The Jazz Cavern latest

My next show will be broadcast starting Monday,16 February. It will be a memorial tribute to the late, clarinettist/saxophonist Ken Peplowski, who sadly died on  2 February 2026.

Tracks of Ken's will  include recordings that he did with Charlie Byrd,  Loren Schoenberg Big Band, Alan Barnes Octet and his own groups.

On www.purejazzradio.com (from NYC) on Tuesdays at 04.00am, Fridays at 06.00am and Saturdays at 07.00am- NYC time. (5 hours later in the UK)

None of the above shows are available on a catchup option. Frank Griffith

Jazz Time Aycliffe Radio - Sundays 6.30-8.00pm (repeated Tuesdays 8.00-9.30pm).

https://www.ayclifferadio.co.uk/listen.

Playlist 15/02/26 (repeated Tuesday 17/02/26)

Valentine: JJ Johnson/Stan Getz, Frank Sinatra/Count Basie.

The Big Easy requests: Lester Young Trio, Oscar Peterson, Oscar Pettiford, Joe Pass.

Black History Month (USA): Big Bill Broonzy, Dexter Gordon. 

Valentine (cont.): Thomas 'Fats' Waller, Ella Fitzgerald, Clifford Brown, Dave Brubeck, Red Allen's All Stars.

What’s on in the NE: Alex Clarke.

Jazz Messengers, Wynton Marsalis.

Aycliffe Radio is now available on DAB in County Durham & the Darlington area or via your smart speaker.  

Album review: Ben 'Doc' Bowling and his Blues Professors - Sing The American Songbag Volume 1

Ben 'Doc' Bowling (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, resonator, harmonica); Donnie Burke (lead guitar, resonator, backing vocals); Simon Minney (acoustic bass, backing vocals); Roger Chapman (drums, cajon, percussion, backing vocals); Mlle Chat Noir* (violin); Johannes Bowling (alto sax); Jens Skwirblies (piano accordion); Kenny Bruno (piano); Eamonn McKeever (six string banjo)

Back in 1925 one Dorothy Scarborough published On the Trail of Negro Folk Songs Two years later a poet, Carl Sandburg, compiled The American Songbag the title of which inspired this CD/LP. These two books - and others - provided a fertile seam of  info on early American folk music or, to be more precise, country blues eleven of which are performed here by the augmented Blues Professors**.

Tom Remon & John Moriarty @ The Ship Isis, Sunderland - Feb. 13

Tom Remon (guitar); John Moriarty (guitar)

The Ship Isis on Silksworth Row is an old school, wood-pannelled pub over two floors with a terrace. The handpulls were doing good business on this cold winter's evening. The first floor Vaux Room would play host to Tom Remon and John Moriarty, our guitar duo there to entertain an attentive full house.

Londoner Tom Remon, a regular visitor to the region, invited Dubliner John Moriarty to cross the Irish Sea to play a short run of dates, and Sunderland was on the itinerary. Without fanfare, our duo opened with Vincent Youmans' Without a Song. Melody stated, Remon took a first solo, Moriarty most impressive in chordal accompaniment. Our Dubliner's solo told us all we needed to know, he could play! 

Noel Dennis Quartet @ Bishop Auckland Methodist Church - Feb. 13

Noel Dennis (trumpet, flugelhorn); Dean Stockdale (piano); Mick Shoulder (double bass); Tim Johnston (drums)

Bishop Auckland Jazz is on the up. This afternoon's concert drew a record attendance and little wonder with trumpeter Noel Dennis the main attraction. Working alongside Dean Stockdale (piano), Mick Shoulder (bass) and drummer Tim Johnston, the quartet opened with The Good Life. 

A longtime admirer of fellow trumpeter Tom Harrell, it wasn't surprising Teesside's trumpet ace, switching to flugelhorn, chose to revisit Moon Alley. Warm-toned, measured, it's a staple in Dennis' set. Military medium swing brought in Nostalgia in Times Square. Foot-stomping Mingus! 

Press release: Jazz North announces its latest roster of Northern Line - the live talent development programme for jazz artists across the North

Rory A. Green, SwanNek, Hang Linton, Rivkala & Ancient Infinity Orchestra make up the cohort of northern artists to watch...  

