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The latest album from rising star Ineza is a simply entrancing celebration of this young woman’s life and experiences, using jazz to express herself both vocally and in the context of her quintet. Ineza and her quintet The album launch for Ibuka  took place in the intimate setting of Alfie’s Jazz Club during the Soho Jazz Festival 2025: Ineza’s compositions were perfectly suited to a Friday night in the heart of Soho. ‘Ibuka’ is a Kinyarwanda word for ‘remember’ and each of these eight brilliant compositions take us with the singer as she harks back to her birth in Rwanda, subsequent adoption and life in Belgium, through to her home now in London. Ineza’s story is fascinating, and she gave hints of it in explaining each of the tracks. Ibuka’s closing track, Kwibuka , recalls the 1994 genocide that devastated Rwanda shortly after the singer’s birth, her contribution to the 2024 commemoration. Performing it towards the end of the evening brought a real sense of hope and peace, with an evocation to explore the “beauty underneath all this pain”. The sole love song on the album - Silence  - was performed beautifully on the night. The singer says: “It’s the only love song on the album,but the album’s overall themes of loss, identity, and finding yourself can still be found. It’s about living with a complicated back story and finding it hard to express that to a partner.” Additional compositions Ineza covered on the night include the Kenny Wheeler Everybody’s Song But My Own , with lyrics by the great Norma Winstone, and a stunning version of Afro Blue.  The fine group of musicians on Ibuka  also joined Ineza for the launch: Michael Lack (alto sax), Rob Brockway (piano), Ben Crane (double bass) and Kuba Miazga (drums).  Her name, chosen by her biological mother, means ‘goodness’ in Kinyarwanda and Ineza says: “Something good came out of a bad situation.” Ineza talked fondly of her adoptive mother, Francine Declerq, and the moving Song For My Mother  was dedicated to her. Ineza also mentioned contact with her birth mother and then the passing of Francine two years later. She says: “Learning the art of singing helped me immensely with learning to live without her. Ibuka  is a love note to my adoptive mother, whom I loved very much—a meditation on memory, heritage, and the echoes of yesterdays.” This album launch was an emotional event. I interviewed Ineza for Harmonious World  earlier in the year to discuss her collaboration with Alex Webb and The Copasetics on Women’s Words, Sisters’ Stories , but I discovered a new side to her with this gig and the album itself. A couple approached me at the end of the night as they had seen me taking notes: they, too, were moved by Ineza and her songs. Visiting London from Barcelona, they told a similar story about memory, displacement and the overall sense of hope that the night had brought. The woman (she had told me her name, and I failed to write it down) explained that she was from Venezuela and Ineza’s stories about the beauty of Rwanda and the difficult history had resonated with them both. An emotional evening on so many levels and Ineza’s Ibuka  will remain with me for some time.

GroundUP Music once more pushes exciting music to the fore and into our ears. ‘ IN.SIGHT ’ from Fabia Mantwill  is one of those large ensemble albums that is nevertheless intimate and refreshing.   One of the reasons for loving this album is that it is truly orchestral. The Fabia Mantwill Orchestra  consists of 32 musicians, with six soloists who take us through every genre from contemporary classical and big band to funk, rock and an overall sense of the cinematic. Founded in 2012 by five-time GRAMMY® Award-winner Michael League, GroundUP Music  was created as a supportive platform for Snarky Puppy and its members. Originally launched to release the group’s sixth album, GroundUP, the label quickly expanded,  fostering solo careers for artists like Justin Stanton, Mark Lettieri, Bill Laurance, and Cory Henry, and gaining wider recognition after  Snarky Puppy’s 2014 GRAMMY® win. Which is where this gets really interesting, because all the compositions on IN.SIGHT are composed by sax player, vocalist and producer Mantwill working alongside League himself and celebrated Greek composer Magdalini Giannikou. Together, the three produce a collection of tunes that showcase this exceptional ensemble and provides each of the soloists the space to improvise. When the trio composed, it was with each of the soloists in mind. And composed all these tracks in just 72 hours. Roosevelt Collier’s guitar on Whirl the Wheel  sparkles and radiates a rock sensibility. Although Fairy Glen  begins with an introduction from the sumptuous and soaring string section, and a groove by the wider ensemble, the guitar of Kurt Rosenwinkel rises from the ensemble. Throughout the album, there is Mantwill’s sax and vocals, as well as her voice in composition and arrangements. She says: “I quickly realized that the only way to make this happen was to let go of control, trust the process, and allow the music to guide me. Once I did that, everything began to unfold naturally. For me, music is about connection – about getting in resonance with each other and spreading positivity.”

