Chris Searle | Morning Star

Interview / 14 April 2025

‘I hope I can keep on keeping on until the last drum roll and tattoo rolls out of my being’

14 April 2025

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to drummer Steve Noble

Men’s football / 4 April 2025

From Spurs to Sound Waves

4 April 2025

CHRIS SEARLE interviews saxophonist Chris Williams about the extraordinary electro-acoustic album LEDLEY - a bold fusion of Jazz, football, and community spirit

Interview / 26 February 2025

‘I enjoy the company of women musicians. It creates a different, supportive atmosphere on stage’

26 February 2025

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Rwanda-born jazz vocalist INEZA

Interview / 5 February 2025

Living the highlife

5 February 2025

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Ghanaian trumpeter PETER SOMUAH

Jazz / 28 January 2025

Upcoming jazz with Chris Searle: January 28, 2025

28 January 2025

An unlikely venue hosts a memorable concert, and has future treats in store

Interview / 22 January 2025

‘When it comes to Britain’s colonial past, music can be part of that reckoning’

22 January 2025

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to British Nigerian/Jamaican pianist ROELLA OLORO

Interview / 6 January 2025

‘Burlap Heroes are Saul Bellow’s persons struggling just to exist’

6 January 2025

CHRIS SEARLE speaks with US trumpeter NATE WOOLEY

Culture / 12 December 2024

Best of 2024: Jazz albums

12 December 2024

CHRIS SEARLE picks his favourites

Music review / 22 November 2024

The struggle made sonic

22 November 2024

CHRIS SEARLE translates the fusion of four jazz maestros into a mental image of Hackney Carnival

Interview / 14 October 2024

‘Before each concert, we gathered in a circle with our heads together and felt aligned, making a sound’

14 October 2024

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez

Album reviews / 14 October 2024

Jazz albums with Chris Searle: October 14, 2024

14 October 2024

New releases from Etienne Charles, Jason Anick/Jason Yeager and Elliott Sharp/Sally Gates/Tashi Dorji

Music review / 6 September 2024

Blown away

6 September 2024

CHRIS SEARLE is transported by a combative fusion of US and UK instrumentalists and landmark evening of jazz

Interview / 21 August 2024

‘We are looking at spiritual affinities and how these liberate and at the same time transcend the political’

21 August 2024

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to South African pianist NDUDUZO MAKHATINI

Interview / 7 August 2024

‘Give me a poem and I'll write a song with it’

7 August 2024

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to renowned US tenor saxophonist DAVID MURRAY

Music Review / 6 May 2024

‘The day jazz washed away the dust of everyday life*’

6 May 2024

CHRIS SEARLE pops into his local for some serendipitous jazz goings-on

Music / 22 March 2024

Jazz albums with Chris Searle: March 22, 2024

22 March 2024

Reviews of Max Eastley/Terry Day/John Butcher, Trevor Tomkins' Sextant, and Caroline Kraabel and Pat Thomas

Interview / 14 February 2024

‘I think of the saxophone in a very vocal way’

14 February 2024

CHRIS SEARLE interviews saxophonist and flutist Tori Freestone on the release of her duo album with pianist Alcyona Mick

Interview / 23 January 2024

‘I couldn't play publicly with black musicians, only in their homes’

23 January 2024

CHRIS SEARLE speaks with clarinetist Sammy Rimington

Culture / 27 December 2023

Best of 2023: Jazz albums

27 December 2023

CHRIS SEARLE picks his favourites

Poetry / 12 December 2023

Birdy

12 December 2023

CHRIS SEARLE takes wing with Leeds-born poet of mixed Sri Lankan and English heritage, Seni Seneviratne

Interview / 22 November 2023

A proud and modest jazz revolutionary

22 November 2023

Chris Searle speaks to saxophonist PHIL HARGREAVES about his new album PI, and his long-standing support for the WMA

Interview / 6 September 2023

Horns locked

6 September 2023

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Denys Baptiste, saxophonist, after his tribute session to the great US saxophonist Wayne Shorter

Interview / 30 August 2023

“We need to safeguard those who every day struggle with the right to imagination”

30 August 2023

CHRIS SEARLE interviews jazz pianist ALEXANDER HAWKINS

Culture / 19 June 2023

‘Conch is the first trumpet’

19 June 2023

CHRIS SEARLE interviews trumpeter Byron Wallen about his album Portrait

Jacquard lace-making machines, 1968; Julian Siegel, 2018 Age

Interview / 30 May 2023

Listening to the machines made him want to conduct them!

