Jazz Articles about Walsall

About Walsall

Album Review

Walsall Jazz Orchestra: Little Steps

Read "Little Steps" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 4, 2007

Little Steps marks another sizable step forward for Great Britain's impressive Walsall Jazz Orchestra, now entering its teen years after spinning off from the Walsall Youth Jazz Orchestra in 1994. The WJO's third album focuses for the most part on music composed and arranged by its talented young pianist Tim Amann, who wrote four of the six selections. The others are Benny Golson's “Hassan's Dream, nicely arranged by American Nicholas Beaumont, and Thomas Haines' sharp and seamless five-part suite for ...

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Album Review

The Walsall Jazz Orchestra: Devil in the Detail

by Jack Bowers
August 1, 2001

The Walsall Jazz Orchestra marks its twenty–fifth anniversary with Devil in the Detail, an impressive tour de force for founder / director John Hughes’ award–winning ensemble from the UK’s West Midlands. WJO, which began life in 1975 as the Walsall Youth Jazz Orchestra, has come a long way since then, performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival, the Royal Festival Hall, Birmingham Arts Festival and Ronnie Scott’s fabled London nightclub while winning BBC Radio 2’s big–band competition and producing a well–received ...