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Oddgeir Berg Trio At Scott's Jazz Club
by Ian Patterson
Oddgeir Berg Trio Scott's Jazz Club Belfast, N. Ireland January 19, 2024 A cold Friday night in January. Belts tightened after the festive season splurging. Just the day before, 150.000 thousand public sector workers had gone on 24-hour strike over low pay--the largest such action in Northern Ireland in a generation. Yet despite the biting economic realities for many people, it was business as usual at Scott's Jazz Club, with a packed house for ...
Continue ReadingRay Gallon: Grand Company
by Jack Bowers
Score one for truth in advertising. New York City-based pianist Ray Gallon is definitely in Grand Company on his first recording as the leader of a trio, ably chaperoned every step of the way by bassist Ron Carter and drummer Lewis Nash who are quite simply two of the best in the business (Hall of Fame caliber), and have been at the top of their game for many years. That is not to imply that Gallon merely ...
Continue ReadingAmbrose Akinmusire, ladyybirdd, Enji, Joseph Branciforte, Theo Bleckmann
by Ludovico Granvassu
We may regret missing out on the time when some of our jazz idols were building the foundation of the music we love, but we can still fantasize about them. We are lucky, however, to live at a time when there is a number of modern masters in action. One of them is trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, for whom 2023 was a remarkable year. Here we focus on the wide range of releases he has worked on, as well as on ...
Continue ReadingDon Thompson / Rob Piltch: Bells... Now and Then
by Dave Linn
Don Thompson and Rob Piltch have taken different paths in their musical careers. Thompson was a triple threat (piano, bass, vibraphone) on the Toronto studio and club scene during the late 1960s, later becoming the bassist in Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass. He began touring with Jim Hall in 1974, later appearing on the guitarist's album, Live! (Horizon, 1975) recorded at Toronto's Bourbon Street jazz club. That same year he played with the Paul Desmond Quartet (with Ed Bickert ...
Continue ReadingThe Music Trustee: Dan Beck
by B.D. Lenz
Hunter S. Thompson once said, “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." With a reputation like that, it's easy to be cynical about this industry. But, occasionally, it does get something right and, more astonishingly, doesn't always make it widely known. Such is the case with the Music Performance Trust Fund (MPTF) ...
Continue ReadingThe Qow Trio: The Hold Up
by Neil Duggan
Anyone whose musical taste yearns for the type of '50s and '60s sounds of artists such as Sonny Rollins, Jackie Mclean and Lee Morgan, may find The Hold Up is just what they seek. This is the second album from the Qow Trio (pronounced Cow). Taking their name from a composition on Dewey Redman's album, Coincide (Impulse, 1974), the trio are linked by a love of the tradition and the freedom to explore the saxophone, bass and drums format, without ...
Continue ReadingAlan Shorter: Mephistopholes To Orgasm Revisited
by Chris May
It is often said of a musician, be they alive or no longer with us, that they deserve to be better known. This is emphatically true of the wayward trumpeter and composer Alan Shorter, who was overshadowed during his lifetime by his brother, Wayne Shorter, and who continues to be passed over today in 2024. Some responsibility for his obscurity lies with Alan Shorter himself. Known as Doc Strange to his teenage schoolmates in Newark, New Jersey, ...
Continue ReadingJonas Kullhammar, Alistair Payne and Rich Halley Trio
by Maurice Hogue
This episode has a definite tilt to artists from Northern Europe with music from several different countries. Sweden's Moserobie Music catalog is featured in several tracks, particularly label founder and multi-reedist Jonas Kullhammar, while from the neighbouring Norway you'll hear music by saxophonist Andre Roligheten, bassist Dan Peter Sundland and the Bliss Quintet. Bassist Meinrad Kneer & his quintet and the trio Ouat lead the way for several artists from Germany. The Netherlands scene is represented by interesting trumpet player ...
Continue ReadingNew Releases, Celebrating Jazz Capricorns, Farewell To Jay Clayton & More
by Mary Foster Conklin
This broadcast includes new releases from Vanisha Gould & Chris McCarthy, Kristen Edkins, Peter Erskine plus a preview single from Lisa Markley, with birthday shoutouts to Melba Liston, Pamela Samiha Wise, Margaret Slovak, Ruth Brown, Michelle Walker, Jessica Molaskey, Douyé, Dee Daniels, Lisa Markley, Kris Davis and Ingrid Jensen, among others. At the close of the 2nd hour, an homage to the great Jay Clayton. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by seeing them live and ...
Continue ReadingYuri Honing: North Sea Jazz Legendary Concerts
by Ian Patterson
It's fitting that saxophonist, composer and quiet visionary Yuri Honing should be acknowledged as one of the pivotal voices in the history of the Netherland's world-renowned North Sea Jazz festival, described in 1990 by Jazz Times as “the best jazz festival in the world." Honing's first appearance at the NSJF's was in 1995, where he performed with pianist Michiel Bortslap's sextet. Since then, he has played all but three of the last 18 editions, reflecting his status alongside pianist Misha ...
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