Reviewed: The Pete Allen Jazz Band | Chris Hopkins

The Pete Allen Jazz Band: New Orleans Wiggle - Jazz Magic Pete has augmented his regular sextet here, adding a second reedsman, Trevor Whiting, and guitarist and banjoist Max Brittain. Both make valuable contributions. Pete and trombonist Roger Marks, also a band leader, have worked regularly together now for almost 50 years as notable figures in British traditional jazz. The album opens (and closes) in grass roots early New Orleans style, but soon broadens into wider-ranging territory in an interestingly varied...

JJ 01/86: Terje Rypdal Trio at London Logan Hall

Forty years ago Mark Gilbert saw guitarist Rypdal's trio confirm that it was now OK for the jazz fan to listen to heavy metal music

JJ 01/86: Back Door at Newcastle Upon Tyne Corner House

Forty years ago Chris Yates saw the Yorkshire trio's organic mix of Mississippi blues, prog-rock and jazz reconvened in Newcastle as part of a Jazz Services tour

JJ 01/86: Man Jumping – Jumpcut

Forty years ago Simon Adams wanted to hear more of Man Jumping's danceable, always swinging mix of systems music, funk, electro pop and jazz

JJ 01/86: La Tristesse De Saint Louis: Swing Under The Nazis

Forty years ago Mike Hennessey reviewed a book that asked, in the light of the survival of jazz in Germany 1939-45, whether oppression is all it's made out to be

News in brief...

Couleurs Jazz, an ad-free radio service based in Paris that in contrast to notable UK providers plays jazz all the time, is asking for donations. It’s an appeal that will likely to resonate with jazz fans who tune in. All contributions are welcome, but 50€ gets your name on the contributors’ wall.

The Swanage Jazz Festival, the oldest (1991) and largest “pure jazz” festival on the south coast of England, has reached its £25k appeal target and thus will go ahead 10-12 July 2026. Director Paul Kelly said “We have been amazed and uplifted by the generosity of our supporters.”

Whole lotta reshaping going on at London’s Southbank Centre 13-15 March 2026, when the Montreux Jazz Festival Residency returns, asking ‘What is Jazz Today?’, drawing  inspiration from Miles Davies [sic] and entailing performances from such as Theo Croker, Children of Zeus and corto.alto.

‘The creative chaos’ behind Kind Of Blue is the preoccupation of Miles, ‘a fusion of live jazz and theatre’ featuring Jay Phelps and Benjamin Akintuyos that transfers to Southwark Playhouse in London from 4 February – 7 March 2026 after a run at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe.

ACE-supported Latin music festival La Linea returns to London 20 April – 6 May 2026, with a massive bias towards women performers. Among the 90% female lineup will be Eliane Correa presenting Las Salseras – A Tribute to Celia Cruz.

New releases December 2025 – January 2026, S

Records offered for review to Jazz Journal in November-December 2025, including Brandon Sanders, Woody Shaw, Gene Shelby, Wes Smith and Dave Stryker // Editor's pick: Dave Stryker

JJ 01/76: Lee Konitz At Ronnie Scott’s

Fifty years ago Chris Sheridan saw saxophone original Konitz survive second billing to Blossom Dearie and sometimes unsuitable accompaniment

JJ 01/76: Tommy Whittle at The West End Club, Edinburgh

Fifty years ago Roger Craik saw saxophonist Whittle debunk the presumption that British jazzmen were good but not great

JJ 01/76: Jean-Luc Ponty – Sunday Walk

Fifty years ago Barry McRae reckoned Ponty suffered from being dubbed the Coltrane of the violin and was better off in a bebop setting, as here

JJ 01/76: Donald Byrd – Black Byrd

Fifty years ago Mark Gardner saw a once reliable jazz player prostrate before the temptation of 'commercial trivia'
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New releases December 2025 – January 2026, O-R

Records offered for review to Jazz Journal in November-December 2025, including Gary Peacock, Noah Peterson, Roy Powell, QOW Trio and Joel Ross // Editor's pick: Joel Ross
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JJ 01/86: La Tristesse De Saint Louis: Swing Under The Nazis

Forty years ago Mike Hennessey reviewed a book that asked, in the light of the survival of jazz in Germany 1939-45, whether oppression is all it's made out to be

JJ 01/66: Dudley Moore – The Other Side Of Dudley Moore

Sixty years ago Gerald Lascelles was pleased to see Dudley Moore take time off from TV 'frivolity' to make his record debut as 'a gifted jazzman'

JJ 01/76: Tommy Whittle at The West End Club, Edinburgh

Fifty years ago Roger Craik saw saxophonist Whittle debunk the presumption that British jazzmen were good but not great

