Ronnie's review – fascinating story of the fabled Soho jazz club

★★★★ RONNIE'S Fascinating story of the fabled Soho jazz club

Oliver Murray's film is packed with great music and revealing interviews

Ronnie Scott was a remarkable man: “Jazz Musician, Club Proprietor, Raconteur and Wit, he was the leader of our generation,” reads the memorial to him at Golders Green Crematorium. Oliver Murray’s documentary film Ronnie’s is an affectionate and portrait of him and of the jazz club he founded.

Reissue CDs Weekly: John Coltrane - Giant Steps

REISSUE: JOHN COLTRANE - GIANT STEPS 60th-anniversary edition of the jazz landmark doesn't go far enough

60th-anniversary edition of the jazz landmark doesn’t go far enough

Giant Steps doesn’t suffer from a lack of availability. A couple of weeks ago, two editions of John Coltrane’s 1960 landmark set were available in a central London music store. One was a 2002 CD version which supplemented the album’s seven tracks with eight bonus cuts: alternate studio takes which were not originally released. It was selling for £7.

Album: This Dream of You – Diana Krall

★★ DIANA KRALL - THIS DREAM OF YOU An unsatisfactory postcript to the Krall/LiPuma years

An unsatisfactory postscript to the Krall/LiPuma years

“Produced by Tommy LiPuma.” That phrase has appeared on just about every Diana Krall album since the summer of 1995, when the Cleveland-born mogul arrived at the GRP label – it would be his sixth and last music industry affiliation – and promptly signed the Canadian singer-pianist.

Album: Allison Neale - Quietly There

★★★★★ ALISON NEALE - QUIETLY THERE A completely delightful album

A completely delightful album

Seattle-born Allison Neale’s alto saxophone sound is instantly appealing. Her playing has the light wispy, airy quality from the "cool", "West Coast" school of Paul Desmond. One day last year, she spent just six hours (10am-5pm minus an hour for lunch, I gather) with three other top-flight jazz musicians at Angel Studios in Islington – shortly before it closed, in fact. The result, Quietly There (Ubuntu Music) is a completely delightful album.

Reissue CDs Weekly: This Is Our Music - Jazz Out Of Norway

Double-disc testament to a nation’s fertile musical seedbed

The Turnamat is a type of washing machine made by AEG. In the composition titled “Turnamat”, Seventies-type synths, wobbly keyboard lines and hard-grooving drums give way to a brass-led interlude suggesting an acquaintance with the compositions of Lalo Schifrin. It’s as if a jazz-inflected soundtrack from 45 years ago has been shoved into a blender rather than a washing machine, then reconstituted and given a major buff-up.

theartsdesk on Vinyl 59: Johnny Cash, Bananagun, Fleetwood Mac, Romare, PJ Harvey, Kamaal Williams and more

THEARTSDESK ON VINYL 59: Johnny Cash, Bananagun, Fleetwood Mac, Romare, PJ Harvey, Kamaal Williams and more

The high summer's premium cross-section of record reviews

The usual summer vinyl release slump doesn’t seem to apply this year. During the COVID-19 crisis, the demand for vinyl has risen rather than fallen and theartsdesk on Vinyl reflects that again this month with another monster round-up of reviews, covering everything from extreme metal to country’n’western to contemporary jazz.

VINYL OF THE MONTH

Album: Solveig Slettahjell – Come In From the Rain

The Norwegian jazz singer's best album yet

Norwegian singer Solveig Slettahjell has a feeling for slow. Her 2001 debut album was called Slow Motion Orchestra, and in the years since then she has turned her very fine sense of how to convey the essence and the meaning of songs at a very measured pace into her calling card.

She has explained what draws her to slowness: “When I slow down the tempo, I can hear the sound in the words, there are so many little details when you play and sing slowly. These little details fascinate me.”

AIM Awards 2020, SBTV review - a game attempt to rewire awards ceremonies

★★★ AIM AWARDS 2020, SBTV Without tables full of increasingly tipsy industry folk, how do awards work?

Without tables full of increasingly tipsy industry folk, how do awards work?

Music awards shows are a strange beast: part window display, part industry conference and part party. Especially if you don’t have Brit Awards or Mercury Prize budget to create a whizz-bang spectacle, the ceremonies can be an interminable pileup of attempts to earnestly celebrate both musicians and behind-the-scenes figures, in front of a room full of increasingly drunk and impatient people.

Reissue CDs Weekly: Dudu Phukwana and the "Spears"

DUDU PHUKWANA AND THE 'SPEARS' Illuminating reissue of Joe Boyd-produced debut album

Dudu Pukwana’s Joe Boyd-produced debut album reappears, with added Fairport Convention input

Whether explicitly or indirectly, what’s written on a master tape box can tantalise. Revealing part of a picture creates a desire to want to know more. Take the example seen above. It’s for an album by South African alto saxist Dudu Pukwana.

Reissue CDs Weekly: Oneness Of Juju - African Rhythms 1970-1982

ONENESS OF JUJU - AFRICAN RHYTHMS 1970-1982 Driving jazz, grooves, funk and electrifying percussion from James 'Plunky' Branch and Co

Driving jazz, grooves, funk and electrifying percussion from James 'Plunky' Branch and Co

“These are African rhythms, passed down to us from the ancient spirits. Feel the spirits, a unifying force. Come on, move with the spirits. Stand up. Clap your hands. Groove with the rhythms. Get down. Get off.”

So begins “African Rhythms”, originally released in 1975 as the opening cut from an album of the same name by Oneness Of Juju. It was issued on Black Fire, their own label.