This is the first part of our Cosmic Jazz celebration to mark the John Coltrane centenary. The show has Coltrane tunes followed by a selection from some of his many admirers, including a group that may surprise you. There is also a remembrance of Cassandra Wilson who died recently.
1. John Coltrane Quartet – Crescent from Crescent
We had hoped to present a full show of John Coltrane tunes selected by Neil but this breaks the MixCloud condition that you cannot present a show featuring one artist only. This reasonably prevents the upload of entire albums, although in our show we made thoughtful selections from different albums. We will look at other ways to celebrate the John Coltrane centenary but for this show, we mix Coltrane tunes with artists known to have admired him. Crescent is from the eponymous album (1964) by what is referred to as the Classic John Coltrane Quartet – John Coltrane on tenor and soprano sax, McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. It was the album released before the celebrated and influential A Love Supreme and points towards that direction. Nat Hentoff in the liner notes refers to the album as disciplined lyricism and notes the quote from Ornette Coleman that Coltrane is the most lyrical player I ever heard. Crescent opens in a melancholy mood and is imbued throughout with contemplative intensity and the aforementioned disciplined lyricism.
2. Nat Birchall – Invocations from Invocations
There cannot be any jazz saxophonist whose influence has been as great on other players as John Coltrane – and this influence can be found worldwide. From North Carolina we travel to Lancashire in the North-West of England, to find British tenor saxophonist Nat Birchall, who is one of those who acknowledges the debt. The liner notes by Francis Gooding to the Nat Birchall album Invocations refers to the chosen tongue of Birchall’s music as that of the spiritualised musical discourse whose vital source can be found in the sacred testaments of John Coltrane. This from an album released forty eight years after John Coltrane’s death… Sacred intensity, deep spirituality, freedom of expression and emotional outpouring – it’s all here in Birchall’s music and it’s all worth exploring. Start with Cosmic Language (2019, Birchall’s other record for the Jazzman label but go back into his work with Matthew Halsall and forward into his Nyabinghi dub experiments. You won’t be disappointed.
3. John Coltrane – My Favorite Things from My Favorite Things: Coltrane At Newport
Derek used to think My Favorite Things was a somewhat ordinary and lifeless tune written by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein III. Then he heard a version by John Coltrane which transformed his impression of the work – a vinyl recording from the 1963 Newport Jazz Festival which was to become the first Coltrane record he bought. CJ used the 2007 CD version which probably sounds better than that now-worn vinyl copy. There are many other Coltrane takes of My Favorite Things available on disc including the initial studio version from 1961 along with other live versions – One Down, One Up Live at the Half Note; The Unissued Seattle Broadcast; Offering: Live at Temple University. Coltrane appeared four times at the groundbreaking and influential Newport Jazz festival (but only the 1963 and 1965 performances were recorded) and he played many festivals – but for Ashley Kahn, author of A Love Supreme and the liner notes for this CD, the Newport Jazz Festival version stands apart from the rest – despite the fact that this not quite the Classic Quartet. Drummer Elvin Jones wasn’t available and was replaced by Roy Haines who brings a lighter touch. Kahn refers to comments from saxophonist Joe Lovano who said that whenever Coltrane played My Favorite Things there was a sense of inspiration but that version (Newport 1963) has an airiness – a different kind of flow and dance to it from the regular Coltrane quartet. For us at Cosmic Jazz, any Coltrane version of My Favorite Things will still be worth hearing and always makes a good place to begin exploring his music. Want 42 versions from 1960-1967 (both live and studio recordings) collected under one roof? Try this incredible archive feat from from the Netherlands via Alles Helpt Publicaties.
4. Michael Brecker – Song For Bilbao from Tales From The Hudson
Tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker (1949-2007) is widely recognised as one of the most influential tenor saxophonists since John Coltrane. Brecker was widely recorded, technically gifted, followed by many other saxophonists and played in a range of styles such as the disco-infused Brecker Brothers with his brother Randy and fusion band Steps Ahead. He also played with numerous other jazz rock and pop musicians including Herbie Hancok, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Steely Dan, Lou Reed, Joni Mitchell and Chaka Khan. For Michael Brecker himself, though, Coltrane was a key influence. He saw Coltrane play live, and the list of people to whom he gave thanks in the notes to this 1996 album begins with The late great John Coltrane. Moreover, the album’s Song For Bilbao and African Skies have McCoy Tyner from the John Coltrane Classic Quartet on piano, It’s worth noting, too that Tales From the Hudson is released on the Impulse! Records label, the home of so many of the memorable and inspirational recordings from John Coltrane and his musicians.
5. Cassandra Wilson – Shall We Dance from Blue Skies
John Coltrane has not been the only jazz musician to improve a Rodgers and Hammerstein tune by changing a tune into a superb jazz number. The late US vocalist, guitarist and composer Cassandra Wilson who died on 01 September 2026, was among those who did it too. Wilson, composed a significant proportion of her own material, but was also adept at transforming and re-interpreting the works of others. Flexibility, warmth, conviction, timing and a sultry contralto are some of the words that have been used to describe her in recent days. Shall We Dance opens her 1988 album Blue Skies and has a blues feel to it and the blues were later prominent in her 1993 Blue Note Records album Blue Light Til Dawn. She was labelled a jazz musician but her music incorporated so much more. Blue Skies included Mulgrew Miller on piano, Lonnie Plaxico on acoustic bass and Terri Lyne Carrington on drums. Among those offered special thanks is saxophonistSteve Coleman, with whom Cassandra Wilson co-founded the influential M-Base Collective.
