JJ 02/66: In My Opinion – Bob Thiele

Sixty years ago record producer Bob Thiele held forth on the avant-garde work of yes, Bob James, on Duke Ellington and pop music and on Hines, Hawkins, Mulligan and Barry Harris

JJ 02/66: The Quartette Très Bien – Stepping Out

Sixty years ago Sinclair Traill found the African-influenced music of US trio Quartette Très Bien had such abandon that he couldn't believe it was all arranged

JJ 02/66: Bobby Wellins – The New Departures Quartet

Sixty years ago Mark Gardner was pleased to find somebody else - Bobby Wellins of the 'stove-pipe' sound - who sounded like they had been listening to Warne Marsh

Reviewed: Jim Hall | Oscar Peterson | Nat ‘King’ Cole

Jim Hall: Jazz Guitar The young Jim Hall’s first and probably best album as a leader has had a bizarre history. First released in 1957,...

Trinity Laban settles with Martin Speake over his remarks on jazz and skin colour

Following a two-year dispute the Trinity Laban conservatoire in South London has reached a private settlement with Martin Speake, a former teacher of saxophone...

News in brief...

The fourth MoonJune festival, devised by the indefatigable Leonardo Pavkovic and describing itself as a festival of “eclectic music”, takes place in Teramo, Italy, 22-25 July 2026 and includes Soft Machine w. Gary Husband, Gong w. Steve Hillage and Diego Amador’s Flamenco Free Jazz.

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.

Reviewed: Rahel Talts | Søren Bebe Trio | Oskar Lindberget Quintet

Rahel Talts: Back And Forth Three reflective, thoughtful albums with European and Scandinavian influences feature in this month’s digest. As a trio of albums they...

Simon Spillett Big Band at Ronnie Scott’s

It took a while – six years almost to the day – for Simon Spillett’s Big Band to make it from the humble setting...

Reviewed: Chris Hodgkins & Leanore Raphael | Brandon Seabrook

Chris Hodgkins & Leanore Raphael: Pennies From Heaven Trumpeter Chris Hodgkins is a familiar figure on the UK jazz scene, his style based on Chicago...

Reviewed: Carl Clements and The Real Jazz Trio | Alexis Cole | Gabriele Comeglio

Carl Clements and The Real Jazz Trio: Retrospective This is a follow-up to Carl Clements’ critically acclaimed 2023 CD A Different Light (Greydisc GDR3581). Despite...

Reviewed: Aleph Aguiar | Pat Bianchi | Ray Charles

Aleph Aguiar: Sugar On My Blackbeans Spirit-lifting Venezualian-born and UK-based guitarist Aleph Aguiar doesn’t deal in highfalutin, mildly grotesque concepts heard everywhere these days from...
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Reviewed: James Allsopp | Philipp Gropper’s Philm

James Allsopp: Stars And Sand It’s around 20 years now since Allsopp burst onto the scene...
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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 01/76: Donald Byrd – Black Byrd

Fifty years ago Mark Gardner saw a once reliable jazz player prostrate before the temptation of 'commercial trivia'

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 01/96: 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: Jim Hall | Oscar Peterson | Nat ‘King’ Cole

Jim Hall: Jazz Guitar The young Jim Hall’s first and probably best album as a leader has had a bizarre history. First released in 1957, it contained 10 tracks, six of which were later edited and reissued with an (overdubbed) Larry Bunker on drums – but not included by producer Richard Bock - who also reduced the solos of pianist and bassist Red Mitchell on...

Reviewed: Rahel Talts | Søren Bebe Trio | Oskar Lindberget Quintet

Rahel Talts: Back And Forth Three reflective, thoughtful albums with European and Scandinavian influences feature in this month’s digest. As a trio of albums they remind me why I like music from this part of the world so much, with its sense of authenticity and utter lack of pretension. Not a wasted note or wasted sentiment to be found across these fine releases. Rahel Talt’s Back...
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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

Trinity Laban settles with Martin Speake over his remarks on jazz and skin colour

Following a two-year dispute the Trinity Laban conservatoire in South London has reached a private settlement with Martin Speake, a former teacher of saxophone at the college who attacked critical race theory and the proposition that the UK jazz...

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...
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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...

Count Me In… 02/26

Oh for a schism, an entertaining rupture in the ranks so that one can watch militants spit venom across a void. Jazz had a famous one at the turn of the 1950s – "la mère de tous les schismes",...

Obituary: Ralph Towner

With the death of Ralph Towner (1940 - 2026) contemporary jazz lost one of its most prolific and distinctive voices. How many musicians can you think of whose work covers the range that Towner explored in the now rippling,...
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JJ 02/66: In My Opinion – Bob Thiele

Sixty years ago record producer Bob Thiele held forth on the avant-garde work of yes, Bob James, on Duke Ellington and pop music and on Hines, Hawkins, Mulligan and Barry Harris

JJ 02/66: The Quartette Très Bien – Stepping Out

Sixty years ago Sinclair Traill found the African-influenced music of US trio Quartette Très Bien had such abandon that he couldn't believe it was all arranged

JJ 02/66: Bobby Wellins – The New Departures Quartet

Sixty years ago Mark Gardner was pleased to find somebody else - Bobby Wellins of the 'stove-pipe' sound - who sounded like they had been listening to Warne Marsh