The final episode of The Piano Files A-Z. The Z File

Not too may surnames start with the letter Z but here we find 4 amazing piano players that give us a wide spectrum of style and content……the majority of tracks included here were recorded live, in front of an audience. Remember those days?

Joe Zawinul, the former Miles Davis collaborator and founding member of Weather Report.

Denny Zeitlin, professor of Clinical Psychiatry with over 30 jazz albums to his name.

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh, classical student fusing jazz with Azerbajani Mugam.

Peter Zak, prolific proponent of the Eternal Triangle - his phrase for the jazz piano trio.

Read more: The Hot Box #060 - A to Z of Jazz Piano Part 24 – The Letter Z

In this episode of the Hot Box we celebrate the life of Jimmy Cobb who died last month aged 91, and legendary pianist McCoy Tyner who recently passed away. We also sample three new albums (*), two of which have diverse Irish interest!

Read more: The Hot Box #059 – Celebrations

Welcome to The Hot Box #058 in which we delve further into the alphabetical piano files with Part 2 of the File for W. There are some amazing artists in the episode.

Be sure to listen out for an interview where Marian McPartland hosts the great Mary Lou Williams on her long running radio show “Piano Jazz” on NPR in October of 1978. It is quite wonderful to hear Mary Lou Williams chat about music and list of all the names of bands and musicians she has worked with when she started out as a teenager right the way through to the modern era.

Read more: The Hot Box #058 - A to Z of Jazz Piano Part 23 - The Letter W Part 2

Over an hour of jazz music from Ireland, America, South Africa and Brazil, wide ranging in style and mood. You can hear tracks from The Duke Ellington Orchestra, Basil Coatzee, Dianne Schuur, Count Basie Orchestras, Christine Tobin, Scott Flanagan and more. 

Read more: The Hot Box Xtra #3 - Uplifting Music

In this episode of The Hot Box we celebrate the music of four amazing musicians who have sadly left the stage in the past few weeks, Bucky Pizzarelli, Lee Konitz, Wallace Roney and Ellis Marsalis.

Read more: The Hot Box Xtra #2 - The Lock-Down Blues

Selected for the times we are living in, Xtra tracks from The Hot Box that should immediately improve your blood circulation and set the mood firmly to positive.

Read more: The Hot Box - Xtra 1

In this episode of the Hot Box we celebrate the life and music of Art Blakey whose centennial was not so long ago. We find ourselves in very unfamiliar times, gigs and festivals have been cancelled the wold over which means no work for thousands of jazz musicians who rely on live performances to earn a crust. Perhaps we can help by purchasing their recordings so check out the Jazz Ireland Shop for a range of albums.

On a brighter note it’s always very exciting for me, and a personal pleasure to put up a brand new Irish album and to be able to give it a 5 STAR rating, in Hot Box 057 I get to do that twice.

Read more: The Hot Box #057 – The Blakey Beat