A truly extraordinary evening of exemplary musicianship from Einaudi and his outstanding musicians as they embark on a record-breaking set of appearances at one of London's finest venues. (c) Andrew Paradise @Paradiseph0t0 Einaudi broke records and entranced sell-out audiences with the longest continuous headline run by a pianist in the history of the Royal Albert Hall, with five shows from 29 June to 4 July. Not only did he perform some of his major ensemble works, but he also slotted in a section including his most popular and virtuosic solo pieces. As part of his tour to support his Decca album The Summer Portraits , he also sold-out shows in Dublin, Edinburgh and Manchester. The musicians joining him on stage are breathtaking, with bass, percussion and keyboards on one side and five string players and accordion on the other. The lead violinist not only lead brilliantly but also swapped onto guitar from time to time. At one point I realised what had been bothering me since the start of the show - the lead violin, accordion and lead cello were all playing without music: impressive and also a less cluttered stage, missing music stands. Opening for the shows was Sam Lee. He is a Mercury prize nominated singer and passionate conservationist, with nature at the heart of his music. He sits in a space between folk, traditional and contemporary music and he's even written a novel - 'The Nightingale, notes on a songbird' - which seems to bring it all together. It's on my summer reading list. Sam is not only a ground-breaking and thought-provoking musicians, but also a co-founder of Music Declares Emergency, which aims to bring together musicians and audiences to help bring about behavioural change. Their goal is clear: "We believe in the power of music to promote the cultural change needed to create a better future." As I left the Albert Hall, I bumped into Sam and asked him about his shruti box, an unusual musical instrument that he seems to have made his own. It's similar to a harmonium and produces a drone that accompanies many of Sam's songs. Meanwhile, following this six-night record-breaking residency at the Royal Albert Hall, Einaudi has announced Solo Piano. This series of concerts will expand that solo section of the current tour, where the band leaves the stage for the maestro alone. 2026 promises much from the masterful Italian pianist and composer.

This year has been an incredible one for music releases and I haven’t always kept up. There is a ‘To Listen To’ pile that I am occasionally dipping into. One album that slipped through the net but remained on the pile comes from Gayle Skidmore, with her April 2025 release of ‘The Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster’. This is an album of beautiful music that commemorates one of the worst tragedies in America’s history, but it is more than that: there is a sense of resilience that could be a lesson to us all. On 29 December 1876, a rail bridge collapsed in Ashtabula, Ohio, claiming the lives of 92 people, including renowned hymn writer Philip P Bliss, a relative of Skidmore. Eventually, the coroner's report found that the bridge had been improperly designed by the railroad company president, poorly constructed, and inadequately inspected. As a result of the accident, a hospital was built in the town and a federal system set up to formally investigate fatal railroad accidents. The eleven tracks on Skidmore’s album show her composition and piano skills that seem to capture the humanity at the heart of the disaster. The collection is also a tribute to her grandmother, who passed away in 2019, and who was proud of their family's connection to Bliss. I don’t often put an album on and listen to it from beginning to end without stopping and going back or skipping forward, but this album revolves around the central, title track. Preceded by tunes which establish the context, followed by a series of heart-breaking melodies: Return to the Flames, Among the Wreckage, The River Bed, Ashes in the Snow  and The Last Farewell of Charles Collins and Amasa Stone. I defy anyone to listen to the final, brief track - A Hymn for the Lost - without taking a pause to remember those we have lost in their own tragedies. Skidmore explains, "I grew up hearing about Philip P Bliss and singing the songs he composed, but never knew how he had tragically perished until I discovered the details during the Covid-19 lockdown. Every account of the disaster that I came across was incredibly moving and emotional, and I really felt affected by the story. Not only is this album different because it is an entirely instrumental solo piano, but it is also focused on a singular historical event. I've never released anything like this before." It may have taken more than four months for The Ashtabula River Railroad Disaste r to reach the top of the pile, but I'm very glad it did.

