Joe Lovano and Dave Liebman are joined by Ravi Coltrane in the new line-up of Saxophone Summit. Following the death of Michael Brecker, Ravi stepped into the breach with his tenor-playing colleagues to find a way to remember both Brecker and Ravi’s father John Coltrane on the  breathtaking new album Seraphic Light. Recorded with the intent of reflecting both the integrity and spirituality of both Brecker and Coltrane, dwelling particularly on the late underappreciated period of Trane’s career, Stuart Nicholson talks to the three tenors about a brave venture which meant so much to all concerned. 26.06.08

t‘With the passing of Shirley Horn, who was born in 1934, an era ended. She was the last in line of jazz’s great female vocalists from its Golden Era’, says Stuart Nicholson. In a previously unpublished interview he made with her in Paris he pays tribute to Shirley Horn and looks back on her career and recorded legacy.
11.01.06

Sonny Rollins is full of surprises. Now well into his seventies, he has broken out on his own by setting up his own record label and arranging a distribution deal. As the first record, Sonny, Please, on his new label Doxy is released, Keith Shadwick finds out from Sonny the motivation he has for starting out on this new course and finds out that there could be some surprises to come on the label with a whole new archive of historic recordings now possible for release. 19.02.07

Multi-award wining alto saxophonist and MC Soweto Kinch burst on to the jazz scene in 2003 when his album Conversations With The Unseen was released. It marked an updated twenty first century consciousness for a new generation of young black British jazz musicians who were in the process of identifying their own musical identity. The Birmingham-based player openly name checked and drew upon the pre-Windrush generation and beyond of jazz musicians who played in British clubs and dance halls in the 1930s and 40s.

The world of Ken “Snakehips” Johnson, and Coleridge Goode suddenly did not seem so distant. Joe Harriott, only known to a hip few, was now an aural role model. Since his groundbreaking debut and win at the Montreux jazz festival world saxophone competition and endorsement by jamming pal Wynton Marsalis, Soweto has became known internationally for his postbop style, and his rapping, particularly for the deliciously ingenious rap, ‘Jazz Planet’. For some time he has been preparing for a new two part follow up to Conversations. The first instalment of his two-part urban soundscape is out this month, the second next year. Interview: Andy Robson 31.08.06

Singer Stacey Kent makes her major label debut this month with a new album that marks a change from her traditional reliance on the Great American Songbook and features a songwriting collaboration with Booker prize winning writer Kazuo Ishiguro. Peter Quinn talks to Stacey.
25.10.07

Stan Tracey, after a period of some neglect, is now justifiably regarded as one of the UK’s greatest jazz musicians past or present. As he turns 80 this month Duncan Heining looks back on Tracey’s career with the man himself and talks to some of his musical colleagues over the years including Michael Garrick, Guy Barker and Keith Tippett. Michael Horovitz , who has collaborated with Stan ever since New Departures in the 1960s, has written a new poem to mark Stan’s birthday 03.01.07

The gulf between the world of Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and the house band of James Brown at the Apollo to working recently with local musicians in Senegal is as big historically as it is musically yet musical chameleon Steve Reid sits as happily these days at his kit whether it’s a loft jazz, R&B, pop or world music situation as he did back in the day. With the loose feel of Reid’s latest record Daxaar echoing in his ears Kevin Le Gendre talks to Reid about the journey he has made through styles and musical setting, from a distant time jamming with Ornette Coleman in the unlikely setting of Macy’s department store, to showing up in Senegal with a few local musicians’ phone numbers, ready to record. 30.11.07