Top 20 Jazz Albums of 2019
- Thursday, November 21, 2019
The ultimate guide to the year's best new jazz albums as voted for by Jazzwise's peerless panel of reviewers – including the complete original Jazzwise reviews
Features
Gwilym Simcock: “I want to have an emotional experience when I listen to music. I want it to move me”
- Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Eight years on from his Mercury Prize-shortlisted ACT debut, pianist Gwilym Simcock returns with a second solo album for the label recorded at his home in Berlin. He talks to Peter Quinn about evoking emotions, restoring a 120-year-old piano, and why practicing in the afternoon won’t win you any friends in Germany
Yazz Ahmed interview: “Music has helped me identify who I am”
- Tuesday, November 19, 2019
For adventurous trumpeter Yazz Ahmed music was the key to unlocking her identity as a half Bahraini, half English girl growing up in suburban South London. She’s since forged a sonically-distinctive style, shaped as much by her work with Radiohead and These New Puritans as her own eclectic instincts. Here she speaks with Andy Robson about investigating her ethnic roots to challenge the strictures of genre and her new work, Polyhymnia, inspired by the courage of extraordinary women
Double-bassist Thomas Morgan: “For me music has always been the most natural and the deepest way to share something with people”
- Friday, November 15, 2019
The double-bassist talks to David Gallant about his formative years in music and the instruments he has played
James Pearson's turning point: The Vocal Fats Waller
- Thursday, November 14, 2019
Pianist James Pearson talks about the album that changed his life, Fats Waller’s 'The Vocal Fats Waller'.
Soweto Kinch: “You can’t define Britain in the last century without black dance and black music”
- Wednesday, November 13, 2019
In an era of populist politics and scaremongering over the presence of ‘the other’ it’s no surprise that xenophobia and bigotry are widespread. However, the historical roots of such scourges run deep. Saxophonist and rapper Soweto Kinch’s dynamic new work, The Black Peril, focuses on a dark chapter of British history that has tragically contemporary resonances. Kevin Le Gendre found out more
Terri Lyne Carrington: “There’s been an unwritten narrative that men play music and women sing it”
- Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Grammy-winning drummer and producer Terri Lyne Carrington and her new group Social Science take aim at all manner of injustices on their debut album, Waiting Game. Ahead of the band’s EFG London Jazz Festival residency, Thomas Rees spoke to Carrington, keys-player Aaron Parks and guitarist Matthew Stevens about the album’s message of humanity and her vision for a jazz world free from patriarchy
Emilia Mårtensson: “I find it extremely painful to make an album, artistically and emotionally, because you’re dealing with your own self the whole time”
- Monday, November 11, 2019
With a voice of remarkable expressive depth, Emilia Mårtensson makes music in which Swedish folk songs and jazz sensibilities are subtly drawn together into a profoundly satisfying whole. She talks to Peter Quinn about making connections, creating a narrative and finding beauty in tragedy
Ashley Henry: “I am just being completely honest with myself and opening myself up to all my influences”
- Friday, November 8, 2019
British pianist Ashley Henry’s mix of jazz, hip-hop and pop aesthetics are given full rein on his major label debut, Beautiful Vinyl Hunter. He spoke with Kevin Le Gendre about how his Jamaican heritage, studying with Jason Rebello and performing with electro-pop darlings Christine & The Queens have impacted on his musical development
Jan Bang: “Electronic musicians are almost like painters, they often work in solitude and aren’t used to working with other people”
- Friday, November 8, 2019
With ever more jazz musicians embracing the boundless possibilities of electronic music, the sound-science of Norwegian über producer and live sampler Jan Bang has become increasingly influential. Mike Flynn caught up with Bang for a virtual campfire chat about the art of live sampling and building an international family