62 articles
Wif Stenger
Wif Stenger started out in university radio, then writing a weekly column for New York Press focusing on the downtown improvised music scene. Later he contributed to Rolling Stone, Spin, Billboard, Baltimore City Paper and Miami New Times as well as various music and travel books. After studying music history at the New School and journalism at Harvard, he moved to Helsinki. He works for the Finnish Broadcasting Company alongside freelance gigs for Songlines, Monocle, The Guardian, Deutsche Welle and Finnish Music Quarterly. He has been contributing to JJ since 2013, including profiles of Kamasi Washington, Vijay Iyer and Peter Erskine.
Natacha Atlas: Strange Days
The crossroads of jazz and Arabic music are an unexplored outpost to most Western listeners, besides maybe the work of French-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf,...
We Jazz Festival, Helsinki, Tampere and Tallinn, 2019
From a photo studio to a hotel bar, an old power plant to an art gallery, a tiny café to electronic music clubs, this...
Rōnin Arkestra: Sonkei
Rōnin Arkestra appeared out of Tokyo last spring, its four-track EP First Meeting reworking A Love Supreme to a hip-hop beat – which takes...
Exploring St Petersburg’s cosy jazz dens
Behind its dour façade, St Petersburg is a jazz town.
Gregory Porter croons over the speakers at a restaurant behind the Mariinsky Theatre. At a...
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Jaimie Branch: Fly Or Die II – Bird Dogs Of Paradise
Like Ambrose Akinmusire’s recent Origami Harvest, this is a fiercely political album driven by trumpet and vocals – though this has a much rawer...
Review: Flow Festival 2019
Helsinki’s burgeoning jazz scene has been showcased at Flow since it was launched a decade and a half ago. Now nearly 20 times larger...
Ranaldo, Jarmusch, Urselli, Pándi
Marc Urselli invited three musicians who’d never met before for a late-night jam at his studio on New York’s Lower East Side: guitarist Lee...
Shahbaz Hussain and Helen Anahita Wilson: Diwan
Jazz and South Asian music have been mixed since the 1960s, most convincingly by saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa and pianist Vijay Iyer, particularly on his...
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Kevin Hays and Chiara Izzi: Across The Sea
Encouraged by Quincy Jones, Italian singer Chiara Izzi moved to New York after winning the Montreux Vocal Competition. Izzi is backed on her breezy, pop-inflected...
Django Reinhardt: Souvenirs
Django Reinhardt, the first non-American jazz giant, is one of a small handful whose music should immediately be included in Unesco’s World Heritage List...
Tower of Power at 50: What Is Hip?
Half a century on, the R&B warhorse that is Tower of Power is going strong, its hallmark horn sound and repertoire still impressive and...
Cæcilie Norby: Sisters in Jazz
Scandinavia’s best female jazz singer? A matter of taste, of course, but Norby is a strong contender. By her 10th album, a quarter-century on...
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