Jazz

10. Nikki Iles – Face to FaceSince the 1990s, the pianist and composer Nikki Iles has been a sought-after accompanist with a flawless anticipatory ear, a harmonically innovative composer and a piano improviser in the classic keyboard traditions of Bill Evans, John Taylor and Paul Bley. Face to Face joins her to Hamburg’s illustrious NDR Bigband, and a crop of terrific soloists including UK saxophonist Nigel Hitchcock and exhilarating guitarist Mike Walker. The exuberantly staccato and then blithely swinging Misfits, the…

As the founder of a local billiards league, Patrick McNally has spent innumerable hours in bars shooting pool and drinking beer. So much so, that he noticed a niche of consumers that could use a space dedicated to their interests – namely, fans of newgrass music. “We go out to these places and these jukeboxes just don’t have our music on there. You know, we like to listen to Billy Strings, we like to listen to Kitchen Dwellers, Fruition, Old Crow Medicine Show, and even some of the local bands like Tenth Mountain…

Over recent years, trumpeter Mark Kavuma has been a busy man on London’s jazz scene, establishing his own ensemble, the Banger Factory, cutting five albums with assorted accompanists, and generally rousing the capital’s diverse talents. Kavuma likes inclusion: lineups featuring both old and young, the odd gospel choir, and the community big band Kinetika Bloco, which he credits with nurturing his youthful interest.His new album, in partnership with tenor saxophonist Theo Erskine, is a more intimate, small group affair,…

With its seasonal releases and Slade on repeat, December feels like it turns most music into repellent aural wallpaper. Thomas Bartlett’s Standards is definitely not a Christmas album but a set of solo piano versions of well-worn, old-timey tunes – jazz and otherwise – whose simplicity and serenity might provide an antidote. They suit the dark, sentimental nights rather than extended hours at the mall.The Grammy-nominated Bartlett – AKA Doveman – has quietly become something of a piano man to the stars. Taylor Swift,…

Over the past decade, the hard-blowing sound of Shabaka Hutchings’s saxophone has been a constant of the British jazz scene. Working through short, percussive phrases in the double-drummer group Sons of Kemet, laying out long, looping lines in the psychedelic jazz trio Comet Is Coming, or screeching in the punk-influenced Melt Yourself Down, throughout myriad formations the power of Hutchings’s playing remains immediate.The intensity of that musicianship has taken its toll, since Hutchings recently announced that from…

In 2021 an unconventional pair of collaborators embarked on a bold experiment. For two years Steven Rayan, a mathematician and mathematical physicist, and Jeff Presslaff, a freelance composer, pianist and trombonist, prepared to answer one big question: Could they translate a mathematical physics research paper directly into music? Moreover, would their musical creation sound good?In September Rayan and Presslaff released their brainchild, “Math + Jazz: Sounds from a Quantum Future.” Exactly two years to the date that…

When Canadian producer Jordan Young started playing around with AI voice-cloning technology — ultimately creating a fake Kanye West song that sounded, well, just like Kanye West — it immediately prompted him to think about the ethical implications of the technology. "As soon as I made it, I started to think ... if anybody can make music with anyone's voice, what does this mean for artists? What does this mean for music?" said Young, who has worked with Beyoncé, BTS and Dua Lipa.He and his company Hooky recently developed…

The news that Ambrose Akinmusire likes owls comes as no surprise once you start pondering the watchful patience and swooping accuracy of this California-raised trumpet virtuoso’s jazz creativity for the past 15 years. Showered with plaudits in that time (with comparisons with Miles Davis often among them), Akinmusire shares Miles’ belief that less is more. He called this beautiful trio album Owl Song because his favourite birds’ cool occupancy of their world mirrors this project’s search for space and precious time in a…

Miley Cyrus has shared the live video of her debut public performance of her hit “Flowers,” recorded last week at a pre-Thanksgiving party at Los Angeles’ Chateau Marmont. While attendees posted abbreviated videos of the performance soon after the show, Cyrus uploaded the full rendition of “Flowers,” which she jazzed up for the Chateau Marmont set. As Cyrus hadn’t performed in public for the near-entirety of 2023 — her only previous performance was as host of her own New Year’s Eve special in Miami at the…

Isaiah Collier is keen on “the ancestors”. Opening this, his fourth album, the young Chicagoan pays fulsome vocal tribute to bygone jazz giants and soul stars, while his previous record, 2021’s Cosmic Transitions, was a handsome homage to John Coltrane’s masterpiece A Love Supreme. It consolidated Collier’s reputation as a shamanic saxophone prodigy (he’s also an adept multi-instrumentalist with a fine voice), and showed that his admiration for the spiritual jazz of Coltrane, Sun Ra and Pharoah Sanders is about…