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Kaisa’s Machine at LOCH in Wuppertal

As evening blurs into night, technicoloured lettering slithers around the concrete bulk of LOCH in Wuppertal. A sandwich board crouches in the shadow of the club’s graffitied façade. "Seid bitte leise." Please be quiet. It’s a call for discretion from the venue’s visitors on 26 October. Inside, band Kaisa’s Machine is delivering 90 minutes of suitably subtle sound. Finnish bassist Kaisa Mäensivu is the Machine’s operator. Her band has existed for nearly 10 years, with members changing for each studio session or show. For this night shift in north-west Germany, she’s joined by fellow Finn Max Zenger on alto saxophone and Danish pianist Rasmus Sorensen, with Spanish drummer Andreu Pitarch. The production plan features nine pulsating-but-patient compositions from her 2023 album, Taking Shape (Greenleaf Music). It...

Obituary: Quincy Jones

Rarely – if ever – has an American musician received such fulsome praise both during their lifetime and after their death. Such headlines as “Quincy Jones, Giant of American Music Dies At 91” (New York Times) and “Quincy Jones: Musician, producer and arranger who had global hits with Michael...

Report: Melbourne International Jazz Festival

The Melbourne International Jazz Festival aspires to be recognised as a world-class jazz festival. This year, it got it mostly right. The artistic direction – 10 days of concerts across a range of venues...

Yours Truly, John

John Stubblefield was of a jazz generation that was thoroughly grounded in the music’s values yet open to new developments, in his case with particular reference to what was once known as the avant-garde. This book has been written and compiled by...

Quincy Jones dies

Trumpeter turned arranger Quincy Jones - best known to the general public as the producer of hit Michael Jackson albums after a career spent in jazz arrangement - passed away 3 November aged 91....

Barbican film series recalls the 1970s, when free improvisation was on British TV

A panel discussion with free-improvisation veteran Maggie Nicols and 1970s TV appearances by Derek Bailey, Charles Fox, Tony Oxley, Evan Parker...

JJ 10/84: Molde International Jazz Festival, Norway

Superlatives are notorious in jazz criticism, but Molde really is a very special event in the jazz calendar. What musicians and fans alike appreci­ate about Molde is that it has always stayed faithful to...

JJ 10/94: Gail Thompson – Gail Force

Gail Thompson has assembled a very useful big band and together with Andy Macintosh provided some good tunes for it to play. The fortunate thing is that it plays them well and...

JJ 10/94: Cassandra Wilson – Blue Light ’Til Dawn

An interesting mixture of sources here: R&B, blues, folk, rock and popular - and also some original material. To all the songs on this album Wilson brings a highly sophisticated...
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New releases Aug-Sep 2024, A-B

2R+2B: Live At The Tbilisi Jazz Festival 1978 They say : One of the most important Latvian jazz ensembles of the 1970s - quartet "2R + 2B". These recordings have been made at the first Tbilisi Jazz Festival 1978 in Georgia. LP...

Kaisa’s Machine at LOCH in Wuppertal

As evening blurs into night, technicoloured lettering slithers around the concrete bulk of LOCH in Wuppertal. A sandwich...

Report: Melbourne International Jazz Festival

The Melbourne International Jazz Festival aspires to be recognised as a world-class jazz festival. This year, it got...

Mike Paul-Smith: ‘We all loved those swing bands of the 40s’

There's a rumour going around that the life of a music reviewer is only a tad less rewarding than that of Tom Cruise, Andrew Lloyd Webber or your privileged...

Samara Joy: ‘I didn’t start singing to become a jazz superstar’

“It was terrible! The nerves! I was so nervous! So, so nervous!” exclaims New York singer Samara Joy of her first visit to the...

Petra van Nuis: singing beyond the words

Petra van Nuis is a Chicago-based jazz vocalist whom Bruce Crowther described as "an exceptionally gifted singer with a light yet subtly textured sound"...

Meshell Ndegeocello: No More Water – The Gospel of James Baldwin

The American bassist and singer sets the work of writer and activist James Baldwin as spoken word, song and church service

JJ 09/74: Jazz – emergence as an international art form

Fifty years ago the US avant-gardist Milo Fine lamented the effect of partisan politics on jazz, hoping that music would prevail

American Drummers 1959-88

An evocative photo collection from Val Wilmer includes Billy Higgins, Kenny Clarke and Ed Blackwell, as well as an off-duty Jimi Hendrix

Obituary: Quincy Jones

Rarely – if ever – has an American musician received such fulsome praise both during their lifetime and after their death. Such headlines as “Quincy Jones, Giant of American Music Dies At 91” (New York Times) and “Quincy Jones:...

We Love Sérgio Mendes 

Sérgio Mendes may not have been the main originator of bossa nova - one of the most innovative musical movements of the 20th century - and he may not have been the most talented musician to come out of...

JJ 10/84: Molde International Jazz Festival, Norway

Superlatives are notorious in jazz criticism, but Molde really is a very special event in the jazz calendar. What musicians and fans alike appreci­ate about Molde is that it has always...

JJ 10/94: Gail Thompson – Gail Force

Gail Thompson has assembled a very useful big band and together with Andy Macintosh provided some good tunes for it to play. The fortunate...

JJ 10/94: Cassandra Wilson – Blue Light ’Til Dawn

An interesting mixture of sources here: R&B, blues, folk, rock and popular - and also some original material. To all the songs on this...