Table of contents for December 2025 - January 2026 in Jazzwise

Chris Potter and Craig Taborn join The Bad Plus for Keith Jarrett 80th birthday celebration at the Barbican in March 2026 The Barbican’s (slightly belated) March 2026 celebration of revered pianist Keith Jarrett’s 80th birthday – and the 50th anniversary of his landmark album The Köln Concert – now includes additional names for its high-calibre line-up. Presented in partnership with Serious, the programme will feature two live performances and a documentary screening honouring Jarrett’s legacy as one of the most influential improvisers in modern music. On Monday 30 March 2026, iconoclastic group The Bad Plus will appear in a special iteration with guest saxophonist Chris Potter and pianist Craig Taborn, reinterpreting Jarrett’s American Quartet period. The group – featuring founding rhythm section partners bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King,…

Esteemed British guitarist Phil Robson embarks on an extensive UK tour this December with the Levy/Robson International Quartet, a transatlantic ensemble that first came together in New York City. The group is co-led by acclaimed US tenor saxophonist Jed Levy (Jaki Byard, Jack McDuff, Tom Harrell) and features Italian drum legend Roberto Gatto (Freddie Hubbard, Joe Zawinul, Michael Brecker) alongside leading UK bassist Mark Hodgson (Cedar Walton, Randy Brecker, Eddie Henderson). Formed in 2017 when Robson was based in New York, the original line-up became a regular feature at iconic venues including Smalls, Birdland and the 55 Bar, as well as touring across the UK, Germany, Spain and California. Since Robson’s relocation to Ireland in 2020, the collaboration has continued with various European incarnations. The quartet’s current line-up reunites some…

Following its acclaimed 2025 debut, the Southbank Centre and Montreux Jazz Festival will again join forces for the Southbank Centre x Montreux Jazz Festival Residency, taking place from Friday 13 to Sunday 15 March 2026 at London’s Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room. Now in its second year, the three-day event aims to explore the question ‘What is Jazz Today?’ through the lens of Miles Davis, marking the centenary of his birth on 26 May. The programme celebrates Davis’ spirit of innovation, bringing together cross-genre artists who continue to redefine jazz in contemporary music. The line-up includes Grammy-nominated trumpeter Theo Croker (13 March), who opens with a personal tribute to Davis, reinterpreting his works alongside special guests. Manchester duo Children of Zeus (14 March) collaborate with members…

British trio Mammal Hands is the latest UK signing to German imprint ACT Music, and join the likes of compatriots Emma Rawicz, Bill Laurance and Gwilym Simcock and the label’s roster of leading European and US artists such as Michael Wollny, Bugge Wesseltoft and Theo Croker. At the forefront of a new generation of genre-bending artists emerging from the UK, Mammal Hands feature brothers Jordan and Nick Smart on piano and saxophone respectively, as well as newly-recruited former GoGo Penguin drummer, Rob Turner. With a broad array of influences, the group takes inspiration from jazz, contemporary classical, electronica, folk and minimalism to create their own inimitable style that has captured the imagination of a loyal international following, with several albums and EPs to their name. They have just finished recording…

Jack DeJohnette 06/08/1949 was a musician’s — 23/05/25 musician. He began studying piano at the age of four and became an established young pianist in Chicago before he actually began doubling on the drums. When The Jack DeJohnette Piano Album was released in 1985, the collective reaction was one of surprise and delight. He was perfectly at home on the instrument. By then he had established an impregnable reputation as a leading drummer in jazz with an instantly recognisable style that had graced some of the finest jazz recordings made. His approach to jazz drumming seemed to derive from immersing himself into the music and shading and colouring it from within. He didn’t just keep time, he manipulated it to suit the contours and mood of the music. He would…