6. John Coltrane – India from Impressions
For Derek, who compiled this programme, there is no doubt that Coltrane was and remains the greatest and here is further evidence as to why he holds that view. The tune India can be found on a 2008 Impulse Records CD release under the title Impressions and can also be found on The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings. It is a tune needs to be listened to in a state of seriousness contemplation and meditation. John Coltrane was on soprano saxophone, with the Classic Quartet but there was also Eric Dolphy on bass clarinet and Reggie Workman as an additional bass player. It is a tune of modality, of spiritual, uplift of transcendence, of searching and reaching for a higher place. It came after John Coltrane had been studying with sitar player Ravi Shankar and they shared a a deep respect for each other, withJohn Coltrane naming his second son Ravi after him. John’s consequent interest in Eastern music and philosophy was shared by John’s wife and musical collaboratorthe pianist Alice Coltrane. India is a powerful, moving, transforming work of deep resonance that moves and enlightens body annd soul.
7. The Byrds – Eight Miles High from The Byrds Greatest Hits
Derek remembers an NME piece in the time of punk that described the cancellation of a performance by musician David Crosby as a highlight of the week. At the time Derek had some understanding of this but has since turned to considerable admiration and here is an explanation. Crosby was an original member of the pop group The Byrds and the story goes that during the Byrds 1965 US tour of the USA Crosby brought along two cassettes – one the music of Ravi Shankar and the other a John Coltrane album and both were to have a great impact on the band. The Coltrane tune India (see above) was particularly influential for Eight Miles High, where Coltrane’s sitar saxophone effect on India was deployed by lead guitarist Roger McGuinn on his twelve string on Eight Miles High. This is not the only example of a West Coast psychedelic rock band citing the influence of John Coltrane. It was interesting to read that the band Love not only saw John Coltrane but were influenced by him. In the notes to their album Da Capo Love state how Coltrane would play like a ten minute solo and then he’d walk off and leave McCoy Tyner, he would play and then he’d split. Jimmy Garrison would play leaving only Elvin Jones. So we started doing that and everybody loved it and it got to be part of our thing. Those who saw John Coltrane came from a wider circle than might be expected and his influence has been and remains seminal. Take this opportunity of the Coltrane centenary to listen, but don’t stop there… We’ll be revisiting Coltrane in future shows – and going beyond to some surprising musical destinations…
This is another timeles classic. A Cosmic Jazz favourite that has also appeared on the show before. The tune Watarase by Japanese pianist Fumio Itabashi, who appeared in London for the first time at the 2025 London Jazz Festival, has appeared in many versions. including a remix by Joe Clausell. There are eight different versions on the double CD from which this track is taken. This take, though, is our favourite. It is described as a Symphonic Poem and is recorded with Fumio Itabashi on piano accompanied by the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra featuring vocalist Yuki Kaneko. The song is a variation on a traditional Japanese folk melody and is named after the Watarase river in Japan’s Kanto region and showcases Itabashi’s Don Pullen-influenced style. Itabashi wheels away on the piano with such improvised fervour that you have little idea of what will come next. Meanwhile the orchestra is mighty and Yuki Kaneko is something else. Her voice soars into the stratosphere as the tune builds and builds to a full-blown, monumental conclusion with swirling piano, a full orchestra and the inspired vocals of Kaneko on top of it all. This was a live performance and we can only breathlessly imagine what it would have been like to witness such an event. We cannot recommend this CD take on versions of Watarase highly enough – you can still find it 
Amazingly there follows a tune of exactly equal length to the Garbarek/Stenson – 20 minutes 24 seconds – from Pharaoh Sanders, with both tunes selected by Neil. It comes from the 1977 album Pharaoh. Like all of the records on this show it is unique in its soundscape, its vibe, its emotions and in the way it delves deep into soulful spirituality; it is rightly regarded as a masterpiece. The circumstances behind the production of the record were somewhat bizarre. The musicians on the record included guitarist Tisiji Munoz who went on to become a spiritual guru, organist Clifton ‘Jiggs’ Chase who went on to work for Sugar Hill Records where he co-wrote and produced The Message and Pharoah’s then wife Bedria Sanders playing the harmonium. She was a classically-trained pianist and had never played the harmonium before. This album was re-released in a 2CD/3LP set in 2023 with additional live performances on David Byre’s Luaka Bop label. There’s a version of Love Will Find a Way (which was recut as the title to Sanders’ 1978 Arista debut), The almost ambient textures in Harvest Time emerge from Munoz’s Santana-style chordal vamp to invite bass, harmonium, and sax in. There are no drums. Following the saxophonist’s blue modal solo, the tune travels across drones, transcendent guitar, and bass breaks, and near-instinctual interplay between the rhythm instruments. Listen to Harvest Time to find yourself entranced, spiritually enhanced and culturally enriched – it really is quite something.
