Reviewed: Carl Clements and The Real Jazz Trio | Alexis Cole | Gabriele Comeglio

Carl Clements and The Real Jazz Trio: Retrospective This is a follow-up to Carl Clements’ critically acclaimed 2023 CD A Different Light (Greydisc GDR3581). Despite the album title, Retrospective is really a contemporary look at some of his compelling originals, making their recording debut here. A thoroughly well-schooled musician, having graduated summa cum laude from Berklee College in 1987, he is currently a saxophone instructor at the highly acclaimed Amherst College in Massachusetts. A multi-instrumentalist, he is limited here to...

Reviewed: Aleph Aguiar | Pat Bianchi | Ray Charles

Aleph Aguiar: Sugar On My Blackbeans Spirit-lifting Venezualian-born and UK-based guitarist Aleph Aguiar doesn’t deal in highfalutin, mildly grotesque concepts heard everywhere these days from...

Reviewed: James Allsopp | Philipp Gropper’s Philm

James Allsopp: Stars And Sand It’s around 20 years now since Allsopp burst onto the scene with the wonderfully squalling free-jazz and electronica mash-ups of...

Count Me In… 02/26

Oh for a schism, an entertaining rupture in the ranks so that one can watch militants spit venom across a void. Jazz had a...

52nd International Jazz Piano Festival, Kalisz, Poland

The 52nd International Jazz Piano Festival in Kalisz, Poland (20-23 November 2025) was the first edition prepared by Krzysztof Herdzin, who assumed the role...

News in brief...

The fourth MoonJune festival, devised by the indefatigable Leonardo Pavkovic and describing itself as a festival of “eclectic music”, takes place in Teramo, Italy, 22-25 July 2026 and includes Soft Machine w. Gary Husband, Gong w. Steve Hillage and Diego Amador’s Flamenco Free Jazz.

Couleurs Jazz, an ad-free radio service based in Paris that in contrast to notable UK providers plays jazz all the time, is asking for donations. It’s an appeal that will likely to resonate with jazz fans who tune in. All contributions are welcome, but 50€ gets your name on the contributors’ wall.

The Swanage Jazz Festival, the oldest (1991) and largest “pure jazz” festival on the south coast of England, has reached its £25k appeal target and thus will go ahead 10-12 July 2026. Director Paul Kelly said “We have been amazed and uplifted by the generosity of our supporters.”

Whole lotta reshaping going on at London’s Southbank Centre 13-15 March 2026, when the Montreux Jazz Festival Residency returns, asking ‘What is Jazz Today?’, drawing  inspiration from Miles Davies [sic] and entailing performances from such as Theo Croker, Children of Zeus and corto.alto.

‘The creative chaos’ behind Kind Of Blue is the preoccupation of Miles, ‘a fusion of live jazz and theatre’ featuring Jay Phelps and Benjamin Akintuyos that transfers to Southwark Playhouse in London from 4 February – 7 March 2026 after a run at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe.

Reviewed: The Heath Brothers | Yamirah’s Solar Explorers | Louis Armstrong And His All-Stars

The Heath Brothers: Marchin’ On! I’d guess that a clear majority of JJ readers have at least one recording by at least one of the...

Judith Owen & The Callers at Pizza Express, Holborn

Recently I’ve covered several live gigs which have been blind dates in all but name; a third party (friend, editor) who knows both myself...

Reviewed: Mitch Dalton | Martin Wind | Vance Thompson

Mitch Dalton: Out Of The Shadows You may not know him but you’ve more than likely heard his music somewhere. Dalton is a veteran, in-demand...

Reviewed: Ted Brown Quartet | Yusuf Mumin | Erb, Mayas, Hemingway

Ted Brown Quartet: Just You, Just Me Tenor saxophonist Ted Brown must be the oldest surviving student of Lennie Tristano. He was born in Rochester,...

Reviewed: Ashley Maher | Theorem Of Joy | Valley Voice

Ashley Maher: Tree To Tree Ashley Maher is an LA-based singer and songwriter much immersed in the music of Senegal, where this album was recorded....
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Obituary: Ralph Towner

With the death of Ralph Towner (1940 - 2026) contemporary jazz lost one of its...
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JJ 01/86: Terje Rypdal Trio at London Logan Hall

Forty years ago Mark Gilbert saw guitarist Rypdal's trio confirm that it was now OK for the jazz fan to listen to heavy metal music

JJ 01/76: Donald Byrd – Black Byrd

Fifty years ago Mark Gardner saw a once reliable jazz player prostrate before the temptation of 'commercial trivia'

