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Jazz Reviews
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Duke Ellington - The Nutcracker Suite
Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite turns Tchaikovsky’s beloved holiday classic into a swinging jazz celebration. Lush orchestration meets the playfulness of a big band, resulting in a festive classic.
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Dexter Gordon - Our Man In Paris
Dexter Gordon’s 1963 bebop classic Our Man In Paris showcases Gordon and his associates at their finest. Recorded in Paris with Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke and Pierre Michelot, the album features Gordon’s unmistakably robust tenor saxophone alongside the ensemble.
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Freddie Hubbard & Woody Shaw - The Eternal Triangle
A high-octane Blue Note release showcases the masterful playing of trumpeters Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw, supported by a dynamic rhythm section.
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Ahmad Jamal At The Pershing: But Not For Me
Recorded at Chicago’s Pershing Lounge in 1958 with Israel Crosby and Vernel Fournier, the album features eight tracks selected from forty-three recorded that night and showcases Jamal’s minimalist style and dynamic trio interplay.
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Ahmad Jamal At The Pershing: But Not For Me
Ahmad Jamal Trio
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Jimmy Smith - Back At The Chicken Shack
Back at the Chicken Shack is a landmark 1963 soul jazz album, showcasing the virtuosic Hammond organ talents of Jimmy Smith. Performing alongside Stanley Turrentine and Kenny Burrell, this album is full of bluesy grooves, soulful melodies, and impeccable quartet chemistry.
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Miles Davis All Stars - Walkin'
More than sixty years old, Walkin’ remains a landmark album in jazz history. Recorded in 1954, it features Miles Davis leading top musicians in both quintet and sextet formats and played a crucial role in shaping the hard bop genre that Davis helped to define.
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Dave Holland Quintet - Extended Play (Live At Birdland)
A stellar lineup of musicians recorded over the course of four days at New York's iconic Birdland jazz club, becoming one of Dave Holland’s essential recordings to have.
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Ella Fitzgerald - The Moment Of Truth: Ella At The Coliseum
Ella does it again in the latest addition to her outstanding catalogue: The Moment Of Truth: Ella At The Coliseum. Performing alongside the Duke Ellington Orchestra, this previously undiscovered concert from 1967 emerges from the vaults of Verve founder Norman Granz and instantly becomes a classic.
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Roy Hargrove - Earfood
Serving up a delicious blend of tradition and modernity, Earfood proves that hard bop can still be a feast for the ears in the 21st century.
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Chick Corea - Children's Songs
In a moment of mid-career lucidity, the jazz fusion pioneer issued this unaccompanied statement of sweeping but deceptive simplicity.
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Stan Getz & Kenny Barron - People Time
Stan Getz and Kenny Barron's People Time captures a poignant live jazz performance recorded months before Getz's death, documenting an extraordinary connection and virtuosic improvisation from two giants of jazz.
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Benny Goodman - Live At Carnegie Hall (1938)
Making musical history, Benny Goodman takes jazz to New York's Carnegie Hall in a live recording that changed the way people viewed the genre. It still swings today; much as it did in 1938.
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Arve Henriksen - Places of Worship
Guest writer Spencer Grady waxes lyrical about Arve Henriksen's haunting Places of Worship. Prepare yourself for a near-mystical experience...
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Places of Worship
Arve Henriksen
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The Jazz Composer's Orchestra
A sprawling opus of sixties avant-garde jazz, The Jazz Composer's Orchestra is Michael Mantler’s bold vision of orchestral chaos and free improvisation. Featuring legends like Pharoah Sanders and Cecil Taylor, it’s a dark, brooding masterpiece that challenges conventions, rewarding those ready to embrace its dense, anarchic beauty.
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Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago
Capturing two saxophone giants, Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane, in a pivotal 1959 hard bop recording session that preceded by only a matter of months, some of the genre's most influential recordings.
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Keith Jarrett Quartet featuring Jan Garbarek - Belonging
A seminal jazz album in European jazz, Belonging by the Keith Jarrett Quartet showcases Jarrett's innovative compositions and the genesis of a new group, featuring the unique tones of Jan Garbarek's saxophone.
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The Clifford Brown & Max Roach Quintet - Clifford Brown & Max Roach
Clifford Brown and Max Roach's self-titled album, released in 1954, marked a pivotal moment in jazz history. Featuring Brown's virtuosic trumpet and Roach's innovative drumming, the album exemplifies the spirit of hard bop at its finest.
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Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out
The landmark 1959 jazz album by the Dave Brubeck Quartet is renowned for its innovative yet tuneful use of unusual time signatures. Featuring the iconic title-track the album blends jazz and classical elements, challenging rhythmic norms.
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Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain
The third collaboration between Miles Davis and Gil Evans produced the masterly Sketches of Spain, an expansive album with flavours of flamenco and classical orchestration, and still regarded as a transformative album in jazz history.
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Jazz at Massey Hall with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Max Roach, & Charles Mingus
Billed as ‘The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever’ Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus and Max Roach came together for one night only. Recorded live in Toronto at Massey Hall, on May 15th 1953, the quintet were captured into jazz folklore. A historic performance that featured titans of the jazz world, it would be the first and last time this quintet shared the stage.
