It has been confirmed that veteran jazz, R&B, funk and fusion keyboard virtuoso George Duke has died aged 67, after battling and being treated for chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Choices, choices.
Hot on the heels of winning Best Jazz Ensemble at the 2013 Parliamentary Jazz Awards in May, The Impossible Gentlemen – the acclaimed group of British and American musicians, comprising guitarist Mike Walker, pianist Gwilym Simcock, bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Adam Nussbaum (pictured) – release a new album in September following their headline appearance at the Brecon Jazz Festival on 11 August.
Day One at Manchester’s increasingly distinctive jazz festival saw Band On The Wall hosting Jez Nelson and Jazz On 3 – for broadcast in early August so it’s one you can review yourself via the wireless.
Now in its second year, this ambitious, roving pan-European festival, which stopped off at the Vortex in Dalston and Rich Mix in Hoxton last Thursday and Friday, has already generated a substantial following.
Jamie Cullum broke all records with his free concert at this year’s Heineken Jazzaldia at San Sebastian here in northern Spain.
Influential British bass player and record producer Peter Ind (pictured left) celebrates his 85th birthday on Sunday 28 July with a lunchtime gig at Ronnie Scott’s, hosted by Ian Shaw.
If Newton’s law of action and reaction is to be applied to music then the fact a band like Snarky Puppy have found a feverish new fan base in the UK and Europe, away from their native America, is perhaps indicative of the hunger music fans now have for something tangible, real and genuinely powerful, as opposed to plasticised auto-tuned pop.
It has just been confirmed that saxophone legend Sonny Rollins has had to pull out of this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival.
During this lengthy, moving homage, several of the central themes of the life of the late, inspirational poet came together with a power that she, very much a ‘firespitter’, would surely have appreciated.
