Articles by Peter Jones

Interview

An Uplifting Tragedy: Everybody Digs Bill Evans

by Peter Jones
September 16, 2026

In July 1961, 25-year-old bassist Scott LaFaro was killed in a car accident in upstate New York. Four days earlier he had accompanied Stan Getz at the Newport Jazz Festival, and a few days before that, he had made the legendary Village Vanguard live recordings with the Bill Evans Trio Trio that were released as Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby. Both albums are acknowledged classics of the jazz trio genre. On learning of Scott's ...

Album Review

Yetii: Inner Worlds

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by Peter Jones
November 6, 2025

The thriving jazz scene in Bristol, UK, has brought forth many fine musicians in recent years, as has nearby Cardiff, another smallish but fertile hub for music. Yetii, a piano trio led by pianist and composer Alex Veitch, has built up a loyal local following with its monthly residency at Bristol's Greenbank pub, where its gigs regularly sell out. Despite this, the band's progress to date has been slow, but the word is finally on the street: Yetii is something ...

Album Review

Various Artists: A New Awakening: Adventures in British Jazz 1966-1971

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by Peter Jones
May 9, 2025

Throughout the 1950s (and beyond), modernist British jazz musicians were in thrall to the American bebop stars they had been trying to emulate since the late 1940s. It was the pinnacle to which they aspired, and gradually their efforts lifted the overall standard of UK jazz. But by the early 1960s, the international success of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Animals and many others was having unexpected effects. Not only was the British pop invasion ...

The Jazz Life

The Joy of Kissa

by Peter Jones
June 4, 2024

Just before a recent visit to Japan, essential reading arrived at home in the form of Philip Arneill's book Tokyo Jazz Joints (reviewed by Ian Patterson). Well, we all know that jazz is big in Japan, right? Certainly, jazz is a common backdrop to many everyday experiences in that country. You hear it in elevators, hotel lobbies, and department stores everywhere. And for the most part it isn't faux-jazz, smooth jazz, or easy listening: as you stroll across ...

Live Review

Building Back Jazz Brick by Brick in East London

by Peter Jones
May 2, 2024

Brick Lane Jazz Festival London April 26-28, 2024 The most innovative and thrilling jazz currently emerging from the UK is centred on a few grimy, narrow streets on the east side of London. The pioneering work that goes on in this elaborately-graffitied neighbourhood has, in recent years, contributed much to the creation of an identifiably “London" jazz sound, and the Brick Lane Jazz Festival was the place to hear it in all its glory.

Profile

Rob Luft: Burning the Candle at Both Ends

by Peter Jones
November 14, 2023

What kind of musician gets asked to write a concerto for a 65-piece orchestra--the BBC Concert Orchestra, no less--when still in his twenties, and when he has never previously written for an orchestra? Well, somehow or other, UK guitarist Rob Luft is that kind of musician. Writing for an orchestra is something he has always wanted to do, and the work receives its world premiere at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's South Bank on November 16th as ...

Film Review

Salvation through rhythm: Max Roach—The Drum Also Waltzes

by Peter Jones
October 19, 2023

Max Roach--The Drum Also Waltzes Directed by Sam Pollard and Ben Shapiro PBS American Masters2023 Anyone who enjoyed the recent Wayne Shorter documentary Zero Gravity might also dig this--a more conventionally structured but equally fascinating look at the life of Max Roach. Filmmaker and interviewer Sam Pollard began making it in October 1987, then--for reasons which are not explained--left it alone for years before resuming again at some point after Roach's death in 2007.

Film Review

Leaving Planet Earth: Amazon's Wayne Shorter Documentary Zero Gravity

by Peter Jones
September 25, 2023

Wayne Shorter: Zero Gravity Director: Dorsay Alavi 2023 Wayne Shorter was brought up in the belief that he could achieve anything he wanted to: there should be no barriers to his ambition. This three-part documentary--a true labor of love from director Dorsay Alavi--shows us that Shorter was far more than a musician. In the first part (or portal), we see Shorter and his brother Alan, portrayed in black and white by a pair of ...

Catching Up With

José James: Why The Female Of The Species Is Groovier Than The Male

by Peter Jones
April 4, 2023

Jazz singer José James considers Erykah Badu to be the Joni Mitchell of his generation, a woman who has constructed a world of her own in order to tell her own alternative story. To prove the point, earlier this year he released On & On (Rainbow Blonde), a whole album of Badu songs, which he has been performing on tour. This tribute to Badu's songwriting follows previous albums dedicated to Billie Holiday (Yesterday I Had the Blues, Blue Note, 2015) ...

Album Review

Donald Byrd: Donald Byrd Live: Cookin' With Blue Note at Montreux

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by Peter Jones
December 30, 2022

What a treat it must have been in 1973 to attend the Montreux Jazz Festival: the featured artists that year included Dexter Gordon, McCoy Tyner, Chico Hamilton, Sam Rivers, Bobbi Humphrey, Dr John, Marlena Shaw, Bobby Hutcherson... and Donald Byrd with his Tentet, whose July 5 performance is captured on this album. It was also the year of Herbie Hancock's Headhunters (Columbia Records) album, not to mention several Blaxploitation movie soundtracks, including J.J. Johnson's for Cleopatra Jones and ...