-2) Norwegian Jan Gunnar Hoff's model of Scandi-fusion sends sparks off the rails for this album, with...

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...

News in brief...

The Ivors Academy holds a webinar on 24 June on how Donald Trump’s policies on DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion – may affect the music industry.

Tommy Smith has been dismissed from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland over allegations of a relationship with a female student at the college, says the Herald.

Jack Kleinsinger, producer of more than 300 Highlights In Jazz concerts over five decades, died at home 11 June, from complications after a fall. He was 88.

Scottish pianist Brian Kellock died suddenly 27 May 2025, at the age of 62. A posthumous fundraiser with a target of £7,500 raised £12,180.

Reviewed: Pat Metheny | Trilok Gurtu with Arké String Quartet | Arve Henriksen, Trygve Seim, Anders Jormin, Markku Ounaskari | Cecilie Strange | Mwendo...

Pat Metheny: Bright Size Life (ECM 5523892) Among his many activities on behalf of ECM, New Note and Proper Music's much admired – and missed –...

Reviewed: Jacqui Dankworth | Sandra Mae Lux

Jacqui Dankworth: Windmills (Perdido DOR2401) All my Christmases came at once this month. I was assigned two new albums for review, they arrived in the...

Reviewed: Vilhelm Bromander Unfolding Orchestra | Kazzrie Jaxen & Don Messina | Georgia Mancio and Alan Broadbent

Vilhelm Bromander Unfolding Orchestra: Jorden Vi Ärvde (Thanatosis Produktion THT41) In 2023, Swedish bassist and composer Vilhelm Bromander released his new big band's debut album. That ensemble...

Village People play Sicilia Jazz Festival 

Now in its fifth edition, the 2025 Sicilia Jazz Festival (22 June - 6 July) offers 85 concerts and involves 385 musicians, among them...

Reviewed: Lance Ferguson | Alessandro Sgobbio | The Action 4s

Lance Ferguson: L’Océan De Toi (Pacific Theatre PT016) Musical inspiration can strike from the most unexpected sources. For Lance Ferguson, the spark behind L’Océan De...

Reviewed: Jonah David | Adrian Galante | Mingus

Jonah David: Waltz For Eli (Swish Tap Records STR-4001) Born in South Orange, New Jersey in 1977, drummer Jonah David was initially drawn to jazz...

The Life And Writings Of Ralph J. Gleason

Ralph J. Gleason (1917-1975) was a jazz journalist, prolific writer, critic, entrepreneur, political commentator and pundit from the 1930s until his death. His notable...
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Geoff Hearn, Olie Brice and Spike Wells in Brighton

I'd long known about Brighton's safehouse project, an enduring and admirable enterprise dedicated to improvised...
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JJ 05/95: Terje Rypdal – If Mountains Could Sing

Thirty years ago Michael Tucker delighted over and again in the loping jazz-rock, brooding intensity, ghostly ambience and quintessential Nordic cry evinced by guitarist Rypdal's trio

JJ 05/65: Joe Henderson – In ’N Out

Sixty years ago Graham Boatfield was unexcited by what he saw primarily as a Coltrane-primed session featuring Trane rhythm men McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones

JJ 05/95: Paul Motian And The Electric Bebop Band – Reincarnation Of A Love Bird

Thirty years ago Ron Salmon had mixed feelings about Motian's electric adventure but found the good in soloing from Chrises Potter and Cheek and strong swing from Steve Swallow and the leader

JJ 05/75: Derek Bailey – Lot 74 – Solo Improvisations

Fifty years ago Barry McRae argued that where such as George Chisholm, Victor Feldman, Joe Harriott and John Surman would sound outstanding in any company, guitarist Derek Bailey was something else - a totally original British jazzman

Resuscitated Middelheim jazz festival attracts 11,000

It all started in 1969 when musician and radio producer Elias Gistelinck dared to create a jazz festival at a time when pop music was flourishing. Little did David Linx’s father know back then that his festival set in the Park Den Brandt in the south of Antwerp would become Belgium’s oldest jazz festival until it came to an abrupt stop in 2022. The...

Reviewed: Atlantic Jazz Collective featuring Norma Winstone and Joe LaBarbera | Fini Bearman | Martin Speake and Will Butterworth | Janette Mason

Atlantic Jazz Collective featuring Norma Winstone and Joe LaBarbera: Seascape (Alma Records ACD50252) As the title implies, Seascape is inspired by the ocean, its rhythm and mystery, reflected in the music of this group, the Atlantic Jazz Collective. There’s a long-standing connection here – Norma Winstone first met Mike Murley and Jim Vivian when she, Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor worked in the Maritime Jazz...

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

New releases April-May 2025, R-S

Records offered for review to Jazz Journal in March-April 2025, including Joshua Redman, Scandinavian Art Ensemble (w. Tomasz Stańko) and Martin Speake & Will Butterworth // Editor's pick: Steve Holt Jazz Impact Quintet

New releases April-May 2025, M-P

Records offered for review to Jazz Journal in March-April 2025, including Georgia Mancio & Alan Broadbent, Harvey Mason, Bennie Maupin, Pat Metheny and Hedvig Mollestad || Editor's pick: Mehldau, Turner, Bernstein

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...

Village People play Sicilia Jazz Festival 

Now in its fifth edition, the 2025 Sicilia Jazz Festival (22 June - 6 July) offers 85 concerts and involves 385 musicians, among them Village People, Nina Zilli, Piero Pelù, Jazzmeia Horn, Victor Wooten, John Pizzarelli, Cécile McLorin Salvant...

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 05/95: Terje Rypdal – If Mountains Could Sing

Thirty years ago Michael Tucker delighted over and again in the loping jazz-rock, brooding intensity, ghostly ambience and quintessential Nordic cry evinced by guitarist Rypdal's trio

JJ 05/95: Paul Motian And The Electric Bebop Band – Reincarnation Of A Love Bird

Thirty years ago Ron Salmon had mixed feelings about Motian's electric adventure but found the good in soloing from Chrises Potter and Cheek and strong swing from Steve Swallow and the leader

JJ 05/85: Ralph Towner – Works | Egberto Gismonti – Works

Forty years ago Simon Adams applauded ECM's effective if pretentious compilation wheeze but regretted they hadn't chosen better tracks for the Towner and Gismonti sets