 crop.jpg "Win an Olympus LS-3 recorder") January 2011 - Ensure your UK subscription to Jazz Journal is current at 10 February 2012 and be eligible to enter our competition for an Olympus LS-3 recorder
 January 2012 - American jazz players once again headline in Denmark for Vinterjazz 2012, 3-19 February, a nationwide jazz festival spread across more than 60 venues
 January 2011 - Ahead of Mark Murphy's celebration of his 80th birthday at Ronnie Scott's in London, we publish a scene-setting review of his gig at UCS Hampstead 30 years ago
 January 2012 - Francis Graham-Dixon senses a missed opportunity for trombonist Wayne Henderson and the Jazz Crusaders on a Friday 13th at Ronnie Scott's that never really took off
 December 2011 - Bill Frisell, ’most innovative and influential jazz guitarist of the past 25 years’, swings less than the Beatles on his new album of John Lennon covers
 December 2011 - Elvis Costello recommends prospective buyers of his new box set get Universal's Louis Armstrong collection instead
 January 2012 - Tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton is back in England again for New Year dates stretching from London to Leeds
 December 2011 - New EP from the Leeds trio offers sonic responses to the X Factor judges but does it make any more musical progress than the show's contestants?
 November 2011 - The latest Proper podcast features key 1950s-60s British jazz and rock entrepreneur Chris Barber in conversation with Trevor Dann
 December 2011 - John Coltrane's music is often seen as an expression of spirituality. Andy Hamilton went to see the late saxophonist's work put to literal religious use in a San Francisco church
 December 2011 - Derek Ansell reviews NYJO's Christmas Carol In Six Movements CD - one of 'the band's best live performances for some time'. Plus news of NYJO at the Hideaway and on BBC R4's Today programme
 December 2011 - Former John Stevens sideman Francis Graham-Dixon reviews a spellbinding gig that fell a little too early for the London Jazz Festival
 December 2011 - First there was the Whitley Bay Jazz Festival. Now trumpeter Mike Durham has launched the Classic Jazz Party. Michael Steinman reviews the 'brilliant' inaugural weekend
 November 2011 - Fred Grand watches the American guitarist and his string trio extend a tradition stretching back to Jimmy Giuffre and The Train And River
.jpg "London Jazz Festival: Hermeto Pascoal") November 2011 - Garry Booth watches a three-hour epic from the Brazilian eccentric whom age has not withered, either in writing or performance
 November 2011 - Simon Adams sees the 81-year-old altoist at the RFH, finding himself surprised yet again with the vigour and originality of Coleman's performance
 December 2011 - A personal tribute from producer and Mainstem label boss David Hays recalling Mike's last gig, in Amersham
 November 2011 - Fred Grand senses polyphonic meltdown, were it not for the funky back beats and mutant marching-band cadences
 November 2011 - Simon Adams finds the warm acoustic and elegant style of the Wigmore Hall the ideal setting for a masterclass in continuous solo piano improvisation from the South African pianist
 November 2011 - Sam Braysher reviews Gretchen Parlato at Kings Place and admires an integrated band that keeps on finding fresh perspectives on roadworn songs
 November 2011 - Fred Grand reviews Roy Haynes's Fountain Of Youth Band at QEH and finds the veteran drummer 'embellishing every accent without ever sounding over-embellished.' Peter King, the UK's own post-bop veteran, played opposite
 November 2011 - Richard Galliano: A Tribute To Nino Rota, RFH, 17 November 2011. Simon Adams finds Rota's music well served by a fine group fronted by the ’vaguely asthmatic but consistently impressive’ accordion
 November 2011 - Fred Grand reviews London band Empirical and the Archie Shepp/Joachim Kühn duo and hopes it's not too long before Kühn is back playing his scintillating music on his own terms
 November 2011 - Simon Adams reviews Nik Bärtsch's Ronin at King's Place, London, 16 November 2011 and comes away dazzled rather than entertained
 November 2011 - John Adcock reviews the Marcin Wasilewski trio and the Stefano Bollani and Martial Solal duo at the Barbican, 16 November 2011
