Jazz FM Awards 2019 - young guard triumphs

JAZZ FM AWARDS 2019 Young guard triumphs at sixth edition of Awards

On International Jazz Day, Blue Note, Sons of Kemet, Nubya Garcia, Steam Down and more honoured at sixth edition of Awards

Hosted by Jazz FM presenters Chris Philips and Jez Nelson, and taking place in the historic surroundings of Shoreditch Town Hall, this sixth edition of the Jazz FM Awards celebrated the dynamism, passion and vitality of the UK’s young jazz scene, with SEED Ensemble leader Cassie Kinoshi picking up Breakthrough Act of the Year, rising jazz singer Cherise Adams-Burnett receiving Vocalist of the Year, and the similarly youthful Poppy Ajudha proving a popular choice as

Ain't Misbehavin', Southwark Playhouse review - a jazz-hot musical revue

★★★★ AIN'T MISBEHAVIN', SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE A jazz-hot musical revue

Dancing, singing and plenty of swinging in this joyful tribute to Fats Waller

The joint is jumpin’ at Southwark Playhouse, now hosting an irresistible Fats Waller-inspired, Manhattan-set musical revue (a co-production with Colchester’s Mercury Theatre, where it opened last month).

CD: Loyle Carner - Not Waving, But Drowning

★★★★ LOYLE CARNER - NOT WAVING, BUT DROWNING British MC lays his heart on the line for album number two

British MC lays his heart on the line for album number two

When poetic London MC Loyle Carner first appeared a couple years ago he was hailed for his fresh take on UK hip hop. Compared to the street-centric machismo of much grime music, he offered a welcome insight into a more sensitive 21st century masculinity that was a hit with both arts media sorts and the public.

Love Supreme, Roundhouse review - Laura Mvula's defiant confidence tops the bill

★★★★ LOVE SUPREME, ROUNDHOUSE Laura Mvula's defiant confidence tops the bill

An impressively broad and mostly enjoyable mix of music

There is increasing urgency, commitment and assuredness about the way Laura Mvula performs her music. The context for her performance here was Love Supreme's day at the Roundhouse. As the event's main headliner and the stand-out performer, she really delivered the goods on Saturday night.

CD: Ruby Rushton - Ironside

★★★ RUBY RUSHTON - IRONSIDE Crisp, tough, and sometimes devastating jazz from London's young generation

Crisp, tough, and sometimes devastating jazz from London's young generation

It's kind of vertiginous to realise that the revivalism of acid jazz was way closer to its 1960s and '70s source material than we are to it now. But the patterns that were laid down by the DJ sessions of Gilles Peterson and people like him back in the 1980s abide. Jazz fusion, spiritual jazz, hard bop, obscure soundtracks, Blue Note records: all have continued to demonstrate their immediacy on dancefloors.

Kamasi Washington, Brixton Academy review - reaching transcendence

★★★★★ KAMASI WASHINGTON, BRIXTON ACADEMY Reaching transcendence

New jazz master from Los Angeles spreads a magical message of empowerment

There’s jazz, and there’s transcendent jazz. Kamasi Washington and his band are the latter. His group — who hail from Los Angeles and have played together since childhood, made waves in 2015 when they released The Epic, a three-hour concept album, followed up by Heaven and Earth, which similarly explored esoteric conceptions and abstruse riffs.

Reissue CDs Weekly: Eric Dolphy

REISSUE CDS WEEKLY: ERIC DOLPHY 'Musical Prophet': diligent reconfiguration of the 1963 recordings with Alan Douglas

'Musical Prophet': diligent reconfiguration of the 1963 recordings with Alan Douglas

The tapes from which Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions is sourced were found in a suitcase Eric Dolphy had given to musical polymath Hale Smith and his wife Juanita before setting off on a European tour in 1964. What was handed over by the prodigious multi-instrumentalist for safekeeping has never before been fully explored by an archive release. Dolphy did not return from that tour.