Jazz Journal

2025 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival

Jazz Journal — Sun, 25 May 2025 20:07:15 +0000

The 2025 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, now in its 55th year, has evolved over the last 20 years from its original format of celebrating the music culture of New Orleans and Louisiana to what now feels more like a major rock festival, with a number of specialist genres –jazz, blues, cajun, zydeco and […]

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Reviewed: Gato Barbieri | Fred Frith, Shelley Burgon | Jacqueline Kerrod, Joe Morris

Nic Jones — Sun, 25 May 2025 17:20:45 +0000

Gato Barbieri: Standards 2 (Red Records RRCD 1233482) By the time this album was recorded in Rome in the spring of 1968 the Argentinian Barbieri had already made something of a case for the idea of jazz as an international language, not least through his contributions to Don Cherry’s Blue Note album Complete Communion. At that […]

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Reviewed: Kjetil Husebø | Kali Trio | Egil Kalman & Hans Hulbækmo | Adam O’Farrill | Alex Zethson & Johan Jutterström

Fred Grand — Sat, 24 May 2025 08:12:12 +0000

Kjetil Husebø: Piano Transformed – Interspace (Optical Substance Productions OSP010) My reviews of Kjetil Husebø’s recent ambient jazz projects have spoken of the Norwegian pianist-composer’s solid grounding in classical techniques, something which his Piano Transformed project brings into even sharper focus. This double-album is the third volume in the series, following Piano Transformed (2017) and […]

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Reviewed: Jenna Cave | Ron Ledoux | Gregory Privat

Nigel Jarrett — Fri, 23 May 2025 18:44:52 +0000

Jenna Cave Sextet: Grief, Hope, Love (ABC Jazz ABC J0033D) Australian jazz composer Jenna Cave identifies the concept of “grief literacy”, which might be defined as the means of giving voice to heartbreak and distress resulting from the death of someone close. In 2022, aged 38, she became a single parent to her three-year-old daughter […]

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Reviewed: Paul van Kessel | Oscar Moore | Jim Snidero

François van de Linde — Fri, 23 May 2025 09:44:46 +0000

Paul van Kessel: The Lonesome Road (self-released) Paul van Kessel’s voice is like a roasted chestnut on an open fire, laced with a trace of smooth soul. He works its fragility to its advantage in the intimate setting of The Lonesome Road, a duet with pianist Sebastiaan van Bavel that’s spruced up with sparse guitar […]

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New releases April-May 2025, T-Z

Jazz Journal — Thu, 22 May 2025 20:49:13 +0000

Records offered for review to Jazz Journal in March-April 2025, including Pete McGuiness Jazz Orchestra, Theo Travis, Bugge Wesseltoft, Becca Wilkins and Savina Yannatou // Editor's pick: The Action 4s

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Reviewed: Sharel Cassity | Nicole Johänntgen | Rachel Therrien

Matty Bannond — Thu, 22 May 2025 10:30:21 +0000

Sharel Cassity: Gratitude (Sunnyside Records) As a youngster in Oklahoma, Sharel Cassity’s heart and soul got captured by bassist Christian McBride’s debut studio album Gettin’ To It (Verve Records, 1995). She later earned the chance to play with each of the three musicians from the rhythm section on that record. Now, the alto saxophonist reunites […]

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New releases April-May 2025, R-S

Jazz Journal — Wed, 21 May 2025 20:51:03 +0000

Records offered for review to Jazz Journal in March-April 2025, including Joshua Redman, Scandinavian Art Ensemble (w. Tomasz Stańko) and Martin Speake & Will Butterworth // Editor's pick: Steve Holt Jazz Impact Quintet

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Swanage jazz festival: ‘the largest and purest’ on England’s south coast

Mark Gilbert — Tue, 20 May 2025 12:35:32 +0000

Just as Nigel Jarrett laments the dilution – even hijacking – of the word “jazz” by festivals featuring pop and increasingly resting on “inclusion” as a justification, Swanage in Dorset lays claim to hosting “‘the largest and purest jazz festival on the south coast of England”. Whatever jazz is or may be, the festival’s 2025 […]

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Reviewed: Ben Webster | Gerry Mulligan

Gordon Jack — Tue, 20 May 2025 10:03:16 +0000

Ben Webster: Soulville (WaxTime 772350-LP) The swing-era trinity of Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and Ben Webster really wrote the book on the tenor saxophone until John Coltrane and others came along. During the 30s Webster had worked with Andy Kirk, Fletcher Henderson and Benny Carter but it was probably his stay with Duke Ellington (1939-1943) […]

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