TOP NEWS JAZZ

(Ubuntu Music)This came out a few weeks ago, but I couldn’t let such a bold and deftly performed venture slip away unnoticed with the old year. It’s one thing to create bad imitations of Monk or Coltrane, and quite another to accept the fact that they are to be admired ... read more

Belgrade theatre, CoventryCharacters including The Great Gatsby’s Daisy round on a Greek god in this bewildering Christmas showThe setting is a cabaret-style jazz club with saxophonist, drummer, blackjack table and finger food. Our host is Z, a 1920s incarnation of the Greek god Zeus, who is performing a rap in ... read more

(Impulse)Arriving just nine months after the London trio’s mould-breaking Trust in the Life Force, and recorded at the same time, there were fears this “companion piece” would prove a mere add-on. In reality The Afterlife has its own, distinct mood, often gentler and more sombre than the techno attack of ... read more

We begin our pick of the year’s finest albums with gritty electropop, oddball songwriting, tender jazz, louche punk funk. Check in every weekday as we count down to No 1 Continue reading... ... read more

(Blow the Fuse)I think I could spot a piece by Alison Rayner among a mixed bag of contemporary British jazz composer, not by any mannerisms of style, but because her whole approach is so brisk and clear. This is certainly true of the music played by her quintet. The band ... read more

The award, previously won by Adele and Sam Smith, is voted for by music industry figures predicting 2020’s biggest new starsNominations for the Brits rising star award, formerly known as the critics’ choice award and given to artists the music industry predicts will find success the following year, have been ... read more

Barbican, LondonWith septuagenarians flanked by young rising stars, this was a thrilling show of scalding soloing and imaginative improvOne of the great jazz bands of the past half-century, comparable in class and curiosity (if not box-office clout) with the 60s groups of Miles Davis or John Coltrane, has been the ... read more

Covering surrealism, toxic divorce and infidelity, the interview between the jazz great and the English poet was always going to be eye-bulgingly eccentricThe Observer Magazine cover story of 29 March 1981 was an interview by George Melly with the English poet Edward James in his role as a patron of ... read more

As part of London jazz festival, Rhiannon Giddens performed in the chapel at Wormwood Scrubs prison – supported by a choir of inmatesFifty years after Johnny Cash gave the most famous prison concerts of all time at Folsom and San Quentin, the British penal system finally has an equivalent.On Thursday ... read more

Barbican, LondonThe grizzled crooner is in a nihilistic mood, thumbing his nose at the Grim Reaper in this brilliantly spirited performanceThat he’s appearing as part of the London jazz festival signals that, at least at first, this punk-pioneering former Stooge does not wanna be your dog tonight. Instead, Iggy Pop ... read more

(ACT)The Norwegian saxophonist and composer continues to trailblaze, here combining forms with intensity and brillianceFor most of its hundred years or so, the materials of jazz have been simple – 12-bar blues, popular song forms, dance beats, minimal modal structures, or no structures at all – and the ingenuity of ... read more

Royal Festival Hall, LondonAmid celebrations of the ECM label’s 50th anniversary, the Norwegian saxophonist delivered some compelling exploratory solos This year’s London jazz festival coincides with the 50th anniversary of ECM records and, in celebration, the festival’s opening weekend featured a host of artists from that label’s roster. All share ... read more

London Jazz festival, BarbicanEven after half a century, the jazz legend’s playing was unpredictable as he switched effortlessly between styles There is a well-known photograph of Herbie Hancock aged 23, when he had just joined the Miles Davis Quintet. Taken by Blue Note label co-founder Francis Wolff, it shows Hancock ... read more

Barbican, LondonThe Grammy-winning American singer puts on a typically nonchalant performance full of revelationsFlawless nonchalance at a treacherously difficult art comes as axiomatic for American vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant – the Wynton Marsalis-hailed, Grammy-winning, unflashily charismatic jazz singer who often suggests she could turn the phone book into a spellbinding ... read more

(ACT)If you’re looking for a seasonal album with a touch of class, this is it. Echoes of Swing are a quartet who take delight in exploring new approaches to classic jazz styles. The results are unfailingly witty, affectionate and faultlessly played. They are based in Germany, have been together for ... read more