• 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
Coalter's - home to Saddlers and the Horseshoe - Belmore Street, Enniskillen
Previewed

Andrew Irwin and Joe Hill

Last year's gig recalled ahead of Sinatra in Saddler's

Bymarlbank2 August 2026
Reviews

Mixed reactions to new DOMi and JD Beck

Super talented and inventive - nothing has changed in that regard - but the maverick duo's misfiring latest is baffling.

Bymarlbank2 August 2026
Elias Stemeseder and Thomas Morgan
Reviews

Elias Stemeseder and Thomas Morgan, Io Pur Respiro, Squama **** recommended

Stillness, grace and imagination found on 'I Still Breathe'

Bymarlbank2 August 2026
PreviewedTop new artists

Mali Sheard readies to tour Hayfever

Ankora saxophonist Sheard has roots in Tomorrow's Warriors and studied at the Royal Academy of Music

Bymarlbank1 August 2026
Reviews

Anna Pauline, Lucky To Be Me, Storyville **** recommended

In a word delightful and new in our updated list of top jazz vocals albums this year.

Bymarlbank30 July 2026
A first visit for Marvin Muoneké to Soho's Flamingo Club – its grassroots spirit attracts a new generation of gig-goers.
Live reviews

Marvin Muoneké charms the Flamingo

A first time appearance by fast rising star singer trumpeter Marvin Muoneké at a Soho club with a famous name.

Bymarlbank30 July 2026
Live reviews

Van Morrison Alumni Band Lights Up the Emerald

Players associated with Van Morrison down the years continue their weekly Tuesday residency

Bymarlbank29 July 2026
Reviews

Richard Spaven, Light of Day, Edition ***1/2

Chill and still conjure thoughts that it's a new dawn, a new day, a new life for me. And I'm feeling good.

Bymarlbank28 July 2026
Live reviews

Leo Richardson Quartet, B3 Lounge, The Bohemia, London ****

The powerful tenorist goes into the studio in the autumn. Proved timely then this home fixture that our man in Finchley unleashed

Bymarlbank27 July 2026
Branford Marsalis and Dianne Reeves
Track choice

Branford Marsalis and Dianne Reeves honour John Coltrane’s centennial

It will be 100 years on 23 September since the world changing man from Hamlet, North Carolina was born

Bymarlbank27 July 2026
Album of the Week

Alternative Guitar Summit, Honoring Pat Martino, Volume 2

The whole is greater than even the sum of the illustrious participants' parts.

Bymarlbank27 July 2026
Spike Milligan | Holborn Street | Sligo
Playlists

Spike enamoured

While in Sligo for the smokin' Freddie Hendrix, I stumbled entracte over to Holborn Street

Bymarlbank25 July 2026
News

Jim McNeely’s last goodbye

Jim McNeely's last

Bymarlbank24 July 2026
News

Oliver Jones, the Canadian jazz pianist who found wider acclaim on turning 50, dies aged 91

Farewell to a Canadian jazz piano icon

Bymarlbank23 July 2026
Christ Stephane Boizi photo Audrey Damier
NewsTop new artists

Christ-Stéphane Boizi

Blindingly obviously a new trombone star comes knocking at the door

ByStephen Graham22 July 2026
Live reviews

Freddie Hendrix at Lillies

New tunes, blistering power and tender is the night balladry.

ByStephen Graham22 July 2026
Track choice

Track of the Week: AFTER HOURS by Karine Polwart

Standing up for the underdog

Bymarlbank21 July 2026
Featured

Manchesterism – the jazz angle

Won't get fooled again, let's hope. A momentous day politically.

Bymarlbank20 July 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

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
Track choice: Lizz Wright and Kenny Banks Sr - Amazing GraceTrack choice: Lizz Wright and Kenny Banks Sr - Amazing Grace24 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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