Irakere featuring Chucho Valdés: Live at Ronnie Scott's, Birmingham: The 1995 BBC Recording

Adalberto ‘Trompetica’ Lara | José Miguel Meléndez | Chucho Valdés | Carlos D'l Puerto | Enrique Plá | Juan Munguía | Alfredo Thompson | César López | Andrés ‘El Negrón’ Miranda | Carlos Manuel

‘This CD is an example of Irakere in the second part of the 1990s, when the band was focused a...

Reviewed by Robert Shore in issue: August/2013

Dave Brubeck: Live in Europe

Trummy Young | Bob McCracken | Sid Catlett | Marty Napoleon | Jack Teagarden | Cozy Cole | Barney Bigard | Louis Armstrong | Earl Hines | Arvell Shaw

Originally on Columbia and supplemented here with a 1956 session, this is the 1958 classic Desmond/Wright/Morello quartet on one if...

Reviewed by Alyn Shipton in issue: February/2020

Album Interview: Christian McBride Trio: Out Here

Christian McBride | Ulysses Owen, Jr | Christian Sands

Although Christian McBride is a familiar figure within the piano trio context, he has never led a piano trio of...

Reviewed by Stuart Nicholson in issue: August/2013

Charlie Shavers/Maxine Sullivan: Four Classic Albums Plus

A really fine package of music by these two swing stars from the mid-to-late 1950s, both at the height of...

Reviewed by Alyn Shipton in issue: November/2019

Amy Gamlen Group: Direction

Karl Jannuska | Stéphane Kerecki | Amy Gamlen | Thomas Savy | Michael Felberbaum | David Prez

English saxophonist Amy Gamlen trained at the Royal College of Music in London, studying with the likes of Stan Sulzmann,...

Reviewed by Robert Shore in issue: August/2013

Major Surgery: The First Cut

Tony Marsh | Jimmy Roche | Bruce Collcutt | Don Weller

Originally a trio based around the Sarf London nexus of Croydon, Mitcham, Stockwell et al, the addition of Roche’s rock...

Reviewed by Andy Robson in issue: August/2013

Leon Thomas: Spirits Known And Unknown

Richard Davis | Cecil McBee | Little Rock | Roy Haynes | Lonnie Liston Smith | Ricahrd Landrum | James Spaulding | Thomas

If the recent compilation The Creator was a delicious appetiser then this is a peerless piece de résistance: one of...

Reviewed by Kevin Le Gendre in issue: August/2013

The Original Mahavishnu Orchestra: The Complete Columbia Albums Collection

Billy Cobham | Rick Laird | Jan Hammer | Jerry Goodman | John McLaughlin

Released to mark the 40th anniversary of the formation of Mahavishnu, this indispensable five CD set includes Inner Mounting Flame,...

Reviewed by Stuart Nicholson in issue: August/2013

Betty Roché: The Complete 1941-61

Another fine assemblage from this label, but slightly confusing because the anthology is out of session order, making it hard...

Reviewed by Alyn Shipton in issue: August/2013

Ben Wendel/Dan Tepfer: Small Constructions

A mostly beguiling duo album with Canadian saxophonist Ben Wendel, a member of the Grammy-nominated band Kneebody, partnering the New...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: August/2013