• Live reviews
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Top new artists
  • Top jazz albums so far in 2026
  • Track choice
  • Live reviews
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Top new artists
  • Top jazz albums so far in 2026
  • Track choice
  • Live reviews
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Top new artists
  • Top jazz albums so far in 2026
  • Track choice

Month: May 2026

Afraid to Speak | cover art | Paul Dunmall
Reviews

Paul Dunmall, Afraid to Speak, Discus Music **** recommended

There are lots of layers to this tender, edgy in places, gem from English free-jazz veteran saxist Paul Dunmall

Bymarlbank31 May 2026
News

Goldings, Bernstein, Stewart

Summer highlight

Bymarlbank30 May 2026
Paid To Cry cover image detail
Reviews

Nils Berg and the Norrbotten Big Band, Paid To Cry, Hoob Records **** recommended

Tapping into the Swedish blues via a tender big band approach

Bymarlbank27 May 2026
aerial view of limerick city river shannon at sunset
News

Young Irish Jazz contest

New talent? The context is the Young Irish jazzer contest

Bymarlbank26 May 2026
News

A giant of the music departs with the news that Sonny Rollins has died

The last major figure of the bebop era departs this vale of tears.

Bymarlbank26 May 2026
Jeremy Siskind and Claire Martin
Album of the WeekReviews

Jeremy Siskind, Seeking Balance, Outside in Music **** recommended

Claire Martin is sublime particularly on 'Snow'. And ripples from the instrumentals of the Siskind led piano trio cascade in ever increasing circles so agreeably.

Bymarlbank25 May 2026
Reviews

Eliane Elias, Ao Vivo, Candid ***1/2

A very receptive San Francisco audience hangs on every note it seems, on this latest from Brazilian bossa nova piano and vocals icon Eliane Elias.

Bymarlbank24 May 2026
Reviews

Alexander Hawkins, No Nation but Imagination, Intakt Records ***1/2

Abstractions dissolve into generous vamps and a freedom-loving swirl of flute, harp and electronics

Bymarlbank23 May 2026
Track choice

Track of the Day – ‘C’è’ sung by Tosca and Silvia Pérez Cruz

Bit of a swoonsome listen for a Staurday. And why not

Bymarlbank23 May 2026
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Welcome note

Thanks for visiting. Not opening time just yet. But what's next, you may well wonder beyond a bit of a recce to see Banjo Paddy playing to dancers down the alley locally very possibly. Look out for the podcast on Monday - lives return in September. Sunday listening is a very decent new number ever so wisely interpreted from Cambridge scene singer the highly more-ish Myles Sanko, 'Slow Down.' SG

Baggy playlist

Track of the year in 2026

Lizz Wright and Kenny Banks Sr | marlbank article
Playing EFG London Jazz Festival in the autumn. Click the pic for the venue link and more gen about it
Track choice: Lizz Wright and Kenny Banks Sr – Amazing Grace

MORE READING have a gander at my review of Lizz & travelling band fam in tow in the agreeably louche surroundings of what was the Soho Revue Bar - formerly the Raymond Revuebar - run in Streatham period Jazzwise long home to the mag in 2008 before moving to Herne Hill five years later. Jazzwise will be 30 years old in late March 2027. Her Lizzness' take on Led Zep's 'Thank You' that night was the ultimate jaw dropper. Recorded version above. It was far better live - that long lost night saw the audience totally unprovoked by cheerleaders or fooled by any showbiz artifice adoring what she had just sung. Oh to have a bootleg to try to recreate the memory even more than what I noted down and can recall. But whatever: you have to let it linger.

"You walk into the room
With your pencil in your hand" - Bob Dylan

Track choice: Lizz Wright and Kenny Banks Sr - Amazing GraceTrack choice: Lizz Wright and Kenny Banks Sr - Amazing Grace24 August 2026marlbank
Kurt Elling and Yellowjackets are in their elementKurt Elling and Yellowjackets are in their element28 August 2026marlbank
Top jazz albums so far in 2026Top jazz albums so far in 202623 August 2026marlbank

"It took me years to write, will you take a look?" - Paul McCartney

  • Carla Bley classic Lawns streams drawn from Andy Sheppard trio’s Salt Catchers
  • Punkt. Vrt. Plastik, Kompress, Intakt ****
  • Kurt Elling and Yellowjackets are in their element
  • The sound of Tony Bennett and Bill Evans touched upon by Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson and Marc Copland
  • What’s on

“I’ll play it first and tell you what it is later” - Miles Davis

Live: Count Basie Orchestra directed by Scotty Barnhart feat. Gunhild Carling, Ronnie Scott’s, Soho ****

New on marlbank

In the marlbank mix – the latest podcast and a playlist
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