Hailing from Northumberland, Leeds, North East, Manchester and Liverpool: Rory A. Green, SwanNek, Hang Linton, Rivkala & Ancient Infinity Orchestra join the celebrated cohort of artists and will be available to book for activity starting in September 2026

On joining the roster, Bex from Rivkala, says: I couldn't be more excited to receive Jazz North's support in organising my first UK tour with the full Rivkala band. We've been working hard to develop the show into a uniquely theatrical experience, to give new audiences a taste of the bitter and twisted world inside the Crushed Velvet cabaret.

Album review: Kathy Ingraham - Jazz Dreams (Peirdon Production Corp).

Kathy Ingraham (vocals); Pete Levin (piano, bass tk 3?); Joel Rosenblatt (drums); Lily Del Rosso Ingraham (backing vocals) + Randy Brecker (flugelhorn tk 1); Evan Christopher (clarinet tk 2); Elliott Randall (guitar tks 1, 4, 5, 7, ); Mark Wensor (guitar tk 4); William Galison (harmonica tk 7)

Inspired by a song in the 1944 Oscar winning movie Heavenly Music Ingraham decided that music can transcend the genre in which it is performed. A theory that was further substantiated when, at a party, she heard Aerosmith's Stephen Tyler sing a jazz riff whilst he was at the piano playing the band's hit Dream On. The dream became a reality with Jazz Dreams where rock hits are given a jazz feeling - a bit like PMJ without the razzmatazz!

Album review: Sara Colman, Rebecca Nash - Ribbons Vol. 1 (Stoney Lane)

Sara Colman (vocals); Rebecca Nash (piano); Henrik Jensen (double bass); Jonathan Silk (drums) + Iain Ballamy (tenor sax on Noble Heart & Gardener); Percy Pursglove (flugelhorn on Ribbons); Trish Clowes (tenor sax on Little Light); Steve Banks (guitar on Sophie’s Song); Ruth Hammond (bass clarinet on Night Traveller)

The two principals are new names to me but there are a few better known big hitters in the ‘full supporting cast;’ Colman and Nash, meanwhile, show why they have top billing. Colman’s voice is full, rich and warm and she can be forceful at times and light at others. Nash is simply excellent, combining heavy chording with fluid, rippling excursions. Her timing is perfect, filling and leaving spaces, creating tension and joyous release as she goes.

Opener Noble Heart sees Iain Ballamy enfolding Colman’s voice in a warm blanket before she drops away and he solos onwards. Nash gives us light chords and delicate runs. The voice and sax combine again to great effect later in the piece with Ballamy’s phrases answering in rapid response  to Colman’s voice, the two entwined in a rising spiral.

Press release: manchester jazz festival: bringing in the next 30 years of jazz!

Jazz lovers rejoice - Manchester’s longest-running music festival is back this Summer for for its 31st edition 10 days of jam-packed festival fun and musical vibes across the city this May! 

· manchester jazz festival (mjf2026) will take place between 15-24 May 2026 at venues and sites across Manchester, celebrating the latest up and coming talent from across the North, and the best names in contemporary jazz. 

· Headliners include: China Moses, Andy Sheppard Trio, Yellowjackets, Toni Kofi/Denys Baptiste Quintet, Cassie Kinoshi’s seed., Bel Cobain, Lau Noah, NOUT, Cotonete, Sarsen Drift + Tom Cawley, Olivia Cuttill & Friends, Orchestra Mambo International and many more...  

mjf was first staged in the summer of 1996, hosting nine bands in one venue over the course of a single day. Who could have known that this would mark the start of what is now Manchester’s longest running music festival, radiating across the city for 10 whole days each year. And yet, for all it’s grown, mjf’s spirit remains the same, rooted in the joyful celebration and genuine support of the contemporary jazz world’s diverse and local artists. 

RADIOPHONICX: Words, words, words - the sound of language

21st of February 2-4pm at Cobalt Studios, 10-16 Boyd Street, Newcastle NE2 1AP

Words and silence, 2021 by Liverpool based artist Paul Rooney is part of his album Surface Industries I. The vocals taken from interviews with service industry workers sourced from the early 2000s, form tracks that continue the artist’s exploration into unpredictable narratives in mundane objects and situations. A call centre worker, cold-calling to sell insurances, has one of her calls go to the answer machine. Instead of hanging up, she leaves a message: telling stories about silence, distance and time.

Rooney’s installations, videos, writings and records focus on the instabilities and deceptions of narrative, particularly in relation to representing place: it’s everyday life; it’s history and folklore; it’s familiar strangeness. His work was shown at Tate Britain; Tate Liverpool; BALTIC; The Arnolfini; and Whitechapel Gallery; and he has exhibited at a wide range of international museums. https://www.paulrooney.info/