244 articles
Matthew Wright
Matthew worked at Chris Wellard’s Jazz & Blues in New Cross, Collets Jazz & Folk Shop and for John Jack’s Cadillac Music. He helped Ray Smith set up Ray’s Jazz Shop in Shaftesbury Avenue and was its first manager. In the early 1980s he ran the Seven Dials Jazz Club, Covent Garden. He left London to work as a teacher in schools and at Warwickshire College in Leamington Spa. He has written for various magazines including Collusion, Jazzwise and Jazz Journal and was part of Leamington-based Jazz & Blues promoters, In the Moment. His book Jazz & Cricket - An Unlikely Combination was published in 2021
Obituary: Howard Riley
“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...
Reviewed: Tom Smith | Ben Wendel | Angelica Sanchez, Barry Guy & Ramon Lopez | Kyle Shepherd Trio
Tom Smith: A Year In The Life (Fey Moose Records FMR001)
Suddenly, a resurgence of interest in big bands is in the air. Always been...
Reviewed: Rahsaan Barber | Michael Sarian | John Butcher, Florian Stoffner, Chris Corsano | Monkin’ Around
Rahsaan Barber: Six Words (Jazz Music City Records)
Hot on the heels of his trombonist brother Roland’s impressive playing on John Alvey’s recent Loft Glow...
Reviewed: Mavis Rivers | Irene Kral | Ineza with Alex Webb & The Copasetics | Francesco Bearzatti, Stefano Risso & Mattia Barbieri | Day...
Mavis Rivers: Four Classic Albums Plus (Take A Number, The Simple Life, Hooray For Love, Mavis) (AVID Jazz AMSC1462)
Singers are often a tricky bunch...
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Reviewed: John Williamson | John Alvey | Arun Ramamurthy | Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grappelli
John Williamson: The Northern Sea (Ubuntu UBU0182)
Over the years, one of the many sources of inspiration for composition has been location: Dear Old Stockholm,...
Reviewed: New Jazz Orchestra, Neil Ardley | Howard Riley | Gérard Gustin, Chet Baker | Matyas Gayer | Etienne Charles
New Jazz Orchestra/Neil Ardley Group: BBC Sessions 1968-1970 (RANDB101)
Once again, Nick Duckett’s RandB Records mines the rich vein of material from the BBC archives,...
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
Christophe Marguet Quartet: Echoes Of Time
French drummer leads violin, guitar and bass in a set drawing on electronics, jazz-rock, funk and orchestral sounds
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Dexter Gordon: Blows Hot And Cool
While not thought one of Gordon's best albums, Hot And Cool has been a collector's item that fills a gap and presages the Blue Notes to come
Martin Denny: Exotica
The received wisdom might be that jazz is the font of eclecticism but Hollywood covered almost everything before Coltrane and the Beatles
Barnes, Spillett, Brown and Tracey at the Garibaldi in Northampton
Saxophones, bass and drums didn't miss a piano or guitar in a set of standards at a venue reminding of London's New Merlin's Cave of yore
Miles Davis: In Amsterdam 1957
The trumpeter is on good form, stylistically presaging his cool modal work, with Barney Wilen, René Urtreger, Pierre Michelot and Kenny Clarke
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