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Nduduzo Makhathini: In The Spirit Of Ntu
by Chris May
There are strong links between London's alternative jazz scene and the parallel and burgeoning one in South Africa. A case in point is the connection between South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini and British tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Shabaka Hutchings. Makhathini and Hutchings' similar ages and overlapping, cosmologically informed takes on jazz meant they were ...
From George Coleman to Meeco: Ten Overlooked Classics
by Chris May
The only thread running through this installment of Building A Jazz Library is that of unsung quality. No particular artist is spotlighted, nor any particular genre. There are simply ten, randomly selected albums, recorded in the US and Europe between 1953 and 2021, which show jazz off at its finest, but which, for one reason or ...
Majamisty Trio: Wind Rose
by Chris May
The Serbian pianist Maja Alvanović and her trio won widespread acclaim in 2020 for Organic (Majamisty), with All About Jazz and The New York Times among early champions of the album. An ineffably beautiful disc, it drove some writers towards the rocks of hyperbole as surely as the Sirens of Greek mythology wrecked besotted seafarers.
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers: Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers With Thelonious Monk (Deluxe Edition)
by Chris May
Rhino's new series of reissues of historic albums from the late 1950s/early 1960s hit the ground running in 2020 with John Coltrane's Giant Steps (Atlantic, 1960). Spring 2022 has already seen Charles Mingus' Trio (Jubilee, 1957) and Coltrane's My Favorite Things (Atlantic, 1961). Hot on their heels comes Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers With Thelonious ...
Flock: Flock
by Chris May
One of the strengths of the alternative jazz scene which has grown in London since around 2016 is the interconnectivity of its players. Everyone knows each other and ad hoc bands constantly come together. Flock is the latest such conclave and it is something of a supergroup. On this its first album--others are ...
John Coltrane: My Favorite Things: 60th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
by Chris May
Sonically improved reissues—strikingly improved reissues—of classic John Coltrane albums are becoming regular events. Rhino/Atlantic kicked things off in 2020 with the 2 CD Giant Steps (Atlantic, 1960). Switzerland's ezz-thetics followed through in 2021 with Chasin' The Trane, a reissue of Live At The Village Vanguard: The Master Takes (Impulse, 1998), and Song Of Praise, a reissue ...
Emily Francis Trio: Luma
by Chris May
Luma is the second album from Britain's Emily Francis, following 2015's Absent (Self Produced). Luma appears to have been ready to roll in 2020 and the delay has, presumably, been occasioned by you-know-what. The group's lineup has changed since the debut album, with new drummer Jamie Murray joining keyboard player Francis and bassist Trevor Boxall.
Miles Davis & Don Cherry: Which One Is The Grifter?
by Chris May
The Swiss-based ezz-thetics label's Revisited strand of reissues is a jazz connoisseur's dream. The label identifies outstanding albums of the 1960s, sets one of its gifted audio engineers to mastering them and makes them newly available. Earlier editions of many of these albums are hard to find and the sound on all of them is substantially ...
Township Jazz: A Riot Busting Out
by Chris May
Dateline: April 2022. This month the American label Blue Note is launching its Blue Note Africa imprint with South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini's single “Senze' Nina." It is fittingly synchronous that at the same moment, Britain's Ogun label is reissuing two albums by South Africa's Blue Notes, the band which introduced township jazz to Europe and ...
Joel Ross: The Parable Of The Poet
by Chris May
The story of jazz is part musical and part social, the two strands interacting to shape, on one hand, the sound we hear and, on the other, the demographic who make it and constitute its audience. Viewed from London, the semiology surrounding New York-based vibraphonist Joel Ross' octet, heard on his third Blue Note album, The ...
