Lil Armstrong & Her Swing Band 1936-1940: Hot Miss Lil – Born to Swing!

Prince Robinson | Buster Bailey | Chu Berry | JC Higginbotham | Teddy Cole | Joe Thomas | Wellman Braud | Lil Armstrong | Manzie Johnson | James Sherman

Pianist and vocalist Lil Armstrong [1898-1971] encouraged her husband Louis Armstrong to break away from his fellow New Orleanians in...

Reviewed by Peter Vacher in issue: November/2021

The Cookers: Look Out!

George Cables | Billy Hart | Eddie Henderson | Cecil McBee | David Weiss | Billy Harper | Donald Harrison

The news recently broke that drummer Billy Hart and alto saxist Donald Harrison - staple members of now 14 year-old...

Reviewed by John Fordham in issue: November/2021

Mark Soskin: Ballad for a Rainy Afternoon

The New York-born Soskin, a former pianist for none other than Sonny Rollins for over a decade, plays with an...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: October/2021

Samo Salamon & Francoise Houle: Unobservable Mysteries

Recorded by guitarist Salamon in Slovenia and clarinettist Houle in Vancouver, this duet album certainly sounds coherent and contains some...

Reviewed by Kevin Whitlock in issue: October/2021

Valaida Snow: Swing is The Thing – The Dynamic Valaida Snow, Queen of the Trumpet

Jimmy Mundy’s orchestra | Billy Mason Orchestra | Winstrup Olesen’s Swingband | Valaida Snow | Earl Hines Orchestra | Ali Baba trio | Lulle Ellboj’s Orchestra | The Six Swingers

The wonderfully talented Valaida Snow [1904-1956] came from a showbusiness family and was steeped in the world of black vaudeville,...

Reviewed by Peter Vacher in issue: October/2021

Slowly Rolling Camera: Where the Streets Lead

Sachal Vasandani | Chris Potter | Lionel Handy | Jasper Høiby | Jenni Curiel | Mark Lockheart | Victoria Stapleton | Verneri Pohjola | Elliot Bennett | Jon Visanji

Eight years since their initial emergence and five releases in, Slowly Rolling Camera have been characterised at various points in...

Reviewed by Robert Shore in issue: October/2021

Miguel Muziq: An Angel’s Healing

The acoustic guitarist Miguel Muziq mixes a good time small-group latin and Afro-Cuban vibe with influences from his Mediterranean-Cypriot background...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: October/2021

Gaetano Letiza: Chartreuse

An Ohio-based guitarist with a few George Benson licks up his sleeve and mainstream fusion-lite, latin and funky blues influences...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: October/2021

Brandee Younger: Somewhere Different

Allan Mednard | Marcus Gilmore | Dezron Douglas | Rashaan Carter | Ron Carter | Brandee Younger | Chelsea Baratz | Maurice Brown | Anne Drummond

From the inventive comping in the striking album opener ‘Reclamation’ to the heavy ostinato of the final track, ‘Tickled Pink’,...

Reviewed by Peter Quinn in issue: October/2021

Snorre Kirk Quartet: Going Up

Snorre Kirk | Stephen Riley | Magnus Hjorth | Anders Fjeldsted | Jan Harbeck

Imagine the classic Basie rhythm section re-constituted but without guitar and that’s what you hear on the opening, riff-based ‘Right...

Reviewed by Peter Vacher in issue: October/2021