Live Reviews Archives - 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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Review: Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2025

Brian Payne — Thu, 15 May 2025 11:14:53 +0000

This year's festival, blessed with sunshine, included Katia Melua, Lulu, Kokoroko, Lisa Stansfield, Billy Cobham, Daniel Casimir, Claire Martin, the Buena Vista All Stars, Neil Cowley, Macy Gray and Roger Daltrey

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Marvin Muoneké Quartet, Taunton

Barry Witherden — Tue, 13 May 2025 16:01:18 +0000

Trumpeter and singer Muoneké has become a favourite at this venue in Taunton’s Paul Street: as ever he charmed the audience (most of whom, including me, had seen him before) and impressed everyone with the wit and inventiveness of his playing and singing. Since I first saw him in 2023 his reputation in the South […]

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April Jazz, Espoo, Finland

Wif Stenger — Wed, 07 May 2025 18:45:42 +0000

Lakecia Benjamin New York alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin charged right out of the gate with her “warmup tune” Trane – which was even more hair-raising than the version on last year’s Grammy-shortlisted Phoenix Reimagined live album. She’s on a tour named after the live album, and repeated much of it, even beginning her set with […]

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Jazzahead! 2025

Pascal Dorban — Wed, 07 May 2025 13:45:38 +0000

A few days ahead of International Jazz Day 2025 (30 April), the Hanseatic city of Bremen was once again, for a few days, an international capital of jazz as it hosted the 19th edition of Jazzahead! Having featured various partner countries since 2011, the aptly named “Reconnect Edition” blended three vintages of previous featured countries, […]

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Ralph Moore, Dave Kikoski, Markus Schieferdecker and Joris Dudli in Cologne

Matty Bannond — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 09:34:29 +0000

One friendly patron jabs a finger at evidence of this street-level club’s raunchy past – red lightbulbs, wall-length mirrors and glittery golden frills hung around the ceiling. Legend has it King Georg is a former table-dancing spot. It’s not true, but the place lives up to the myth anyway. It hosted a night of saucy […]

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Eliane Elias Trio at Ronnie Scott’s

Michael Tucker — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 11:16:17 +0000

I heard this trio in 2012 when they were augmented by guitarist Rubens de La Corte for Elias’s aptly titled and ecstatically received Light My Fire quartet date at the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival. As this fabulous evening at Ronnie’s showed, time has done nothing to diminish the interactive potency and overall appeal of leader […]

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John Scofield Trio at Ronnie Scott’s

Mark Gilbert — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 14:56:51 +0000

“Sounded great!” quipped Scofield as drummer Bill Stewart suddenly dived off stage just as the trio had taken the stand. It was typical of the guitarist’s always amiable stagecraft, evident throughout the evening in clear, informative and sometimes wry announcements. Stewart was soon back, presumably having retrieved some forgotten item from the green room, and […]

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Trio Akima at St Luke’s, Brighton

Michael Tucker — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 11:28:16 +0000

I passed on a recent sold-out gig by Andy Sheppard and the Espen Eriksen trio at Chichester Jazz Club. Why? So I could keep my ears keen and eyes open for the slightly later concert by the Trio Akima ensemble of Geoff Hearn (ts, f, elecs, pc, v), Paul Richards (g) and Joe Philogene (pc, […]

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Deborah Silver at Crazy Coqs, London

Leon Nock — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 09:59:48 +0000

At 9:15 on Monday evening Deborah Silver walked on to the stand at Crazy Coqs, grabbed the audience by the scruff of the neck and didn’t let go til they sighed “uncle” some 75 minutes later. Apparently, she hails from the Deep South – Jackson, Mississippi – and had reservations about how well she might […]

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