Latest stories
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Nishla Smith on 'Friends With Monsters'
13th Nov 2021
The Australian-born, Manchester-based vocalist and songwriter speaks to us about her personal new record Friends With Monsters, cross-media collaboration and her love of storytellers.
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Nicole Glover on learning to be a leader and 'Strange Lands'
30th Oct 2021
Josh caught up with the Oregon-hailing, New York-based saxophonist to chat about her latest album Strange Lands, writing for chordless sax trio and the challenges of bandleading.
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Strange Lands
Nicole Glover
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Nicole Glover, 'Strange Lands'
24th Sep 2021
The rising saxophonist makes a bold statement on her sophomore record with a set of sci-fi inspired originals, featuring guest contributions from pianist George Cables.
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Strange Lands
Nicole Glover
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Veronica Swift - This Bitter Earth
19th Mar 2021
Vocalist Veronica Swift's second record with Mack Avenue tackles some much wider-spread themes such as sexism, racism and misinformation on her excellent follow-up to 2019's Confessions.
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Billie Holiday - Lady in Satin
10th Dec 2020
Billie Holiday was just a couple months away from her 43rd birthday when she entered Columbia Records’ 30th Street Studio on February 18, 1958 to record her troubled late masterpiece Lady in Satin, as heart-breaking today as it was then.
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Roland Kirk - I Talk With the Spirits
15th Oct 2020
On one of the eminent saxophonist's many essential releases, I Talk With the Spirits sees him taking up the flute and pushing it to its limits in a way that is unmistakably Roland Kirk.
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Chick Corea - Plays
11th Sep 2020
Chick Corea brings a lifetime of musical influences, and elements of game playing, to these brilliant live recordings, with the audience very much part of the act.
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Charlie Parker at 100: Essential Recordings
29th Aug 2020
Celebrating the genius of Charlie Parker on his 100th birthday, we assess the man's essential recordings.
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Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book
27th Jul 2020
Ella Fitzgerald’s take on classic Cole Porter tunes served not only as the beginning of the now-legendary Verve Records, but a springboard for the singer that reinvigorated her mid-career.
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Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book
Ella Fitzgerald
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Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown
29th Jun 2020
Josh appreciates the brilliant chemistry between vocalist Sarah Vaughan and trumpeter Clifford Brown on the singer’s eponymous record.
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The Amazing Bud Powell Volumes 1 & 2
19th Jun 2020
Matt revisits timeless recordings from the genius who defined bebop piano, Bud Powell.
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Teddy Wilson
24th Oct 2019
Teddy Wilson was the definitive pianist of the swing era, an artist who appeared on many great recordings from the 1930s through to the 1970s. This week Matt focuses on Wilson's ebullient recordings made after the American recording ban was lifted in 1944.
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Erroll Garner - Concert by the Sea
10th Sep 2019
Erroll Garner's Concert by the Sea is a hardy perennial that became one of the best selling jazz albums of all time. An expanded edition was issued in 2015, finally allowing us to savour in full that magical September evening in 1955 at the Sunset School, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
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Joe Henderson - Inner Urge
4th Sep 2019
One of the tenor players most enduring sessions, Inner Urge has lost none of its freshness over the past 50 years.
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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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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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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.
