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LJF review: Jazz Voice: Celebrating A Century Of Song
The Barbican, London, England 11-11-2011 Reviewed by Kai Hoffman With last night’s absolutely spectacular Jazz Voice concert at the Barbican, the 2011 London Jazz Festival is off to a blinding start!...
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Exciting news for vinyl jazz junkies
Adam Sieff of Gearbox Records has sent me a copy of an email he’s sending out to vinyl dealers, and I thought you might all be interested. I have at least one friend who, in the face of too many CDs...
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CD review: Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone, London Vocal Project
Mirrors (Edition Records EDN1038) Trumpeter Kenny Wheeler provides musical settings of poetry by Stevie Smith, Lewis Carroll and WB Yeats, singer Norma Winstone is the featured vocalist and the...
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British jazz’s very special supergroup goes on tour
The word supergroup is one that’s been bandied around, especially in the rock world, since my youth. If I recall it right, it was first applied to the band Blind Faith, which included Eric Clapton and...
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The insufficiently sung heroes of British jazz and the week’s other great...
When it comes to unsung heroes – or maybe insufficiently sung heroes – jazz, being itself rather an unsung art form, is likely to have a good few. One of this illustrious group’s UK contingent is...
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Concert review: Nikki Iles’ Printmakers
mac, Birmingham UK 31-05-2013 Back in the 1950s and the couple of decades following, the US government send their jazz musicians round the world to spread the cultural message about America’s own...
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Whirlwind of jazz blows in to Kings Place
It is billed as “3 days, 18 bands, 86 musicians”, which should be no surprise. Whirlwind is an apt description of the record label’s hyperactive founder, double bassist Michael Janisch, and it’s...
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Long wait – but worth it – for The Printmakers on disc
I’ve just been preparing my pick of the live gigs I reviewed in the West Midlands this year, and Nikki Iles and Norma Winstone’s band The Printmakers at the mac in June is in there, so I was delighted...
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My top ten jazz gigs of the year
It’s the right time to look back at the year’s live jazz highlights in the West Midlands. Feel free to add your own favourites in the comment section. Here’s my top 10 in countdown mode: 10 Rachael...
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Norma Winstone/Klaus Gesing/Glauco Venier – Dance Without Answer
(ECM 374 3047) The great thing about the German independent ECM label – well one of the great things, in fact – is that it gives artists time and repeated opportunities to build a body of work, often...
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Disc of the day: 08-09-10
Norma Winstone: Stories Yet To Tell (ECM 273 7426) It’s such an irony – after years of playing and recording with her peers with what until now we had thought were the finest results, this most...
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Russ’s pic of the week: Norma Winstone
I’m guessing Russ Escritt has been listening again to the terrific CD, Stories Yet To Tell, that singer Norma Winstone released on ECM a few months ago, because here is Norma from her gig in October...
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Oxford Jazz Festival | Oxford Jazz Festival
Already on sale: exciting gigs at the Oxford Jazz Festival in 2011 – including Norma Winstone’s spectacularly fine ECM recording trio, Gospel jazz singer Elisa Caleb and tenor veteran Bobby Wellins:...
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Congratulations to the Parliamentary Jazz Awards nominees
Firm handshakes, jolly slaps on the back and heartfelt congratulations are in order to all those who have been nominated in the 2011 Parliamentary Jazz Awards. Since the demise of the BBC Jazz Awards,...
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The week ahead in gigs
So, the Cheltenham Jazz Festival is still a week away and you’ve figured out that because it’s Easter there’s going to be nothing happening? Well, you might be right if you look in the usual places,...
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Festive 50 – Numbers 40-31
The next 10 of the 50 CDs I have most enjoyed listening to in 2014, in ascending order. Another 10 tomorrow: 40 Jean Toussaint 4 Tate Song (Lyte Records LR022) Full review here 39 Chick Corea Trio...
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The Printmakers – well worth waiting for
The Printmakers’ album Westerly (Basho Records SRCD 46-2) has been a long time coming. Back in June 2013 the band played at the mac in Birmingham and the tracks on Westerly are familiar from that...
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The Printmakers
Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton UK 09-05-2015 Pianist Nikki Iles said it was her first visit to Wolverhampton; vocalist Norma Winstone said she thought it was hers, but couldn’t be sure at her age… I...
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10 good reasons to be in Brecon this weekend
The Brecon Jazz Festival starts tomorrow and runs till Sunday with over 40 events. Here is my top 10: 1 Kenny Barron/Dave Holland – We rarely get a chance to hear this most sophisticated of pianists...
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