Features

Get The Blessing - Bristol Fashion

Get The Blessing made a big impact last year with its debut album and returns this month with another helping of genre-melting jazz rock, this time titled Bugs In Amber.

Andy Sheppard - Five Alive

Andy Sheppard, with his debut album as a leader on ECM, featuring his new international five-piece group, Movements in Colour, is a turning point in the career of the saxophonist who first came to notice back in the 1980s when jazz was briefly undergoing a mini-boom. His first record in some years the record also marks a subtle change in Sheppard’s style, incorporating Indo-jazz and Eurojazz nuances which allows him to explore areas of interest in his music that he has been developing since his...

Branford Marsalis - Changing Man

The Branford Marsalis Quartet is one of the longest-running most influential jazz groups on the scene today and more important than just longevity, continues to evolve its music, refusing to settle into a comfortable orthodox. The notion of change and challenging audiences is very much to the fore on the new album Metamorphosen and it’s something Branford Marsalis talks to Stuart Nicholson about ahead of dates at the Bath festival and Ronnie Scott’s in May.

Bill Bruford - Bowing Out

Bill Bruford surprised us all earlier in the year by announcing his intention to retire from active performance.

Ravi Coltrane - Gold Blend

It’s a mature Ravi Coltrane that appears impressively on new album Blending Times. Recorded not long after the death of his mother Alice Coltrane, Ravi talks to Stuart Nicholson about his own approach often only seen within the prism of his father’s legacy. It’s a path that began with early on-the-road explorations with Elvin Jones and Steve Coleman coalescing into his early records for RCA and more recent work with Saxophone Summit.

Gilad Atzmon - The Ornithologist

Gilad Atzmon bids a none-too-fond farewell to George Bush with his new album, In Loving Memory of America, which, slightly surprisingly, takes Charlie Parker’s Bird With Strings project as its main focus. Yet typically Atzmon, surely the most politically and satirically inclined jazz musician anywhere on the planet, finds a new way forward for the bebop warhorses he uses as raw material. Andy Robson bunkers down with Gilad for a no-holds-barred discussion.

Gareth Williams - Feel the Force

Gareth Williams has always been recognised on the British jazz scene as an improviser with a subtle but effective touch, whether he finds himself accompanying singers like Claire Martin or playing acid jazz with Us3. His new record, however, signals a change of course, moving him in the direction of the beefed-up power trio, which you might think suits his retro-inclined 70s fashion sense and mod leanings. But as Selwyn Harris finds out, there’s more to Williams than meets the eye – a musician...

Christian Garrick - Violin

Musical genes don’t run much deeper than Garrick’s. With a jazz pianist father and a mother who played classical piano and sang in the London Philharmonic choir, avoiding a musical upbringing and education would have been difficult.  “We lived in a very claustrophobic house with a piano on each of its three floors,” recalls Garrick.

Tim Garland's Lighthouse Trio - Balancing Act

Tim Garland in the space of 20 years has carved out a career as a highly distinctive saxophonist and composer with a sense of his own English identity as a player and at the same time establishing his own place within the jazz tradition. As well as founding his own groups, Garland has played extensively with both Bill Bruford and Chick Corea and has been commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra to write a concerto. This month his Lighthouse Trio, with GWILYM SIMCOCK and ASAF SIRKIS ,...

Courtney Pine - Bechet & Beyond

After putting together a new version of the Jazz Warriors last year Courtney Pine changes tack for his new project, an album made in homage to the early saxophone pioneer Sidney Bechet. Pine takes time in the album to also examine what traditions in jazz mean to him and makes the connection beyond Bechet to Joe Harriott in the 1960s. Selwyn Harris talks to Courtney, recently awarded with a CBE in the New Year’s Honours List, about the impact of Bechet’s playing on him and how we can all learn a...

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