Derek began the show with his copy of the rare 7in single of Are You Glad To Be In America? from guitarist James Blood Ulmer. In 1972, Ornette Coleman took Ulmer under his wing and taught him the principles of harmolodics – Coleman’s system that treats harmony, rhythm, and melody equally and which defined the output of his Prime Time band. The sound is defined by twin drummers G Calvin Weston and the incomparable Ronald Shannon Jackson, along with Amin Ali on electric bass. The result is this persistent nervous energy that still retains a funk core at the heart. The three musicians construct multiple layers around Ulmer, with his guitar tone a mash-up of jazz, rock, funk, and surf elements. Add into the mix Ulmer’s attempt at singing and this sounds like a disastrous combination. And yet – the result is an impassioned plea that sounds as powerful now as in late 1971 when the single was issued on the UK Rough Trade label. Ulmer died last month leaving behind a legacy of dozens of recordings, the best of which include Are You Glad To Be In America? (1972), Freelancing (1981), Odyssey (1984) and Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions (2001). He also appeared on one of Neil’s all-time favourite records Arthur Blythe’s Lenox Avenue Breakdown from 1980 (check 
Tenor saxophonist and jazz giant Sonny Rollins was born on 03 September 1930 and died on 25 May 2026. His long career brought him two Grammys and numerous compositions that have become jazz standards, including Oleo, Airegin and Doxy. Rollins’ significance can be judged by the fact that until his death he was the only surviving musician in perhaps the most famous jazz photo of all, Art Kane’s A Great Day in Harlem (1958). Before leading his own group Rollins played with many leading jazz musicians, including Bud Powell, Miles Davis and John Coltrane. In 1956 he began recording under his own name, with Saxophone Colossus appearing two years later in 1956 – resulting in a new nickname of ‘the saxophone colossus’. Rollins’ quartet here is Max Roach on drums, Doug Watkins on bass and long-time partner Tommy Flanagan on piano. The opening track St. Thomas is an obvious one to select, although not typical of the album as a whole. It’s catchy, it swings, and Rollins’ full-on, mighty tenor gives it a real feel-good factor. With a family heritage in the Virgin Islands, Rollins plays tribute to the sounds of Caribbean calypso and it’s this that makes the tune so distinctive. Max Roach and Rollins are a perfect combination here – Roach’s precise, measured lines give Rollins opportunity to develop that celebrated rhythmic flexibility into those continuously evolving solos evident on subsequent recordings with the drummer. The partnership was to continue through until another five star record – 1958’s Freedom Suite. Check out the extended title track 
The South African pianist and composer Abdullah Ibrahim (born Dollar Brand) died last month at the age of and he’s most definitely a musician we want to remember and celebrate on Cosmic Jazz. This track, released in 1976 on the album Voice of Africa, but played here from a vinyl re-release of 1988 from the UK-based Kaz Records, is a tune of great warmth, soul and emotional intensity. It has the spirit of South Africa but in its uplifting, joyous tone has a universal message for all of us. Little Boy drives along at a measured pace but one that makes it impossible not to sway the body and reach down to the heart and soul. The musicians include Kippie Moeketsi on alto sax – one of the legends of South African music and described as the father of contemporary Black music in the country – along with Basil Coetzee and Duku Makasion on tenors. Sipho Gumede on bass and Gilbert Matthews on drums make up this powerful sextet. Perhaps the most celebrated tune on this album is the anthemic Mannenberg, a composition Ibrahim was to play until the very end of his life. Listen to Ibrahim talking about this iconic tune and then performing it live 
Ibrahim was born and raised in Cape Town and began piano study at the age of seven, going on perform over eight decades and dozens of recordings. He founded the Jazz Epistles in 1961 (with aforementioned Kippie Moeketsi) and celebrated trumpeter Hugh Masekela who – like Abdullah Ibrahim – was to feature on the international stage. Apartheid in South Africa forced Ibrahim to leave the country for Switzerland in 1962 and it was here that he was heard by the touring Duke Ellington who set up a recording session for him. In 1965 Ibrahim moved to New York and played the Newport Jazz Festival that year. He was to settle in New York but continued to visit South Africa where in 1974 he recorded the tune Mannenberg that was to become an anthem for the anti-apartheid movement. Ibrahim was to perform across the world, playing and recording with many musicians, giving his final live performance in Cape Town just three months before his death. African Marketplace was the first Ibrahim record Neil bought (on release in 1980) and features eight folkloric anthems that celebrate growing up in South Africa. The 12-piece group includes Americans Carlos Ward on alto, Craig Harris on trombone and Cecil McBee on bass. The Wedding is simply a beautiful hymn (with a truly gorgeous alto solo from Carlos Ward) and really the highlight of this second Ibrahim classic recording – it’s a moving, spiritual work of art.