Even prior to the disturbing crisis in the UK’s current ‘live’ music scene, one of the unwritten rules for a jazz musician was, if you can’t find a place to play, then you have to build it, or put one on yourself. That was the pianist/educator Simon Purcell’s sound advice in the early 1990s to the drummer Clive Fenner, who asked him what he had to do to get a gig. Said Purcell in his obituary of Fenner (who founded the East Side Club and ran it until his death in 2019): “My advice was to find a pub that will allow you to play with some good players, and that is exactly what happened. Clive immediately created the East Side Jazz Club in October 1993. The rest, as they…

Altoist and composer Alice Leggett currently divides her time between the Netherlands, London, and New York. Her debut album, Birdsong, was released this October to critical acclaim. She loves the relaxed atmosphere in Amsterdam and the amazing Bim Huis jazz venue, and speaks highly of the musicianship of the head of the saxophone section, Jasper Blom. She sees herself as ‘in between’ several places, however, while maintaining and strengthening her musical connections. Leggett appreciates having absorbed, early in life, the harmonies of Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder – “it’s where jazz comes from, the same umbrella.” She played the saxophone from seven years old, working through the classical repertoire, later travelling to and from London to take jazz lessons. Graduating from Trinity Laban in 2017, she is now well established…

“It was mind-blowing. There was classical music involved in there too. I used to play clarinet, flutes, bagpipes and weird shit!” Spend a few minutes chatting with Paul Dunmall and you soon realise he’s a down-to-earth sort of bloke, not much given to hyperbole. But ask him about his time playing in the quartet Mujician and he doesn’t hold back. “We were not mediocre. As far as I’m concerned, it was music making of the highest order. We were always striving for something. And, when we got there, man, I’ll tell you, that’s some of the best music I’ve ever experienced.” Those not familiar with the group’s work – and those who need reminding – can find out for themselves thanks to a new triple CD box set released by…

Jazz is often good at rewarding its best: Satch, Duke, Miles, Bird, Ella and Trane all get the praise they deserve; lesser-known figures have become the subject of cultlike devotion among fans. But some artists get forgotten, victims of rewritten history, overzealous gatekeeping or the whims of fashion. Of these artists, I would argue that one of the most neglected is George Shearing, who died in 2011. When he’s remembered at all these days, he’s dismissed as a tuxedo-clad purveyor of jazzlite – but he is the biggest-selling British-born jazz artist. Before Tubby Hayes, before even Victor Feldman, he found success in the US, selling out prestigious shows and enjoying hits on the Billboard charts. He was courted, and counted as an equal, by the jazz elites – everyone from…

The winners of the 2025 Parliamentary Jazz Awards were unveiled on 14 October at World Heart Beat in London, marking the 20th anniversary of one of the UK’s most prestigious celebrations of jazz excellence. Organised by the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Group (APPJG) and supported by the Musicians’ Union and UK Music, the awards recognise the breadth, creativity, and vitality of the UK jazz scene. This year’s Jazz Vocalist of the Yearwas awarded to Zara McFarlane, acclaimed for her fusion of jazz, reggae, and folk influences and her powerful explorations of heritage and identity. Guitarist Rob Luft received Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year, while saxophonist John Surman’s album Words Unspoken – a meditative chamber-jazz recording – was voted Jazz Album of the Year. London collective The Banger Factory, led by…

The move from Evans’ beautifully crafted backgrounds for Miles Davis to the much looser charts for his own later bands began in 1960 with the Creed Taylor-produced Out Of The Cool. It’s significant that it was recorded soon after Evans had his first major experience of live bandleading, with six days a week for six weeks at NewYork’s Jazz Gallery. While it has slow features for both Jimmy Knepper and Johnny Coles that echo his work with Davis, the standout is the medium-tempo blues ‘La Nevada’ running for 15-plus minutes with a single key-centre, alternating between minor and major scales, and with a single riff-theme that appears in multiple different orchestrations. The whole thing is powered by the young Ron Carter, drummer Charli Persip and (added for the recording) Elvin…

