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Chris Searle
oto
Jazz / 30 April 2025
Impro at Oto
30 April 2025

CHRIS SEARLE wallows in an evening of high class improvised jazz, and recommends upcoming highlights in May

Interview / 14 April 2025
‘I hope I can keep on keeping on until the last drum roll and tattoo rolls out of my being’
14 April 2025
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to drummer Steve Noble
Men’s football / 4 April 2025
From Spurs to Sound Waves
4 April 2025
CHRIS SEARLE interviews saxophonist Chris Williams about the extraordinary electro-acoustic album LEDLEY - a bold fusion of Jazz, football, and community spirit
Ineza
Interview / 26 February 2025
‘I enjoy the company of women musicians. It creates a different, supportive atmosphere on stage’
26 February 2025
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Rwanda-born jazz vocalist INEZA
Peter Somuah
Interview / 5 February 2025
Living the highlife
5 February 2025
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Ghanaian trumpeter PETER SOMUAH
Vaughan Hawthorne-Nelson in concert at the Vortex with the T
Jazz / 28 January 2025
Upcoming jazz with Chris Searle: January 28, 2025
28 January 2025
An unlikely venue hosts a memorable concert, and has future treats in store
Roella Oloro, 2021
Interview / 22 January 2025
‘When it comes to Britain’s colonial past, music can be part of that reckoning’
22 January 2025
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to British Nigerian/Jamaican pianist ROELLA OLORO
Nate Wooley
Interview / 6 January 2025
‘Burlap Heroes are Saul Bellow’s persons struggling just to exist’
6 January 2025
CHRIS SEARLE speaks with US trumpeter NATE WOOLEY
Culture / 12 December 2024
Best of 2024: Jazz albums
12 December 2024
CHRIS SEARLE picks his favourites
Pat Thomas, Steve Noble and Seymour Wright play Cafe Ito
Music review / 22 November 2024
The struggle made sonic
22 November 2024
CHRIS SEARLE translates the fusion of four jazz maestros into a mental image of Hackney Carnival
Danilo Perez
Interview / 14 October 2024
‘Before each concert, we gathered in a circle with our heads together and felt aligned, making a sound’
14 October 2024
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez
Album reviews / 14 October 2024
Jazz albums with Chris Searle: October 14, 2024
14 October 2024
New releases from Etienne Charles, Jason Anick/Jason Yeager and Elliott Sharp/Sally Gates/Tashi Dorji
Music review / 6 September 2024
Blown away
6 September 2024
CHRIS SEARLE is transported by a combative fusion of US and UK instrumentalists and landmark evening of jazz
Nduduzo Makhathini performing in Amsterdam on 28 October 202
Interview / 21 August 2024
‘We are looking at spiritual affinities and how these liberate and at the same time transcend the political’
21 August 2024
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to South African pianist NDUDUZO MAKHATINI 
David Murray & Class Struggle at INNtöne Jazzfestival 2018
Interview / 7 August 2024
‘Give me a poem and I'll write a song with it’
7 August 2024
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to renowned US tenor saxophonist DAVID MURRAY
Jim Mullen
Music Review / 6 May 2024
‘The day jazz washed away the dust of everyday life*’
6 May 2024
CHRIS SEARLE pops into his local for some serendipitous jazz goings-on
Music / 22 March 2024
Jazz albums with Chris Searle: March 22, 2024
22 March 2024
Reviews of Max Eastley/Terry Day/John Butcher, Trevor Tomkins' Sextant, and Caroline Kraabel and Pat Thomas
Tori Freestone and Alcyona Mick
Interview / 14 February 2024
‘I think of the saxophone in a very vocal way’
14 February 2024
CHRIS SEARLE interviews saxophonist and flutist Tori Freestone on the release of her duo album with pianist Alcyona Mick
Sammy Rimington, center, at jazz funeral for Danny Barker, N
Interview / 23 January 2024
‘I couldn't play publicly with black musicians, only in their homes’
23 January 2024
CHRIS SEARLE speaks with clarinetist Sammy Rimington
Culture / 27 December 2023
Best of 2023: Jazz albums
27 December 2023
CHRIS SEARLE picks his favourites
White-cheeked Starlings perching on power cables
Poetry / 12 December 2023
Birdy
12 December 2023
CHRIS SEARLE takes wing with Leeds-born poet of mixed Sri Lankan and English heritage, Seni Seneviratne
Phil Hargreaves
Interview / 22 November 2023
A proud and modest jazz revolutionary
22 November 2023
Chris Searle speaks to saxophonist PHIL HARGREAVES about his new album PI, and his long-standing support for the WMA
Wayne Shorter, 2012; Denys Baptiste, 2005
Interview / 6 September 2023
Horns locked
6 September 2023
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Denys Baptiste, saxophonist, after his tribute session to the great US saxophonist Wayne Shorter
Jazz pianist Alexander Hawkins
Interview / 30 August 2023
“We need to safeguard those who every day struggle with the right to imagination”
30 August 2023
CHRIS SEARLE interviews jazz pianist ALEXANDER HAWKINS
Byron Wallen at INNtone Jazzfestival 2019
Culture / 19 June 2023
‘Conch is the first trumpet’
19 June 2023
CHRIS SEARLE interviews trumpeter Byron Wallen about his album Portrait
Jacquard lace-making machines, 1968; Julian Siegel, 2018
Interview / 30 May 2023
Listening to the machines made him want to conduct them!