JJ 01/86: Charlie Watts Big Band at London Ronnie Scott’s Club

Forty years ago Martin Isherwood saw the Rolling Stones drummer leading such luminaries of British jazz as Stan Tracey, Harry Beckett and Bobby Wellins

JJ 01/76: Jean-Luc Ponty – Sunday Walk

Fifty years ago Barry McRae reckoned Ponty suffered from being dubbed the Coltrane of the violin and was better off in a bebop setting, as here

Reviewed: Carl Clements and The Real Jazz Trio | Alexis Cole | Gabriele Comeglio

Carl Clements and The Real Jazz Trio: Retrospective This is a follow-up to Carl Clements’ critically acclaimed 2023 CD A Different Light (Greydisc GDR3581). Despite the album title, Retrospective is really a contemporary look at some of his compelling originals, making their recording debut here. A thoroughly well-schooled musician, having graduated summa cum laude from Berklee College in 1987, he is currently a saxophone instructor...

Reviewed: Aleph Aguiar | Pat Bianchi | Ray Charles

Aleph Aguiar: Sugar On My Blackbeans Spirit-lifting Venezualian-born and UK-based guitarist Aleph Aguiar doesn’t deal in highfalutin, mildly grotesque concepts heard everywhere these days from corporate office to independent broom closet. Inspired by the music of his youth, Aguiar’s Latin soul jazz is no-nonsense - though not to be confused with frivolous. His band, including the fiery trumpeter Quentin Collins and well-versed organist Liam Dunachie,...
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New releases December 2025 – January 2026, T-Y

Records offered for review to Jazz Journal in November-December 2025, including Clark Terry, Cal Tjader, Charles Tolliver, V-Disc Big Band Jazz Sessions and Miroslav Vitous // Editor's pick: V-Disc Big Band Jazz Sessions

New releases December 2025 – January 2026, S

Records offered for review to Jazz Journal in November-December 2025, including Brandon Sanders, Woody Shaw, Gene Shelby, Wes Smith and Dave Stryker // Editor's pick: Dave Stryker

New releases December 2025 – January 2026, O-R

Records offered for review to Jazz Journal in November-December 2025, including Gary Peacock, Noah Peterson, Roy Powell, QOW Trio and Joel Ross // Editor's pick: Joel Ross

Liverpool jazz festival begins 26 February

Liverpool International Jazz Festival, founded in 2013 by Liverpool Hope University, and run by the university's Creative Campus, returns 26 February - 1 March with a programme mixing straightahead jazz, intense jazz fusion and world-flavoured variations. The headliners include...

Guy Barker swings the RAH

Trumpeter Guy Barker, well-known as in the vanguard of the first so-called British jazz revival of the 1980s, when he played bebop and cutting-edge jazz-funk with Chris Hunter and others, has for some years now embraced the mainstream of...
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Unapologetic Expression: The Inside Story Of The UK Jazz Explosion

For a geezer of my vintage the great and most fruitful UK jazz explosion occurred in the late 60s-early 70s, fuelled by South African expats and musicians from the West Country and then, somewhat in contrast, there was the...

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...

Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura: making music never heard before

Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Red Rodney, Corky Corcoran, to pick a few names at random, all began playing professionally in their teens. I remember seeing Betty Carter live back...

Gianluca Pellerito, drum wunderkind

I first encountered drummer Gianluca Pellerito through social media and quickly became one of his 330k followers on Instagram, but it was seeing this...

The dance is ended (but the memory lingers on)

Seeing the Count Basie Orchestra live was one of the great thrills early in my lifelong obsession with jazz. I did not realise it...

Count Me In… 02/26

Oh for a schism, an entertaining rupture in the ranks so that one can watch militants spit venom across a void. Jazz had a famous one at the turn of the 1950s – "la mère de tous les schismes",...

Obituary: Ralph Towner

With the death of Ralph Towner (1940 - 2026) contemporary jazz lost one of its most prolific and distinctive voices. How many musicians can you think of whose work covers the range that Towner explored in the now rippling,...
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JJ 01/96: Jazz – The Rough Guide

Thirty years ago Alun Morgan was very pleased with the revised edition of Carr, Fairweather and Priestley's not-so-rough guide to jazz

JJ 01/96: Wayne Shorter – High Life

Thirty years ago Mark Gilbert found Shorter's post Weather Report fusion one-dimensional in comparison with the musical mastery of his early 60s Blue Notes

JJ 01/96: Steve Grossman, interviewed by Mark Gilbert

Thirty years ago the NY tenor man, peer to Berg, Brecker, Mintzer et al, talked about his journey through Miles Davis, Elvin Jones and Stone Alliance and back to bebop