The absence of vocals places Lloyd and his ensemble centre stage for a more detailed update on their direction of travel. What becomes clear – if it was not clear already – is the addition of the guitar ‘choir’ provides unexpected depth and resonance to the time honoured configuration of sax plus piano, bass and drums… Stuart […]

Retirement has never had a precise agepoint in the creative industries. Practitioners, certainly improvising musicians, often go on far longer than in other fields, for a number of reasons, from artistic integrity to financial necessity; or in Sonny Rollins’ case, an unflagging dedication to their life’s work. He was still playing as a sprightly octogenarian, his […]

Chick Corea, a towering jazz pianist with a staggering 23 Grammy Awards who pushed the boundaries of the genre and worked alongside Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock has died, he was 79. Corea died Tuesday 9 February from a rare form of cancer, his team posted on his website His death was confirmed by Corea’s web and […]

The alto saxophonist Lee Konitz was an innovative figure in jazz for more than 70 years and was the last surviving member of the groundbreaking Birth of the Cool group whose late-1940s recordings influenced a generation of musicians. Konitz, who has died aged 92 after contracting coronavirus, came of musical age during the bebop movement, which revolutionised […]