Jazz

From jazz to classical: five surprising classical albums from jazz greats

Six of the Best Jazz Film Cameos

Whether it’s breaking the tension of a thriller or adding sparkle to a musical, jazz musicians have a history of making scene-stealing cameos on the silver screen. Neil McKim explores six of the greatest
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Six of the best jazz hit singles

Neil McKim's guide to some of the biggest jazz chart hits
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15 best jazz trumpet players ever

Who are the greatest trumpeters of all time? We name some of the best here (in alphabetical order)
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Five of the best albums by jazz pianist Dave Brubeck

Dave Brubeck's rhythmic and tonal free-wheeling helped him become the epitome of 1950s and ’60s cool. We name his best recordings on disc
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The best jazz albums released in 2021 so far

A list of the greatest jazz albums released in 2021, as chosen by BBC Music Magazine critics Garry Booth, Barry Witherden and Roger Thomas
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4 of the best jazz guitarists ever

Geoffrey Smith explores the lives and works of four of the best jazz guitarists of all time
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What is jazz music?

Destructive or redemptive, degenerate or transformative? Jazz is a phenomenon, a true world music that came of age over a hundred years ago. Here's our guide to the jazz music genre, its origins and pioneers
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Best books about jazz

We share some of the best books about jazz, all reviewed by the experts at BBC Music Magazine
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Anouar Brahem: Blue Maqams

Western jazz musicians were exploring Arabic music and maqams(modes) half a century ago, long before ‘world music’ became a scene.

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Denys Baptiste: The Late Trane

The album title here refers to some of the late works of saxophonist John Coltrane, an artist that inspired London’s Denys Baptiste and generations of other sax players besides. Coltrane himself recorded these lesser-known numbers in 1965, the year before his groundbreaking A Love Supreme, and many of the tracks were released posthumously.

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Charles Lloyd, New Quartet: Passin' Thru

On this live album Lloyd revisits several of ‘my many children’, and it’s fascinating to hear how his view of these fine compositions has evolved. The earliest include ‘Passin’ Thru’, recorded in 1962 with Chico Hamilton, ‘How Can I Tell You’, recorded for Columbia in 1964, and ‘Dream Weaver’ and ‘Tagore’ featured with his breakthrough quartet on its late-1960s tours and recordings.

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Daryl Runswick: The Jazz Years

Coming alongside his recent 70th birthday celebrations, this exploratory borehole into the jazz stratum of Daryl Runswick’s career redeems itself from self-indulgence by being both original (none of this material has appeared before) and an invaluable snapshot of 1970s British modern jazz in live performance.

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Neil Ardley & The New Jazz Orchestra on the Radio: BBC Sessions 1971

Neil Ardley’s day job in the ’70s was writing science books, yet he also made his name composing and arranging Third Stream (a fusion of jazz and classical) music for London’s young jazz talents. These live recordings, made for radio in 1971, are like a time capsule with their strings, ‘proggy’ guitar and weird electronic effects.

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Aaron Parks, Ben Street, Billy Hart - Find the Way

Pianist Aaron Parks has a mellifluous, expansive style and all except one of the pieces presented here are his; bassist Street mostly operates as a supportive extension of the pianist’s left hand, for which the music is
none the worse. Hart has a wealth
of varied experience running from soul to fusion, but he also carries
with him the stadium jazz legacy inherited from some of his former bandleaders such as Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock.

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New Simplicity Trio: Common Spaces

The New Simplicity Trio (NST) says it took its name from the post-serial movement of late-1970s contemporary classical composers. If that suggests an academic even dry approach to the music, don’t be put off. In practice it means the London-based trio aims to distil their music down to its essential melodic and harmonic qualities.

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Alexi Tuomarila: Kingdom

The regeneration of the piano trio began around the turn of the century, but reputations often seemed to flower from factors bearing little relation to the fundamental virtues of the genre: for example, a preponderance of elements imported from rock, additional instruments or electronics. Nothing necessarily wrong with these, but it is refreshing to hear a trio like this, developing the tradition while staying within its broad constraints.

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Polly Gibbons: Is It Me…?

Jazz has done well to hold on to young singer Polly Gibbons. Her soulful voice and telegenic looks put her on a par with media-friendly middle-of-the-road stars like Joss Stone and Adele. But Gibbons has stayed true to her jazz roots and this, her third album, is another real treat for purists – not least because the singer is accompanied by a fiercely swinging, tightly arranged big band.

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Chris Ingham Quartet: Dudley

With so much 21st-century jazz to choose from, it’s refreshing when a disc turns up that harks back to the swinging sixties. In this case it’s the movie and TV music, plus other recordings, of pianist Dudley Moore.

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The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane, Turiyasangitananda

If tenor sax player John Coltrane shaped generations of tenor sax players, the influence of his wife’s devotional music has also endured. It is still popular in today’s jazz scene.

As a pianist, Coltrane was rooted in modern jazz and joined her husband’s band when his abstract improvisation was shifting towards Eastern style chants and cycles. After he died in 1967 and she converted to Vedic Hinduism, Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda retreated, making music designed for meditation.

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