The Michael Treni Big Band: Boy's Night Out

Starring heralded Boston saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi, this veteran trombonist's arrangements are in the mainstream post-Thad Jones tradition....

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: May/2012

Peggy Lee: Blues Cross Country/If You Go

The first of these is Lee's big band masterpiece, with dazzling arrangements by Quincy Jones, making it essential, plus the...

Reviewed by Alyn Shipton in issue: August/2012

Tubby Hayes: Tubby The Tenor

Clark Terry | Dave Bailey | Eddie Costa | George Duvivier | Horace Parlan | Tubby Hayes

Reissued just in time to mark the 60th anniversary of Hayes’ ground-breaking New York debut (see cover feature this issue),...

Reviewed by Simon Spillett in issue: October/2021

Vula Viel: Good is Good

Bex Burch | Dan Nicholls | Dave De Rose | George Crowley | Jim Hart | Simon Roth | Stephen Bure

Learning hand-to-hand triplets on the djembe before studying classical percussion at the Guildhall, the Yorkshire-born Bex Burch had set off...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: October/2015

Joe McPhee: Nation Time

Bruce Thompson | Dave Jones | Ernest Bostic | Herbie Lehman | Joe McPhee | Mike Kull | Otis Greene | Tyrone Crabb

“What time is it?” “Nation time!” From the incantatory call-and-response intro echoing poet Amiri Baraka’s impassioned, Afro-centric call to action,...

Reviewed by Daniel Spicer in issue: Feb/2019

Charles Evans: On Beauty

A Baritone sax specialist joins his mentor Dave Liebman on soprano, their dense conversational narratives combining passionately in a suite...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: June/2015

Laura Jurd: Landing Ground

Ben Davis | Conor Chaplin | Corrie Dick | Elliot Galvin | Laura Jurd | Mandhira de Saram | Mandhira De Saram | Patrick Dawkins | Richard Jones

She's only just entered her final year at Trinity College of Music, but the composer-trumpeter Laura Jurd is already creating...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: Dec/Jan/2012/2013

Orrin Evans: Liberation Blues

Bill Stewart | JD Allen | Joanna Pascale | Luques Curtis | Orrin Evans | Sean Jones

What a great CD with which to start a new year! Every Evans recording seems so fresh. Each of his...

Reviewed by Tony Hall in issue: February/2015

Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band: Body and Shadow

Brian Blade | Chris Thomas | Dave Devine | Jon Cowherd | Melvin Butler | Myron Walden

The superlative drummer Brian Blade’s Fellowship Band has retained the nucleus of the line-up that recorded the eponymous debut release...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: February/2018

Various Artists: Jazz – 10 Classic Albums

Billie Holiday | Charlie Mingus | Chet Baker | Count Basie | Dave Brubeck | Duke Ellington | Herbie Hancock | Miles Davis | Stan Getz | Thelonious Monk

Long long ago Tony Blackburn proudly revealed that he didn’t like jazz before adding that he was a huge fan...

Reviewed by Roy Carr in issue: March/2016