Thelonious Monk Orchestra: At Town Hall

Another outing for this celebrated1959 big band showing Monk and Hall Overton's brilliant attempt to transfer the music to larger...

Reviewed by Alyn Shipton in issue: February/2012

Pharoah Sanders: Village Of the Pharoahs/Wisdom Through Music

Calvin Hill | Pharoah Sanders | Art Webb | Norman Connors | Mtume | Badal Roy | Kylo Kylo | Kenneth Nash | Cecil McBee | James Branch

The photo of Sanders in lotus position, generously collared psychedelic shirt poking out from under his white robes, says it...

Reviewed by Marcus O'Dair in issue: February/2012

Album Interview: Mike Gibbs with the NDR Big Band and Norma Winstone: Here's A Song For You

Klaus Heidenreich | Thorsten Benkenstein | Reiner Winterschladen | Stephan Diez | Ingo Lahme | Ingolf Burkhardt | Mike Gibbs | Peter Bolte | Frank Delle | Dan Gottshall

Here's A Song For You is a beautiful piece of work. It mixes standards like ‘Here Come De Honey Man’...

Reviewed by Duncan Heining in issue: February/2012

Howlin' Wolf: Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960

Otis Spann | Willie Johnson | Howlin' Wolf | Hubert Sumlin | Willie Dixon | Earl Philips

Released, coincidentally, within days of Hubert Sumlin's death – the extraordinary Chicago blues guitarist who was the rocks to Wolf's...

Reviewed by Jon Newey in issue: February/2012

Sonny Rollins: And The Big Brass, Trio and Quintet

Walter Booker | Billy Higgins | Ray Bryant | Sonny Rollins | Mickey Roker | Bob Cranshaw | Tommy Flanagan

While there are perhaps no absolute classics, here is an interesting overview of one of Rollins's best and most prolific...

Reviewed by Brian Priestley in issue: February/2012

Coleman Hawkins: Today And Now/Desafinado

Barry Galbraith | Willie Rodriguez | Major Holley | Eddie Locke | Coleman Hawkins | Howard Collins | Tommy Flanagan

Though from the start, they had John Coltrane on the books for the final six years of his short life,...

Reviewed by Roy Carr in issue: February/2012

Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers: Quintessence 1947-1959

Doug Watkins | Bill Hardman | Donald Byrd | Freddie Hubbard | Benny Golson | Bud Powell | Thelonious Monk | Kenny Dorham | Curtis Fuller | Laverne Baker

For those new to the magic that is The Jazz Messengers, this is a worthwhile 2-CD/19-track primer, offering brief cameos...

Reviewed by Roy Carr in issue: February/2012

Duke Ellington: Meets Coleman Hawkins/And John Coltrane

An essential two LPs on one CD by two of Ellington's most inspired invited guests....

Reviewed by Alyn Shipton in issue: February/2012

Ravi Shankar: Nine Decades: Vol. II Reminiscence of North Vista

Ravi Shankar | Alla Rakha

The California of the mid-to late-1960s was very good to many representatives of the South Asian subcontinent's two classical music...

Reviewed by Ken Hunt in issue: February/2012

Frank Morgan Allstars: Reflections

Alex Sipiagin | David Kikoski | Conrad Herwig | Kenny Davis | Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts | Igor Butman

The mercurial Morgan, out of jail in 1988, goes head to head with Joe Henderson and Bobby Hutcherson....

Reviewed by Alyn Shipton in issue: July/2016