The first time I heard Jim McNeely (born James Harry McNeely Jr) properly was at Carnegie Hall on 25 June 1982, when he was a member of the Stan Getz Quartet. It was an epic Getz performance, coming on from the wings already playing so that his burnished tenor sound filled the hall before he arrived on stage. But I remember the accompanying band as remarkable, providing perfect support and demonstrating just how to be an effective ensemble, yet showcase the leader – and there, alongside bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Victor Lewis, was pianist Jim McNeely. This band’s playing is excellently represented on the Concord album Blue Skies from the same year, with Jim’s accompaniment to Getz on ‘Spring is Here’ a standout memory of how they sounded. I’d…

This year’s Albums of the Year Critics Poll results highlight one obvious trend from the 115 different titles nominated by Jazzwise writers: female jazz artists are breaking through on a remarkable scale, with strength and depth across the board – their adventurous music-making powered by fierce imaginations and fearless performances. Our New Release winners, Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson, are both cutting-edge artists pushing the contemporary envelope. Selwyn Harris’ review in the April issue of Jazzwise named Bone Bells “one of the most inspired and kaleidoscopic contemporary jazz pairings in recent times,” and clearly, he’s not wrong – as many agreed. Look out too for significant recordings from Terri Lyne Carrington and Christie Dashiell, Linda May Han Oh, Georgia Mancio, and Emma Rawicz, adding to this timely breakthrough. And among…

Like clockwork, twice a week at 10am, a brown Rolls-Royce emerged from the driveway of 908 North Whittier Drive in Beverly Hills, and headed north for the 60 Freeway. Behind the chauffeur was a small, hunched figure. Those who caught a glimpse of this mysterious passenger saw she was an older woman, slightly dishevelled – sometimes with the label of her expensive loose jacket sticking up in the air – and preoccupied. Neither looking to the left or to the right, she would stare into the middle distance from behind her thick glasses, not acknowledging well-wishers who occasionally gathered outside her $3 million Spanish-style, pink-washed mansion. Ella Fitzgerald was taking the 60 minute drive to the Cedars Sinai Hospital for dialysis. It began in the mid-1990s, after ill health forced…

The Rev Emory Crolger was nothing like I had imagined him. His nephew, saxophonist Marion Brown, had called him “an old-fashioned fire-and-brimstone preacher,” but the Reverend showed few signs of catching a-fire when we met. Crolger was pastor of Hall Street Baptist Church, a little wooden building on the outskirts of Atlanta. A soft-spoken man with a capable manner, he wore thick-lensed glasses and a good suit, and put a parting into his thick, pomaded hair. He received me into his home, remaining polite but distant, as was required when dealing with white folks in 1971, in what was still, in effect, a segregated Southern city. He invited me to service that Sunday, but this, restrained and sparsely attended, bore little of Marion’s promise. It was only days later, when…

Shearing on Stage! (Capitol 1959) was a key early inspiration for me as it was one of many George recordings we had around the house when I was growing up. It features the famous ‘Shearing sound’ on numbers like ‘September in the Rain’, punchy Latin percussion from Armando Peraza on ‘Caravan’ and really captures the energy of the group’s live performances. Nat King Cole sings/George Shearing plays (Capitol 1962) features classics such as ‘Let There Be Love’ and ‘Pick Yourself Up’. It’s incredibly stylish, swings like mad, and sounds gorgeous. George’s playing is tasteful, subtle and brilliant – he’s the perfect accompanist. Out of the Woods (Capitol 1965) is lesser known, more experimental, a kind of classical/jazz concept album. It’s entirely written by vibes player Gary Burton, and full of surprises. It shows…

“Music has always been an essential part of my life,” says Julia Hofer. “A language of connection, communication, emotions, and being fully present in the moment. For me, the most beautiful experience is creating a shared moment with the audience through music, where nothing else exists but the feeling itself.” Hofer grew up with a house full of instruments: “Both of my parents are musicians. They come from the classical world. My mother is a violinist and my father a trumpeter. There were always plenty of instruments lying around at home, and I found it impossible to decide at first which one to play, as each one fascinated me in its own unique way. "We had a piano, a trumpet, a clarinet, a bugle, a euphonium, a lute, and more.…