30 May 2023

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to saxophonist, composer and orchestrator JULIAN SIEGEL

Culture / 19 December 2022

'I was intrigued by Bitches Brew rawness, abruptness, tightness and looseness’

19 December 2022

CHRIS SEARLE speaks with trumpeter Charlotte Keeffe

Jazz / 27 November 2022

Album reviews with Chris Searle: November 28, 2022

27 November 2022

New releases from Ches Smith, Brandon Lopez/Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey and John Taylor Sextet

Music Review / 21 November 2022

A celebration of the steel pan

21 November 2022

Jazz Interview / 15 November 2022

‘I am a jazz musician who happened to be born in Venezuela’

15 November 2022

Chris Searle speaks with Venezuelan pianist LUIS PERDOMO

Music review / 28 October 2022

The sonic heaven of Dalston

28 October 2022

Jazz Interview / 5 October 2022

‘We gathered a powerful company of musicians whose worlds we all wove together’

5 October 2022

Chris Searle speaks with the Grand Union Orchestra founder TONY HAYNES

Jazz Review / 5 October 2022

Making the previously unknown, known

5 October 2022

Searle interview / 14 September 2022

‘They were the heart of an entire nation of musicians’

14 September 2022

CHRIS SEARLE speaks with Hazel Miller, founder of Ogun Records

Jazz Interview / 30 August 2022

‘The privilege to partake in the simple act of being together’

30 August 2022

Chris Searle speaks with saxophonist ABRAHAM BURTON

Jazz / 10 August 2022

‘A sense of balance between individuals and the group, a sense of unity’

10 August 2022

Chris Searle speaks with saxophonist HARRISON SMITH

Jazz Interview / 29 June 2022

‘I feel part of the community, the history and family tree of great musicians’

29 June 2022

Chris Searle speaks to saxophonist XHOSA COLE

Jazz / 20 June 2022

‘To me, music has always been about melody’

20 June 2022

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to clarinettist Arun Ghosh, on the release of his album Seclused In Light

Music review / 10 June 2022

Drumming of some consequence

10 June 2022

Live Music Review / 18 May 2022

Joe McPhee at Cafe Oto and Kahil El'zabar at Ronnie Scotts

18 May 2022

Music / 16 May 2022

Album reviews with Chris Sealre: May 17, 2022

16 May 2022

Music History / 9 May 2022

Mingus: forceful political engagement

9 May 2022

CHRIS SEARLE signals the continued importance of Charles Mingus who infused contemporary jazz’s with uncompromising political comment

Culture / 11 April 2022

Oh hear us when we cry to thee/For those in peril on the sea

11 April 2022

Chris Searle speaks with saxophonist CAROLINE KRAABEL about her album LAST 1 LAST 2 and the contribution of Robert Wyatt

Live Music Review / 27 March 2022

A warm March night, with a special magnetism

27 March 2022

Culture / 8 March 2022

‘Justice is something needed now, more than ever’

8 March 2022

CHRIS SEARLE talks to Barry Altschul, drummer of the OGJB Quartet on the release of their album Ode To O

Jazz / 7 February 2022

‘What's been has been, but what's ahead is unknown and in many ways more exciting’

7 February 2022

CHRIS SEARLE speaks with York native and revolutionary improviser alto saxophonist Trevor Watts

Jazz / 17 January 2022

‘During the Trump years we needed spirituals to comfort us again’

17 January 2022

Chris Searle speaks to saxophonist JAVON JACKSON on the release of his new album: The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni

Jazz / 7 January 2022

‘The music of human flesh’

