This latest show covers a lot of musical ground with some names well-known to Cosmic Jazz listeners. Alongside this are others new to the show, some long-established, some newly arrived – with personnel links across the tracks that remind us how jazz is often a family affair. And since we went to press. we have learned today (12 April) of the death of Mike Westbrook just after his 90th birthday – which makes our brief tribute below more poignant. We will want to celebrate his life and work more fully in future shows.

1. Brian Jackson feat. Carl Cornwell – Moonshine from EP Two

Brian Jackson is a legendary songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. For many years he was in partnership with Gil Scott-Heron, although Jackson has perhaps been the lesser known of the two.  Derek has just pulled out from his shelves the vinyl album Bridges by Gil Scott-Heron to which Jackson contributes keyboards as well as vocals and compositions. A version of another tune from this album – Racetrack in France – can be found on the EP from which Moonshine is taken while our choice from the EP features tenor saxophonist Carl Cornwell . In fact, from 29 May you can go further than an EP as British label (BBE – Barely Breaking Even) are celebrating 30 years of releasing music and will release all the EP tracks and more on a triple LP/2CD set entitled Now More Than Ever. The music is essentially re-workings of tunes from Brian Jackson’s past. There is particular interest as the Nuyorican Masters At Work team (Louie Vega and Kenny ‘Dope’ Gonzalez) – much loved here at Cosmic Jazz – are responsible for the production. Another Cosmic Jazz favourite, Luisito Quintero, provides congas and percussion for the tune Moonshine. You will come across these names again later in the show.

2. Joel Ross – Bach (God The Father in Eternity) from Nublues

Derek has recently discovered the music of Joel Ross and would highly recommend his work to those who  who are not familiar with it. Ross is a composer and plays the vibraphone, an instrument that has been unusually common on Cosmic Jazz of late. Neil saw him play some dazzling vibes in Makaya McCraven’s 2023 visit to the Barbican, London and was hugely impressed. Now, it may be a surprise to see Bach in the title of a jazz tune but his music has long been significant to many jazz as well as classical musicians. Indeed, UK pianist Neil Cowley has just released an album which celebrates this influence – check out Scurry from Built on Bach. The Blue Note publicity to accompany the release of the album Nublues (2024) describes the tune as injecting the sound of the church and the rhythm of Black American music into a melodic fragment by J.S.Bach. Ross is accompanied on this number by his partner the flutist Gabriel Garo, with Jeremy Corren on piano, Kanoa Mendenhall on bass, Jeremy Dutton on drums and Immanuel Wilkins on alto saxophone. The album emerged from his study of the blues during Covid lockdown. He saw that the blues was not just a 12-bar form but rather a feeling – Sort of a spirit or an energy. Ross has combined his feeling for the blues with music that is more accessible and melodic than his previous work, but still incorporates the jazz direction he’s developed.

3. Joel Ross – Calvary from Gospel Music

The tune Calvary is different from the rest of the music on the latest Joel Ross album Gospel Music (2026) in that it is the only tune not written by him and the only tune with vocals. It has been selected, however,  because it is a wonderful, spiritual track, Joel Ross is upfront on his Christian beliefs and as Derek put together this playlist over the Easter weekend Calvary seemed to be particularly relevant.  Furthermore, the Blue Note publicity comments Ross is committed to worship in and through his music. The album Gospel Music was released in January 2026 and Derek hopes to include more from this album in future shows. The vocalist on Calvary is Ekep Nkwelle who delivers the number with an appropriate spiritual and moving solemnity. She was born in Cameroon but is based in New York and is seen as a rising star. AllAboutJazz wrote that she somehow manages to sound both solidly in the tradition and like no-one else. The tune Calvary was actually written by Betty Jackson King (1928-1994) – a Chicagoan composer, choral director, keyboard player, lecturer and publisher. Ross was – like a number of great new jazz players – also born in the city.

4. Mike Westbrook – Metropolis from The Cortège Live at the BBC 1980

5. Dave Holland, Norma Winstone and the London Vocal Project – Will You Walk A Little Faster from Vital Spark (the music of Kenny Wheeler)

It’s thanks to Edition Records for this new release from jazz legends Dave Holland and Norma Winstone, together with the versatile London Vocal Project. Vital Spark is a collection of Kenny Wheeler’s final compositions that capture an unusual combo of jazz ensemble and choir. On our choice, Norma Winstone reprises the arrangement of Lewis Carroll’s Will You Walk a Little Faster – one of our favourites – check out this Gerardo Frisina remix. As a bonus, there’s a great soprano sax solo here from Mark Lockheart. Throughout, Wheeler’s settings of poems by Stevie Smith, Lewis Carroll, and William Blake are inspired – as the PR for this release acknowledges, the result is unmistakably Kenny Wheeler: lyrical but unsentimental, harmonically rich yet spacious and the project comes across as a personal, shared act of remembering and reinterpreting, shaped by decades of friendship, collaboration, and quiet reverence for one of the most singular voices in modern music. Highly recommended.

