The first issue of Musica Jazz International is now available in English language, with previews of columns and articles. The cover story, dossier, interviews, and two accompanying CDs

Ayers died on March 4 in New York. The warm sound of his instrument has fallen silent, leaving an empty void. He was eighty-four years old and had been battling a long illness. His notes, once rays of sunshine in the jazz-funk and soul firmament, now float like precious dust in an endless sunset. The music world is left devastated and suspended, waiting for a final note that will never come. His vibraphone spoke directly to the heart, and every chord he played was a fragment of melancholic light—a thrill we now miss like a lost heartbeat. Roy Ayers leaves behind a bittersweet void—a silence filled with memories in...

Let’s start with a song: “Laura.” David Raksin composed the music for the film of the same name (released in Italy as Vertigine), and it came about in a unique way. It was 1944. Director Otto Preminger considered using Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady” as a leitmotif and asked Raksin, a renowned film composer, for his opinion. Raksin was categorical. In his opinion, the song had nothing to do with the plot of the film, which was a romantic noir about a detective investigating the death of a woman who ends up under a spell. Preminger replied that if Raksin had a better idea, he should bring it to him...

The EFG London Jazz Festival remains one of the most important events in the European concert season. Organised for many years by the Serious agency, it is an impressively far-reaching event: for ten days, the British capital is literally overtaken by jazz in all its forms, with performances and creative projects unfolding throughout the city in a model not unlike that of JazzMi. Alongside the headline events at the Barbican – including Dee Dee Bridgewater, The Evolution of UK Jazz – 20 Years On featuring Camila George, Shabaka and Anthony Joseph – Cadogan Hall presented concerts by Kurt Elling & Yellowjackets, Gabrielle Cavassa and the Taylor Eigsti Group featuring...

Just a few months ago, Jack DeJohnette wrote on his Facebook page that one of the defining moments of his musical growth was seeing Sly & the Family Stone perform live in 1969. He wrote: “Sly is an innovator who influenced so many artists, such as Miles, myself, Prince, and Herbie Hancock, to name a few of the musicians he touched so deeply. Sly changed the sound and shape of new music!” DeJohnette was one of the great masters of jazz drumming. Yet his strictly jazz-related achievements often make us forget that he experienced firsthand the seismic shifts in the musical landscape of the mid-to-late 1960s, as did many of his...