Revered Mississippi-born pianist Mulgrew Miller, best known for his work with Art Blakey, Betty Carter and Tony Williams, as well as recording on over 500 albums, has died following a stroke on Wednesday, he was 57.
Soho’s Pizza Express Jazz Club, the flagship music venue and restaurant for the up-market pizza chain, has now had a full refit in its upstairs restaurant and smart-looking frontage added, with a look more in keeping with its illustrious 45-year old basement jazz club.
BBC Radio 3’s Jazz On 3 have recorded an exclusive mini-session top US vibes player Gary Burton and guitar star Julian Lage, while they were recently in the UK for a series of dates at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival and Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London.
Guitar icon Pat Metheny and revered saxophonist and composer John Zorn were recently interviewed on Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone on 6Music - talking about Metheny's newly released album Tap: John Zorn's Book Of Angels Vol 20 – listen to the full interview here thanks to our friends at 6Music.
The 35th annual Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, which runs between 19-28 July at venues across the city, mixes up new names, tradition, and innovation with a line up which includes fast rising saxophonist Tia Fuller (pictured), The Three Bs (Chris Barber, Acker Bilk and Keith Ball) in tribute to Kenny Ball, Jools Holland’s R&B Orchestra, plus the new Cross the Tracks strand featuring the beat-laden trip hop of Hidden Orchestra and Mercury nominated rapper Ghostpoet.
As the interval before the second set grows alarmingly long and concerned-looking staff vanish backstage, we start to fear the worst.
A rare UK appearance by the iconic trio of pianist and composer Carla Bley, bassist Steve Swallow and saxophonist Andy Sheppard (pictured left), who first performed together in 1993, is among the latest names to be added to the 2013 EFG London Jazz Festival, which takes place at all the capital’s major concert halls and jazz clubs from 15 to 24 November.
Singer and bandleader Andrew Plummer, best known for his snarling Tom Waits style vocals with the likes of World Sanguine Report, Bilbao Syndrome and Fringe Magnetic, is spearheading a radical prog-jazz school band project featuring a group of talented 11-16 year olds from Tottenham, north London.
The inaugural Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama Jazz Festival in Cardiff was an outstanding success with seven big name concerts and 13 free concerts by the students of the college.
From a small stage bleached by flashing lights and a monster-sized projection of the band's 1974 debut album sleeve, it was left to the shake, sizzle and snap of the band's original drummer and percussionist – Harvey Mason and Bill Summers – to drive this latest model of Herbie's former fusioneers through a exhilarating two hour show.