Colin Steele is a trumpeter from Scotland who we have enjoyed and played on Cosmic Jazz. He has a new album released via the Scottish label 
Quiet Fire is the new album from British producer, keyboard player and Edition Records founder Dave Stapleton – a beat-based jazz record shaped by loop-focused production and centred on Fender Rhodes, bass and drums, It’s Stapleton’s first album under his own name in over 13 years, and reflects a move towards more beat-led writing. Stapleton is featured on Prophet and Moog, with sampled fragments and background voices broadening the sound. There’s guest performances from Nils Petter Molvær on trumpet (who has his own new album out on Edition Records), Olga Amelchenko on saxophone and Stuart McCallum on guitar, alongside the core trio of Jon Goode on bass and Elliot Bennett on drums. Our regular listeners/readers may recognise the album’s title – but this is not the 
We’ve featured music from this Edition Records album on a previous show but it’s well work revisiting. Vital Spark emerged last year and is a collection of Kenny Wheeler’s final compositions that deploy an unusual combo of jazz ensemble and choir. Norma Winstone is on vocals, Dave Holland on bass, Nikki Iles on piano, James Maddren on drums, Mark Lockheart on tenor and soprano saxes and John Paricelli on guitar. Throughout, Wheeler’s settings of poems by Stevie Smith, Lewis Carroll, and William Blake are inspired and –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.
Our praises begin with Clifford Jordan’s wonderful self-titled tribute to John Coltrane from his superb Glass Bead Games double album – one of Neil’s undoubted favourites from the Strata East label. Writing for 
Terry Callier possessed a rich baritone that he deploys to great effect here on this vocal tribute to one of his heroes. It comes from his third and final album for the Cadet label and is full of richly-detailed arrangements as well as thoughtful political and social messages. Can’t Catch the Trane is one of the highlights of this impressive 1973 set along with a sensitive reading of Duke Ellington’s Satin Doll and the epic album closer Alley-Wind Song. I Just Can’t Help Myself has been reissued on vinyl and the demo versions of Can’t Catch the Trane and other titles are available on the excellent 2005 budget compilation Life Lessons: The Best of Terry Callier. It’s alto saxophonist Don Myrick (who featured in the Phenix Horns for Earth, Wind & Fire) on this perfect demo version. For those unfamilar with Callier’s work, a great place to start is with his excellent 1998 comeback album Timepeace, issued on Gilles Peterson’s Talkin’ Loud label. You can track down a copy 
No apologies for more music from Brian Jackson’s new album Now More Thank Ever, which has just appeared on BBE Records following the ‘teaser’ releases of some tracks in EP format. This time, our obvious choice is the inspiring Lady Day & John Coltrane, one of Gil Scott Heron’s most famous compositions. Most of this new release is another tribute – this time to the memory of Brian Jackson’s former musical partner who together gave us many memorable albums including Winter in America (1974) and It’s Your World and From South Africa to South Carolina (both 1975). Gil was the brother I never had and I was the brother he never had, said Jackson in a 2022 Guardian newspaper interview. We had so much in common: both only children who were raised by our mothers and estranged from our fathers. Our mothers pushed us to succeed academically and we both enrolled at Lincoln [University] because 
And now we come to the master – the icon whose centenary will be celebrated on 23 September this year. Here at CJ we’re getting in early, featuring several programmes that will include tributes to this giant of jazz. We begin with one of Coltrane’s later recordings, drawn largely from tapes discovered in 1994 by Alice Coltrane who plays piano throughout and who titled eight of the tracks featured. The album features Rashied Ali on drums and Jimmy Garrison on bass. Garrison had actually left Coltrane’s group in 1966 but he came back for these recordings the following year. Stellar Regions is actually an early version of Venus which appears on the duo album Interstellar Space with with Ali on drums and Coltrane on tenor sax recorded just a week after these tunes. D avid Wild’s album liner notes are worth quoting in some detail: These recordings all have a similar aura. Among Coltrane’s final phrases, they are almost the last notes to be captured on tape, performances thus haunted by our foreknowledge that what will follow them is silence. More importantly and perhaps even more compelling, they represent a suggestion of the evolution his music would have taken had his life not been cut so short, a tantalizing glimpse of an unrealized future… these eight compositions, a day’s work from mid-February of 1967, stand alone as fully formed masterworks, explorations of the “late Coltrane” idiom. That makes clear the driving force that was pushing Coltrane forwards – for just a few months later in July 1967 he would be dead from liver cancer.