7 January 2022

CHRIS SEARLE talks with the Moscow-born Israeli saxophonist Lena Bloch about the release of and inspirations behind her album Rose of Lifta

Culture / 13 December 2021

2021 jazz albums round-up with Chris Searle

13 December 2021

Classic jazz immortals set the tone

Culture / 29 November 2021

‘You can hear what a beautiful player he was’

29 November 2021

Chris Searle speaks to VAL WILMER about veteran virtuoso New Orleans clarinettist Albert Nicholas

BOOKS / 11 August 2021

Tremors of Discontent: My Life in Print 1970-1988

11 August 2021

Nuanced and frank narrative of dedicated union activist

MUSIC / 9 July 2021

Album reviews

9 July 2021

Latest releases from Nate Wooley, Derek Bailey and Mototeru Takagi and Michael Formanek

INTERVIEW / 14 June 2021

‘Minimalism is a big part of the Scandinavian sound’

14 June 2021

Jazz saxophonist CECILIE STRANGE talks to Chris Searle about the guiding principles behind her music

INTERVIEW / 30 May 2021

A passion for musical dialogues

30 May 2021

Guitarist and singer-songwriter PIERS FACCINI talks to Chris Searle about the environmental concerns inspiring his new album Shapes of the Fall

Culture / 11 April 2021

‘It's jazz that gives me a sense of freedom’

11 April 2021

An accomplished classical musician, JIM RATTIGAN talks to Chris Searle about making the transition to a very different musical genre

Jazz Interview / 13 December 2020

‘That moment where everything feels fine and other-worldly’

13 December 2020

JAMES BRANDON LEWIS talks to Chris Searle about the the state he's seeking on his new album Molecular

Book review / 27 November 2020

Critical biography of a neglected jazz genius

27 November 2020

Interview / 28 October 2020

‘Jazz has always been a music of resistance in the way it reacts to the turbulence of its times’

28 October 2020

CHRIS SEARLE in conversation with jazz guitar maestro Rob Luft

MUSIC / 11 August 2020

Jazz album reviews with Chris Searle

11 August 2020

Latest releases from Niels Lan Doky, The Mark Harvey Group and Tomeka Reid and Alexander Hawkins

MUSIC / 14 July 2020

Jazz album reviews: July 15, 2020

14 July 2020

Latest releases from Dominic Ingham, Gordon Grdina Septet and James Brandon Lewis/Chad Taylor

BOOKS / 28 June 2020

Pushing Back to Ofsted by Richard House

28 June 2020

Riposte to an inspection that closed a Gloucestershire school

'AS MANY UNISONS AS STARS IN THE SKY’: Ornette Coleman Pic

MUSIC / 24 March 2020

The shaper of jazz to come

24 March 2020

CHRIS SEARLE recommends a book on Ornette Coleman, one of the great musical innovators of the 20th century

Interview / 9 February 2020

‘Writing this tune was a very emotional process’

9 February 2020

MAKIKO HIRABAYASHI talks to Chris Searle about her elegiac reflection on the Fukushima tsunami

Live Jazz / 27 January 2020

A sound imbued with musical meaning

27 January 2020

Sets from Anthony Braxton, Omar Puente Cuban Sextet and Jean-Marc Foussat in London

PIC CAP CHANNELLING COLTRANE: Paul Dunmall

Album Review / 26 January 2020

Go Straight Round the Square

26 January 2020

Coltrane lives on in scintillating quartet's live set

PIC CAP HOLDING ON TO OPTIMISM: Sloth Racket

Album Review / 20 January 2020

Dismantle Yourself by Sloth Racket

20 January 2020

Inventive northern souls embrace free spirit of improvisation

Interview / 8 January 2020

‘It is of extreme importance that artists respond to the times we are living in’

8 January 2020

Vocalist and 'oral provocateur' GRASSY NOEL tells Chris Searle what inspires his extraordinary new album

Live Jazz / 6 January 2020

A deeply throbbing melodism

6 January 2020

CHRIS SEARLE reviews Eddie Gomez, Binker Golding, Elliot Galvin, Gunter Baby Sommer and Raymond MacDonald

