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...

The recent death of the Brazilian pianist truly marks the end of an enchanted world: a true la-la land built in the perfect image and likeness of its ingenious creator

What was the original inspiration behind Time Is a Blind Guide, and how has the concept evolved since the band’s first album, released in 2015? It all began with a commission from Fiona Talkington, who hosted a BBC programme called Late Junction. For a period she curated a music series called Connections, held at the Nasjonal Jazzscene in Oslo. The idea was to bring British and Norwegian musicians together, creating new collaborations or presenting ones that already existed. I have a strong connection with Britain, since I’ve played with many British musicians such as Iain Ballamy and John Taylor, and now I also play with John Surman and many other...

Anyone who has followed the development of Julian Lage’s creativity will hardly have escaped a question as worn as it is unavoidable: when talent is so exceptional, is it genetic or environmental? Curiously, when discussing epigenetics, scientists often resort to an effective musical metaphor for popular explanation: the score is DNA, that is, inherited genes; the musician is the one who renders those genes expressively; musical interpretation is the environment and lifestyle; and the final result of the music is the phenotype, namely how the individual behaves while remaining identical to the “score”. It is not merely a stylistic whim to look for a possible explanation for the aptitudes...