30 May 2023
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to saxophonist, composer and orchestrator JULIAN SIEGEL 
Charlotte Keeffe
Culture / 19 December 2022
'I was intrigued by Bitches Brew rawness, abruptness, tightness and looseness’
19 December 2022
CHRIS SEARLE speaks with trumpeter Charlotte Keeffe
Jazz / 27 November 2022
Album reviews with Chris Searle: November 28, 2022
27 November 2022
New releases from Ches Smith, Brandon Lopez/Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey and John Taylor Sextet
Music Review / 21 November 2022
A celebration of the steel pan
21 November 2022
Luis Perdomo
Jazz Interview / 15 November 2022
‘I am a jazz musician who happened to be born in Venezuela’
15 November 2022
Chris Searle speaks with Venezuelan pianist LUIS PERDOMO
Music review / 28 October 2022
The sonic heaven of Dalston
28 October 2022
Tony Haynes
Jazz Interview / 5 October 2022
‘We gathered a powerful company of musicians whose worlds we all wove together’
5 October 2022
Chris Searle speaks with the Grand Union Orchestra founder TONY HAYNES
Jazz Review / 5 October 2022
Making the previously unknown, known
5 October 2022
Members of the legendary Blue Notes sextet, trumpeter and fl
Searle interview / 14 September 2022
‘They were the heart of an entire nation of musicians’
14 September 2022
CHRIS SEARLE speaks with Hazel Miller, founder of Ogun Records
Abraham Burton
Jazz Interview / 30 August 2022
‘The privilege to partake in the simple act of being together’
30 August 2022
Chris Searle speaks with saxophonist ABRAHAM BURTON
Harrison Smith
Jazz / 10 August 2022
‘A sense of balance between individuals and the group, a sense of unity’
10 August 2022
Chris Searle speaks with saxophonist HARRISON SMITH
Xhosa Cole
Jazz Interview / 29 June 2022
‘I feel part of the community, the history and family tree of great musicians’
29 June 2022
Chris Searle speaks to saxophonist XHOSA COLE
Arun Ghosh
Jazz / 20 June 2022
‘To me, music has always been about melody’
20 June 2022
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to clarinettist Arun Ghosh, on the release of his album Seclused In Light
DRUM WIZARDRY: Chris Corsano
Music review / 10 June 2022
Drumming of some consequence
10 June 2022
(L to R) Joe Mcphee, Kahil El'zabar
Live Music Review / 18 May 2022
Joe McPhee at Cafe Oto and Kahil El'zabar at Ronnie Scotts
18 May 2022
Music / 16 May 2022
Album reviews with Chris Sealre: May 17, 2022
16 May 2022
VISIONARY: Charles Mingus, Lower Manhattan July 4 1976
Music History / 9 May 2022
Mingus: forceful political engagement
9 May 2022
CHRIS SEARLE signals the continued importance of Charles Mingus who infused contemporary jazz’s with uncompromising political comment
Culture / 11 April 2022
Oh hear us when we cry to thee/For those in peril on the sea
11 April 2022
Chris Searle speaks with saxophonist CAROLINE KRAABEL about her album LAST 1 LAST 2 and the contribution of Robert Wyatt
(L to R) Rudy Royston, Rudresh Mahanthappa and François Mou
Live Music Review / 27 March 2022
A warm March night, with a special magnetism
27 March 2022
Barry Altschul
Culture / 8 March 2022
‘Justice is something needed now, more than ever’
8 March 2022
CHRIS SEARLE talks to Barry Altschul, drummer of the OGJB Quartet on the release of their album Ode To O
Trevor Watts at Vortex
Jazz / 7 February 2022
‘What's been has been, but what's ahead is unknown and in many ways more exciting’
7 February 2022
CHRIS SEARLE speaks with York native and revolutionary improviser alto saxophonist Trevor Watts
Javon Jackson
Jazz / 17 January 2022
‘During the Trump years we needed spirituals to comfort us again’
17 January 2022
Chris Searle speaks to saxophonist JAVON JACKSON on the release of his new album: The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni
SUPPORT FOR PALESTINE: Lena Bloch
Jazz / 7 January 2022
‘The music of human flesh’
7 January 2022
CHRIS SEARLE talks with the Moscow-born Israeli saxophonist Lena Bloch about the release of and inspirations behind her album Rose of Lifta
Culture / 13 December 2021
2021 jazz albums round-up with Chris Searle
13 December 2021
Classic jazz immortals set the tone