Year round-up / 6 December 2019

Best of 2019: Jazz

6 December 2019

Album review / 24 November 2019

How We Do by Triceratops + LINK

24 November 2019

Bracing big band sound from quality quintet

Interview / 7 November 2019

‘Artists are their nightmare because we bring consciousness’

7 November 2019

Brazilian singer LUCAS SANTTANA'S latest record is a call for resistance to the Bolsonaro dictatorship, he tells Chris Searle

PIC CAP Irresistible: Mingus Big Band Pic: Ronnie Scott’s

Live Music Review / 1 November 2019

Mingus Big Band, Ronnie Scott's London

1 November 2019

Marvellous Mingus tribute

PIC CAP Ever inventive: Makiko Hirabayashi

Musical Review / 27 October 2019

Makiko Hirabayashi Trio, Pizza Express, Soho

27 October 2019

Melodic treat from Copennhagen trio

Interview / 30 September 2019

‘It’s about finding something we didn’t know existed before’

30 September 2019

Saxophonist ALAN WILKINSON talks to Chris Searle about the liberating power of jazz improvisation

PIC CAP Insurgent: Paul Dunmall Pic: Richard Kaby

Music review / 29 September 2019

Paul Dunmall Quartet, Cafe Oto, London

29 September 2019

Exhilarating set from band of jazz brothers

Live Music Review / 23 September 2019

Trevor Watts at 80, Cafe Oto London

23 September 2019

Veteran saxophonist defies the years with a fiery performance

Interview / 18 September 2019

Fyah in the soul

18 September 2019

Jazz tubist THEON CROSS talks to Chris Searle about ‘the vibrations of human connection’ inspiring his latest album

Interview / 9 September 2019

‘He has inspired my whole life in jazz’

9 September 2019

Veteran tenor saxophonist ALAN SKIDMORE talks to Chris Searle about his tribute album to John Coltrane

Live Jazz Review / 8 September 2019

Sloth Racket, Lescar pub, Sheffield

8 September 2019

Quintet create a startlingly good racket

Jazz Interview / 5 September 2019

Conversations with past and present

5 September 2019

LIAM NOBLE talks to Chris Searle about his new album The Long Game

Music review / 1 September 2019

Louis Moholo-Moholo and Five Blokes, Cafe Oto London

1 September 2019

In tune with the anthemic exhortations of liberation

Interview / 29 August 2019

'A model for an equal society, in miniature'

29 August 2019

FRODE GJERSTAD talks to Chris Searle about the outcome of his collaboration with two jazz greats

Culture / 13 August 2019

‘May music never become just another way of making money’

13 August 2019

KEITH TIPPETT talks to Chris Searle about his newly re-released momentous album The Unlonely Raindancer and life’s vagaries

Live Music Review / 6 August 2019

This was Sixties organ trio swing and could they swing

6 August 2019

Interview / 21 July 2019

Rooted in Rivera

21 July 2019

MIGUEL ZENON tells Chris Searle why his latest album pays tribute to one of the great Puerto Rican singers

PIC CAP Elemental: Alan Wilkinson Pic: Cafe Oto

Music Review / 21 July 2019

Alan Wilkinson and the Akodo Quartet, Cafe Oto, London

21 July 2019

Interview / 15 July 2019

Herald of a full-on future

15 July 2019

Trumpet player and composer LAURA JURD talks to Chris Searle about the exciting prospects embedded in her innovative approach to music-making

Music review / 15 July 2019

Melissa Aldana Quartet, Pizza Express Soho

15 July 2019

Chilean tribute to Mexican icon

Interview / 7 July 2019

‘It feels like a more honest reflection of Britain’

7 July 2019

Drummer MOSES BOYD tells Chris Searle why the album Alive in the East? is an authentic reflection of the direction jazz is taking in this country

Music Review / 5 July 2019

Fred Frith, Lotte Anker and Samuel Duhsler, Cafe Oto London

5 July 2019

Weird and wonderful sounds from improvisatory trio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMqq5YTC1Uk

