Jon Newey
Jon Newey has juggled being a musician and music press staffer for the past 50 years. Prior to joining Sounds music paper in 1977, Newey had toured as a drummer/percussionist in psychedelic-funk band Crew from 1971 before forming England's Glory with Peter Perrett in 1973 and recording The Legendary Lost Album, before they broke up and Perrett later formed The Only Ones while Newey joined Bandana with Charlie Harper, later of UK Subs fame.
While with Sounds until it closed in 1991, Newey covered the musical instrument/musician pages and also played percussion with Jabba (ex-Cymande) as well as reggae and indie sessions, including Nick Kent's Subterraneans single 'My Flamingo' and still unreleased 1980 album for Demon Records. Following Sounds closure Newey ran Tower Record's TOP magazine and edited the Tower Records Jazz Guide. In 1997 he was one of the founding writers at Jazzwise magazine and took over as editor in 2000, becoming editor in chief in 2016. He was named Jazz Journalist of the Year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards in 2006 and 2012 while Jazzwise has won numerous Jazz Publication of the Year Awards, and in 2014 he was made an Honorary Associate of The Royal Academy of Music for Services to Jazz.
Newey has also written for Jazz on CD, Jazz Express, Jazz At Ronnie Scott's, Rhythm, Mojo Collections, Record Collector and Flashback, and written numerous album and DVD sleeve notes, including Jeff Beck, Charlie Watts and Charles Lloyd titles, while his first book, The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World was published in 2022. Musically still active, he has recorded and played with Chris Jagger's Atcha, and is currently percussionist with Latin-jazz band, J-Sonics.
17 articles
List of articles in the library
Miles Davis, Tony Williams: Tony Williams: Tribute to Tony
Obituary by Jon Newey, Jazzwise, April 1997
Tony Williams' sudden death in February has deprived us of one of our foremost drummers. Jon Newey pays tribute to a musical master ...
Charlie Watts: The Beat Goes On: Charlie Watts and the Great Jazz Drummers
Interview by Jon Newey, Jazzwise, July 2000
Rolling Stone Charlie Watts is not a typical jazz drummer. His previous solo albums have touched on the legacy of Charlie Parker and his new ...
Little Feat: Hotcakes & Outtakes: 30 Years of Little Feat
Review by Jon Newey, Jazzwise, January 2001
FOLLOW A CURVED PATH from Steely Dan to the Meters and at a point midway through the arc you'll stumble into the big tracks of ...
Alphonso Johnson: The Alphonso Johnson Collection (Connoisseur)
Review by Jon Newey, Jazzwise, February 2001
BASSIST Alphonso Johnson always stood in the huge shadows of Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke back when jazz-rock groups strode the planet in the mid ...
Report by Jon Newey, Jazzwise, February 2003
Jon Newey reports from New York on a celebration of 25 years of New York’s legendary jazz drum and bass school, the Collective, and its ...
Report by Jon Newey, Jazzwise, February 2005
Jazz gets a life on the ocean waves. ...
Soft Machine: Graham Bennett: Soft Machine: Out-Bloody-Rageous (SAF Publishing)
Book Review by Jon Newey, Jazzwise, February 2006
HOT ON THE HEELS of Sony's recent two CD anthology, also titled Out-Bloody- Rageous, Robert Wyatt's Mojo Lifetime Award and a growing reappraisal of its ...
Jeff Beck: Ronnie Scott’s, London
Live Review by Jon Newey, Jazzwise, 28 November 2007
LOOKING BARELY a day older than his classic mid-1970s album covers — all scarecrow black hair, Red Indian necklace, sleeveless T-shirt and toned biceps — ...
Jeff Beck: Ronnie Scott's, London
Live Review by Jon Newey, Jazzwise, February 2008
LOOKING BARELY a day older than his classic mid-1970s album covers — all scarecrow black hair, Red Indian necklace, sleeveless T-shirt and toned biceps — ...
Book Review by Jon Newey, Jazzwise, February 2008
FOR A BOOK that takes a very protracted look at the role played by rock music and its, mostly, over-paid and over-pampered stars in the ...
Where's the Love In, man?: The mystery of London's legendary lost Love In Festival of 1967
Retrospective by Jon Newey, Flashback, Summer 2017
In July 1967 the biggest gathering of psychedelic groups ever held in the UK up to that point took place at London's Alexandra Palace right ...
Ginger Baker (19 August 1939 – 6 October 2019)
Obituary by Jon Newey, Jazzwise, December 2019
Pressed rolls and warthog: The life and times of Ginger Baker ...
David Crosby: Long Time Comin'
Interview by Jon Newey, Jazzwise, September 2020
From early 1960s gigs with Terry Callier and having a song covered by Miles Davis to latter-day collaborations with Snarky Puppy and Steely Dan's Donald ...
Retrospective by Jon Newey, Jazzwise, September 2020
Fifty years ago this month Miles Davis played the biggest gig of his career when he brought his groundbreaking Bitches Brew band to the 1970 ...
Baby Face Willett: "Baby Face" Willette: Two Faced To Live, Too Young to Die
Retrospective by Jon Newey, Jazzwise, April 2021
Hammond B3 honcho "Baby Face" Willette kicked off the early 1960s as a promising new Blue Note label signing in the wake of Jimmy Smith's ...
Michael Horovitz OBE (4 April 1935 – 7 July 2021)
Obituary by Jon Newey, Jazzwise, September 2021
The celebrated British beat poet, writer, artist, 'anglo saxophonist', Michael Horovitz, has died age 86. ...
Charlie Watts (2 June 1941 – 24 August 2021)
Obituary by Jon Newey, Jazzwise, October 2021
The gentleman of rhythm calls time ...
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