John Parricelli

Glorious Assembly Jazz Orchestra: Glorious Assembly

Read "Glorious Assembly" reviewed by Mark McKergow

by Mark McKergow
June 6, 2026

The Glorious Assembly Jazz Orchestra is the creation of Emmy Award-winning film composer David Mitcham . After a career writing music for the screen, often with jazz undertones, Mitcham has chosen to expand his ambitions by directing a full-on extended big band playing new compositions on Glorious Assembly. The 20- piece group features some of the UK's top players, with additional specialists on flute, E-flat clarinet, bass and contrabass clarinet, and tuba. The palette is further expanded by performers doubling on ...

Album Review

Lars Danielsson Liberetto: Echomyr

by Neil Duggan
April 5, 2026

The Lars Danielsson Liberetto ensemble has assembled a distinctive body of work over its four previous albums. That development and continuity derive from his core partners for over 15 years, drummer Magnus Ostrom (Esbjorn Svensson Trio) and UK guitarist John Parricelli. They were joined in 2017 by Martinican pianist Gregory Privat, who replaced original member Tigran Hamasyan). With Echomyr, bassist Danielsson continues to carve out a singular musical path, drawing on his classical roots and folk-influenced melodic ideas ...

Album Review

Dave Holland / Norma Winstone / London Vocal Project directed by Pete Churchill: Vital Spark

Read "Vital Spark" reviewed by Neil Duggan

by Neil Duggan
February 13, 2026

Dave Holland, Norma Winstone and the London Vocal Project, directed by Pete Churchill, combine to present Vital Spark, an album featuring a collection of Kenny Wheeler compositions for choir and jazz ensemble, written in the last period of his life.Seven of the nine pieces on the album were mailed to Churchill over the course of a few years. He managed to resolve and arrange these part-formed fragments. Winstone added her lyrics, alongside Wheeler's settings of poems by Stevie Smith, Lewis ...

Album Review

Kasper Rietkerk: The Happy Worrier

Read "The Happy Worrier" reviewed by Neil Duggan

by Neil Duggan
July 8, 2025

The Happy Worrier is the second album from saxophonist Kasper Rietkerk. Originally from the Netherlands, Rietkerk has become a firmly established figure in the UK jazz scene since completing his master's degree at London's Royal Academy of Music in 2023. The album's creation was made possible through Rietkerk's receipt of the inaugural Brubeck Living Legacy Prize. This award honors the enduring influence of Dave Brubeck, whose legacy extends far beyond his remarkable musical catalogue to encompass his conviction ...

Album Review

Lars Danielsson, John Parricelli and Verneri Pohjola: Trio

by Neil Duggan
November 8, 2024

Château Palmer is a wine estate in Margaux, in south-west France. Those that know about these things rate their wines as among the best anywhere in Bordeaux. If you are going to record a jazz album outside of the recording studio, then a light and airy wood-paneled salon at the château with French windows overlooking the serene estate seems to be an inspired choice. The recording came about as the second part of a project between the German label ACT ...

Album Review

Chris Batchelor's Zoetic: Telling The Tale

Read "Telling The Tale" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
November 3, 2023

A founder member of the radical London big band Loose Tubes in 1983, trumpeter Chris Batchelor was one of the Young Turks leading the mid-to-late 1980s British jazz renaissance. While pianist and composer Django Bates emerged as perhaps the most high-profile member of the band, Batchelor is every inch his equal, both as a player and as a composer. Batchelor leads two groups in 2023. One is the Dada-esque romp Pigfoot, a quartet he founded in 2013 ...

Album Review

Chris Laurence: Ken Wheeler - Some Gnu Ones

Read "Ken Wheeler - Some Gnu Ones" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
December 15, 2021

The Jazz in Britain label has made its reputation with a niche catalogue of previously unavailable archive albums, mostly recorded live back in the day by jazz greats such as the saxophonists Tubby Hayes and Joe Harriott. With the lovely Ken Wheeler: Some Gnu Ones, the label ventures more or less into the present day with three pieces written by the late trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and recorded in 2020 and 2021 by the bassist Chris Laurence, for whom they were ...