Count Basie: Basic Basie

The 1969 Basie band recorded for MPS has a looser rhythm section than heretofore (with Norman Keenan and Harold Jones)...

Reviewed by Alyn Shipton in issue: May/2015

Andy Brown: Soloist

This Chicagoan guitarist goes solo with influences in the same ball park as Joao Gilberto and Joe Pass although in...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: May/2015

James Brandon Lewis: Divine Travels

Thomas Sayers Ellis | James Brandon Lewis | William Parker | Gerald Cleaver

Gospel music's longstanding and rich relationship with the saxophone in both R&B and jazz can be heard in anybody from...

Reviewed by Kevin Le Gendre in issue: May/2015

Mark Murphy: Shadows

Fritz Pauer | Mark Murphy | Ewald Oberleitner | Dusan Novakov | Karlheinz Miklin

Recorded at Studio RTV Maribor in Slovenia and released on the Montreux Jazz Label, TCB, this previously unreleased gem from...

Reviewed by Peter Quinn in issue: May/2015

Deodato: Love Island

Seminal fusion from Brazilian keyboard player Eumir Deodato, this is cheerily superficial throughout, especially when comprehensively ruining ‘Take The A...

Reviewed by Alyn Shipton in issue: May/2015

Lara Downes: A Billie Holiday Songbook

San Francisco-born but of mixed heritage, Lara Downes on solo piano does a classical music-orientated Gershwin-ish slant on the Billie...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: May/2015

The Johnny Dankworth Orchestra: Duet For 16

Stan Palmer | Tony Russell | Derrick Abbott | Ken Wray | Ron Snyder | Johnny Dankworth | Laurie Monk | Dickie Hawdon | Danny Elwood | Danny Moss

Now, this is a find. These selections are from transcription recordings made for French radio, with three complete programmes included,...

Reviewed by Peter Vacher in issue: May/2015

Kyle Eastwood: Timepieces

Andrew McCormack | Ernesto Simpson | Quentin Collins | Kyle Eastwood | Brandon Allen

If there is an assumption that having a big celebrity dad gives him an advantage on others regardless of merit,...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: May/2015

Hank Jones: Have You Met This Jones?

Recorded by Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer in his house in the Black Forest, where Oscar Peterson often recorded, this gives Hank...

Reviewed by Alyn Shipton in issue: May/2015

Machito: Kenya/With Flute to Boot

Forget the early Machito reissues – these late 1950s sessions with Cannonball Adderley, Johnny Griffin and Herbie Mann in the...

Reviewed by Alyn Shipton in issue: May/2015