Articles by Neil Duggan

Album Review

Bill Laurance And Michael League: Close To Home

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by Neil Duggan
November 10, 2026

Since 2023, the partnership between Act Music and the Château Palmer vineyard has released an annual album featuring a different artist. Their collaboration celebrates the shared values of fine winemaking and jazz. Albums are recorded on-site at the renowned Bordeaux wine estate in Margaux, France, capturing intimate performances in a wood-paneled salon with windows overlooking the vineyards. Close To Home is the third release from pianist Bill Laurance and oud/bassist Michael League, both Grammy winners and co-founders of ...

Album Review

RGG: The Soul Of Soil

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by Neil Duggan
November 7, 2026

Polish piano trio RGG celebrate their 25th anniversary with the release of The Soul of Soil. Formed in 2001 by bassist Maciej Garbowski, drummer Krzysztof Gradziuk and pianist Przemysław Raminiak, who were students at the Jazz Institute of the Music Academy in Katowice at the time, the group has since established itself as one of Poland's leading piano trios with Łukasz Ojdana replacing Raminiak in 2013. The trio frequently uses existing compositions as springboards for improvisation, and here they turn ...

Album Review

Darius Brubeck Quartet: Live Again

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by Neil Duggan
November 6, 2026

"I think I play better on stage than in a recording studio," says pianist Darius Brubeck, so it comes as no surprise that his quartet's follow-up to Live In Poland (Ubuntu Music, 2019) is another live recording. Live Again was captured in Italy, where the band were invited to perform seven concerts in four days by the Brass Foundation of Palermo. Eight tracks are taken from the best performances from those concerts, together with an additional track recorded in the ...

Album Review

Noel Langley: Syzygy

by Neil Duggan
November 5, 2026

There has been a 12-year gap since British trumpeter, composer and producer Noel Langley released his debut as a leader, Edentide (Suntara Records, 2014). He returns with Syzygy, an album that offers a partial account of what he has been doing in the intervening years. The core of the album was recorded during a session with pianist Alcyona Mick in 2000. Having also featured on Langley's debut, Mick shares an established musical rapport with him, allowing the duo to explore ...

Album Review

Andrew Toombs: Alloy

by Neil Duggan
October 31, 2026

There is an ancient proverb that says, “A man is judged by the company he keeps." By that measure, pianist Andrew Toombs should be judged very highly indeed. For more than two decades, he has helped shape the path of American popular music, collaborating with artists as diverse as Dave Brubeck, Benny Golson, Bootsy Collins, Carole King, Kenny Rogers, Yolanda Adams and DJ Jazzy Jeff. Having absorbed the influences of jazz, soul, blues, country and hip-hop, Toombs now ...

Album Review

Miles Pillinger: Belonging

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by Neil Duggan
October 29, 2026

Belonging is the debut album from Manchester-born drummer and composer Miles Pillinger. Since graduating from Leeds Conservatoire, Pillinger has rapidly established himself on the UK jazz scene, and this recording introduces a confident musician with a strong rhythmic sensibility and a clear sense of his musical influences. Joining Pillinger to form his core quintet ensemble for this recording are fellow Conservatoire graduate Olivia Cuttill (trumpet), Tom Harris (piano), Benny Sandler (saxophones, flute) and Josh Vadiveloo on bass. There are ...

Album Review

Rymden: Today May Be Tomorrow

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by Neil Duggan
October 28, 2026

This is Rymden's fourth studio album, and it finds the leading Scandinavian jazz trio refining rather than radically reinventing the formula established on their earlier releases. Norwegian pianist Bugge Wesseltoft (pronounced boo-geh) helped shape the Scandinavian jazz sound, notably through his New Conception of Jazz project (Jazzland Recordings, 1996). He is joined by bassist Dan Berglund and drummer Magnus Oström, the rhythm section of the Esbjorn Svensson Trio (e.s.t.), whose fusion of jazz, classical music, rock and techno helped propel ...

Album Review

Mattia Basilico: On The Edge

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by Neil Duggan
October 23, 2026

Mattia Basilico is an Italian saxophonist who proudly wears his influences on his sleeve. He and his quartet set out to explore the jazz tradition while injecting a contemporary feel. The group comprising pianist Alessio Pagliero, double bassist Carlo Bavetta and drummer Bernardo Guerra, brings a fresh perspective to compositions by John Coltrane, Cedar Walton, Thelonious Monk, David Hazeltine, Ornette Coleman and Jimmy Van Heusen, using them as a platform for interaction, carefully shaped arrangements and new expressive directions.

Album Review

Blair Huber: Eclipse

by Neil Duggan
October 22, 2026

Eclipse is the debut album from German duo Blair Huber, comprising saxophonist Darius Blair and guitarist Niko Huber. The album features nine original tracks and was co-produced by the duo with their long-time collaborator Nicolas Butka. Friends for many years, Blair and Huber began playing together at the start of the pandemic and have never allowed their sparse lineup to constrain their creativity. Part of their studio time was spent searching, Blair says, “for a common language between hip hop and ...

Album Review

Espen Eriksen Trio: Almost There

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by Neil Duggan
October 16, 2026

Almost There is the eighth album from the Espen Eriksen Trio and is highly likely to follow the success of their previous seven releases, two of which featured UK saxophonist Andy Sheppard. It is simply a triumph of gentle melodic composition. The sound quality is superb too: the album was recorded at Propeller Music Division in Oslo, Norway, a studio widely regarded as a center of excellence for HiFi testing. This Norwegian trio, consisting of pianist Eriksen with ...