Interview / 1 July 2019

‘I feel more elated listening to it now’

1 July 2019

Jazz saxophonist EVAN PARKER tells Chris Searle what's so special about ground-breaking jazz recording Karyobin

PIC CAP Insurrectionary: Archie Shepp Pic: Schorle

Music Review / 1 July 2019

Archie Shepp Quartet, Ronnie Scott’s, London

1 July 2019

Tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp has lost none of his fiery commitment

Music review / 18 June 2019

Elliott Sharp, Cafe Oto London

18 June 2019

Avant-garde excellence from the Elliott Sharp trio

Interview / 16 June 2019

Three free spirits

16 June 2019

OLIE BRICE talks to Chris Searle about the liberating impulse of the jazz he plays with Tobias Delius and Mark Sanders

Music Review / 13 June 2019

Wayne Escoffery Quartet, Pizza Express, Soho

13 June 2019

Horn of plenty from Wayne Escoffery and trio of virtuosi

Music review / 27 May 2019

Evan Parker, John Edwards and Robert Jarvis, Vortex London

27 May 2019

Unity is the brilliant strength of an improvisatory jazz trio

Interview / 27 May 2019

‘I am definitely not a jazz singer’

27 May 2019

ELAINE MITCHENER is a singer who defies all categories — and that’s the way she likes it, she tells Chris Searle

Interview / 20 May 2019

‘There are many ways to counter the state of the state’

20 May 2019

Jazz musician MARK DRESSER gives the lowdown on his new album Ain't Nothing but a Cyber Coup and You to Chris Searle

PIC CAP Making common cause: Faith Brackenbury and Alfie Bra

Interview / 16 May 2019

‘It's a meditation and resolution of hope’

16 May 2019

Jazz violinist and composer FAITH BRACKENBURY talks to Chris Searle about her new record, a response to the knife-crime epidemic

PIC CAP Man of many parts: Joe McPhee Pic: Dawid Laskowski

Music Review / 15 May 2019

Joe McPhee, Paal Nilssen-Love and Black Top, Cafe Oto, London

15 May 2019

Intoxicating improvisation from a quartet with a global reach

PIC CAP Lung-power: Trish Clowes in action Pic: Bob Meyrick

Interview / 12 May 2019

‘You have to embrace the unknown’

12 May 2019

Jazz saxophonist TRISH CLOWES tells Chris Searle why she and her band My Iris are so open to experiment

Culture / 9 May 2019

Barry Green Sextet, The Vortex, London

9 May 2019

The sophisticated swing of a new generation of young British boppers makes itself well and truly heard

Pic John Butcher by Andy Newcombe/Wikicommons

Interview / 1 May 2019

Locating liberation

1 May 2019

JOHN BUTCHER tells Chris Searle why he and Joe McPhee went into the Texan desert to create one of the most free-form jazz recordings ever

PIC CAP True genius: Duke Ellington in 1971 Pic: Louis Panas

Music Review / 1 May 2019

Salute to Duke Ellington, Cafe Oto London

1 May 2019

Pat Thomas pays memorable tribute to the ‘Duke’

Interview / 22 April 2019

‘Where change needs to occur’

22 April 2019

LEYLA McCALLA talks to Chris Searle about the power of music in transforming hearts and minds

Live Music Review / 17 April 2019

Keith Tippett and Dartington Improvising Trio, Vortex London

17 April 2019

Brilliant sense of adventure and invention from jazz veterans

PIC CAP Irrepressible: Nigel Kennedy Pic: Hans Westbeek

Live Music Review / 1 April 2019

Nigel Kennedy plays Krzysztof Komeda, Ronnie Scott’s, London

1 April 2019

The legendary violinist's interpretation of music by an iconic Polish composer is a match made in heaven

Jazz Albums with Chris Searle / 1 April 2019

Point Blank by Tony Kofi and the Organisation

1 April 2019

Protean saxophonist Tony Kofi delivers another winner

Live Music Review / 25 March 2019

If Herbie Went West Coast, Cafe Oto, London

25 March 2019

Jazz meeting of virtuoso minds

Jazz Albums with Chris Searle / 21 March 2019

Quartet, Quintet and Sextet by Sonny Red (Fresh Sound)