We started 2026 with a track from Ruby Rushton’s latest album – their fifth. This UK band is led by sax and flute player Edward Cawthorne – aka Tenderlonius – with Nick Walters on trumpet and flugelhorn, Aidan Shepherd on piano, Fender Rhodes and synths and Tim Carnegie on drums, with all band members making percussion contributions. All Ruby Rushton records are released on their own 22a independent record label. Oli Reeves in his notes to the vinyl album release states that This is a band still evolving. Trademark catchy riffs and heavy grooves are still there but are now heightened by a level of maturity and a sense of belonging that hadn’t been encountered previously. And this is why Ruby Rushton deserves more recognition amidst the ongoing surge of new British jazz artists. If you don’t know their music, check out 
And so we turn to another British saxophonist, Camilla George. She studied at London’s Trinity College of Music, where Jean Toussaint was a tutor and then she played with Courtney Pine’s Tomorrow’s Warriors big band. George plays alto sax and identifies Kenny Garrett as an important influence, which explains the addition of his tune Ms Baja featuring effective scatting from Zara Macfarlane. Her debut album Isang appeared in 2017 and was much praised at the time with critic John Fordham noting the saxophonist’s nimbleness, light sound and bursts of raw emotion recalling the 50s cool school as well as the Coltrane quartet. High praise indeed. Other than Ms Baja, the compositions on Isang are all her own and the band includes one of our favourite keyboard players on the UK scene – the always impressive Sarah Tandy. Second album The People Could Fly appeared in 2018 and was followed in 2022 by the even more diverse Ibio-Ibio in 2022 which included Daniel Casimir on bass, Shirley Tetteh on guitar, Winston Clifford on drums plus Senegalese kora player Kadialy Kouyate, acclaimed US drummer Daru Jones and Birmingham’s finest MC Lady Sanity.
We first featured Joel Ross on Cosmic Jazz at the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020 following the release of KingMaker, his first album on Blue Note, and we caught up with him earlier this year exploring his gospel-influenced 2026 release simply titled Gospel Music. Before this was the excellent album nublues and we return to this outing with the title track. There are covers of Thelonious Monk’s Evidence and Coltrane’s Equinox and Central Park West, sitting alongside seven original pieces. The title track is an absolute showcase for Ross’s talent – something that Neil can verify, having seen him in 2023 performing in an all-star group with drummer Makaya McCraven alongside guitarist Matt Gold, electric bassist Junius Paul and trumpeter Marquis Hill.
At the beginning of the year, we profiled vocalist Ledisi and her tribute album For Dinah. Best known as an R&B singer, Ledisi is an excellent jazz vocalist too. In an Echoes magazine interview in 2025, Ledisi identified Dinah Washington as an under-appreciated artist, drawing attention to her influence on Aretha Franklin and Quincy Jones, noting too that There are only five people on my wall at home: my mom, my great aunt, Mahalia Jackson, Nina Simone and Dinah. This Dinah Washington original may have the same title as ‘The Tennessee Plowboy’ Johnny Arnold’s country number from 1950 but is a much more spirited number – and Ledisi does indeed do it justice. She’s supported on this track by Christian McBride on bass, McClenty Hunter on drums and Michael King on piano. Highly recommended.
Derek was lucky enough, some time ago as a student, to attend a college that had a jazz club. How many colleges/universities would have such an institution these days? Seeing live jazz there was what turned Derek from a jazz sceptic into a jazz enthusiast. He remembers seeing the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet with Michael Garrick, Dave Green, Trevor Tomkin and went out to buy the record Change Is. Mike Westbrook also played and equally generated much enthusiasm for jazz. Derek is the proud owner of some Mike Westbrook records on vinyl, including the 1970 release Love Songs from which the opening tune of this show is taken. It is now classified as a rare record and will not come cheap if you wish to purchase on vinyl – Neil has tracked 
This Mike Westbrook track has appeared before on Cosmic Jazz and again there are no apologies for the repeat. It has been described as his outstanding achievement and that comment was made in a request for 
This piece was originally commissioned by Swedish Radio with a requirement for saxophonist John Surman to be part of the band. The title refers to the room at Leeds Polytechnic where Mike’s wife Kate Westbrook was an art lecturer and where much of the music was written. The music was first performed live in Sweden but was not released on record at the time, although in 2020 it was remastered from the original tapes and issued as Love & Understanding by 
The music of Mike Westbrook has many varied changes of mood, style tempo and rhythm and this is illustrated by the final two tunes from the Marching Songs album. The album was commissioned for the 1968 Camden Festival, released on record in 1969 and re-released by 
These five opening tunes have been selected to remember and celebrate the music of Mike Westbrook (21 March 1936 to 11 April 2026), who was writing and performing until shortly before his death. Only recently on 10 April Cosmic Jazz featured a tune from the release, for the first time, of the Mike Westbrook Orchestra The Cortege Live At The BBC 1980 on 
The Shieling Companion Pieces is the new EP from acclaimed Scottish pianist and composer Fergus McCreadie, It’s not released until July but you can check out Ford The River here on Cosmic Jazz. Recorded on North Uist in a remote cottage in the Outer Hebrides, with the trio gathered in one room around an upright piano, these pieces extend the atmosphere and shared concentration of the original album release. With David Bowden (bass) and Stephen Henderson (drums), McCreadie builds on a sound forged through years of collective trust and sustained touring, blending Scottish folk spirit with modern jazz language. We’ve championed McCreadie’s music from the beginning and he is now one of British jazz’s leading voices, recognised for performances that carry directness and emotional weight – as Neil knows from seeing him in performance most recently in 2024.
