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

Julian Arguelles

Echo Fields

“Echo Fields” is as good as anything that Arguelles has recorded. This is a mature record from an artist who is still at the peak of his creative powers.

Transatlantic Hot Club

Un P’tit Gout de Myrte

Niklas Lukassen

Still Waters

Tim Garland and Geoffrey Keezer

Mezzo

Alyn Shipton’s New Orleans Friends

The Oxford Concert

Five-Way Split

Modus Operandi

Shai Maestro

The Guesthouse

Jazz Mann Recommended Listening

Jazz Sabbath

Jazz Sabbath Live

A very welcome souvenir of the Jazz Sabbath live experience. Listening to the music in the home environment heightens one’s appreciation of just how clever Wakeman’s arrangements are.

Aleph Aguiar

Sugar on my Blackbeans

The quality of the playing and writing on this album really is exceptional, and this, allied to the energy and vibrancy of the performances raises the album above the level of the mundane.

Billy Marrows Band

Dancing On Bentwood Chairs

Marrows impresses as a guitarist and even more so as a writer. His compositions are intelligent and imaginative and embrace a wide variety of influences, musical and otherwise.

Julie Campiche

Unspoken

Her most personal, but also most political, recording to date “Unspoken” represents a powerful and thought provoking statement from Campiche.

Live Jazz Reviews

Jazz Samba

Jazz Samba, Jazz at Progress, Progress Theatre, Reading, Berkshire, 01/05/2026.

NQ Jazz Orchestra with Matt Carmichael

NQ Jazz Orchestra with Matt Carmichael, NQ Jazz, The Yard, Manchester, 19/04/2026.

Nils Kavanagh

Nils Kavanagh Trio, Black Mountain Jazz, The Melville Centre for the Arts, Abergavenny, 26/04/2026.

Poppy Daniels Quintet

Poppy Daniels Quintet, Music Spoken Here, The Marr’s Bar, Worcester, 23/04/2026.

Liz Jones & Broken Windows / Disque Bleu

Liz Jones & Broken Windows / Disque Bleu, Mid Wales Rhythm & Blues Club, The Muse, Brecon, 18/04/2026.

Christine Tobin

Christine Tobin with Phil Robson, Frank and Mark’s, Iffley Church Hall, Iffley, Oxford, 15/04/2026.

Jazz Mann Features

Monday at Cheltenham Jazz Festival, 04/05/2026.

Ian Mann enjoys the final day of the Festival and performances by Alice Zawadzki / James Kitchman, Roberto Fonseca, 10 c.c. and Kim Cypher with guest Fayyaz Virji.

Sunday at Cheltenham Jazz Festival, 03/05/2026.

Ian Mann enjoys 'Super Sunday' at Cheltenham Jazz Festival and performances by Makaya McCraven, Robinson Khoury, Camilla George, Georgia Cecile and Yazz Ahmed.

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Jazz Gigs & Events

Robin Nolan Trio & guest Xenia Porteous, A Jazz Tribute to George Harrison at Brecon Jazz Club, The Muse Arts Centre, Brecon.

Tuesday, May 12, 2026