After years of obsessive learning, my piano sits silent – and I’m happy with that
Brian Hanson-Harding
After retiring, I finally had time to practise. But I soon realised that playing and making music are two different things, says Brian Hanson-Harding
July 2023
On my radar
On my radar: Graham Coxon’s cultural highlights
The musician from Blur and the Waeve on the magic of Spain’s Alhambra, chip butties and his love of jazz biographies
April 2022
Wrappers delight: The best album cover shoots – in pictures
From the Beatles crossing a zebra to a naked Prince, via Grace Jones attempting the anatomically impossible and Led Zeppelin’s New York tenements, these cover designs became as famous as the music they enclosed
November 2021
From the Guardian archive
Miles Davis and Giants of Jazz reviewed – archive, 1971
15 November 1971: Davis and his jazz-rock group perform at London’s Royal Festival Hall, while across town a band of jazz luminaries play at the New Victoria
August 2021
Jazz on a Summer’s Day review –Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson and more shine bright
Powerful musical moments are undercut by exasperating blandness in this rerelease of Bert Stern’s film of the 1958 Newport jazz festival
July 2020
20 iconic festival sets
Miles Davis, Newport 1955: the day of a sensational comeback
The jazz trumpeter had been sidetracked by heroin, but sealed his return with this deft, inventive set that showed how much he could wring out of a single piece of music
April 2019
Sharp suits, thin ties and the coolest musicians on Earth: Jazz 625 is back!
It was a piece of black and white magic, a perfect fusion of sound and music boasting Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington – and lots of smoke. Can the landmark TV show now bewitch a new generation of fans?
March 2019
Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes review – pristine doc of tonal clarity
Sophie Huber’s film, though sanctioned by the jazz record label, is no hagiography, interviewing key players and adding fantastic rostrum pictures of the era
November 2017
Music blog
London jazz festival: this year's must-see gigs
Music blog
The demons and obsessions of jazz genius Thelonious Monk
October 2017
Thelonious Monk: Piano Solo review – his compelling first solo recording
(Sony Legacy)
July 2017
Thelonious Monk: Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960 review – long-lost classic
Thelonious Monk's surreally strange and spartan genius gets its due
Record producer who boosted the careers of jazz musicians including Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins
November 2014
Blue Note: Uncompromising Expression review – a lavishly illustrated history of the great jazz label
Richard Havers’s book about Blue Note records, with its details of the inspirations and excesses of the label’s major talents, amounts to a history of jazz itself, writes Peter Conrad
Blue Note: 75 years of the coolest visuals in jazz
The world’s most famous jazz label – celebrated for its striking use of design as much as for its groundbreaking recordings – is 75 this year. John Fordham tells the story of Blue Note through a selection of its famous album covers
Blue Note: Uncompromising Expression review – classics in single measures
This collection of 75 singles from jazz and funk giants fro Monk to Coltrane mostly proves genius can deliver succinctly too, writes John Fordham
September 2014
John Surman and Bergen Big Band: Another Sky review – warmth creative patience
As Surman vivaciously arrives at his 70s, this album serves up his infectious twist on English folk song, writes John Fordham
August 2014
Readers recommend
Readers recommend: best piano songs
Classical to ragtime, blues to pop, it’s time to tinkle the ivories, press the pedals and lift the lid on those string-hitting hammers, says Peter Kimpton