Time to feature again another contemporary talent from the Edition Records, pianist Sultan Stevenson and his trio – Jacob Gryn on bass and Joel Walters on drums – with guests Soweto Kinch on tenor sax and Josh Short on trumpet/flugelhorn. As a teenager Stevenson developed his craft at the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy and Tomorrow’s Warriors, subsequently graduating from The Guildhall School of Music in 2023. He is the winner of The UK Parliamentary Jazz Award for Best Newcomer 2023 and was nominated for a Jazz FM Breakthrough Act of the Year in 2025. In April 2026 Sultan joined the 2026-2028 cohort of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist scheme, marking a turn in Stevenson’s career that is certain to lead to some very special projects. Watch out for future developments.
This show has followed the tunes remembering Mike Westbrook by featuring selections from three contemporary British pianists/keyboard players to show that the tradition of innovation and achievement set by Westbrook and others such as Michael Garrick continues in Britain today. The story of Sarah Tandy – a BBC selected Young Classical Pianist who turned jazz musician while studying Literature at Cambridge University – is an interesting one. To see her live is something else as she maintains a cool presence while her fingers zoom effortlessly up and down the keyboards. The title of her 2019 album Infection In The Sentence is a reference to a work by Sandra Gilbert and Susdan Gubar who argue that patriarchal language and literature infect women writers with anxiety. It is a great album, much played and loved by Cosmic Jazz and the tune Timelord is a fine funky, driving example with great bass lines. Tandy has not released anything since but there is much to look forward to. In her Sarah Tandy Piano 24 February 2026 Instagram post she admits to having been busy slaying MANY mighty dragons … but I am back from my adventures in the wilderness with a hard drive full of music. She asks us to stay tuned. She has a band together again who performed at the Brick Lane Jazz Festival on 21 April and on on 2 June 2026 is at Ronnie’s where she notes that she will have the whole rabble with me – Binker Golding on sax, Poppy Daniels on trumpet, Jihad Darwish on bass and Jamie Murray on drums. We hope to bring some new Sarah Tandy music to Cosmic Jazz in 2026.
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 – 
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. 
It’s thanks to Mike Gavin from Cadillac Records that we can feature a tune from this epic performance from nonagenarian UK composer Mike Westbrook. This previously unissued gem in the Westbrook canon emerged in November 2025 and was the first recording of a suite that features the amazing vocals of Kate Westbrook and Phil Minton and a who’s who of British jazz musicians of the time. The Cortège Live is a large-scale work incorporating settings of European poetry performed by a 16-piece orchestra with Westbrook on piano, tuba and voice along with Guy Barker and Dick Pearce on trumpet and flugelhorn, Malcolm Griffiths on trombone, Chris Hunter and Alan Wakeman on saxes and flute and Lindsay Cooper on oboe, bassoon and saxes. Mike Westbrook is a longtime favourite here on Cosmic Jazz and, having recently celebrated that milestone 90th birthday, it felt more than appropriate to feature some of his music. The album is now available on Cadillac Records – the home of so much great British jazz – and you can track it down 
And it’s thanks to Chris France from 
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.
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 
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 
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.
Dinah Washington (1924-1963) recorded this version of What a Difference a Day Makes in 1959. It was based on the tune originally written in 1934 by Mexican songwriter Maria Grever. The tune became a pop hit, in fact, Derek has it on a vinyl compilation Cruisin’ 1959 which features top Black popular music tunes on station KGFJ in Los Angeles. The DJ on the record describes it as Dinah Washington’s latest big hit. Washington was a versatile artist – primarily a jazz singer, but equally at home singing pop or the blues. She was given the title ‘Queen of the Blues’ This tune is complete with choir and strings, but I particularly like the constant beats from the brushes and Dinah’s sultry voice with a tone that’s almost casual and dismissive. What a Difference is a love song but Washington sings it in an almost detached and matter-of-fact way – and this all adds to the appeal of this version.
The tune Moonlight in Vermont, written originally in 1944 by Karl Suessdorf and John Blackburn, linked in Derek’s mind to the 2025 compilation of essays in 
We have played this tune before on the show – and although it’s not called Moonlight In Vermont Kira Neris samples a Mel Tormé’s famous version of the tune in a number he calls Open Doors. Born Hervé Poudoulec in Nantes, France Neris has worked on and explored the links between jazz and house music – often a great combination as here. The music is somewhat introspective and austere with an opening that sounds ominously gloomy and threatening – but the tune is actually beat-driven and rhythmical. We rate this tune and the album as a Cosmic Jazz favourite – once more, strongly recommended. Of course, there are many more versions of the tune to explore – but start with that great 
This version of the tune written by Thomas Bell and Linda Creed was released originally in 1974 but re-released by British label Mr. Bongo in 2020 – very welcome as the original was a Japanese only release. The making of this record illustrated the reference to ‘people’ and ‘world’ in the title of the tune – and, of course, we note the perennial truism that music does indeed make the world go round. There are three US-born Bridgewaters on the record but there’s also the global family of Czech-born bass player George Mraz and Japanese drummer Motohiko Hino along with T. Ishikuzi and director H. Matsumoto. Not surprising, then, that the album was recorded in the A.O.I. studios, Tokyo. It’s difficult to go wrong with the universal sentiments of lyrics that demonstrate just how people really do make the world go round. Add to this some terrific deep soul jazz music and you have an album that should be on your short list. The powerful, assertive voice of Dee Dee Bridgewater is accompanied throughout by delicate piano from Roland Hanna and brushwork from Motohiko Hino with a blast in the middle from Dee Dee’s then husband trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater in the instrumental break and as the tune ends.
