TOP NEWS JAZZ

Maverick concert programmer and manager with an impressively eclectic taste in musicAlan James, who has died from a stroke at the age of 61, was a maverick concert programmer and manager with impressively eclectic taste who played an important role in promoting not only world music and British folk music, ... read more

(Blue Note)Seven tracks made last year in impromptu recordings with the likes of Jeff Tweedy and Thomas Bartlett shows Jones is an artist at her ease Releasing the 26th bestselling US album of all time as your debut buys you the right to do whatever you want for the rest ... read more

(BMC)Recorded in Budapest for her 70th birthday, Takase’s new album fields catchy hooks, improv, raw noise and cryptic vocals in her own indefatigable style‘I want to show with this music that our time is not easy,” says the indomitably inventive 71-year-old pianist Aki Takase, “but that you can still play ... read more

(Alys Jazz)By the time the first four bars of the opening number had elapsed, I knew I was going to enjoy this. A bright, perky little tune, it’s actually pure bebop, but played here with so light a touch that I barely noticed. As one track succeeded another, I had ... read more

EartH, LondonMergia’s nimble fingers are dizzying, but an overly robust rhythm section and staid staging make this less thrilling than it should beIt has become a familiar crate-digging fairytale: a man with a globetrotting record label finds a weathered cassette in Africa and tracks down the artist to other side ... read more

(Accidental Records)The Matthew Herbert Big Band are attempting something that so far seems beyond our politicians: “To work out what a new kind of relationship with our European neighbours may look like.” This BPI-funded project has taken Herbert to Syria, China and Russia and has provided work for more than ... read more

Oslo, LondonA mostly female sextet from London’s fertile jazz scene bring everything from surf rock solos to reed-breaking saxWhile jazz undergoes a facelift thanks to a new generation of London-based musicians who are shunning the genre’s elitist stereotypes and opening it up to more diverse audiences, there is still a ... read more

He wowed Canada with operatic arias sung in a near-extinct indigenous language. Now he’s taking his culture to the worldJeremy Dutcher’s low voice is filled with reverence as he quotes Buffy Sainte-Marie: “If what you want is not on the menu, go into the kitchen, cook it up, and show ... read more

(StayTuned)In his early career, Roger Beaujolais played mainly in pop and jump-jive bands. Since their music was very loud, and his instrument is the gentle vibraphone, he had to settle for an electronic version to make himself heard. We’re lucky that, since then, he has stuck firmly to the classic, ... read more

More than 500 signatories from across the arts – including Shirley Collins, Jarvis Cocker, Ed O’Brien, Phil Selway, Peaches, Shabaka Hutchings, Norma Waterson, Martin Carthy, Brian Eno and Iwona Blazwick – call on Radio 3 to think again about changes to its schedulesLuke Turner (The BBC cutting Late Junction is ... read more

Above the Stag theatre, LondonChoreographer Jack Cole’s vitality is lost in Liam Burke’s play that tackles issues of ownership of women’s bodies All high kicks and hip swings, Jack Cole’s dances from the 1950s are still sexy. But their vitality is lost in this play about the genius of the ... read more

Barbican, LondonA classical work by the polymath jazz improvisor seems like a natural career move for the gifted pianistRecent obituaries of André Previn mourned that there were no similar polymaths who can communicate across musical boundaries today. Anyone familiar with the American pianist Brad Mehldau might dispute this. Since emerging ... read more

Sophie Huber’s film, though sanctioned by the jazz record label, is no hagiography, interviewing key players and adding fantastic rostrum pictures of the eraThis damn-near immaculate music documentary by Swiss film-maker Sophie Huber pays tribute to Blue Note Records, the iconic label most associated with mid-20th-century bebop jazz. Co-founded in ... read more

Punk-funkers Squid step on the gas, Jessie Ware moves left of centre and Tierra Whack breaks the one-minute mark – read about 10 of our favourite songs of the month, and subscribe to the 50-track playlist Continue reading... ... read more

Acclaimed drummer and member of the session musicians Wrecking Crew who worked on many of pop’s greatest hitsAs a key member of the loose affiliation of Hollywood session musicians who became known in the 1960s as the Wrecking Crew, the drummer Hal Blaine played on more hits than he could ... read more