As a brand new double live album is released and ahead of a tour by his newly constituted group early next year the great Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek looks back to his early years before Afric Pepperbird, the definitive album that changed the face of European jazz forever and launched a new sound identified with his label ECM.
Meteor-like, Gwilym Simcock hit the jazz scene with a vengeance when he made an assured debut with Perception two years ago, devastatingly belying his newcomer status.
On 30 October Ronnie Scott’s is fifty years old, a remarkable feat for a jazz club set deep in the heart of a great, throbbing, constantly changing, capital city.
Towards the end of last year and without much notice Keith Jarrett announced that he would perform two solo concerts in Paris and London.
Empirical burst out of the gate just two years ago when out of nowhere and featuring a group of complete unknowns, their debut album won the coveted title of Jazzwise album of the year and a clutch of other awards.
“I like old drums because they go pong rather than ping”, says Paul Clarvis.
Claire Martin follows on from her Shirley Horn-inspired album from two years ago with A Modern Art featuring songs by Rodgers and Hart, and Cy Coleman which sees her build ever more strongly on her reputation as a classic jazz singer steeped in the traditions of Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae.
Robert Glasper returns this month with his third album for Blue Note.
“A combination of listening to a Sonny Stitt record that I had been lent by a friend of my dad’s and watching and listening to sax player Gary Cox recording ‘The Pink Panther Theme’ with the BBC NDO Big Band was what got me hooked on the sax.