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Profile by Ian Dove, NME, 4 January 1963

HALF-WAY through 1961 Melvin Howard Tormé was moaning that "there were no songs being written that were worth singing. ...

Horace Silver: Just Quit While You're Ahead

Interview by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 1 October 1966

ALREADY, AND in spite of the excessively rough luck of having his place of employment burned down on the opening night of his first British ...

Sly & the Family Stone, Modern Jazz Quartet, The, Tony Williams: Sly & the Family Stone, Tony Williams Lifetime, Modern Jazz Quartet et al: 12th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival, County Fairgrounds, Monterey CA

Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 20 September 1969

Sound Troubles: Monterey Opens Weirdly ...

Sonny Sharrock: Like No Other Guitarist Ever Born

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 27 June 1970

WARREN "Sonny" Sharrock created one of 1969's most extraordinary musical moments, during a track called 'Chain Of Fools' on Herbie Mann's big-selling Memphis Underground album. ...

Scott Joplin: The Great Pianoforte In The Sky

Retrospective by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 25 May 1974

IT WAS ALMOST as hard as getting to Dylan – but, eventually aided by an agent called Godwin, who knew everybody worth knowing, I was ...

Count Basie, Sun Ra, Cannonball Adderley, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz: OK, smarty, so how do y'shift the whole world off its axis?

Report by Brian Case, New Musical Express, August 1976

Simple. SUN RA knew that one way back. Every musician on the planet just gotta play a C7th — all at the same time. While ...

Sun Ra

Guide by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 4 September 1976

WHEN IT comes to buying records, what's a bargain? Probably the best value I ever had was paying a princely 75 pence for a mint ...

Dexter Gordon: The Exile's Return

Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 27 May 1978

Fashion and fate have dealt a few blows — but now DEXTER GORDON is cutting in, recapturing America and standing CBS on its head. The ...

Charles Mingus, Joni Mitchell: Charles Mingus, Jazz Pioneer, Dead

Obituary by Wayne Robins, Newsday, 9 January 1979

CHARLES MINGUS, the innovative jazz composer, band leader and bassist, died Friday night in Cuernavaca, Mexico. He was 56. ...

Charles Mingus: Charlie Mingus: April 22, 1922 — Jan 5, 1979

Obituary by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 20 January 1979

SOME TIME back a 'friend' borrowed a large number of my jazz albums — and sold them. All I can say is that the rip-off ...

The Crusaders: It's A Street Life In The Crusaders

Profile and Interview by Max Bell, NME, 22 September 1979

IT'S THE MID-1950s in Houston, Texas, east of Galveston Bay and west of the River Colorado, and some of the local folks are having themselves ...

Frank Sinatra: She Shot Me Down (Reprise)

Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, April 1982

IF, AS THE THEORY GOES, there's a little bit of Van Halen in everyone come Saturday night, then you can safely bet your last dollar ...

Sun Ra: Strange Celestial Road (Y)

Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 29 May 1982

HEAVEN UP HERE ...

Ornette Coleman: On Human Feeling

Interview by Vivien Goldman, New Musical Express, 10 July 1982

Ornette Coleman's harmolodics brought about the musical change of the century. After his New York comeback last year, the legendary tenor man talked to Vivien ...

George Benson: Kingsize Benson

Profile and Interview by Richard Cook, NME, 16 July 1983

So just how did this work a day guitarist called GEORGE BENSON sidestep the critical vitriol of the jazz and soul purists to become one ...

Count Basie

Obituary by Richard Cook, NME, 5 May 1984

Richard Cook pays tribute to the man whose Kansas City swing band conquered the world – a jazz aristocrat for 50 years. ...

Al Jarreau: Has The Adult Contemporary Songwriter Eclipsed The Jazz Singer?

Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1985

FOUR JARREAU brothers grew up in Milwaukee. They all sang. Three still live there. "My older brother had a fine tenor voice," Al recalls. "The ...

Courtney Pine: Wow! This is Jazz and We Like It!

Profile and Interview by Dave Rimmer, Q, October 1986

COURTNEY PINE LISTENED TO A LOT OF GROVER WASHINGTON, SONNY ROLLINS AND JOHN COLTRANE, THEN HE THOUGHT HE'D HAVE A GO HIMSELF. ...

Hugh Masekela, Paul Simon: Hugh Masekela: Grazing in Graceland

Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, October 1987

HUGH MASEKELA hasn't been back to South Africa since he left his homeland 27 years ago to study trumpet in London and New York, but ...

Albert Ayler: My Name is Albert Ayler

Retrospective by Richard Cook, The Wire, January 1988

Still misunderstood and neglected, the man who took jazz saxophone to its furthest limits awaits a new appreciation. Richard Cook offers a personal view. ...