Another late discovery for me brings together Swiss pianist Michael Arbenz and British saxophonist Andy Sheppard with a live album celebrating two geniuses without whom music would definitely be the lesser. ‘From Bach to Ellington - Live’ allows both musicians to perform as individuals and as a duo: the trouble with live albums like this is that I always regret not having been at the recording at the Bird’s Eye Jazz Club in Basel in August 2024. Sheppard has long been a stalwart of the British jazz scene and this exploration of Bach and Ellington with the esteemed Arbenz is almost the perfect (double) musical marriage. Opening the album with Ellington’s Melancholia  is a bold choice, setting the tone for piano and sax weaving together and separating for their own improvisations around one of the most evocative of Duke’s compositions. Upping the tempo and tearing apart the Baroque Bach for the next track, Arbenz’s Psalm  is inspired by  Bach’s Cantata BWV 146. Returning to Ellington with African Flower,  Arbenz brings the melody and introduces Sheppard’s sax with this seldom-played track, before more Bach inspiration comes from the Prelude in C. The resulting Where It Springs Into Being seems familiar with Sheppard’s sax very much 21st century above Arbenz’s opening piano before the track itself springs into more exploration of the Bach original. The final two Ellington tracks - Reflections in D  and Warm Valley  - seem to owe much to Bach and prove that Duke was so much more than the classic American songbook tunes he is more widely known for. Reading the bios of these two musicians is, itself, extraordinary: Sheppard is one of the few soloists to perform in the big bands of all three of the greatest post-war composers, Carla Bley, Gil Evans, and George Russell.  Arbenz’s career has seen him tour extensively throughout Europe, North America, Asia and South America, performing and recording with trio VEIN and alongside a host of highly respected musicians in international contemporary Jazz including Greg Osby, Ron Carter, Glenn Ferris, Dave Liebman, Marc Johnson, and Wolfgang Puschnig. The duo format is a new and exciting one for Arbenz and Sheppard, who first connected through their long-standing trio VEIN and this double marriage with Bach and Ellington is built to last. It’s a shame that it’s taken a couple of months for the CD to reach the top of my To Listen To pile. And look at that artwork - what a stunning album cover!

Composer and pianist Craig Urquhart has released ‘Emergence’, his 14th album of original piano compositions. His past albums are a constant in my life, as his writing and playing is consistently beautiful and so it was a delight to receive this latest album. Emergence is another stunning collection of beautiful solo piano pieces that the composer describes as “a musical exploration of transformation, introspection and unfolding”. My discovery of Urquhart came initially from my initial interview with Garrett Keast from the Berlin Academy of American Music for a 2021 episode  of Harmonious World. In 2022 I interviewed Urquhart for a first episode  about Lamentation for Flute and Strings , which had featured on the BAAM album, and then Keast for a second episode . Finally, in 2024, I interviewed Urquhart in person when I visited Berlin and that made a delightful episode . Solo piano can be - and definitely is here - meditative and contemplative. The opening title track seems to welcome the listener in to Urquhart’s world, before we are taken through a series of musical vignettes where the titles themselves allow us to explore such concepts as Gratitude, Remembering  and Endearment . The nine tracks all tell a very personal story and allow us to experience our own stories through the music. The closing track of the album is Arise : a brief, positive, tune that can only encourage us to start again as we head wherever life takes us. Leonard Bernstein once said: “Craig’s music reaches through the invisible walls with an immeasurable sense of peace and beauty.” When you have enjoyed Emergence , I can only recommend you return to Urquhart’s other albums to discover more of that peace and beauty.

Combining electronics and acoustic instruments in contemporary jazz, there’s a palpable excitement to ‘ Viology ’, the new album from ViO 3iO. This jazz trio is fronted by ground-breaking sax player and electronic whizz Viktor Haraszti , who I interviewed for Harmonious World in March 2022. You can listen to that episode here . Improvisation is at the core of Vio 3i0, with digital intervention that takes everything to a new level. Viology  allows the trio - Viktor Haraszti (sax and electronics), Andor Horváth (bass) and Anthony Davis (drums) - to explore jazz in reality and conceptually and this debut album promises much from Vio 3i0. The title track particularly begins as a traditional trio tune, before electronics begin to appear, weaving in and out of the sax, bass, drums lines. The use of electronics never deflects attention from the acoustic instruments and in this track particularly, they are kept back to allow each instrument space for expression. It’s not quite subtle, but it’s absolutely intuitive. In the somewhat ironic The Disappearing Real , the trio explores space as the music. Drums begin with electronic touches, before the bass gently steps up to act as a counterpoint to Haraszti’s ethereal keyboards. There’s a particular resonance between the bass and drums as they sit alongside and and within the keyboard improvisations, almost grounding the track in the ‘real’ world. When a more traditional trio section allows Haraszti’s sax to shine, he uses electronics to alter the sound of his horn, once more challenging that sense of what is real. Viology is neither easy-listening nor smooth jazz, but it’s exciting, bringing together the real and the electronic in a way that seems to be particularly fitting in the world we are all inhabiting in the summer of 2025.

