Freddie Hubbard: Four Classic Albums

For what originally started out as a small two-man operation, Blue Note discovered mainly relatively unknown talent and in many...

Reviewed by Roy Carr in issue: February/2020

Paul Chambers: Four Classic Albums

Not enough attention is paid these days to Chambers, doubtless because he was so ubiquitous and so straightahead. The innovations...

Reviewed by Brian Priestley in issue: February/2020

The Creole Choir of Cuba: Santiman

Dalio Vital | Emilia Diaz Chavez | Fidel Miranda | Irian Montejo | Marcelo Luis | Marina Fernandes | Rogelio Torriente | Teresita Miranda | Yara Diaz | Yordanka Fajardo

Beautiful, celestial, uplifting: excuse me while I check my thesaurus for more superlatives. Having burst onto the world music scene...

Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: May/2013

Blue Mitchell & Orchestra: Smooth Is The Wind/A Sure Thing

Albert ‘Tootie’ Heath | Bernie Glow | Blue Mitchell | Britt Woodman | Burt Collins | Cedar Walton | Charlie Persip | Clark Terry | Gene Taylor | Harry Lockofsky

Junior Cook and Blue Mitchell made up the front line of Horace Silver's wildly successful Quintet which between 1958 and...

Reviewed by Roy Carr in issue: March/2014

Evan Parker/Barry Guy/ Paul Lytton: Music For David Mossman: Live At Vortex London

Barry Guy | Evan Parker | Paul Lytton

The title's dedicatee, David Mossman, was the founder of the Vortex live music venue in east London, which, as Evan...

Reviewed by Daniel Spicer in issue: June/2018

Vitaly Golovnev Quartet: What Matters

Nathan Peck | Pete Zimmer | Vitaly Golovnev | Zhenya Strigalev

Trumpeter Vitaly Golovnev recently appeared on St Petersburg-born firebrand alto saxophonist Zhenya Strigalev's quirkily impressive debut released a few months...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: August/2012

Leon Thomas: Full Circle

While the likes of Gil Scott-Heron and Lonnie Liston Smith have been pushed as flagship artists in Ace’s excellent curation...

Reviewed by Kevin Le Gendre in issue: August/2016

Ambiance: Into A New Journey

Atiji Malomon | Daaoud Abubakar Balewa | Danny Newmark | Danny Yamamoto | Jim Lum | Jim Thornburn | June Kuramoto | Kim Cornwell | Monife | Randy Landis

Ambiance was the stage name of saxophonist-vocalist Daaoud Abubakar Balewa, (which was also later extended to Ambiance II Fusion), and...

Reviewed by Kevin Le Gendre in issue: June/2020

Steve Lacy: Quartet, Quintet Sextet, Octet: The Complete Remastered Recordings On Black Saint & Soul Note

Arjen Gorter | Beaver Harris | Bobby Few | Cathrin Pfeifer | Daniel ‘Topo’ Gioia | George Lewis | Han Bennink | Irene Aebi | Jean-Jacques Avenel | John Betsch

No greater sign of Steve Lacy's significance to the jazz aesthetic can be found than in the contrast between this...

Reviewed by Kevin Le Gendre in issue: March/2015

Nigel Price and Alban Claret: Entente Cordiale

Alban Claret | Matt Fishwick | Mikele Montolli | Nigel Price

From the sparkling twinned attack of Price and Claret singing and swinging through Sam Jones’ ‘Bittersuite’, you know you’re in...

Reviewed by Andy Robson in issue: May/2023