Episodes

The Hot Box 40 is full of fun and great quality jazz pianists under the letter O in our journey of the A – Z of Jazz Piano. Some lesser known pianists in this episode with some honky-tonk and big band jazz from artists such as Makoto Ozone, Professor Peter O’Brien, Arturo O’Farrill, Colm O’Brien, Fintan O’Neill and Bill O’Connell.

This Hot Box is a retrospective of music by the late Roy Hargrove, who died on November 2nd 2018 aged just 49. Roy Hargrove was a hard bop-oriented musician (and acclaimed "Young Lion") who became one of America's premier trumpeters during the late '80s and beyond. A fine, straight-ahead player who spent his childhood years in Texas, Hargrove met trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis in 1987, when the latter musician visited Hargrove's high school in Dallas. Impressed with the student's sound, Marsal...

In The Hot Box Episode 38 we delve into the file of pianists whose name begins with the letter N. After the deluge of candidates filed under M, N has a relative dearth: we only find 5 piano players in this edition of The Hot Box. We also have another Hot Spot, the fine new recording by reed playing master Eddie Daniels.

In The Hot Box #037 we check out two of the new albums that have come our way in recent months, wrapping the whole thing in a legendary Guitar Night which features Andreas Varady, John Scofield, Louis Stewart, Tommy Halferty and Frank Vignola among others.

In The Hot Box Episode 36 we continue to trawl the files piano players who have graced the jazz stage over the past century or so, and the letter M proved especially fruitful. Last time (Hot Box#34) we had Monk and Moran, now we come to Mehldau and McPartland.

In The Hot Box Episode 35 we find new recordings from several Irish jazz musicians and quite a few from the wide world as well. There are also two exceptional “archive” recordings never before released from Grant Green and Errol Garner. Representing Ireland you can hear tracks from Cormac Kenevey, Gemma Sugrue & Julian Colarossi Quartet as well as a re-release from Michael Buckley and a track from Tommy Halferty with HLT Organ Trio. Just over an hour of the Best in New Releases.

The letter M is the most popular opener for surnames, and pianist aren’t excepted, so the M file is to spread over two shows, PLUS we complete the L file with popular Irish-based pianist and composer, Greg Lloyd. And - another double L, Lou Levy, one of the most revered vocal accompanists of all time.

There’s a Latin feel to the Hot Box this time around, keeping company with the hot summer perhaps. And nearly all the music played is from brand new releases so we are literally, a HOT box. We also step into the re-creation of some of the oldest and most revered swing numbers, reimagined by an orchestra dedicated to that task, and pause to reflect on the music of a much loved New Orleans piano player of whom Steve Bernstein said, “No-one had a left hand like him, no-one on the planet. It was so ...

In episode 32 of The Hot Box we find ourselves surrounded by piano players whose names mysteriously begin with the same letter…..L. It’s a rich collection however, from boogie to brilliance, from archived to current, so tune in now………

In the 31st episode of The Hot Box, Donald Helme plays all-new material from a range of sources including some of the best new releases from Ireland. Music from Dublin based quartet Åtsch, and the veteran Irish pianist working in Britain, John Donegan with his quintet. And further afield, you’ll find some stunning new music from Venezuelan composer Edward Simon, from veteran pianist Kenny Barron and an extraordinary historic performance by the great Dizzy Gillespie recorded in 1978 but just issu...

The Hot Box opens the file labelled K! Yes, the great endeavour of trawling the files of piano players has got as far as the letter K this time around, and a bumper file it is too. Not dominated by a single “Big Name”, (J for Jarrett!) but a great representative sample of some of the best pianists around today. You’ll hear Dave Kikoski, the incredible Geoffrey Keezer, Frank Kimbrough among others from the current crop, and reaching back a bit Roger Kellaway and the late Wynton Kelly. And of cour...

In The Hot Box Episode 29 we celebrate International Jazz Day which is a relatively new affair started back in 2011 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and gain much ground. This episode features a necessarily small sample of music created by jazz musicians from many different countries, including Ireland, demonstrating the increasingly wide dimension of jazz music today and the role that it plays around the world. Even the first piece played includes...

In The Hot Box Episode 28 we explore Alt Big Bands from the 1920’s onwards some of which might be considered slightly left of field but an amazing line up all the same. You will hear from bands such as Claude Thornhil Band, Billy May & His Orchestra as well as Stan Kenton and Jimmie Lunceford. Just under an hour of Big Band Jazz.

