Pancevo Jazz Festival(Culture Centre, Pancevo. 3-5 November 2023, Review and photos by John Watson) I’m going to let you into a little jazz secret. If you go to the small Serbian town […]
Pancevo Jazz Festival (Serbia) 2023
Belgrade Jazz Festival 2023
Belgrade Jazz Festival (Dom Omladine concert halls, 24-29 October 2023. Festival round-up and photos by John Watson) “I never thought we would be playing at a time like this,” said Israeli tenor […]
Photo essay – The Joy of Shakti at the JAZZx Festival
JAZZx Festival, Timisoara, Romania Photographs and commentary by John Watson I find the music of Shakti so captivating that concentrating on photographing the group in concert might be considered the biggest challenge […]
JAZZx Festival
JAZZx Festival (Timisoara, Romania, 28 June – 2 July. Review and photos by John Watson) “We Jazz Together” – that was the theme of the JAZZx Festival, held in the beautiful Romanian […]
Capturing the artistry and energy of Stanley Clarke (Cheltenham Jazz Fest 2023)
John Watson writes: The bass artistry of Stanley Clarke inspired me to take these photographs at his band’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2023 concert. I have tried to capture the joy and amazing […]
Michael Janisch Band at Eastside Jazz Club in Birmingham
Michael Janisch Band (Eastside Jazz Club, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. 14 March 2023. Review and photos by John Watson) Concerts by touring American bands have been rather thin on the ground in recent […]
Pančevo Jazz Festival 2022 (Serbia)
Pančevo Jazz Festival (Kulturnog centra Pančeva, Serbia. 4-6 November 2022. Review and photos by John Watson) There is certainly a great deal of fine music on the international jazz scene – but […]
Belgrade Jazz Festival 2022
Belgrade Jazz Festival (Dom Omladine Beograda, Belgrade, Serbia. 26-30 October 2022. Review and photos by John Watson) So many European festivals have lost funding this year, as political crisis piles on economic […]
Eddie Henderson Quartet Plus Xhosa Cole, Richard Foote and Chris Young in Birmingham
Eddie Henderson Quartet Plus Xhosa Cole, Richard Foote and Chris Young (Pizza Express, Brindley Place, Birmingham, 14 November. Review and photos by John Watson) The two greatest challenges facing any jazz trumpeter […]
Martin Speake Quartet with Ethan Iverson at Eastside Jazz Club, Birmingham
Martin Speake Quartet with Ethan Iverson (Eastside Jazz Club, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, 13 February 2020. Review and photos by John Watson) The sound is plaintive and cool in musical temperature – subtle vibrato, […]
Jim Rattigan’s Pavillon at Eastside Jazz Club, Birmingham
Jim Rattigan’s Pavillon (Eastside Jazz Club, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, 7 November 2019. Review and photos by John Watson) What a wonderful glow there is in the sound of the French horn. But it takes real […]
Pancevo Jazz Festival, Serbia
Pancevo Jazz Festival, Serbia (Culture Centre, Pancevo, 31 Oct – 2 Nov. Review and photos by John Watson) The warmth of Paolo Fresu’s flugelhorn sound, and the passion it conveys, has me spellbound… […]
Belgrade Jazz Festival
Belgrade Jazz Festival (Various venues, 22-28 October 2019. Review and photos by John Watson) How much, I wondered, is Stanley Clarke’s right thumb insured for? As he hammered it down with awesome power […]
Örjan Hultén’s Orion at NAC, Wolverhampton
Örjan Hultén’s Orion (NAC, Wolverhampton, 22 September 2019. Review and photos by John Watson) What glorious variety there is in the long history of Swedish jazz – from the early days of musicians […]
