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

Hannah Horton

Stories on the Wind

Horton's most ambitious and most fully realised work to date. Her writing combines accessibility with musical sophistication and is strong in terms of both melody and rhythmic colour and texture.

Tomos Williams’ Cwmwl Tystion

Cwmwl Tystion III / Empathy

Julian Arguelles

Echo Fields

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

Jazz Mann Recommended Listening

Shai Maestro

The Guesthouse

Maestro’s sense of adventure and his willingness to embrace a variety of musical styles is something to be celebrated. Overall “The Guesthouse” represents a brave and distinctive artistic statement.

Taupe

waxing / waning

A quite glorious racket, a thrillingly visceral musical ride. Taupe marshal their uncompromising music with skill, conviction & imagination & the playing is crisp, crunching & razor sharp throughout.

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.

Live Jazz Reviews

BMJ Collective with Gareth Williams

BMJ Collective with Gareth Williams, Back Mountain Jazz, Melville Centre for The Arts, Abergavenny, 17/05/2026.

Mark Lockheart Shapeshifter Trio

Mark Lockheart Shapeshifter Trio, Music Spoken Here, The Marr’s Bar, Worcester, 14/05/2026.

Robin Nolan Trio

Robin Nolan Trio with guest Xenia Porteous, ‘A Jazz Tribute to George Harrison’, Brecon Jazz Club, The Muse Arts Centre, Brecon, 12/05/2026.

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.

Jazz Mann Features

A year with our Nord.

Dave Fuller of Music Spoken Here, Worcester celebrates the first anniversary of the Club's acquisition of a Nord Stage 4 keyboard, purchased with the generous financial assistance of Sumir Karayi.

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.

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Martin Pyne Trio: Small Blue, afternoon event at Ludlow Assembly Rooms, Ludlow, Shropshire. (Part of Ludlow Piano Festival).

Sunday, May 24, 2026

NTBM (Not-To-Be-Missed) + more TBA at Jazz In The Round, The Cockpit Theatre, Marylebone, London.

Monday, May 25, 2026

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