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Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits For No Man @ the Lit & Phil - Jan. 17

Lindsay Hannon (vocals); Alan Law (piano); Brendan Murphy (variou percussion items)

I hold my hand up and confess that Tom Waits' voice grates on me. I'm in a minority of one but, there you are. However, as a composer and a writer of lyric poetry it is a different matter. His streetwise words are up there alongside those of Dylan and Cohen. He's a hardboiled novel set to music.

Bypass the composer and give his raw sentiments to someone who can sing and you've got a recipe that is very palatable indeed. 

Lindsay Hannon is that singer! A singer who conveys the emotions expressed as if they were her own. The sold-out Lit & Phil audience concurred with much deserved applause at the end of her 14 song, one hour, set. 

Pete Tanton and the Cuban Heels @ the Prohibition Bar, Newcastle - Jan. 16

© Russell

Pete Tanton (trumpet, vocal, shakers); Alan Law (piano); Paul Grainger (bass); Mark Robertson (drums, whistle)

Tonight it was Cuban Heels on other days it could have been the Chet Set or the Riviera Quartet. They're interchangeable, all featuring Tanton's blistering trumpet and his cajoling vocals over various, often Latin, but rarely Cuban either geographically or geometrically, rhythms. It didn't matter. We were there to enjoy ourselves and that's what those in the well-attended room did. The music inspired some couples to dance - or maybe it was to keep warm!

DVD review: Ella & Basie - The Perfect Match

Ella Fitzgerald (vocals) with: 

The Paul Smith Trio: Paul Smith (piano); Keeter Betts (bass); Mickey Roker (drums)

Count Basie & his Orchestra: Count Basie (piano); Freddie Green (guitar); Keeter Betts (bass); Mickey Roker (drums); Pete Minger, Sonny Cohn, Paul Cohen, Ray Brown (trumpets); Bootie Wood, Bill Hughes, Mel Wanzo, Dennis Wilson (trombones); Bobby Plater, Danny Turner (alto sax); Eric Dixon, Kenny Hing (tenor sax); Charlie Fowlkes (baritone sax) 

You know how it is. Some days you are walking along, minding your business, when, inside a charity shop, you spot a DVD of Ella and Basie at Montreux in 1979! That's what happened to me today and, to make it even sweeter, the asking price was 20p! I didn't haggle, it was cash on the barrelhead. Transaction completed, it was home Lance  and don't spare the horses.

Album review: Barb Jungr and her trio - Hallelujah on Desolation Row (Absolute)

Barb Jungr (vocals); Simon Wallace (piano, keys); Davide Mantovani (bass); Gary Hammond (percussion)

Eleven songs by two of the greatest contemporary wordsmiths -  Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.

Cohen provides five of them: Hallelujah, Slow, Tonight Will be Fine, Tower of Song and You Got me Singing whilst Dylan goes numerically two better with: Handle With Care, Desolation Row, Love Minus Zero/No Limit, Mississippi, Kansas City and New Morning.

Rossano Sportiello: Live at the Flat in Greenwich Village (#123) - Jan. 14

Rossano Sportiello (piano); Joey Ranieri (double bass); Aaron Kimmel (drums) 

#123 of Rossano Sportiello's Live at the Flat livestreams more than met the highest of standards set way back when with (lockdown) livestream #1. Pianist Sportiello's no frills presentation - one fixed camera - affords the listener/viewer the luxury of concentrating on the music without distraction. Joining our host this evening, Live at the Flat debutant, bassist Joey Ranieri and drummer Aaron Kimmel. 

Lily Dior Quartet @ Burford Jazz, Warwick Hall, Burford, Oxfordshire - Jan. 10

Lily Dior (vocals); Jez Cook (guitar); Paul Jeffries (bass); Rob Bryan (drums).

The display stands for Burford Jazz promises “Top quality live jazz every month with an accent on entertainment” so let’s see if that promise is met. Lily Dior, in turn, told us that she would be singing all wonderful old standards with her twist on them, and, in fairness, she did that.

She opens with My Foolish Heart, an easy grooving intro to the night’s entertainment, with rolling mallets and glowing guitar chords, with Montgomery-ish, spring-loaded, single notes soloing from Cook. Angel Eyes, as a Latin shuffle follows. It’s mainstream jazz but Dior puts herself into it; she has a flexible voice of some corners and angles. She seems to thrive on stage as if it’s her Friday, end-of-the-week release as much as it is the audience’s. There’s a strong hint of Cleo Laine, but with less scatting.  Jeffries adds a bouncing bass solo.

Album review: Emily Masser Quintet - Songs With My Father (self-released)

Emily Masser (vocals); Dean Masser (tenor sax); Matyas Gayer (piano); James Owston (bass); Steve Brown (drums)

The clue is in the album title. This is indeed a father and daughter based quintet and a brilliant one it is too!

Emily first appeared on my radar last year as part of Clark Tracey's album Introducing Emily Masser which, paradoxically, I chose as my UK Jazz Instrumental Album of the Year mainly on the basis of Emily's vocalese/scat. It could easily have been my Vocal Album of the Year - I may well be once again faced with this dilemma at the end of 2025!

Her dad has been around longer! Dean impressed me on an Art Blakey tribute album and gig he did with drummer Gaz Hughes' sextet. Here, father and daughter together, along with a sympathetic rhythm section, create more magical moments than in all of the Harry Potter books and films combined.

Press release: Ronnie Scott’s Announces New Musical Instrument Amnesty to Support Aspiring Musicians in the UK and Beyond

Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club has announced its latest Musical Instrument Amnesty*, an initiative designed to repurpose unused or unwanted musical instruments by donating them to children and young people. The amnesty will take place on Saturday January 25, 2025 at the club’s renowned Frith Street location in Soho, London, between 10am and 3pm. Members of the public are invited to contribute instruments, which will subsequently be distributed to school-aged children participating in transformative music programs in the UK and overseas.

Raymond MacDonald & Andy Champion @ The Globe, Newcastle - Jan. 13

© Ken Drew

Raymond MacDonald (alto sax, vocals, whistling); Andy Champion (double bass, electronics) 

Upstairs at the Globe, Monday night, mid-January. The clan (the tightly-packed audience) would listen intently to two improvised solo sets followed by an improvised duo finale. The participants - Tyneside's Andy Champion and Scotland's Raymond MacDonald - were reunited in this one-off gathering.

Bassist Andy Champion opened proceedings with an assured performance: virtuosic 'conventional' jazz bass and sonorous bowed sections combining/competing with pulsating electronic sheets of sound.