Jazz Articles

Our daily articles are carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. You can find more articles by searching our website, see what's trending on our popular articles page or read articles ahead of their published dates on our Coming Soon page. Read our daily album reviews.

Album Review

Trish Clowes: Try Me

by Ian Patterson
July 21, 2026

With Try Me saxophonist-composer Trish Clowes joins a starry cast of artists inspired by London--its history, architecture, landscape and multi-cultural streets. From William Blake to Benjamin Zephaniah, from Charles Dickens to Hanif Kureishi, from Ralph Vaughan Williams to The Kinks, and from Claude Monet to the late David Hockney, England's capital has fed the creative spirit of poets, authors, composers and painters for centuries. British jazz icons Stan Tracey and Mike Westbrook both composed long-form works inspired by London, but, ...

Album Review

Sara Colman & Rebecca Nash: Ribbons Vol.1.

Read "Ribbons Vol.1." reviewed by Neil Duggan

by Neil Duggan
February 26, 2026

With an understanding and friendship built over their long collaboration and diverse projects, British songwriting duo Sara Colman and Rebecca Nash present their first combined release, Ribbons Vol.1. The album features 10 original compositions written over a four-year period, each piece being refined at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire where they are visiting teachers. Their creative chemistry has been forged with pianist-composer Rebecca Nash appearing on vocalist-songwriter Sara Colman's album What We're Made Of (Stoney Lane Records, ...

Album Review

Xhosa Cole: On A Modern Genius (Vol.1)

Read "On A Modern Genius (Vol.1)" reviewed by Jack Kenny

by Jack Kenny
February 1, 2025

Xhosa Cole has moved forward constantly, since winning the 2018 BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year award. He has released two studio albums: K(no)w Them, K(no)w Us (Stoney Lane Records, 2021) featuring saxophonist, Soweto Kinch and pianist, Reuben James and Ibeji (Stoney Lane Records, 2022), featuring seven percussionists with African roots. This 2025 release has Cole with his quartet during their 38-date spring tour of the UK in 2023 playing the music of Thelonious Monk. Cole is ...

Album Review

Trish Clowes & Ross Stanley: Journey to Where

Read "Journey to Where" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
June 15, 2024

After four albums together in saxophonist Trish Clowes' quartet My Iris, Clowes and pianist Ross Stanley peel away from the quartet for this intimate duo outing, recorded in Wigmore Hall, London in July 2021. A studio album by design, there is, nevertheless, an unguarded, searching quality to these exchanges which is more in keeping with the energy of a live performance. Blurring the lines between improvisation and composition, this intuitive duo artfully muddies the waters of jazz and classical, traditional ...

Album Review

Xhosa Cole: K(no)w Them, K(no)w Us

Read "K(no)w Them, K(no)w Us" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
August 14, 2021

When tenor saxophonist Xhosa Cole won the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year prize in 2018, Britain was introduced to a young player with formidable technique and a solid grasp of the post-John Coltrane African American tradition. Cole was then little known outside Birmingham, his hometown in England's Midlands, and he had developed independently of London's alternative jazz scene. His classic as opposed to radical aesthetic brought a refreshing vibe. So too did that of saxophonist Alex Clarke, a ...

Album Review

Young Pilgrims: We're Young Pilgrims

Read "We're Young Pilgrims" reviewed by Gareth Thompson

by Gareth Thompson
June 25, 2021

Based in Birmingham, England, the record company Stoney Lane is named after a street where soccer team West Bromwich Albion once played. Thus, each of the label's releases is numbered with a glory year from the club's past, whether a promotion or a cup win. However, so often have West Brom yo-yoed between England's top leagues that its fans sing a famous 'boing boing' chant which involves much jumping, bouncing and arm-flailing. Should those fans invest this energy in a ...

Album Review

Stillefelt: Stillefelt

Read "Stillefelt" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
June 5, 2020

British bassist/electronics player Chris Mapp initially formed the Stillefelt trio as a “quiet band" in response to his group Gonimoblast, which can often be quite the opposite, as heard on Gonimoblast Live (Stoney Lane Records, 2017). The band name means “quiet field" in Norwegian. Mapp is joined by Percy Pursglove (trumpet and flugelhorn) and Thomas Seminar Ford (guitar and electronics) on this debut recording, recorded live at Royal Birmingham Conservatioire. Featuring a trumpet in a “quiet band" runs ...

Album Review

Chris Mapp: Gonimoblast Live

Read "Gonimoblast Live" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
August 25, 2017

Bassist/composer Chris Mapp leads the British electronic and jazz-inspired improvising collective Gonimoblast. This double-disc release taken from 2015 live recordings in Birmingham feature two guest musicians from the Norwegian improvisation scene that influenced their approach: Maja S.K. Ratkje (voice & electronics) on Disc One; Arve Henriksen (trumpet, electronics, & voice) on Disc Two. In addition to being one of the most recognizable names in Norwegian improvisation, Henriksen's group Supersilent was a major inspiration for the formation of this band.

Album Review

Mike Fletcher Trio: Vuelta

by Bruce Lindsay
May 9, 2015

Vuelta is the debut release from the Mike Fletcher Trio, a band with a strong emphasis on improvisations based on Fletcher's melodies. The result is an accessible collection of tunes that draw on the creativity and technical skills of all three players.The trio is based in Birmingham, the major city of the English midlands. Fletcher, a 2014 ECHO Rising Star, plays the rather rare combination of flute and C-melody saxophone. Olie Brice and Jeff Williams stick with the ...