Guardian Music — Inventive 60s jazz drummer who played with Rollins, Coltrane and GetzTo Pete La Roca, the American jazz drummer and composer, who has died aged 74, jazz was a swinging music that contained the promise of surprise. When jazz stopped swinging, and stop... more info

Guardian Music — Barbican/Queen Elizabeth Hall, LondonMerely by setting foot on stage bearing a tenor saxophone and scattering a few clues to his signature calypso, St Thomas, Sonny Rollins does enough to make a London jazz festival crowd feel privileged to be in th... more info

Guardian Music — Barbican, LondonPianist Brad Mehldau is a cerebral sort. He's a superb classical technician, someone who can turn jazz standards into Bach-like fugues, all spidery left-hand arpeggios and complex right-hand workouts. But his USP has been to balance a... more info

Guardian Music — Alexis and Kieran are joined this week by Charlotte Richardson Andrews – and no time is wasted before a heated debate around Rihanna's latest release. There's also a touch of the French Elvis, Johnny Hallyday, who is Alexis's new favourite thing.Ri... more info

Guardian Music — For nearly 50 years, Radio 3's Jazz Record Requests has been broadcasting the best of the genre. Now a new chapter in its history begins with a show from the London jazz festivalJohn Taylor runs England's most northerly jazz club at Ashington, near N... more info

Guardian Music — As the world waits to discover the results of the 2012 US election, what should Barack Obama supporters be listening to?As America goes the polls to decide who will be its next president, one vital question dominates debate: what's the best music to ... more info

Guardian Music — The Walkmen, on tourThe Walkmen have always seemed older than their years. In part this has been down to what we know of their backgrounds in Jonathan Fire*Eater, a mid-90s group whose brilliance was hobbled by narcotic baggage. From the off, though,... more info

Guardian Music — The musician writes about his latest project, a soundtrack to a stroll among ancient trees to be played as the public follow in his footstepsI am very keen on walking. I have spent a lot of time walking in wild spaces over the years. It's a meditativ... more info

Guardian Music — Danish-born saxophonist at the heart of the 'new thing' jazz movement of the 1960sWhen the saxophonist John Tchicai, who has died aged 76, performed with local musicians at the Red Rose in Finsbury Park, north London, in 2005, the show was sold out l... more info

Guardian Music — While Les Garner is probably not the only Guardian reader to regard jazz as "an awful racket", his suggestion that the music is "played and sung by those who can neither play nor sing in tune" hints at either aberrant critical faculties on his part o... more info