"Jazz Journal" - July 2011

Cover Story: Mike Stern
The former Miles Davis guitarist has been dismissed by critics who should know better as a mere rocker. He says "Well, I’m more into bebop! What I'm checking out musically is Sonny Rollins and Trane." Fred Grand sets the record straight

On the Beat - The Jazz Cruise; Herts Jazz Festival; Brecon Jazz Festival; Ronnie's Britfest; Barbican Blaze; major UK concerts in July: Keith Jarrett, Ramsey Lewis, Al Jarreau, Abdullah Ibrahim

Profiles - Dave Stapleton is turning jazz into a growth industry; Kyle Eastwood makes our day by firing off good tunes; Ingrid Laubrock gives us an idea why one of her bands is called Sleepthief

Letters - Getz CD packaging goes west; good on the NJA; recognise Spike Heatley; Shearing's passport; early jazz on film; famed jazz pianist Billy Vance; Abse or Absolom?

Scratching the Surface - Steve Voce recalls the trenchant Johnny Dodds ("Seventy years after his death Dodds is quietly appreciated by more musicians than ever"), the unswinging Lu Watters band and some friendly conversations with Ken Colyer, "whose poison spittle could kill a man at six paces"

Jazz Live - For three days over the May bank holiday the world’s leading mainstreamers converged on Norwich. Peter Gamble reports on Houston Person, Ken Peplowski, Warren Vaché, Eiji Kitamura, Rossano Sportiello, Howard Alden, Scott Hamilton, Daryl Sherman, Tardo Hammer, Bob Wilber and more. Organiser Jerry Brown is already working on next year's gig

Monty Alexander - The Jamaican-born pianist looks forward to summer gigs and expounds his musical philosophy: "Bottom line, you gotta feel good" See Mark Gilbert's full interview here

Per Husby - Is Norwegian jazz all glacial introspection? Michael Tucker seeks another perspective from pianist Per Husby, sometime associate of James Moody, Chet Baker and others
Lost In Meditation - Alun Morgan rediscovers three outstanding saxophonists: Art Pepper, Graham Bond and the overlooked Herman sideman and later jazz educator, Jerry Coker

Seminal sessions - Ian Carr: Solar Plexus. In the second of our occasional series on landmark recordings, Roger Farbey puts the case for a solar-plexiform thump from Ian Carr, all of 40 years ago

Rumba jazz, a Latin primer Nick Duckett completes his two-part survey of the Latin American influence in pre-war jazz, looking at America’s embrace of the exotic and culminating in Machito’s early 40s Afro-Cuban fusion

Remembered - Snooky Young, lead trumpeter on classic 1960s Count Basie albums; Bob Flanigan, founder member of the Kenton-inspired Four Freshmen; Bert Wilcox, British impresario who ignored trade union protectionism to present Sidney Bechet

Books - Horace Parlan: My Little Brown Book (biography) and Horace Parlan Song Book; Jazz Photography, A Bibliography Spanning 75 Years, by Jan J Mulder

Record Reviews - Monty Alexander, Chris Barber, David Binney, Nels Cline, Joséf Eliasz, Marc Copland, Wolfgang Dauner, Miles Davis (Tutu Deluxe Edition); Ernest Dawkins' New Horizons, Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, The Impossible Gentlemen, Roger Kellaway, Rebecca Kilgore & Harry Allen, Pat Metheny, Bob Mintzer, Dave Moorwood's Big Bear Stompers, Dick Morrissey/Michael Garrick Trio (unissued vinyl edition), Gretchen Parlato, Jeremy Pelt, Tommy Smith, Craig Taborn, Peter Schärli and more, including a host of reissues.