Hetty and The Jazzato Band: Back in The Swing of Things

Riccardo Castellani | Fabrizio Bonacci | Stephanie Legg | Alessandro Cimaschi | Richard Muscat | Hetty Loxston

Classically-and-jazz trained bi-lingual vocalist Loxston and the Anglo-Italian Jazzato Band began to perform together in 2016, appearing at festivals here...

Reviewed by Peter Vacher in issue: March/2021

Two bites of the Cherry: Don Cherry: Cherry Jam

Nana Vasconcelos | Gian Piero Pramaggiore | Don Cherry | Moki Cherry

Recorded in Copenhagen, prior to the creation of his defining Complete Communion album for Blue Note, Cherry Jam is a...

Reviewed by Edwin Pouncey in issue: March/2021

Jakob Bro: Uma Elmo

Arve Henriksen | Jakob Bro | Jorge Rossy

This album, composed by Danish guitarist Jakob Bro, is an antithesis to fidget culture. It resets listening, and exhumes a...

Reviewed by Debra Richards in issue: March/2021

Various Artists: Indaba Is…

Bokani Dyer | The Wretched | iPhupho L'ka Biko | Lwanda Gogwana | The Brother Moves On | Thandi Ntuli | Sibusile Xaba

The Zulu and Xhosa peoples of South Africa define an indaba as an important conference or consultation. An apt title,...

Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: March/2021

Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley: “…being astral and all registers – power of two…”

Tony Oxley | Cecil Taylor

Flamboyant free jazz progenitor Cecil Taylor enjoyed a somewhat unlikely musical partnership with Sheffield-born drummer and improv pioneer Tony Oxley...

Reviewed by Daniel Spicer in issue: March/2021

Veronica Swift: This Bitter Earth

Bryan Carter | Veronica Swift | Emmet Cohen | Yasushi Nakamura | Armand Hirsch | Aaron Johnson

Veronica Swift's second album for Mack Avenue is an eclectic, unforgettable delight, with the singer's out-and-out virtuosity perfectly matched by...

Reviewed by Peter Quinn in issue: March/2021

Shintaro Quintet: Evolution

Shintaro Nakamura

British label BBE's ‘ J Jazz Master series’, which focuses on independent and largely unknown parts of the Japanese scene...

Reviewed by Kevin Le Gendre in issue: March/2021

The Bongolian: Harlem Hipshake

Nasser Bouzida | Gareth James Bailey | Craig Crofton | James Morton | Terry Edwards

When I first heard this new album by the multi-instrumentalist and Big Boss Man leader Nasser Bouzida (AKA The Bongolian)...

Reviewed by Kevin Whitlock in issue: March/2021

Randal Despommier: Dio C'è

This young saxophonist is an engaging soloist but doesn't have enough about him as a leader-composer of an ensemble (with...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: March/2021

Album Interview: Pat Metheny: Road to the Sun

Pat Metheny | Scott Tennant | William Kanengiser | John Dearman | Matthew Greif | Jason Vieaux

Pat Metheny's fascinating odyssey through music continues. Perspicacious as ever, his change of record label to Modern Recordings/BMG presented the...

Reviewed by Stuart Nicholson in issue: March/2021