This year’s Host City for the International Jazz Day is Havana, Cuba. This annual special event, always celebrated on April 30th, is made for promoting intercultural dialogue through respect and understanding and unites people from all over the world. As usual, there will also be an All-Star Global Concert which has Herbie Hancock and Chucho…
The programme for this year’s Jazztage Dresden has been announced. The festival will run from November 2nd to November 26th and features a ton of artists. One of the opening concerts will be Chick Corea & the Steve Gadd Band, November 3rd at Kulturpalast. Once again, there will be various venues around town, like Gewandhaus…
We’ve not been able to post anything new in the past two weeks simply because a dear friend of ours was dying of lung cancer. Everything went so incredibly fast – the first diagnosis was just 5 months ago. It really reminded me to live your life as if each day would be your last….
At one point during his fiery set at Kreuzberg’s Bi Nuu last night, singer, bassist, and composer Miles Mosley mentioned the fact that all of his bandmates are old friends from his LA home. Which is probably the reason why the whole band was so tight and focussed. And why pieces like “L.A. Won’t Bring…
The Montreux Jazz Festival has announced its programme for the 51st edition. I used to visit the festival for many yeears in the 90s and early 00s when you were always in for special treats when artists would play together in situations where you wouldn’t normally see them play. Also, there was always this great…
Argentinia-born guitarist Dominic Miller, who is living in the Provence region in France and has worked a lot with Sting over the years, has come up with his first album for the Munich-based ECM Records. And it turns out to be Gina’s third five-paw album of the year (after Kurt Rosenwinkel and Richard Galliano). The…
This year’s Palatia Jazz Festival in the beautiful Pfalz region (Riesling paradise!) has announced its line-up. The party begins with a duo concert by Vincent Peirani and Émile Parisien at the Gedächtniskirche in Speyer on May 27th. Also on the menu: Dieter Ilg Trio, China Moses, Lars Danielsson Group, Tingvall Trio, Omer Klein Trio, Ambrose…
The great Arthur Blythe has passed. The alto saxophonist was 76. Arthur was founder of the Underground Musicians Association and over the years has recorded dozens of great albums, often with unusual instrumentation. He was also known for group counterpoint and his expressive and swinging way of playing, both in the bop and the avant-garde…
Already lined up for this year’s North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam is an amazing group of artists which you will never see anywhere else over a three-day period I think. Friday, July 7th will feature Cory Henry & the Funk Apostles, Usher & the Roots, Wayne Shorter Quartet with Casco Philharmonic, Steve Winwood, Makaya…
I’ve been listening to a lot of new music recently. Actually I’m constantly listening, the first thing in the morning after getting up is not walking into the kitchen to make a coffee and it is not going into the bathroom, but it is always putting on the stereo. You will only see me with headphones…