 November 2011 - Sam Braysher reviews the Christine Tobin band plus Phil Robson’s IMS Quintet featuring NYC Warne Marsh disciple Mark Turner and London-based US bassist Mike Janisch
 November 2011 - Mark Gilbert reviews the Soweto Kinch trio at The Albany, Deptford on 12 November, second night of the London Jazz Festival
 November 2011 - Sam Braysher reviews Steve Coleman and Steve Williamson at Queen Elizabeth Hall. John Watson snaps Coleman and Gregory Porter at the Ronnie Scott's/Radio 3 launch show
 November 2011 - Choice snips from JJ November: Barbara Thompson, Buddy Greco, Alex Garnett, Randy Sandke, Serge Chaloff, Graham Collier, Frank Driggs, Felsted reissues, Django Reinhardt, Phil Woods, BBC Big Band . . . and the magnificent JJ calendar 2012
 September 2011 - One to brighten the dull days: back home with 60 gigs to file, Tim Motion presents an evocative 2011 summer jazz diary centred around the compendious Marciac festival
 October 2011 - Derek Ansell reviews the London début of Dena DeRose, tipped as most compelling singer/pianist since Shirley Horn
 October 2011 - Hugh Rainey watches Louis, the silent film feature by Dan Pritzer that gets its European première at the Barbican as part of the London Jazz Festival on 13 November
.jpg "Jazz, by the Booker") October 2011 - Dave Foxall reviews Esi Edugyan's Half Blood Blues, the jazz interest in this year's Man Booker Prize, and inspects its jazz credentials
 August 2011 - A new silent film on the life of the young Louis Armstrong receives its UK première at the London Jazz Festival in November with a Wynton Marsalis score performed live by Wycliffe Gordon and others
 September 2011 - The annual London Jazz Festival has leading jazz names, the eclecticism which has long typified the event and a perhaps stronger than hitherto mainstream element
 September 2011 - The annual Guinness Cork Jazz Festival always seems to present a contrasting and near-unique programme that avoids largely duplicating concurrent events elsewhere, and this year's festival, 28-31 October, is no exception
 October 2011 - Latest JJ online reviews include a 10-CD Louis Armstrong collection with unrivalled sound, a 4-CD set of bebop master Sonny Clark from the revived Properbox, plus new Charles Lloyd, Brad Mehldau, Alex Garnett and Empirical
 October 2011 - Choice snips from JJ October: new Louis Armstrong in audio and print, Dena DeRose, Iain Ballamy, Wynton Marsalis, Baroness Nica . . . and the shorts bursts of inspiration that encapsulate what jazz is all about
 September 2011 - Record collection to sell or looking for that elusive rarity? The autumn meeting of the renowned Croydon Record Collectors' Fair at Fairfield Halls, Croydon this Sunday promises a vast selection of jazz and blues 78s, LPs and CDs
 September 2011 - Tommy Smith's new album, Metallica's Lars Ulrich on Jamie Cullum's show and a recent Jazz Times piece highlight the often overlooked kinship between jazz and heavy metal
.jpg "Jazz Journal latest online reviews") September 2011 - Jazz Journal's latest online reviews include celebrated new singer Gregory Porter, once-again renewed vibist Gary Burton, singing scion of a jazz dynasty Jacqui Dankworth and nonagenarian orchestrator Gerard Wilson, plus Frank Griffith, Leon Greening and Billy Jenkins
 September 2011 - Choice snips from JJ September: Alan Skidmore, Guy Barker, Sonny Rollins, Jan Lundgren & LaGaylia Frazier, Dave Douglas, Joe Mudele, Eric Delaney . . . and how Sweden prevailed this summer in more than just jazz
 September 2011 - Fusion, smooth jazz, jazz-lite - call it what you will - might be derided in the higher and drier echelons of the critical establishment but it's booming at sea
 August 2011 - John Etheridge, Bobby Wellins, Michael Garrick and Jim Hart are among the big names booked for the second annual jazz festival at All Saints, Hove in September
 September 2011 - Plans have been announced to create an international jazz venue on the site of the former Pizza On The Park in London
 August 2011 - Jazz Journal publishes selected reviews online starting with Pat Metheny, Miles Davis, Impossible Gents, David Binney and Bob ’it doesn't get any hipper’ Mintzer