6. Olivia Murphy – calliope & the magpies from Fateful Birds & Fledgling Stories

And it’s thanks to Chris France from Prescription PR for this fascinating new album from composer Olivia Murphy, to be released in May and available on Bandcamp in CD and DL formats (no vinyl as yet). UK jazz musician Django Bates has written the sleeve notes for this release and he notes this music has at its heart an artist’s burning desire to express themselves freely, honestly, without compromise, wasting no thought on commercial concerns. The album references a number of avian-related stories. Calliope, the Greek Muse of epic poetry, transformed nine sisters into magpies after they dared to suggest their voices were more beautiful than hers and the four movements in the Sister Suite sequence take their names from a quote in the novel Little Women, where Beth describes herself and her three sisters as birds taking different paths in life. This is an innovative, brave album with a unique soundworld – explore via Bandcamp and for more on Murphy’s music and influences check out her website here.

7. Karim Saber – Sundance from Sundance

Sundance is the second release from British-Iranian guitarist, composer and bandleader Karim Saber. Recorded in January 2025, it retains the same personnel as his first release, Transmission. Matt Cook is on tenor saxophone, Alex Wilson on piano and Fender Rhodes (of whom more later in the show), John Jones on bass and Jack Thomas on drums with Aitzi Cofre Real on vocals on three tracks. The title track has a strong melody which allows for some great improvisations from Saber, Wilson and Cook. Sundance is an impressive album and we will definitely hear more from this young guitarist.

8. Ygor Przebindowski – Salto from Salto

Salto (2025) is the latest album from Ygor Przebindowski – a multi-instrumentalist composer of music for theatre, film – and now jazz. There’s a wide range of contemporary jazz influences here – including the addition of a Polish turntablist. Przebindowski is on piano and vibes and is supported by Marcin Jadach on bass, Fryderyk Mlynarski on drums and DJ Eprom Mical Baj on scratching and sampling with the addition on some tracks of vocalist Sabina Rachel ‘playing (apparently) the voice of a journalist. This is an intriguing release and well worth investigating. Like much new jazz from Poland and eastern Europe, this record comes thanks to Steve’s Jazz Sounds – an online emporium of all that’s best in the music and a site you really should investigate.

9. Louie Vega presents Luisito Quintero – Oshagriña from Percussion Maddness

From this stage on the show moves into Latin Jazz territory but also re-visits artists we have met already in the show. Louie Vega, of Masters at Work (see above) is accredited as the presenter of the album Percussion Maddness (2006) by percussionist Luisito Quintero. Vega and Quintero are joint composers of the selected tune Oshagriña which features Milton Cardona and the Aranla Chorus. To further the inter-connectedness of this show, the UK release of this 2006 record was via BBE (see above). You can track down the CD version of this record here on Discogs and Neil is lucky enough to have a rare 7″ vinyl EP version of some of the tracks from this excellent record. Quintero was born in Caracas, Venezuela and Oshagriña is steeped in the vibes of Afro-Venezuelan rhythms. Quintero travelled extensively with the leading Venezuelan salsa artist Oscar D’Leon but moved to New York where his playing crossed over Latin, jazz, funk and African rhythms and is reflected in the list of distinguished artists with whom he has collaborated – including Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Mark Anthony, Gloria Estefan, Richard Bona, Jack De Johnette, Willie Colon, George Benson, Natalie Cole, Herbie Hancock and the various projects that have come from Masters at Work.

10. Alex Wilson – Havana Thoroughfare from Anglo-Cubano

British pianist/keyboard player Alex Wilson is another to make a second appearance on the show. He features in Karim Saber’s Sundance (see above) but he is better known as a performer of salsa/Latin jazz music both in his own and other groups. The tune Havana Thouroughfare is from the 2000 Candid release Anglo-Cubano and covers classic Latin Jazz territory of rhythm and percussion. The tune gives, in Wilson’s words, a flavour of what it’s like to walk the streets of that most atmospheric city. Wilson travelled to Cuba and was introduced to the top Afro-Cuban percussion band Clave e Guaguanco. He was joined in Havana by members of his London band Paul Booth (tenor sax), Dyani Akuru (congas) and co-producer Dave Puttman. Parts of the album were recorded both at the famous EGREM Studios in Havana and in London. The result is an interesting mix of Latin Jazz, salsa and cha cha.

More from Cosmic Jazz soon.