Month: May 2026

Reviews

John Beasley with the SWR Big Band, Invisible Piano, O-tone music ****

The SWR has had a good year for releases. I liked the collab with Paul Carrrack. Even better is this from John...

By8 May 2026
Reviews

Knats, A Great Day in Newcastle, Fontana **1/2

This homage to the north east is certainly about local pride. Its appeal if you are not from there is more debatable.

By5 May 2026
Lorikeet's Rosanna Schura
Reviews

Lorikeet, Woven, Babel ***1/2

Jaunty, rather lovely, English folk and some Americana and improv directions figure on newly surfacing Somerset band Lorikeet's Woven.

By5 May 2026
Reviews

Jarrod Lawson, Just Let it, Dome ***1/2

Laugh at Yourself stands out most, where Eric Roberson duets winningly.

By4 May 2026
Louis Armstrong themed release
Album of the WeekReviews

Wynton Marsalis and Vince Giordano, The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong, Blue Engine **** recommended

Vibrant trad jazz intimations of Satch wail, smear and ache.

By4 May 2026

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

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.