The Jazz Mann | Jazz music reviews and news from the Jazz Mann Ian Mann

Winner of the Parliamentary Jazz Award for Best Media, 2019

Jazz Album Reviews

Simeon May

Heroes

The “Heroes” EP makes for interesting & absorbing listening and features some excellent playing from a particularly well balanced trio. It offers further evidence of May's versatility as a saxophonist

Tom Smith

A Year In The Life

Tim Boniface

“Psalter; Themes For Peace”

Di-Cysgodion

Cariad Carn Carw

Jim Watson

Calling You Home

Betty Accorsi Quartet

Nature Prints

Small Blue

Furrow

Jazz Mann Recommended Listening

Janette Mason

ReWired

A substantial triumph for Janette Mason as she breathes new jazz life into this well chosen selection of tunes. Her arrangements are intelligent, imaginative and sophisticated.

Andy Hague Big Band

Live At The Lantern

The playing is excellent throughout and there are some superb individual solos from some of Bristol’s finest musicians. Hague’s original writing is also genuinely impressive.

Matthew Kilner

The Space In Between

A highly impressive debut album from Kilner, who impresses both as an instrumentalist and a composer. I predict that we will be hearing a lot more from this hugely talented young musician.

Alison Rayner Quintet

SEMA4

A very worthy addition to an already impressive back catalogue

Live Jazz Reviews

Ursula Harrison and Sylvie Noble Duo

Ursula Harrison and Sylvie Noble Duo, Black Mountain Jazz, The Melville Centre, Abergavenny, 27/07/2025.

Tiggy Blackwell Quintet / Huw Llewellyn Quartet

Tiggy Blackwell Quintet / Huw Llewellyn Quartet, Brecon Jazz Festival, The Muse Arts Centre, Brecon, 08/07/2025.

Songs for the Earth

Songs for the Earth, Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham, Glos. 05/07/2025 (Part of Cheltenham Music Festival).

Wendy Kirkland Quartet

Wendy Kirkland Quartet, ‘The Grand Tour’, Kidderminster Jazz Club, St. Ambroses’s Parish Centre, Kidderminster, Worcs., 04/07/2025

Emily Masser Quartet

Emily Masser Quartet, Jazz at Progress, Progress Theatre, Reading, Berkshire, 27/06/2025.

Full House Brass Band

Full House Brass Band, Black Mountain Jazz, Melville Centre, Abergavenny, 29/06/2025.

Jazz Mann Features

Colin May interviews Ibrahim Maalouf.

Colin May talks to Ibrahim Maalouf prior to the trumpeter / composer's appearance at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall on July 29th 2025.

Mostly Jazz Funk & Soul Festival, Moseley Park, Birmingham, 11th - 13th July 2025.

Guest contributor Dave Fuller, instigator of the Music Spoken Here series in Worcester, shares his highlights from the 2025 Mostly Jazz Funk & Soul Festival.

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Jazz Gigs & Events

Jazz Connections: Everyday Lives - Exhibition featuring the work of jazz scholar Dr Pedro Cravinho & photographer Brian Homer at Library of Birmingham Foyer, Centenary Square, Birmingham.

Friday, June 06, 2025 - Thursday, August 28, 2025