21 March 2019

Classic recordings from a saxophonist who left an indelible mark on jazz history

PIC CAP Deep roots: Kizzy Crawford Pic: Rhys Thomas/Ochr 1/A

Interview / 18 March 2019

Kizzy Crawford: ‘I am part of two worlds, in both I will thrive’

18 March 2019

The singer-songwriter tells Chris Searle what inspires her great new album Can Yr Adar (Birdsong)

Culture / 14 March 2019

Jazz albums: Live at the Black Musicians' Conference, 1981

14 March 2019

Creative juices flow as black musicians confer

Chris Searle on Jazz / 10 March 2019

Jazz Review: Miguel Zenon

10 March 2019

An abiding love for his native Puerto Rico comes out of every note that Miguel Zenon plays

Interview / 8 March 2019

Carving the Blues in Granite

8 March 2019

Jazz musician and vocalist KATE WESTBROOK talks to Chris Searle about her unique new album, a tribute to those who quarried stone on Dartmoor

Culture / 3 March 2019

Jazz Album Review: Lowell Davidson Trio

3 March 2019

Pianist Lowell Davidson's only recording reveals all the brilliance of his innovatory talent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFY_hLNozRo

Album Review / 25 February 2019

Last refrains of love and longing from jazz trumpet great Tomasz Stanko

25 February 2019

Music / 10 February 2019

Jazz albums: Memorable meanderings from McPhee and fellow travellers

10 February 2019

Interview / 10 February 2019

‘We really do live in a global village’

10 February 2019

JOHN McLAUGHLIN talks to Chris Searle about the sense of internationalism that's guided his life and music

Reviews / 8 February 2019

Sun Ra's spirit lives on in veterans' tribute

8 February 2019

Interview / 4 February 2019

Something special out of nothing

4 February 2019

Innovative presence on the British jazz scene BINKER GOLDING talks to Chris Searle about his new album

Jazz Albums with Chris Searle / 4 February 2019

Diamond tribute to Emerald Isle from German trio

4 February 2019

PIC CAP Pulsating: Elaine Mitchener Pic: elainemitchener.com

Music Review / 9 January 2019

Classic case of black consciousness raising

9 January 2019

CHRIS SEARLE sees an astonishing group of musicians deliver a message of struggle and hope

Jazz albums with Chris Searle / 7 January 2019

Free northern spirits make a glorious Racket

7 January 2019

PIC CAP Percussive pioneer: Lorraine Baker Pic: Simon Murrel

Culture / 3 December 2018

Best of 2108: Jazz Albums

3 December 2018

by CHRIS SEARLE

Jazz albums with Chris Searle / 16 November 2018

Ahmed a consummate guide to thrilling musical destinations

16 November 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly1kt7hA7rU

Jazz Albums with Chris Searle / 11 November 2018

Horn of plenty from the protean Jim Rattigan

11 November 2018

Interview / 9 November 2018

‘It's true people's music’

9 November 2018

ALAN DEIN tells Chris Searle why he's just brought out a unique compilation of East End Yiddisher jazz

Jazz Albums with Chris Searle / 30 October 2018

Improvisational greatness from a free spirit of the guitar

30 October 2018

PIC CAP Ageless: Louis Moholo-Moholo Pic: Andy Newcombe/Wiki

Live Music Review / 21 October 2018

Drum legend's brilliance beats out revolutionary rhythms of Africa

21 October 2018

Jazz / 14 October 2018

Perfect pictures from an exhibition of jazz artistry

14 October 2018

Jazz Albums with Chris Searle / 26 September 2018

Soul of invention from Satoko Fujii and Joe Fonda

26 September 2018

Jazz / 24 September 2018

Pertinent politics in consummate jazz outing from Soweto Kinch

24 September 2018

Jazz Albums with Chris Searle / 21 September 2018

Rediscovered 1963 Coltrane recordings a revelatory treasure from a momentous year

21 September 2018