Brighton Jazz Festival Horatio’s Bar, Palace Pier, Brighton The Brighton Jazz Festival always opens with the up-and-coming, and after this year’s fresh-faced and promising big band opener, the Jazz Futures Ensemble, showcases a new composition by their Peruvian-born Tomorrow’s Warriors alumna, altoist Allexa Nava, who comes on to thrill a rapt crowd with probing, insinuating, explosive band interaction. Petite in a blue party dress, she’s a bashfully unbossy boss, stomping her effects pedals in her scarlet pumps, grinning wide-eyed and ecstatically trance-dancing when keyboardist Emile Hinton and drummer Cassius Cobson cut loose. ‘No Time’ pays ferocious tribute to flamenco and ‘Wait’ showcases fingers so fleet Nava almost laughs in disbelief at her own aplomb. Poppy Daniels follows with an intricate but dynamic weave, her pensive trumpet offsetting Eddie Lee’s florid…

Bremen is set to welcome a spectacular edition of Europe’s leading jazz trade fair, jazzahead!, with a headline Grand Opening concert on Wednesday 22 April 2026. The evening will see Sweden’s Norrbotten Big Band join forces with eclectic Los Angeles duo KNOWER for a high-energy celebration of contemporary European and US jazz. The Norrbotten Big Band, hailing from Luleå near the Arctic Circle, has earned acclaim for its imaginative collaborations and genre-bending sound. Under saxophonist Joakim Milder, the 20-piece ensemble has garnered a Grammy nomination and will perform both new material and inventive reinterpretations alongside KNOWER. The Californian duo, featuring drummer Louis Cole and vocalist Genevieve Artadi, are celebrated for their “hyperactive blend of post-ironic jazz fusion,” having shared stages with Snarky Puppy, Brad Mehldau, and touring with the Red…

1 The Monash Sessions by Hermeto Pascoal (2013) “It felt appropriate to begin with a record by the late great Hermeto Pascoal. This record opened up a whole world of possibility in terms of sound and colour especially in the context of large ensemble music. I first heard it sometime during the second lockdown period in 2021, and played it on repeat, completely unable to get enough of the ingenious arrangements and fundamentally playful writing so characteristic of Hermeto in general. I regularly return to this one, especially when in need of inspiration for my big band writing.” 2 Gaucho by Steely Dan (1980) “I completely fell in love with Steely Dan’s music a couple of years back, and am now an avid listener, knowing almost all of their lyrics! I…

NAME: BEN GLASSER INSTRUMENT: GUITAR EXPERIENCE AND INFLUENCES: Inspired to pick up the guitar aged eight after being introduced to the sound of Jimi Hendrix by one of his classroom teachers, Glasser quickly developed a love for the instrument. By the end of secondary school he had discovered the music of George Benson, D’Angelo, Steely Dan, Roy Hargrove and Kamasi Washington, with more current influences including Scott Henderson and Pat Martino. To date, Ben has performed or recorded with acclaimed American pianist Greg Spero (Spirit Fingers), steel pan virtuoso Leon Foster Thomas, and rising stars LOX, and Cityscape Ensemble. More recently, he has begun to explore and develop his identity as a writer and composer – a direct reflection of his experiences playing with and listening to artists he loves…

The great bass guitarist Anthony Claiborne Jackson, born 23 June 1952 in New York City, died last month aged 73 after a lifetime of acclaimed session work and performances with countless musical luminaries. Beginning on piano and guitar in his youth, Anthony Jackson was drawn to the electric bass through the influence of Motown’s legendary bassist James Jamerson. He quickly became one of the most sought-after session musicians of his time, contributing to thousands of recordings across jazz, fusion, R&B and pop. Perhaps his most enduring legacy lies in his bold re-imagining of the bass instrument itself. Frustrated by the limitations of the traditional four-string bass, and experimenting with lower tunings on a regular four-string, Jackson conceived and championed the six-string 'contrabass guitar', expanding the tonal and harmonic possibilities of…

