Stockport Jazz

This Sunday Stockport Jazz welcomes the return of the Paul Smith Quartet, this time featuring Darren Lloyd (trumpet) with Paul Smith (drums), Derrick Harris (guitar) and Jose Canha (double bass). 

Sunday 5th April 2026

8-10pm, doors open at 7.30pm

£5 entry on the door, all welcome

The Moor Club, 35 Heaton Moor Road, Stockport SK4 4PB  (next to the Elizabethan PH)

Album review: Kevin Figes – Wallpaper Music III (Pig Records)

Kevin Figes (woodwinds, voice, compositions, lyrics); Brigitte Beraha (voice); Jim Blomfield (piano, Fender Rhodes, Hammond, Prophet); Ashley John Long (electric/double bass); Mark Whitlam (drums, percussion)

Rummaging through the racks here at Sayer Towers unearths Circular Motion, an early album by Kevin Figes. In fact, it was only the second album on the esteemed Edition label and I bought it during the period when Edition releases were a trickle rather than a flood and I bought it without knowing anything about Figes because the Edition label was itself a guarantee of quality. It is very good.

Eighteen years on, I see that Blomfield is still at his side, though Riaan Vosloo and Tim Giles from earlier albums have gone onto other things. Whitlam and Long are, however, both long time confreres and Beraha has been providing her vocals for the previous two Wallpaper Music albums.

Gerry Richardson Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth - Mar. 30

Gerry Richardson (organ, vocals); Garry Linsley (alto sax); Road Sinclair (guitar); Paul Smith (drums)

Vying for renewable energy capital of the UK, the south east Northumberland port of Blyth is on the up. A harbour front hotel, a recently opened arts/cinema space and not one but two thriving music schools, if it's a Monday lunchtime, it's Yamaha Music School time.

Sunday night at the Globe: Five-Way Split @ The Globe, Newcastle - Mar. 29

© Ken Drew

Quentin Collins (trumpet, flugelhorn); Vasilis Xenopoulos (tenor sax); Rob Barron (piano); Mátyás Hofecker (double bass); Matt Home (drums)

Five-Way Split. It all sounds rather democratic, doesn't it? Quentin Collins, Vasilis Xenopoulos and Rob Barron are the composers, bassist Mátyás Hofecker and drummer Matt Home the dream team rhythm section. What isn't in question is the brilliance of all five musicians. Touring their new album, Modus Operandi, Five-Way Split made a late afternoon dash from a Wigan Jazz Club engagement to Newcastle's award-winning Globe music venue, arriving in time for an eight o'clock start.

Album review: Willy Rodriguez – In The Unknown (I Will Find You) (Sunnyside Records)

Willy Rodriguez (drums); Leo Genovese (piano, Hammond organ); Ingrid Laubrock (tenor saxophone); Allan Harris (spoken word)

This is an album of three heavyweights providing all the punches. For Rodriguez it’s a deeply passionate project dealing with grief following the death of his mother and, in recruiting Genovese and Laubrock he has partners fully able to supply all the emotional heft and fury needed to fully illustrate his emotions. The Rodriguez role in this, as well as delivering a solid performance on drums that provides the foundation for all that is built above, is to marshal Genovese and Laubrock, at times providing a framework for their playing and at others allowing them freedom to build whatever they feel the music needs. As you might imagine, this is not easy listening. Instead it is intense, demanding and outstanding as a statement of desperation and loss.

House of the Black Gardenia @ Pilgrim, Newcastle - Mar. 29

Elise Rana Hopper (vocals, washboard); Pete Tanton (trumpet); David Gray (trombone); Keith Robinson (tenor sax, alto sax, clarinet); Katja Roberts (violin); Elliott Rush (piano); Michael Littlefield (guitar, banjo, vocals); Neil Hopper (string bass, sousaphone); Kit Haigh (drums)

Mazurka in Jazz is the long-awaited new album by Newcastle's House of the Black Gardenia. The band thought an album launch gig a good idea and many, many folk agreed. At four o'clock on Sunday afternoon Pilgrim (formerly Hoochie Coochie) opened its doors and within minutes the place was packed to the rafters. 

