MARK TURNER wallows in the virtuosity of Swansea Jazz Festival openers, Simon Spillett and Pete Long

IT'S a significant jazz moment: the re-issue of four powerful, vibrant and deeply moving albums on Ogun Records of the Blue Notes, the South African band which fomented so much dynamism and change in British jazz when they released themselves from apartheid and arrived in London after playing at the 1964 Antibes Jazz Festival.
Their first appearance in 1965 at Ronnie Scott’s Old Place in Soho’s Gerrard Street introduced astonishing new sounds, new beats, new inspiration, new musical resistance and the inspiration of direct African artistry into the British jazz scene.

CHRIS SEARLE encourages you to go hear a landmark performance, and introduces some of the musicians

CHRIS SEARLE hears the ordeal of the Palestinian people in the improvised musicianship of a UK jazz trio

Reviews of the Neil Charles Quartet, the Freddie Hubbard Quintet, and the Olie Brice Quartet

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Chris Laurence, bassist and bandmate of saxophonist TONY COE