JJ 01/86: Terje Rypdal Trio at London Logan Hall

Forty years ago Mark Gilbert saw guitarist Rypdal's trio confirm that it was now OK for the jazz fan to listen to heavy metal music

Reviewed: The Pete Allen Jazz Band | Chris Hopkins

The Pete Allen Jazz Band: New Orleans Wiggle - Jazz Magic Pete has augmented his regular sextet here, adding a second reedsman, Trevor Whiting, and guitarist and banjoist Max Brittain. Both make valuable contributions. Pete and trombonist Roger Marks, also a band leader, have worked regularly together now for almost 50 years as notable figures in British traditional jazz. The album opens (and closes) in grass...

Reviewed: Lalo Schifrin | Dave McMurray | John Barry

Lalo Schifrin: Intégrale 1955-1962, Jazz And Bossa Nova Lalo Schifrin (1932–2025) composed some of the most memorable film and television music of our age. A look through his soundtrack albums from the 60s and 70s alone is to see the definition of cool as expressed in music. Mission: Impossible, The Man From UNCLE, Bullitt, a raft of soundtracks for Clint Eastwood films, the list is...
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New releases December 2025 – January 2026, S

Records offered for review to Jazz Journal in November-December 2025, including Brandon Sanders, Woody Shaw, Gene Shelby, Wes Smith and Dave Stryker // Editor's pick: Dave Stryker

New releases December 2025 – January 2026, O-R

Records offered for review to Jazz Journal in November-December 2025, including Gary Peacock, Noah Peterson, Roy Powell, QOW Trio and Joel Ross // Editor's pick: Joel Ross

New releases December 2025 – January 2026, M-N

Mabern, Harold: Afro Blue They say : Special 10th anniversary edition of a remastered, remixed Afro Blue album (2014) to be released on what would've been Harold...

Liverpool jazz festival begins 26 February

Liverpool International Jazz Festival, founded in 2013 by Liverpool Hope University, and run by the university's Creative Campus, returns 26 February - 1 March with a programme mixing straightahead jazz, intense jazz fusion and world-flavoured variations. The headliners include...

Guy Barker swings the RAH

Trumpeter Guy Barker, well-known as in the vanguard of the first so-called British jazz revival of the 1980s, when he played bebop and cutting-edge jazz-funk with Chris Hunter and others, has for some years now embraced the mainstream of...
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Unapologetic Expression: The Inside Story Of The UK Jazz Explosion

For a geezer of my vintage the great and most fruitful UK jazz explosion occurred in the late 60s-early 70s, fuelled by South African expats and musicians from the West Country and then, somewhat in contrast, there was the...

German Jazz Prize performances reflect the fraught political scene

Musicians from across Germany and around the globe flocked to Cologne for the German Jazz Prize on 13 June - and that’s no surprise. All 76 nominees got €4,000, while winners in 22 categories departed E-Werk’s brick-and-steel interior with...

Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura: making music never heard before

Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Red Rodney, Corky Corcoran, to pick a few names at random, all began playing professionally in their teens. I remember seeing Betty Carter live back...

Gianluca Pellerito, drum wunderkind

I first encountered drummer Gianluca Pellerito through social media and quickly became one of his 330k followers on Instagram, but it was seeing this...

The dance is ended (but the memory lingers on)

Seeing the Count Basie Orchestra live was one of the great thrills early in my lifelong obsession with jazz. I did not realise it...

Obituary: Marilyn Mazur

For over five decades the Danish drummer and percussionist, composer, sound-poet, painter and bandleader Marilyn Mazur – who died on 12 December 2025 after a period of illness – was one of the strongest creative spirits in jazz and...

Obituary: Glyn Callingham

It’s with great sadness that I learned of the recent death of my close friend and ex-colleague, Glyn Callingham. Glyn came to work at Ray’s Jazz Shop where I was manager and took over that role when I left....
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JJ 01/86: Terje Rypdal Trio at London Logan Hall

Forty years ago Mark Gilbert saw guitarist Rypdal's trio confirm that it was now OK for the jazz fan to listen to heavy metal music

JJ 01/86: Back Door at Newcastle Upon Tyne Corner House

Forty years ago Chris Yates saw the Yorkshire trio's organic mix of Mississippi blues, prog-rock and jazz reconvened in Newcastle as part of a Jazz Services tour

JJ 01/86: Man Jumping – Jumpcut

Forty years ago Simon Adams wanted to hear more of Man Jumping's danceable, always swinging mix of systems music, funk, electro pop and jazz