music

A student of classical piano since he was big enough to sit on a piano stool, Keith Jarrett became a composition student at 15 and gave a full-scale recital of his own works at 16. After graduating from the Berklee School of Music, he formed his own trio in Boston, played briefly with Roland Kirk and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. The story of the Quartet's successes from San Francisco to Moscow and back again is also, of course, part of Keith Jarrett's story as well. Charlie Haden, the bassist in this recording, is a musician who earned prominence as a member of the original Ornette Coleman Trio which exploded on the jazz scene in the middle fifties. Paul Motian, best known for his long association with the Bill Evans Trio, is one of the most sensitive drummers in jazz. Virtually his entire career has been spent with small groups, where the delicate nuances of sound which he draws from his instruments have won him a unique position of respect".

The borders between London's musical tribes have always been porous. For Yussef Kamaal, the sound of the capital - with its hum of jungle, grime and broken beat - has shaped a self-taught, UK-tipped approach to playing jazz. In the states, the genre's longrunning to-and-fro with hip hop - from Robert Glasper to Kamasi Washington - has reimagined it within US culture. On 'Black Focus', Yussef Kamaal frame jazz inside the bass-saturated, pirate radio broadcasts of London. Taking inspiration from the anything-goes spirit of '70s jazz-funk, on albums by Herbie Hancock or the Mahavishnu Orchestra, it's a loose template with plenty of room to experiment. The pair, made up of Yussef Dayes and Kamaal Williams (aka Henry Wu), have had little in the way of formal training. Instead, their musical tastes - and approach to playing - are indebted to Thelonious Monk's piano as much as the drum programming of Kaidi Tatham.

The wait is over, Joe Bonamassa’s new solo studio album Royal Tea was recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios and will be released on October 23rd. Bonamassa is known for taking risks and venturing into uncharted territory throughout his wide-ranging career but now he has found a new way to surprise his fans and music lovers. Royal Tea brings Bonamassa full-circle. This album reconnects the 43-year-old with the guitar-slinging kid from upstate New York, who stumbled across the Jeff Beck Group, John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton and Cream in his dad’s vinyl collection – whose British blues influences have shaped him to be the player he is today. Naturally, the backdrop of Abbey Road demanded an album of British-flavoured blues. But even before the sessions, Bonamassa immersed himself in the culture, living in London over summer 2019 to let the capital’s pulse and daily rhythms flow down his antennae, wash over his songcraft and spice his new material. These ten original tracks were co-written by Joe and a cast of homegrown notables including former Whitesnake guitarist Bernie Marsden, ex-Cream lyricist Pete Brown and national-treasure piano man Jools Holland.

Three years after her debut Immortal (1996), Beth Hart released Screamin' For My Supper to great critical acclaim. Beth produced the album herself with help from longtime collaborator and bass player Tal Herzberg, resulting in a mature, fully formed record.