It’s impossible to miss the intensity behind the latest release from saxophonist, composer, and educator David Bixler. With incognito ergo sum  (“I am incognito, therefore I am), David is following up on his trio’s debut album Inside the Grief  from 2020. Incognito implies an element of concealment and deception, but the music is energetic and highly creative. Alongside Dan Loomis (bass) and Fabio Rojas (drums and percussion), David is drawing on the trio’s starting point - playing for passers-by in Covid-19 pandemic New York. The freedom of playing music ‘incognito’, with no name of ticket sales gave birth to a curiosity that crosses boundaries and works brilliantly on this new album. It was a delight to talk to David last year about his Langston Hughes project, and you can hear our conversation on Harmonious World . Listening to David’s playing with this sparse trio is a joy. As well as a freedom of playing, there is a complexity behind the naming of the tracks composed by David  -  6.29.21; you; liminal space; you are; recycled; you are ma; what’s at hand; you are ma king; old dog new bix; you are making me; johnny cope; you are making me ha; nobody else but me; you’re making me hate. The only standard included is the carefully-chosen Kern/Hammerstein composition Nobody Else But Me , which seems to verbally and musically sit alongside the ‘you’ of several of the originals. This is a brilliant album by an inspired trio, with sax playing straight from the bebop tradition, with a freedom and a groove that seems to come from folk roots. David’s career includes spells with Lionel Hampton and Chico O’Farrill - his compositions reflect influences from far and wide. The trio’s collective energy in the recordings combine freedom and attention to detail at the heights of creativity.

Although it’s good to discover the work of new musicians, there is also something inspiring about hearing new music from familiar performers. When I saw Jo Harrop  performing at Watford Pump House  Theatre with her quartet, I was pleasantly surprised by some brand new tracks from a forthcoming album. Jo Harrop (c) Robert Crowley @rw_crowley Many of Jo’s songs on the night came from her earlier albums, including The Heart Wants, When Winter Turns to Spring and  - most recently -  The Path of A Tear.  I spoke to Jo on Harmonious World in 2021 , which included discussion of Weathering the Storm  with guitarist Jamie McCredie. I was delighted that her inevitable encore for this latest gig was Charade,  recorded for the latter album. Jo’s collaborators have included the afore-mentioned Jamie McCredie, as well as the marvellous pianist Paul Edis, who I have also interviewed for Harmonious World, in 2022  and 2024  (together with sax player Vasilis Xenopoulous). Edis’s piano and Musical Director duties in Watford were ably supported by Darren Beckett (drums) and Adam King (bass). The quartet effortlessly moved between tunes from each of Jo’s past albums and her presenting style made the whole performance intensely engaging, from the lovely Umbrellas in the Rain  to the somewhat wistful You’ll Never Be Lonely in Soho  and the funky Beautiful Fools . One of my favourite tracks from The Path of a Tear  is a cover of Leonard Cohen’s Traveling Light  and Jo’s live performance in Watford was a gorgeous rendition of the album version. Apparently, it was a tune suggested by album producer Larry Klein, who has an impressive track record of getting musical choices right. He has four Grammy wins, including Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now  in 2001. Jo’s voice and the arrangements on The Path of a Tear  owe much to Klein’s experience. So, no disappointments in revisiting Jo Harrop’s live appearances and I look forward to the arrival of her new album in due course. Paul Edis, Jo Harrop, Adam King and Darren Beckett (c) Robert Crowley