Albert Nicholas
Culture / 29 November 2021
‘You can hear what a beautiful player he was’
29 November 2021
Chris Searle speaks to VAL WILMER about veteran virtuoso New Orleans clarinettist Albert Nicholas
SEMINAL MOMENT: Sogat picket, Wapping, 1986
BOOKS / 11 August 2021
Tremors of Discontent: My Life in Print 1970-1988
11 August 2021
Nuanced and frank narrative of dedicated union activist
MUSIC / 9 July 2021
Album reviews
9 July 2021
Latest releases from Nate Wooley, Derek Bailey and Mototeru Takagi and Michael Formanek
INTERVIEW / 14 June 2021
‘Minimalism is a big part of the Scandinavian sound’
14 June 2021
Jazz saxophonist CECILIE STRANGE talks to Chris Searle about the guiding principles behind her music
ENVIRONMENTALLY CONCERNED: Piers Faccini
INTERVIEW / 30 May 2021
A passion for musical dialogues
30 May 2021
Guitarist and singer-songwriter PIERS FACCINI talks to Chris Searle about the environmental concerns inspiring his new album Shapes of the Fall
Culture / 11 April 2021
‘It's jazz that gives me a sense of freedom’
11 April 2021
An accomplished classical musician, JIM RATTIGAN talks to Chris Searle about making the transition to a very different musical genre
James Brandon Lewis
Jazz Interview / 13 December 2020
‘That moment where everything feels fine and other-worldly’
13 December 2020
JAMES BRANDON LEWIS talks to Chris Searle about the the state he's seeking on his new album Molecular
Book review / 27 November 2020
Critical biography of a neglected jazz genius
27 November 2020
Interview / 28 October 2020
‘Jazz has always been a music of resistance in the way it reacts to the turbulence of its times’
28 October 2020
CHRIS SEARLE in conversation with jazz guitar maestro Rob Luft
MUSIC / 11 August 2020
Jazz album reviews with Chris Searle
11 August 2020
Latest releases from Niels Lan Doky, The Mark Harvey Group and Tomeka Reid and Alexander Hawkins
MUSIC / 14 July 2020
Jazz album reviews: July 15, 2020
14 July 2020
Latest releases from Dominic Ingham, Gordon Grdina Septet and James Brandon Lewis/Chad Taylor
BOOKS / 28 June 2020
Pushing Back to Ofsted by Richard House
28 June 2020
Riposte to an inspection that closed a Gloucestershire school
'AS MANY UNISONS AS STARS IN THE SKY’: Ornette Coleman
MUSIC / 24 March 2020
The shaper of jazz to come
24 March 2020
CHRIS SEARLE recommends a book on Ornette Coleman, one of the great musical innovators of the 20th century
EVER INVENTIVE: Makiko Hirabayashi
Interview / 9 February 2020
‘Writing this tune was a very emotional process’
9 February 2020
MAKIKO HIRABAYASHI talks to Chris Searle about her elegiac reflection on the Fukushima tsunami
Live Jazz / 27 January 2020
A sound imbued with musical meaning
27 January 2020
Sets from Anthony Braxton, Omar Puente Cuban Sextet and Jean-Marc Foussat in London
CHANNELLING COLTRANE: Paul Dunmall
Album Review / 26 January 2020
Go Straight Round the Square
26 January 2020
Coltrane lives on in scintillating quartet's live set
HOLDING ON TO OPTIMISM: Sloth Racket
Album Review / 20 January 2020
Dismantle Yourself by Sloth Racket
20 January 2020
Inventive northern souls embrace free spirit of improvisation
ECLECTIC TASTE: Grassy Noel
Interview / 8 January 2020
‘It is of extreme importance that artists respond to the times we are living in’
8 January 2020
Vocalist and 'oral provocateur' GRASSY NOEL tells Chris Searle what inspires his extraordinary new album
TELEPATHIC: Binker Golding
Live Jazz / 6 January 2020
A deeply throbbing melodism
6 January 2020
CHRIS SEARLE reviews Eddie Gomez, Binker Golding, Elliot Galvin, Gunter Baby Sommer and Raymond MacDonald
Year round-up / 6 December 2019
Best of 2019: Jazz
6 December 2019
Album review / 24 November 2019
How We Do by Triceratops + LINK
24 November 2019
Bracing big band sound from quality quintet
Interview / 7 November 2019
‘Artists are their nightmare because we bring consciousness’
7 November 2019
Brazilian singer LUCAS SANTTANA'S latest record is a call for resistance to the Bolsonaro dictatorship, he tells Chris Searle
Irresistible: Mingus Big Band
Live Music Review / 1 November 2019
Mingus Big Band, Ronnie Scott's London
1 November 2019
Marvellous Mingus tribute