It isn't compulsory to dance at a House of the Black Gardenia gig but judging by the bodies on the dance floor it seemed like it! Your correspondent, perched on a high stool at a table, cast an eye across the room - beers and cocktails, cocktails and beers, dancers and more dancers. The scene was set.

Bede Quartet @ The Gala, Durham - Mar. 27

Michael Bede Dunlop (double bass); Albert Hills Wright (alto saxophone); Finn Carter (piano); Dillon Harrison (drums)

Another full house at Millennium Place greeted the return of London-exiled bassist and composer Michael Bede Dunlop. The Bede Quartet is on a short tour of the region and Durham's Gala Theatre, but a stone's throw from Durham Cathedral, was on the itinerary. Three familiar names and faces - Dunlop, Albert Hills Wright, alto sax, and Finn Carter, piano - were joined by a new name to the Durham audience, drummer Dillon Harrison. 

Bede, the Bede Quartet's debut album, was recorded almost two years ago in Thropton, Northumberland, and tracks from it would feature prominently during the one hour hour set. Most of the material performed here in the Gala's studio space was composed by bandleader Dunlop, and the quartet opened with MBD's arrangement of Derwentwater's Farewell, hence 'trad. arr. Michael Bede Dunlop'. 

Sunday night @ the Globe: Jack Pearce Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle - Mar. 22

Jack Pearce (alto sax); Sam Hughes (guitar); Joe Frost (piano); Dan Sanderson (double bass); Scarlett Baxter (drums)

A second appearance at Newcastle Jazz Co-op for the Jack Pearce Quintet. Alumni of Leeds Conservatoire, alto saxophonist Pearce's five piece band included two 'newbies' in pianist Joe Frost and drummer Scarlett Baxter (the latter playing her second gig with band, most impressive!). A larger turn out than first time round suggested the word on the grapevine was Pearce and co were worth hearing. 

Joe Steels Group @ Sunderland Minster - Mar. 20

Joe Steels (guitar); Ben Lawrence (piano, Fender Rhodes); Andy Champion  (double bass); John Hirst (drums)

A Blue Patch has been occupying guitarist Joe Steels' time and this Sunderland Minster concert was the latest, and final, date touring the new album across the north of England and beyond. Steels the composer, and three of the finest, pianist Ben Lawrence, bassist Andy Champion and drummer John Hirst, playing their individual and collective parts helped realise the bandleader's musical vision. 

Album review: Jeremy Sassoon – Older And Wiser (Self-released)

Jeremy Sassoon (vocals, piano); Chris Rabbitts (bass) Pat Illingworth (drums); + Mike Walker (guitar); Pat Levett (harmonica solo);Steve Parry (flugelhorn), Ross Stanley (Hammond organ); Harry Greene (nylon guitar); Natalie Williams. Brendan Reilly (backing vocals) and Realstrings arranged by Pete Whitfield

The first question is what time of day do you want to play this? Late evening when lights are low or early Sunday morning as the sun burns off the mist? It’s perfect for both times and many others. First hearing suggest that this is supper jazz but you wouldn’t want to dine, you’d want to listen, and insist that everyone else used wooden cutlery and ate off paper plates.

Part of this album’s strengths lies in the song selection. None are originals but all play with moods, tragic, mainly but mixed in with some hope and, even, low levels of celebration, all to illustrate the many ages of man. This range from despair is captured in Don’t let Me Be Misunderstood with plaintiff vocals giving way to a string wrapped piano solo, the lushness offset by the interpolation of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells/Exorcist theme. Stop This Train deals with the eternal stay/escape dichotomy with Sassoon’s light tenor working its way through all the options. The next song is Mose Allison’s City Home with its longing for home decorated by some lovely organ playing by, the near ubiquitous, Ross Stanley.