Reviewed: Christy Baron | Steve Berndt | Paul Colombo Group

Christy Baron: I Thought About You This is a reissue of a 1996 album by singer (and actress) Christy Baron (b. 1963, Munhall, Penn) that mixes songbook and jazz standards with covers of the Beatles, Stevie Wonder and others. She has an expressive sense and range that helps keep the ear tuned into all she does, even on an album that is perhaps over-endowed with ballads and ballad treatments of originally quicker pieces. In fact, given Baron’s sylph-like voice and...

Reviewed: Marques Carroll | Quentin Lourties | Whitney Ross-Barris

Marques Carroll: Live At Winter’s Jazz Club And Andy’s Jazz Club Though some live albums can be a bit messy, Marques Carroll’s leadership shines on...

JJ 02/76: Freddie Hubbard – Polar AC

Fifty years ago Chris Sheridan found himself chasing a jelly around a bath of soapy water as he pursued the substance of Hubbard's latest

JJ 02/76: Celebrating The Duke And Others

Fifty years ago Burnett James greatly admired the 'genuine perception and independent thought' of musicians' critic Ralph Gleason

JJ 02/76: Jim Hall – Concierto

Fifty years ago Chris Sheridan loved a session of master melodists that also marked the return of a more assured and more capable Chet Baker

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 (1990) 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.

Laura Macdonald appointed head of jazz at Scottish conservatoire

The saxophonist Laura Macdonald, the former wife of saxophonist Tommy Smith, has been appointed Head of Jazz at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Smith,...

JJ 02/66: In My Opinion – Bob Thiele

Sixty years ago record producer Bob Thiele held forth on the avant-garde work of yes, Bob James, on Duke Ellington and pop music and on Hines, Hawkins, Mulligan and Barry Harris

JJ 02/66: The Quartette Très Bien – Stepping Out

Sixty years ago Sinclair Traill found the African-influenced music of US trio Quartette Très Bien had such abandon that he couldn't believe it was all arranged

JJ 02/66: Bobby Wellins – The New Departures Quartet

Sixty years ago Mark Gardner was pleased to find somebody else - Bobby Wellins of the 'stove-pipe' sound - who sounded like they had been listening to Warne Marsh

Reviewed: Jim Hall | Oscar Peterson | Nat ‘King’ Cole

Jim Hall: Jazz Guitar The young Jim Hall’s first and probably best album as a leader has had a bizarre history. First released in 1957,...
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Trinity Laban settles with Martin Speake over his remarks on jazz and skin colour

Following a two-year dispute the Trinity Laban conservatoire in South London has reached a private...
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JJ 02/66: Bobby Wellins – The New Departures Quartet

Sixty years ago Mark Gardner was pleased to find somebody else - Bobby Wellins of the 'stove-pipe' sound - who sounded like they had been listening to Warne Marsh

JJ 02/76: Celebrating The Duke And Others

Fifty years ago Burnett James greatly admired the 'genuine perception and independent thought' of musicians' critic Ralph Gleason

JJ 02/66: The Quartette Très Bien – Stepping Out

Sixty years ago Sinclair Traill found the African-influenced music of US trio Quartette Très Bien had such abandon that he couldn't believe it was all arranged

JJ 02/76: Freddie Hubbard – Polar AC

Fifty years ago Chris Sheridan found himself chasing a jelly around a bath of soapy water as he pursued the substance of Hubbard's latest

Reviewed: Christy Baron | Steve Berndt | Paul Colombo Group

Christy Baron: I Thought About You This is a reissue of a 1996 album by singer (and actress) Christy Baron (b. 1963, Munhall, Penn) that mixes songbook and jazz standards with covers of the Beatles, Stevie Wonder and others. She has an expressive sense and range that helps keep the ear tuned into all she does, even on an album that is perhaps over-endowed with...

Reviewed: Marques Carroll | Quentin Lourties | Whitney Ross-Barris

Marques Carroll: Live At Winter’s Jazz Club And Andy’s Jazz Club Though some live albums can be a bit messy, Marques Carroll’s leadership shines on this double release. Recorded within a month of one another, his sets at Winter’s Jazz Club and Andy’s Jazz Club offer different sides of a talented musician and bandleader. At Winter’s Jazz Club the Chicago-based trumpeter covers material by Rotondi,...
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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

Laura Macdonald appointed head of jazz at Scottish conservatoire

The saxophonist Laura Macdonald, the former wife of saxophonist Tommy Smith, has been appointed Head of Jazz at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Smith, who established the Glasgow college's jazz course in 2009, had held the post until June...

Trinity Laban settles with Martin Speake over his remarks on jazz and skin colour

Following a two-year dispute the Trinity Laban conservatoire in South London has reached a private settlement with Martin Speake, a former teacher of saxophone at the college who attacked critical race theory and the proposition that the UK jazz...
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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 02/76: Freddie Hubbard – Polar AC

Fifty years ago Chris Sheridan found himself chasing a jelly around a bath of soapy water as he pursued the substance of Hubbard's latest

JJ 02/76: Celebrating The Duke And Others

Fifty years ago Burnett James greatly admired the 'genuine perception and independent thought' of musicians' critic Ralph Gleason

JJ 02/76: Jim Hall – Concierto

Fifty years ago Chris Sheridan loved a session of master melodists that also marked the return of a more assured and more capable Chet Baker