 August 2011 - Bob Weir reports that the Brecon Jazz Festival - this year's the third under the auspices of the Hay Festival - is back on track with strong programming, efficient organisation and impressive audience numbers
.jpg "After Wallander, a jazz triumph for Ystad") August 2011 - The second Ystad jazz festival drew to a close this weekend, doubling sales but holding firm to its director's vision of a festival where jazz doesn't “fall to the background”
 August 2011 - Choice snips from JJ August: Dan Block, Courtney Pine, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Chico & Rita, John Scofield, Humphrey Lyttelton and a glimpse of our Lockerbie festival competition
 July 2011 - Riverdance, Glenn Miller, Stevie Winwood and Matt Bianco sideman puts various voices of the saxophone centre stage in his new album Trilateral, launched at the 606 Club, London on 27 July
 July 2011 - Gwilym Simcock's album Good Days At Schloss Elmau is the jazz nomination for the 2011 Mercury prize, to be awarded 6 September. JJ reviewer Simon Adams found that Simcock made his piano 'sing with confidence and joy’
 July 2011 - The International Association of Jazz Record Collectors convention makes a rare visit to the UK in September 2011 with themes including Modern Jazz in Manchester, 1946-72 and Black Europe - Early Acoustic Recordings
 July 2011 - The launch of Jacqui Dankworth's new album It Happens Quietly has been rescheduled to 24 July. Enter our simple competition for a chance to win two free tickets and a signed copy of the CD she co-wrote with her late father Sir John, but hurry - closes 22 July
 July 2011 - Blaze, the summer music festival in East London, features a strong jazz contingent including Randy Brecker, Bill Evans, Terence Blanchard, Hugh Masakela and Esperanza Spalding
 July 2011 - Demonstrating a partiality for guitarists that stretches back to his work with Hank Garland in the 1960s, vibist Gary Burton brings a quartet with Julian Lage to London in July
 July 2011 - Choice snips from JJ July: Mike Stern, Kyle Eastwood, Monty Alexander, Lu Watters, Graham Bond . . . and the root of the vamp
 August 2011 - BBC Two is to start filming a new drama series by Stephen Poliakoff centred on a black jazz band in London in the 1930s and distantly echoing the lives of Snakehips Johnson and Jiver Hutchinson
 July 2011 - Mark Gilbert finds in the Scots saxophonist's new album vindication for the idea that heavy metal has taken on the mantle of virtuosity divested some years ago in the sniffier quarters of the jazz world
 June 2011 - The 2011 Brecon jazz festival in picturesque Mid Wales features John Surman, Courtney Pine, Monty Alexander, Gilad Atzmon, Robert Glasper, Maceo Parker and more
 April 2011 - The acclaimed Herts Jazz Club is to present a festival featuring top British modern and mainstream talent such as Martin Taylor and Peter King to its list of achievements
 June 2011 - Pianist Monty Alexander talks to Jazz Journal ahead of his 27 June concert at the first London BluesFest
 June 2011 - Choice snips from JJ June: Charlap, Led Bib, Sulzmann, Stern, Dylan, Kenton, Surman . . . and the Radio 2 typist
.jpg "Wynton Marsalis for Ronnie's in August") June 2011 - Ronnie Scott's has announced that the Wynton Marsalis septet will play five nights at the club this summer.
 June 2011 - The Music In The Garden summer concert series in the Old Rectory gardens in Wavendon is back again with as strong a lineup as ever, running from 18 June to 17 July.
 May 2011 - Brittany Ferries are offering a discounted ticket and ferry package to a jazz weekend on the banks of the River Aulne in Brittany in July.
 May 2011 - Acclaimed US clarinettist plays several UK dates with Django à la Créole, the band that blends Hot Club de France style with New Orleans jazz.
 May 2011 - It's a general arts event, but the Norfolk & Norwich Festival has a strong jazz programme including high profile names and some players rarely seen in the UK.
 May 2011 - One-time Ornette Coleman, Pat Metheny and Keith Jarrett sideman Charlie Haden is at the Barbican in London for a special weekend residency, 21-22 May.
 April 2011 - US bassist Michael Janisch records his new album at the Pizza Express over two nights with free CD on admission.
