Features

Kit Downes interview: "Much in the same way John Coltrane did, Olivier Messiaen created a language for himself"

• Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Drawing influence from everyone from Messiaen to W.G. Sebald, keyboardist Kit Downes’ latest album, Dreamlife of Debris, continues his deep explorations of the tonalities of the church organ. Stuart Nicholson spoke with him about his ripening relationship with the ECM imprint and how early experiences with ecclesiastical extemporisation opened him up to a wider world of improvisation

Jazzmeia Horn interview: "You have to get outside of your box and get outside of your masculine world and come into my divine feminine world"

• Friday, January 24, 2020

Grammy-nominated US vocalist Jazzmeia Horn’s latest album, Love and Liberation, is a “call to action” which sees her continue her voyage into unexpected realms of song. Peter Quinn spoke to the incredible singer who has already drawn positive comparisons with such greats as Betty Carter and Sarah Vaughan

Looking ahead to ECM's 50th anniversary celebrations at the Royal Academy of Music

• Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Alyn Shipton gets the gen on ECM’s 50th anniversary celebrations as a cross-section of the label’s international luminaries convene at London’s Royal Academy of Music

Herbie Hancock: 21 Landmark Albums

• Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Few musicians still active on the jazz scene have a discography as full and varied as Herbie Hancock. His influence on pianists is massive and with experiments in electronic music his approach finds itself going on and on in jazz and dance. Alyn Shipton surveys the milestones of a career in the studio with comments from Hancock along the way

How Snarky Puppy rocked the Royal Albert Hall

• Tuesday, January 7, 2020

A look behind the scenes of the band’s epic London show with production manager Rosanna Freedman

How Miles Davis put together ‘the greatest rock ’n’ roll band you ever heard’

• Monday, January 6, 2020

In December 1969, Miles Davis boasted: ‘I could put together the greatest rock ’n’ roll band you ever heard’. He attempted to prove his point during a series of turbulent sessions in the first half of 1970. This is the story of the album A Tribute to Jack Johnson

Classic interviews... Ginger Baker: “Look, people keep putting my music into little boxes. It doesn’t go into a box, OK? It’s just music. M-U-S-I-C.”

• Friday, January 3, 2020

In July 2014, Daniel Spicer braved the deadpan brickbats from this most tetchy of interviewees to discover that Ginger Baker’s love of music was as hard and heartfelt as ever

Charlie Parker – Bird Lives!

• Friday, January 3, 2020

Charlie Parker changed the direction and sound of jazz and remains as influential today as it was revolutionary in his lifetime.

Introducing... Fabian Almazan: “I’d die a happy man if I could score a nature documentary!”

• Thursday, January 2, 2020

Outstanding pianist-composer and committed eco-warrior, Cuban-born Fabian Almazan, spoke to Selwyn Harris about how his passion for environmental issues and a recent homeland reconnection have impacted upon his latest trio album, This Land Abounds With Life

Life-changing jazz albums: Dizzy Gillespie’s Gillespiana

• Friday, December 20, 2019

Trumpet-player Theo Croker talks about the album that changed his life, Dizzy Gillespie’s Gillespiana