Their influences might go back through the last century, but The Easy Rollers present a collection of new compositions and arrangements that bring the jazz age right into the 2020s. ’ ... And Another Thing ’ takes us back to the sounds of the 1920s with some classics and some lesser-known songs alongside the band's original compositions. Although very much UK-based, this band embraces the music many of us associate more readily with the sounds of New Orleans, Kansas City and Harlem. Starting the album with Oh, Lady Be Good  introduces us to this ensemble and breaks it down for improvisation featuring many of these exceptional musicians. Vocals from Dani Sicari beautifully balance the time and geographical influences in this first arrangement, before another classic - That’s How I Feel Today . Saxophonist Jamie Stockbridge (with his formative music taking place just around the corner from me here in Hitchin) adds new lyrics and an arrangement to the instrumental by clarinettist and saxophonist Mezz Mezzrow. These two opening tunes set the tone for a great album. If you only get to one track, make it The Ballad of Billy, A Kid  composed by Stockbridge and the third single released in the summer of 2025 prior to the album release. It owes something to the British folk tradition as much as American jazz story-telling, with effervescent ensemble playing and singing. You won’t go wrong with … And Another Thing  - it’s a delightful foray into the American past, performed brilliantly by some of today’s best UK jazz musicians. Dani Sicari (lead vocals) is joined by Alex Hill (piano), Tom Sharp (trumpet), Jamie Stockbridge (tenor sax, soprano sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, composition and lyrics), James Girling (guitars, arrangement), Sam Jackson (double bass, arrangement) and Matt Brown (drums). Guests on this album are Andrzej Baranek (accordion) and Ellie Smith (trombone). The Easy Rollers have been a collective for nearly a decade and this album promises much for their future. Check out their website  and find them coming to a (metaphorically) smoky jazz club near you. When you get their, buy the album and enjoy the artwork as well as the music.

As we head into autumn, there is nothing quite like the energy, rhythms and overall vibe of ‘Nueva Timba’, just released on Blue Note from Cuban pianist and composer Harold López-Nussa . If you can get past the album artwork, which is a thing of beauty before needle meets vinyl, there’s a brief blink-and-you-missit opening track - Open. The electronics and a countdown over piano and vocals leads nicely into Bonito y Sabroso , brought right up to date since the original Benny Moré track of the 1950s. The exuberance of this ensemble is infectious from the opening bars. Alongside Harold López-Nussa (piano), Ruy Adrian López-Nussa (drums), Luques Curtis (bass) and Grégoire Maret (harmonica). Yes, pianist and drummer and brothers, but this doesn’t feel like nepotism, it’s just players with styles and techniques that work brilliantly together. But it is when López-Nussa launches into the extraordinary, brief and brilliant Gitarnerias  that we hear the pianist’s virtuosity. The arrangement of Ernesto Lecuona’s composition that’s nearly a century old is two minutes of musical beauty. Recorded at Paris’s iconic jazz club Le Duc des Lombards, Nueva Timba  seems very French, alongside the Cuban background of López-Nussa himself. Listen to Why  and you’re right there in the club. For López-Nussa, this is a very personal album. He says: “ Nueva Timba  tells the very real story of a man displaced: a young father finding his way in a new country while missing his homeland with heartrending intensity; all the while, he’s nursing other emotional wounds including the passing of his mother, and the compounding torment brings him to a state of despair. Slowly but surely, sunshine begins to poke through the clouds, and he discovers a path forward. Something like happiness returns to the horizon. Consider Nueva Tima  musical tears of joy.”

The title track on ‘Resistance is Futile’ creates a frenetic energy that ably demonstrates Peter Johnstone ’s capabilities on keyboards with an inspired focus on Hammond Organ. There’s a reason for his 2012 win as BBC Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year and he has chosen to form his International Organ Quintet with an impressive line-up that is part of Scottish jazz’s meteoric rise in glory. Johnstone is joined from the US by Joe Locke (vibes) and by Scottish greats Tommy Smith (sax) and Alyn Cosker (drums). Coming together in 2023, the quartet offers blistering renditions of the leader’s compositions. He says: “I wanted to give Joe, Tommy and Alyn music that they would find interesting to play and that would allow them to open up and express themselves within each piece’s form. I also looked for a variety of moods and rhythms, so that we could capture the energy that these musicians bring to the group in spades as well as focusing on their more reflective side.” The groove continues with New Beginnings , where Johnstone’s organ, Smith’s sax and Locke’s vibes weave in and out of each other, belying the brevity of the quartet’s existence. By the time the album reaches the heart-rending ballad When You Were Born , there is a genuine futility in resistance. Johnstone’s composition and playing comes together and spreads across the ensemble, with both Smith’s sax and Locke’s vibes offering controlled but similarly heart-felt performances. Cosker’s drum opening to the final track on Resistance is Futile  sets the frantic tone for a tune that takes the quartet to the next level right up to the final ending. The Four Horsemen  has none of the apocalyptic sense that might be expected, but each of Johnstone’s quartet combines excellence that is both individual and collective.