Jazz Reviews
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Archie Shepp on Impulse!
7th Aug 2019
One of the great saxophonists of the sixties, Archie Shepp made some of the most exciting and politicised recordings of the era, in a series of albums that documented the civil rights struggle.
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Bill Evans - Everybody Digs Bill Evans
30th Jul 2019
With his second album, Everybody Digs Bill Evans, the pianist re-invented the role of his instrument in jazz. Over 60 years later it remains as fresh as when it was first released, and is the ideal first step into Evans's discography.
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Keith Jarrett - The Köln Concert
23rd Jul 2019
Talk about behemoths - this week I pull out The Köln Concert, Keith Jarrett's game-changing solo album. Over forty years later it hasn't lost any of its power.
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Roland Kirk - Volunteered Slavery
12th Jul 2019
Volunteered Slavery presented Roland Kirk at his most inclusive, exuding a lust for life that burns to this day.
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Volunteered Slavery
Rahsaan Roland Kirk (clarinet), Ron Burton (piano), Robert Shy (drums), Rahsaan Roland Kirk (flute), Joe "Habao" Texidor (percussion), Rahsaan Roland Kirk (tenor saxophone), Rahsaan Roland Kirk (horn), Jimmy Hopps (drums), Harold White (drums)
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The Atomic Mr. Basie
27th Jun 2019
Matt explores the origins behind the Count Basie Band's 1957 comeback album The Atomic Mr. Basie, a big band tour de force with state of the art compositions by Neal Hefti... the man who would go on to write the Batman theme!
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Charlie Parker - Early Recordings
7th Jun 2019
Charlie Parker's game changing sessions heralded the arrival of bebop and remained unsurpassed to this day... in Matt's opinion anyway. Read the full article to find out why.
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Stan Getz - Focus
31st May 2019
Stan Getz's Focus gets a reappraisal, that rare thing, a jazz with strings album that challenges, thanks to Eddie Sauter's sophisticated arrangements.
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Thelonious Monk Trio
23rd May 2019
Thelonious Monk roughed up some of his best known tunes on these exciting and spiky trio sessions, recorded during a troubled period in the pianists life, just before he would break through with some of his definitive albums.
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Miles Davis - Milestones
8th May 2019
One of the pinnacles of hard-bop, Milestones showcases some of the finest musicians at work in the fifties - John Coltrane, Julian `Cannonball' Adderley, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Jo Jones, as well as Miles Davis's first steps into modal jazz.
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Sonny Rollins - The Bridge
25th Apr 2019
In 1959 Sonny Rollins decided he needed a break in order to grow as a musician and left the New York music scene. After two years of practising every day on the Williamsburg Bridge, accompanied only by the cry of seagulls and trains rolling by, he returned with this terrific album.
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Dave Holland - Conference of the Birds
18th Apr 2019
A conference of the finest players on the free music scene in the early seventies, Matt argues that Dave Holland's Conference of the Birds is one of the great seventies jazz albums.
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Ellington at Newport 1956
3rd Apr 2019
Let us journey back to the Newport Jazz Festival in 1956, to witness a demoralised Ellington Band find its mojo in realtime, thanks to a storming Paul Gonsalves solo that runs for 27 choruses, and caused a mini-riot.
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Desmond & Mulligan - Two of a Mind
28th Mar 2019
Matt winds down to urbane warriors Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan's Two of a Mind.
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Out to Lunch
20th Mar 2019
Matt revisits one of the true landmarks of modern jazz, Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch.
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Eric Dolphy
Eric Dolphy