The Jazzmeia Horn version of the tune was recorded on her first album in 2017. it is somewhat different to the Dee Dee Bridgewater version and radically different to the original by 
is the original version from trumpeter Freddie Hubbard of the tune Little Sunflower recorded on the 1968 Atlantic album Backlash. There is a later version he made from 1979 with vocals from Al Jarreau – both are included on the excellent Soul Jazz Records compilation Anthology 1966-82. Both are superb – with the latter featuring an extraordinary fading coda from pianist Chick Corea. This original is performed by an acoustic sextet, with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and flugelhorn, James Spaulding on flute and alto sax, Albert Dailey on piano, Bob Cunningham on bass, Otis Roy Appleton on drums and Ray Barretto on percussion. James Spaulding is very much to the fore with a flute solo before trading notes with Freddie Hubbard. This is a relaxed, gently lilting recording with a hint of Latin swing. Check out that later 1979 version with its gorgeous strings and woodwinds 
The mention of Latin swing above and the presence of Latin percussionist Ray Barretto in the original suggested the tune might be an ideal one for Latin Jazz interpretation. So it proved. Los Angeles conga player Johnny Blas produced an instrumental version featuring an octet with four trombones, piano, bass and timbales alongside Blas. It is on the first of a series of Viva Cubop compilations from Ubiquity Records – with our final tune from Francisco Aguabella coming from the third in the series, The Blas version of Little Sunflower is also a gentle swinger, a degree faster in pace than the Freddie Hubbard original but with a sense of restraint and order, as is often the way with Latin Jazz. It is not music for avant-garde free expressionists but it is highly polished, tight and demonstrating some intricate musicianship. On this recording, the congas of Blas are upfront with the trombones either in unison or on solo alongside. Images of sunny summer days , sunflowers and Los Angeles all come to mind – the best thing to think about on a dull UK January day… And if you want to get that feeling right now, then check out the Viva Cubop compilation which is still available as a DL 
every jazz lover knows My Favorite Things by John Coltrane? We’ve played it more than once on the show so it’s not included here. Instead, the show ends with another jazzy version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein standard – but one with definite references to the Coltrane version. Listen to Francisco Aguabella’s take alongside the Coltrane recording – remind yourself here. Conguero and percussionist Aguabella was Cuba-born but resident in the USA from the late 1950s. While his version doesn’t reach the heights or the spirituality of the Coltrane interpretation it is well worth a listen because Aguabella has turned My Favorite Things into a joyful Latin Jazz number. You’ll get the flavour from the personnel: Aguabella on congas and bata, Jose ‘Papo’ Rodriguez on bongos and percussion and Ramon Banda on drums and timbales. There is also tenor sax, trumpet, trombone, piano and bass to provide the more Coltrane-like elements. A good mix, a good interpretation – but, sure, it’s hard to beat Coltrane.
23 November 2025’s CJ included a track from the 2018 Ruby Rushton album Ironside and we noted that Legacy! had just been released. So we start this show with a track from that latest album, their fifth. The band is led by sax and flute player Edward Cawthorne – aka Tenderlonius – with Nick Walters on trumpet and flugelhorn, Aidan Shepherd on piano, Fender Rhodes and synths and Tim Carnegie on drums, with all band members at some stage making a percussion contribution. All Ruby Rushton records are released on their own 22a independent record label. Oli Reeves in his notes to the vinyl album release states that This is a band still evolving. Trademark catchy riffs and heavy grooves are still there but are now heightened by a level of maturity and a sense of belonging that hadn’t been encountered previously. So are Ruby Rushton a band that deserves more recognition amidst the latest UK jazz revival of the last few years? I think so.
Polish bassist, composer and bandleader Wojtek Mazolewski released his new album Solo on 5 December, 2025. This takes us into what Derek is calling the ambient phase of the show, but an ambience not of the laid-back easy listening kind, but more of a deep, spiritual, meditative experience. Mazolewski has gained recognition and praise way beyond his native Poland, including from the UK in 
We are now definitely into ambient, orchestral, electronic jazz territory. Nala Sinephro is a Belgian-Caribbean composer, producer and musician living in London. The album Endlessness is her second release and another record from an independent label – this time UK-based Warp Records. Continuum 2 is a beautiful tune of meditative, celestial sounds which provides the perfect background to the awe-inspiring sky with a radiant pink setting sun surrounded by the encircling dark blue gloom of night observed from Derek’s window as he writes. This tune includes musicians well known to us at Cosmic Jazz – Nubya Garcia on saxophone and Sheila Maurice-Grey on flugelhorn. Another familiar name – James Mollison plays sax on one of the other album tracks. Just one annoyance to mention – the vinyl issue has only three recorded sides.
