Elijah Jeffery and Eddie Gripper at Black Mountain Jazz, Abergavenny

Some might feel a musical duo offers a third of the entertainment provided by a sextet or an eighth of that available in a 16-piece band; but music is not a numbers game. Being exposed, however, a twosome has to stack joint resources in order to provide something equivalent to its reduced status. Singer Elijah Jeffery and pianist Eddie Gripper also illustrate the sometimes forgotten observation that new male jazz singers neither arrive on the jazz scene in droves...

Reviewed: Brandon Sanders | Nigel Price Organ Trio | Yusef Lateef

Brandon Sanders: Lasting Impression Brandon Sanders spent many hours as a child visiting his grandmother’s jazz club in Kansas City where she hosted the likes...

Benched

Imagine, if you will, or can, a cutting contest between Oscar Levant and Humphrey Lyttelton, duking it out for the chance to star in...

Sam Braysher Quartet with Sara Dowling at Ronnie Scott’s

It’s now several moons since I’ve been able to beguile a Sunday lunchtime basking in the sounds of jazz at its best. This of...

Reviewed: Yakir Arbib & Conti Bilong | ‍Sangoma

Yakir Arbib & Conti Bilong: Afro Baroque As in my last batch of selections, eclecticism is a keyword with these albums. Afro Baroque is one...

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.

Reviewed: Julius Gawlik | Rasmus Oppenhagen Krogh | Joachim Kühn with Daniel Humair & Jean-François Jenny-Clark

Julius Gawlik: It’s All In Your Head One of the unintended consequences of the rise of jazz education is that as technical proficiency has generally...

Reviewed: Armen Donelian | My best of 2025

Armen Donelian: Stargazer Japanese labels have produced countless records that have reached only the most fanatical jazz fans in the rest of the world. Sunnyside...

JJ 01/96: Jazz – The Rough Guide

Thirty years ago Alun Morgan was very pleased with the revised edition of Carr, Fairweather and Priestley's not-so-rough guide to jazz

JJ 01/96: Wayne Shorter – High Life

Thirty years ago Mark Gilbert found Shorter's post Weather Report fusion one-dimensional in comparison with the musical mastery of his early 60s Blue Notes

Reviewed: Dexter Gordon | Stefano Rielli | Tito Puente

Dexter Gordon: More Than You Know After recording A Swinging Affair for Blue Note in August 1962, Dexter Gordon took off for a successful two-week...
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

JJ 01/96: Steve Grossman, interviewed by Mark Gilbert

Thirty years ago the NY tenor man, peer to Berg, Brecker, Mintzer et al, talked about his journey through Miles Davis, Elvin Jones and Stone Alliance and back to bebop
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

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 01/86: Joe Henderson – Mode For Joe

Forty years ago Mark Gilbert heard in Henderson's splitting, jiving and slipping of notes a still contemporary saxophone vocabulary.

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 01/96: Jazz – The Rough Guide

Thirty years ago Alun Morgan was very pleased with the revised edition of Carr, Fairweather and Priestley's not-so-rough guide to jazz

Elijah Jeffery and Eddie Gripper at Black Mountain Jazz, Abergavenny

Some might feel a musical duo offers a third of the entertainment provided by a sextet or an eighth of that available in a 16-piece band; but music is not a numbers game. Being exposed, however, a twosome has to stack joint resources in order to provide something equivalent to its reduced status. Singer Elijah Jeffery and pianist Eddie Gripper also illustrate the sometimes...

Reviewed: Brandon Sanders | Nigel Price Organ Trio | Yusef Lateef

Brandon Sanders: Lasting Impression Brandon Sanders spent many hours as a child visiting his grandmother’s jazz club in Kansas City where she hosted the likes of Stanley Turrentine, Lou Donaldson and Grant Green. Although raised to the sound of live music, Sanders didn’t take up drums until he was 25. Now based in New York and another 25 years further on, he’s released his third...
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

New releases December 2025 – January 2026, T-Y

Records offered for review to Jazz Journal in November-December 2025, including Clark Terry, Cal Tjader, Charles Tolliver, V-Disc Big Band Jazz Sessions and Miroslav Vitous // Editor's pick: V-Disc Big Band Jazz Sessions

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

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...
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

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....
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

JJ 01/96: Jazz – The Rough Guide

Thirty years ago Alun Morgan was very pleased with the revised edition of Carr, Fairweather and Priestley's not-so-rough guide to jazz

JJ 01/96: Wayne Shorter – High Life

Thirty years ago Mark Gilbert found Shorter's post Weather Report fusion one-dimensional in comparison with the musical mastery of his early 60s Blue Notes

JJ 01/96: Steve Grossman, interviewed by Mark Gilbert

Thirty years ago the NY tenor man, peer to Berg, Brecker, Mintzer et al, talked about his journey through Miles Davis, Elvin Jones and Stone Alliance and back to bebop