A year ago, if you’d mentioned the name of Donovan Haffner to any scene-follower you’d likely have elicited the sort of guarded acknowledgement you get from people who know the name but aren’t quite sure of the appropriately hip level of enthusiasm to display. This is set to change as the jazz-loving public catch up with the young alto saxophonist and composer’s debut album, the gnomically titled Alleviate. A graduate of the Tomorrow’s Warriors programme, Donovan’s already caught the ear of such respected mavens as Moses Boyd and Toni Kofi – now his rising talent has just been officially endorsed by the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Group’s 'Best Newcomer' gong. We catch up with Donovan in reflective mood at his South London home. How does it feel having your own album…

It’s fascinating to think that, were it not for a last-minute change of heart when she decided to sing rather than dance at the Apollo Theatre’s Amateur Night on 21 November 1934, the world may never have got to hear one of the (if not the) greatest jazz singers of all time. Ella Fitzgerald possessed perfect pitch, a three-octave range, flawless diction and a signature bell-like tone – qualities that have become benchmarks for every jazz vocalist who followed. Her technical mastery set an extraordinarily high bar, yet she never let technique overshadow emotion. There’s something intangible in her performances, a sense of pure, unguarded joy that transcends technical virtuosity. Even in her most demanding moments, you can hear her smile – making the impossible seem effortless and radiating warmth…

“Every intro is just mindboggling… You could tell that the rhythm section were completely in tune, 100% of every second – there’s no auto-pilot” “This record is the reason I found my way to ECM! I heard it when I was 15, having come to America from Germany when I was 12. I was infatuated with jazz and had a hard time finding a piano teacher for that in Berlin; but when my family relocated to California, I had an amazing guy called Richard Dunlap. When I was 12, I was listening to Oscar Peterson’s Night Train, which is very joyous: his swing feel and command of the piano - unbelievable. But it’s a language that sounds… ‘worked out’. By the time I was 15, I was becoming really turned…

Roland Aerophone Brisa Roland launched its Aerophone series of digital wind instruments back in 2016. The latest addition to the range is the Aerophone Brisa, which combines the design and key layout of a traditional flute with the modern benefits of a diverse selection of onboard sounds which can be customised by the player. It also features a newly developed sound engine that has been specifically tailored for different wind instrument styles, with a special focus on the unique articulations and techniques used by flute players. In contrast to the flute, the Brisa, like all the instruments in the Aerophone series, is played with the instrument directly in front of the player. It is lightweight and features not only responsive flute-style keys, but also intuitive controls that offer an ease…

DECEMBER 2025 MONDAY 1 Dino Baptiste 606 Club, 90 Lots Road, London SW10 1-3 Motown and More with Natalie Williams Soul Family Ronnie Scott's, 47 Frith Street, London W1 1 Karim Saber Quintet Pizza Express Jazz Club, 10 Dean Street, London W1 1 Banda Brasileira Eastside Jazz Club, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, 200 Jennens Road, Birmingham Tuesday 2 James Birkett and Emma Fisk Great Hall, Sutherland Building, Ellison Place, Northumberland University 2 Matt Carter Quartet Southampton Jazz Club, Stage Door, Southampton 2-3 Paul Jones and John Etheridge PizzaExpress Jazz Club, 10 Dean Street, London W1 2 Hans Mathisen 606 Club, 90 Lots Road, London SW10 2 Ant Law and Alex Hitchcock Quartet East Side Jazz Club, 2 Harvey Road, London E11 WEDNESDAY 3 Ches Smith Clone Row Vortex Jazz Club, 11…