 May 2011 - Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek, renowned for his work on ECM and with George Russell and Keith Jarrett, plays 11 British dates this year with the Hilliard Ensemble.
 April 2011 - Legendary drummer with Marcus Miller, John Scofield, David Sanborn, Stanley Turrentine and others appears in intimate London club setting this spring bank holiday weekend.
 April 2011 - Trumpeter Martin Shaw and Brazilian singer Jandira Silva perform celebrated jazz scores by Miles Davis, Luiz Bonfá and others at London's 606 Club on 4 May.
 April 2011 - The PHJB, now titled the Great Preservation Hall Jazz Band, plays a rare UK date at London's South Bank in June via former Kinks leader Ray Davies's Meltdown series.
 April 2011 - Laurie Holloway and his trio play a charity fundraiser gig with special guest Kenny Lynch at Taplow Court, Berkshire, on Friday 27 May and we have two VIP tickets to be won.
 April 2011 - We're sorry to report the death of Ray Smith, founder of Ray's Jazz Shop, a distinctive landmark and meeting place on the London jazz scene of the 1980s and 1990s.
April 2011 - Gwynedd Duncan-Jones asks after Ron Brown, assistant editor of JJ around 1970
 April 2011 - The Norwich Jazz Party is here and with over 30 leading modern mainstream names it promises an encyclopedically swing-packed weekend.
 April 2011 - George Benson plays his only UK date in 2011 at Kenwood House, Hampstead on 2 July.
 April 2011 - The main jazz component of the 2011 Proms season is trombonist Jiggs Whigham conducting the BBC Big Band in a programme of music marking the centenary of Stan Kenton
 April 2011 - The adoption of indie rock by latterday jazz types has, it seems, crossed fearsomely into the mainstream with the advent of 'modern day pop artist and musical revolutionary' Elew, and the ’inspired melding of ragtime, rock and pop that he calls Rockjazz’.
 April 2011 - Scott Henderson, perhaps the first guitarist to suggest a combination of the legato approach of Allan Holdsworth and the bop and blues style of John Scofield in one singular voice, finally headlines his own UK dates in May.
.jpg "Tony Levin's favourite drum solo") April 2011 - Writing on Tony Levin in April Jazz Journal, Mark Gardner encapsulates the eclectic voice of the late British drummer, revealing his earliest and most abiding influences and his explanation of the attraction of free improvisation.
 March 2011 - “We are the The Jazz you know,” announced Mike Garrick.“Perhaps you’d dig a few odd poems? Maybe some of Wilfred’s: maybe some of me Owens ... So let’s see how the evening goes, for jazz is poetry; never prose!”
 May 2011 - Fish Meadow at Upton-upon-Severn is the place to be for a feast of mainstream jazz this weekend, with over 40 bands in riverside marquees and superb musicianship of the kind epitomised by Karen Sharp (right)
 February 2011 - Impresario George Wein talked to passengers on the MS Noordam jazz cruise in February, as reported by Keith McDowall in April JJ, telling them 'I never made a dime but I got a living.'
 March 2011 - Britain's mainstream mainman Brian Peerless and colleagues have assembled a blitz of the best in swinging jazz for the spring, including Rossano Sportiello, Ken Peplowski, Scott Hamilton, Houston Person, Howard Alden/Jeanne Gies and Daryl Sherman.
.jpg "Ascona jazz festival 23 June to 3 July") April 2011 - The Ascona Jazz Festival, renowned for its focus on classic jazz, has Jon Faddis, Dan Barrett, Lillian Boutté and more.
 with actor Krister Henriksson (the Swedish Wallander) and Kristers wife, the actress Cecilia Nilsson.jpg "Ystad Jazz Festival 4-7 August") March 2011 - Pat Martino, Dave Douglas, Toots Thielemans, Jan Lundgren, John Surman and Scott Hamilton are among the big names at the second jazz festival in the Swedish town made famous by Kurt Wallander
 CC.jpg "Stretches of Spain") March 2011 - The owner of the El Secadero jazz club in Alhendín near Granada has been jailed for two and a half years and ordered to pay €27,000 compensation for making excessive noise over a 12-year period.
