Critics' Poll 2012 Across six pages, 32 JJ critics comments on their favourites from the 791 records reviewed in JJ in 2012. Top five new issues: John Surman, Branford Marsalis, Wadada Leo Smith, Peter Appleyard, Alan Barnes/David Newton. Top five reissues: Clifford Brown/Max Roach, Louis Armstrong, Joe Harriott, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Mingus
Profiles Former Swingle Singer Heather Cairncross brings classical precision to jazz; muscular drummer Manu Katché brings introduces a visceral dimension to the ordinarily reserved ECM; BBC jazz presenter Julian Josephkeeps up the field work with opera and dance compositions and a new East End jazz academy
Label Dossier No.1 In the first of a series of label profiles, JJ meets Peter Schmidlin, head of TCB, home to a rich archive of jazz from Swiss Radio and the Montreux festival
Letters Further defence of JRR's idiomatic latitude; more light on Fats Waller's East Sussex hang; Julian's not so blissful BG covers; Jan Garbarek renews his lease on the seminality of Til Vigdis
Record reviews Over 30 recent releases assessed, including Nik Bartsch, George Cables, Heather Cairncross, Digby Fairweather, Tom Gibbs, Hiromi, Laura Jurd, Tim Lapthorn, Marcus Miller, Walter Norris, Enrico Rava and Steve Smith, plus reviews of a host of reissues
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