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

Steve Lodder

2 Sorts Of 3

It’s a tribute to Lodder that “2 Sorts Of 3” with its mix of electric and acoustic sounds coheres so effectively as an album. This is largely due to the intelligence and quality of his writing.

Tim Richards Trio

Four Aces

Dave Redmond

All in Motion

Will Barnes Quartet

Outside The Light

Anmol Mohara

Across The Sea

Alex Clarke Quartet

Out of the Woods

Howl Quartet

Night Song

Jazz Mann Recommended Listening

Nils Kavanagh

No Expectations

A strikingly mature debut. Kavanagh and his colleagues give the compositions room to breathe and grow and the interplay between the three instruments is highly developed and richly detailed.

Harben Kay

The World I Live In

Once again Kay has delivered an album that combines thoughtful and intelligent writing with excellent playing and which again combines conventional jazz virtues with more contemporary ideas.

Ant Law Quintet

Unified Theories

Intelligent writing and supremely accomplished playing combine to create something very special.

Johnny Richards & Dave King

The New Awkward

A truly remarkable album, adventurous and restlessly inventive, but also genuinely accessible. The range of sounds that the duo, and especially Richards, produce is little short of astonishing.

Live Jazz Reviews

Eddie Parker’s Airborn

Eddie Parker’s Airborn, Music Spoken Here, The Marr’s Bar, Worcester, 11/12/2025.

Janette Mason

Janette Mason ReWired Trio, Jazz at Progress, Progress Theatre, Reading, Berkshire, 05/12/2025.

M. Haiux / Merope

M. Haiux / Merope, Sy ; Gigs, Unitarian Church, Shrewsbury, 06/12/2025.

Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Jazz Ensemble

RWCMD Big Band - ‘A tribute to Quincy Jones’, Black Mountain Jazz, Melville Centre, Abergavenny, 30/11/2025.

Allexa Nava

Allexa Nava Quartet, Music Spoken Here, The Marr’s Bar, Worcester, 27/11/2025.

Ayra

Ayra, Pizza Express Live, Holborn, London, 20/11/2025 (Part of EFG London Jazz Festival).

Jazz Mann Features

BMJazz Katz, “Christmas in Sight”, Black Mountain Jazz, Melville Centre, Abergavenny, 07/12/2025.

A Yuletide celebration championing the work of Back Mountain Jazz's youth jazz ensemble the BMJazz Katz and their tutors, the BMJ Collective.

EFG London Jazz Festival 2025 - Day Ten, Sunday 23/11/2025.

Ian Mann on the final day of the Festival and performances by the Royal Academy Jazz Orchestra, Billy Marrows / Max Kahn Duo, Terje Isungset's Ice Quartet and Seb Rochford's Finding Ways.

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