 April 2011 - First names released for the 2011 North Sea Jazz Festival (Rotterdam, 8-10 July) include Ahmad Jamal, Return To Forever (Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Lenny White, Jean-Luc Ponty, Frank Gambale) and Branford Marsalis, with full list to follow end of April.
 February 2011 - Simon Adams finds the jazz festival missing link in north Kent at ’the UK’s first literary festival devoted to music criticism’, with Robert Wyatt, Steve Beresford and others.
 March 2011 - Welsh-born pianist's 60th birthday concert, 18 March 2011, Purcell Room, London
 March 2011 - Melvin Sparks, guitarist on numerous soul-jazz and organ combo dates from the late 60s onwards, died on 13 March 2011.
 March 2011 - A scheme has been launched to transfer the manuscript scores of jazz composer Neil Ardley onto Sibelius software and make them widely available. Ardley led the legendary New Jazz Orchestra in the 1960s and 70s and recorded a series of acclaimed albums.
 February 2011 - Newly discovered work by Miles Davis arranger Gil Evans is being recovered and prepared for recording in 2012, centenary of Evans' birth.
 February 2011 - The title of saxophonist Peter King's autobiography - Flying High: A Jazz Life And Beyond - conceals the other passion of his life, aeromodelling, of which he is a distinguished lifelong devotee. That, Bartók, orchestral composition and more are in the book, published on 23 March.
 February 2011 - The Union Chapel in north London is looking lively for jazz in March, with appearances by the Swingle Singers in Ellington's Sacred Concert and Mike Stern and Avishai Cohen as themselves.
 February 2011 - The Zawinul estate marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of Weather Report in 1971 with the issue of three previously unreleased live German recordings by the group. The first, on 28 March, presents a 41-minute broadcast performance from the Berlin Philharmonie in November 1975.
 April 2011 - Got a record collection to sell or looking for that rarity? The spring edition of the renowned Croydon Record Collectors' Fair takes place Sunday 1 May at Fairfield Halls, Park Lane, CR9 1DG, offering a vast selection of jazz and blues 78s, LPs and CDs.
 February 2011 - Battersea-born pianist George Shearing died in New York of congestive heart failure on 14 February, aged 91. Shearing was renowned for inventing a block-harmony sound for quintet based on the Glenn Miller horn section style but adopting the harmony of bebop. A full obituary by Bruce Crowther will appear in the April issue of Jazz Journal.
 April 2011 - Leo Green, son of broadcaster Benny Green, sees BluesFest London (27 June-3 July, 2011) as the first event of its kind since the late lamented Capital/JVC Festival of the 1980s.
 February 2011 - Tony Levin, British jazz drummer who moved convincincly between mainstream jazz and free improvisation in a career that included work with Tubby Hayes, Humphrey Lyttelton, Keith Tippett and Paul Dunmall, died 3 February. A tribute by Mark Gardner will appear in the April issue of Jazz Journal.
 February 2011 - Mike Gibbs makes a rare return from his current base in Malaga to guest with the Pizza Express Jazz Orchestra at the Pizza Express, Dean St, London on 13 February. Read about Mike in our June 2008 edition, available now in back numbers
 February 2011 - The acclaimed British trio Phronesis begin a tour in February, calling at Sherborne Jazz Club (12), St Lawrence Chapel, Ashburton (13), North Devon Jazz Club, Appledore (14), St Ives Jazz Club, Cornwall (15) and more.
 February 2011 - The Barbican Centre, London has announced its spring 2011 programme, including Kurt Elling with Richard Galliano and Tommy Smith’s Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, JJ January cover subject Esperanza Spalding with her Chamber Music Society and Charlie Haden’s London Concerts.
 February 2011 - A February highlight at London Dean St Pizza Express is two nights (16 & 17) featuring another of US bassist Michael Janisch’s all-star presentations. This time it’s the Kenny Wheeler Quintet with John Taylor and acclaimed US saxophonist Jon Irabagon.
 February 2011 - The programme for this year’s Gateshead International Jazz Festival (25-27 March) has been announced and features a headline appearance by Debbie Harry and The Jazz Passengers in concert with the Sage Gateshead’s resident orchestra, the Northern Sinfonia.
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