Jazz

Julie Sassoon Quartet: Voyages review | John Fordham's jazz album of the month

The pianist and her long-running quartet’s buzzing and lucidly eloquent set mirrors lockdown’s swerves between isolation and longing

John Fordham

21, Jan, 2022 @9:00 AM

Jazz, Old Norse and ‘troll tunes’: the strange, stunning music of Shetland

It’s 550 years since the islands became part of Scotland, and the archipelago is still not for the faint-hearted. But it has inspired its own diverse music, where fiddles and accordions meet the sub-bass of the sea

Jude Rogers

20, Jan, 2022 @3:00 PM

My streaming gem: why you should watch I Called Him Morgan

The latest in our series of writers unearthing forgotten movies highlights a moving documentary about a jazz musician killed in his prime

Ammar Kalia

18, Jan, 2022 @7:36 AM

Chris Laurence: Ken Wheeler – Some Gnu Ones review – magical and possibly unique

Laurence’s double bass is the unusual star of three works written with it in mind by his longtime collaborator, the late Ken Wheeler

Dave Gelly

15, Jan, 2022 @4:00 PM

TV tonight: the man who pioneered rock’n’roll takes centre stage

Exploring Fats Domino’s life and legacy in an electrifying documentary. Plus a look at Mae West, who was once Hollywood’s biggest star. Here’s what to watch this evening

Henry Wong, Jack Seale, Hollie Richardson, Hannah Verdier and Simon Wardell

14, Jan, 2022 @9:07 AM

‘Society was volatile. That spirit was in our music’: how Japan created its own jazz

Postwar Japan embraced the music of its former enemy – and, powered by anti-establishment feeling, remade it. As they find a new global audience, the country’s jazz innovators explain what drove them

Dean Van Nguyen

12, Jan, 2022 @12:25 PM

Jazz, R&B and ‘sophistifunk’: James Mtume’s greatest recordings

From his Afrocentric jazz with Miles Davis and Lonnie Liston Smith to his chart hits for Roberta Flack and Stephanie Mills, we celebrate the best of the late musician

Alexis Petridis

11, Jan, 2022 @3:03 PM

Tony Williams obituary

Other lives: Jazz record producer and authority on Charlie Parker and his music

Colin Marr

26, Dec, 2021 @7:38 PM

Japanese gems, maligned boybands and ‘the Dan’: the best old music Guardian writers discovered this year

In a good year for rummaging through back catalogues, our writers have been delighted by everything from a A1’s embrace of soft rock to the Marvelettes’ ageless glee

Tayyab Amin, Rachel Aroesti, Ben Beaumont-Thomas, Michael Cragg, Tara Joshi, Christine Ochefu, Alexis Petridis, Jude Rogers, Dave Simpson, Laura Snapes

23, Dec, 2021 @10:00 AM

The 10 best contemporary albums of 2021

The year’s best experiments ranged from Blank Gloss’s ambient Americana to Space Afrika’s manipulated Manchester field recordings and Floating Points’ extraordinary electronic masterpiece

John Lewis

22, Dec, 2021 @1:00 PM

The 10 best jazz albums of 2021

An enthralling live set from Pat Metheny, Ches Smith’s fascinating blend of avant garde and Vodou and octogenarian Charles Lloyd’s fresh takes on Leonard Cohen and the Beach Boys stood out in a strong year