The album A Paradise in the Hold, released in February 2025, is the fourth release from British-Bahrani trumpeter Yazz Ahmed, who lived in her homeland until the age of nine. Now a well-established musician and although already an Ivor Novello award-winning composer, many reviews and comments have identified this album as her strongest to date. The album explores her dual heritage with Ahmed noting A thread in my work has been searching for, establishing and, now, finally embracing and celebrating my cultural identity – and it really comes across in this album, merging traditional Bahraini sounds and stories with jazz, There is a long list of musical collaborators and this is the first time she has written for vocals – Natascha Atlas is the vocalist. The music is transporting and uplifting – Ahmed says There’s so much beauty in Bahraini music. I hope this album gives people a flavour of how vibrant its culture is. And she has
It’s time to change the mood. This comes care of a crazy, chaotic ensemble from Norway called Luna Horns and good they are too. Our contact here is British soprano saxophone player Tim Lowerson, a founder band member and Oslo resident, here joined by Norwegian musicians who contribute alto saxophone, trombone, bass and drums. The music is energetic (quite an understatement), unpredictable and fun. The music can sound like a big band one minute and then stripped back down the next – and all this from just five musicians. Grab Afro-Space Hotel via 
More Cosmic Jazz regulars return to the show. Lettuce provides a funky end to the show with the title track from their album released in December 2025. Funk, soul, jazz, hip-hop and more are all there in the band’s music. Last year saw them on an extensive European tour ending with four sold-out shows at Ronnie Scott’s in London. They have also toured with rap artist Wu-Tang Clan and reggae artist Ziggy Marley, which illustrates something about the width of their appeal. Groovy, soulful and fresh is how they have been described. We can settle for that. Get your dancing shoes on now!
Don’t put those dancing shoes away just yet. The show ends with an irresistible mover that builds and builds and builds with percussive, soulful, Latin, house and jazzy grooves. It is a return to earlier shows where we end with a genre-stretching number to send us on our way with a spring in our step. It also fits in as Derek is trying to go through his record collection to re-visit past favourites and this 12″ is a recent delight. It is, incidentally, the third vinyl number on the show. This is George Benson’s re-working of Donny Hathaway’s classic The Ghetto with production from the Masters At Work team. It features Joe Sample who provides some cool keyboard sounds from the keyboards while George Benson leads with distinct but not over-reaching guitar and soulful vocals. Other distinguished contributors include Carlos Henriquez on bass, Lusito Quintero on percussion and Roy Ayers as one of the background vocalists.
We start in 1992 with the first album released by pianist, composer and broadcaster Julian Joseph. The title of the album The Language of Truth may sound a little pretentious but the music is good. Joseph’s band included Mark Mondesir on drums, Alec Dankworth on double bass, Jean Toussaint on tenor and soprano saxes and – on this track (the outstanding one on the album in Derek’s opinion) – Sharon Musgrave on vocals. This is an excellent re-working of 
We can count Ruby Rushton as part of the present jazz revival/renewal which has been going on for some time, though in fact, the album Ironside was released in 2018. It was the band’s fourth album. There has, however, just been a new fifth release in October 2025 from the band 
Back we go to 1987 to another of the trailblazers from those days who is still going strong – namely, Bristol saxophonist Andy Shepherd. He was someone else Derek heard at the time, in what was then a small performance centre in a converted former shoe factory in Norwich. The tune Java Jive was from his debut self-titled album released on the Antilles label, a subsidiary of major label Island Records. It is another warming tune with almost a big band sound from no less than ten musicians, including Sheppard on soprano sax plus trumpet, trombone, two tenor saxes, piano, vibes, bass, drums and percussion. By this time Sheppard had been playing for a decade, although with this album he was greeted as a newcomer. It had not, however, been until he was nineteen that he had first acquired a saxophone, with art being his main focus before then. Since this release he has continued to experiment and to innovate with a constantly changing group of musicians from around the world and even with a single musician – for example, the album Deep River with pianist Joanna MacGregor. Check 
This is the first of our two tunes from 2025. The Shieling from Fergus McCreadie was released by Edition Records in October 2025. Although he does not seem to have been around for long we can no longer think of him as a new artist – this is his fourth album. Along the way he has been a BBC Radio 3 Next Generation artist (a scheme to support talented musicians to reach the next stage of their careers) and been nominated for a Mercury Music Prize. He has a longstanding trio with bassist David Bowden and drummer Stephen Henderson and they produce a distinctive sound rooted in the folk traditions of their Scottish homeland mixed with lyrical improvisations which is evident straight away from the opening notes of the tune Wayfinder. The album was recorded in a remote cottage studio on North Uist on the Scottish Outer Hebrides and produced by trumpeter/composer Laura Jurd, another outstanding British musician in the current wave. Over the past few years McCreadie has become one of the most recognised voices in British jazz and his recent tour, following the release of The Shieling, took the trio across Europe.
Derek remembers seeing Steve Williamson playing music back in the day with 
The show comes right up to 2025 again to complete our past and present jazz revivals/renewals mix. This time we feature another contemporary talent from the excellent independent British jazz label