The Hot Box Episode 27 in which we delve into the piano files labelled “J” It so happens that J is a significant file for the fact that it contains Keith Jarrett, Ahmad Jamal and Hank Jones, three mighty big reputations and among the most popular jazz pianists of all time. It’s easy to be blown away by the sheer volume of material that Jarrett has created in trio, solo and other formats, so we have been highly selective (based on the 35 CDs in the file!). Jamal is among the most interesting play...

The “bari” is by no means the largest of Adolph Sax’s family of instruments but the even larger ones look as though they would fit nicely into an oil refinery. The baritone, which is itself quite a hefty instrument, first became a regular element in jazz music when it became the must-have anchor for the lower register harmonies in the big band era, before which it had been something of a novelty. Baritone players today are a select bunch, far outnumbered by their peers who play tenor or alto, al...

To welcome 2018, The Hot Box presents an all-singing show hosted as usual by former RTE presenter Donald Helme. This is a mix of Irish and American singers, with some special attention paid to the late Jon Hendrix, who also features in Donald’s blog piece recalling Hendrix’s residency in Ashbourne, Co. Meath back in the late 1960s. The show also presents a new singer who hails from the New England area of the US, Allegra Levy, who has, according to those in the know, or at any rate in the public...

In this episode of The Hot Box we have 80 minutes of the best of Big Band music culled from the post-bebop era, from the best in Europe as well as the USA. You will hear from Clare Fischer, Joe Roccisano, Christian McBride Big Band and John Beasley’s Monk-estra. On the Irish front we have a track from the Hot House Big Band featuring Mark Wilde on saxophone and Julien Colarossi on guitar.

In the epic series of alphabetical pianists started early in 2017 we reached the letter H, in Hot Box 21, only to find such a plethora of riches that they spilled over the confines of a single Box. As luck would have it, the letter I has very few incumbents so we are able, in Hot Box 23 to play the missing H’s - or at least most of them - and both the I’s. And speaking of the letter I, we couldn’t resist the temptation to play a very early “Capetown jazz” piece from the South African star Abdull...

In this episode of The Hot Box we check out some new material from Lizz Wright, Sean Jones, Christian McBride’s Big Band, Julian Colarossi and John Keogh, The Carole Nelson Trio and the remarkable Cecile McLorin-Salvant. All that, and we join the celebrations for Jazz on the Terrace, that unique entity in the world of jazz, a promoter and presenter that has prospered for 35 years. Episode 22 is the most chilled Hot Box yet.

Once more we delve into the files to find pianists filed in alphabetical order. In some recent forays it may have been difficult to fill the show, not so with the Letter H. In fact there are so many important piano players in this file we can’t fit them all into The Hot Box episode 21! In the HOT SPOT this time - new albums…… The Whistling Girl from Honor Heffernan & Trevor Knight on Featherhead Records Live in Montreal from Hiromo and Edmar Castaneda on Telarc label

In Hot Box Episode 20 we pay homage to two jazz festivals that present contrasting pleasures to jazz fans over the October public holiday weekend in Ireland. The one celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2017 and is recognised worldwide as one of the major jazz-focussed events in the calendar, the other remains something of a secret, but gaining in its reach and appeal each year. So listen in as Donald Helme takes into the world of gypsy jazz at Django Sur Lennon, (in Ramelton, County Donegal) and ...

In the 19th edition of The Hot Box we revisit the A – Z of Jazz Piano series focusing on the letter G.You will hear from such greats as Benny Green, Erroll Garner, Robert Glasper, Larry Goldings and many more. Also in The Hot Box #19 we introduce “The Hot Spot” where we feature some new releases hitting the music scene. We have a track from David Rooney’s debut album “Bound Together” and we will also feature Edel Meade who launches her debut album “Blue Fantasia” on 28th of September just a few ...

This Hot Box is a special Xtra in memory of John Abercrombie who passed away on August 22, 2017 at the age of 72. In The Hot Box 18 we celebrated “guitar” and though it would be fitting to include an extra special show for Abercrombie. John Abercrombie was an American jazz guitarist, composer and bandleader. His work explored jazz fusion, post bop, free jazz and avant-garde jazz. Abercrombie studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He recorded his debut album, Timeless with ...

In this edition of The Hot Box, Donald Helme rejoices in the rebirth of Dublin Guitar Night (last Tuesday of every month) in its new venue, The Grand Social, and presents a wide ranging soundscape of guitar from Frank Vignola to Laurindo Almeida, from Eric Bibb to Phil Upchurch, and of course, a couple of local heroes too, Hugh Buckley and Nigel Mooney. The guitar is far and away the most popular instrument in blues, rock and jazz, and that is reflected in the audiences it always attracts. Enjoy...