Single review: Edison Herbert & Ian Lewinson - Togetherness

Edison Herbert (lead/rhythm guitar, keys); Ian Lewinson (lead guitar); Derek Taylor (bass, drum programming); Chris Wells (drums intro)

I don't usually entertain singles, mainly because they're invariably the trailer to the big picture that is coming shortly to a download near you. There's no indication that that is the case here but, so what? It only lasts 4.11 minutes and hey! I can remember in the pre-LP age when singles were what you bought and they rarely lasted more than three minutes. True you got two sides but you never played the B side.

Album Review: Dave Bass – Trio Nuevo Vol. 3 (Tiger Turn)

Dave Bass (piano); Tyler Miles (double bass); Steve Helfand (drums)

For the third consecutive year, pianist and composer, Dave Bass has released a trio album. This one – the second featuring bassist Tyler Miles and drummer Steve Helfand - is comprised of Bass originals with some of them ingeniously constructed as contrafacts. It is an interesting compilation in which the trio, by way of Bass’s pen and keys, engages Bach, Brazil, Disney and even Juan Tizol. The result is an exhibition of boundless energy, significant communication and interplay, and stellar improvisation.

Vangie Gunn-Goodwin and Gio Washington-Wright Discuss Gordon and Vangie Gunn-Goodwin and the Incredible True Backstory Behind the Celebrated Album with Nick Mondello.

Aria @ Pizza Express Live Soho, London - Sept. 21

Aria (lead vocals); Poppy Daniels (trumpet); Bella Band (flute); Will Hobson (piano); Chris Montague (guitar); Harry Gould (bass); Dan Hester (drums); Elisha Zion, Siobhan Naomi Prince, Lauren Fretwell (backing vocals)

Three years ago, Aria sang at Pizza Express Live Soho before she had written a song of her own. Tonight, she returned to the same compact stage with a debut album, a full house and a nine-piece band packed around her.

 

That is quite a way to come full circle.

 

But this was more than a neat piece of symmetry. From the moment she walked on for Resentment, Aria looked entirely at home: assured at the centre of a formidable band, comfortable with the room and ready to claim the occasion rather than simply mark it.

 

The album is Rectify, released on Sarah Gillespie’s Pastiche Records, and Gillespie’s fingerprints are understandably all over the journey that brought Aria here. Mentor, manager, producer, co-writer, friend and, as Aria described her from the stage, sounding board, Gillespie has clearly played an enormous part in developing the artist we saw tonight.

 

The Scenic Route @ Dorman's Jazz Club Middlesbrough - 1st October

© Ron/Lydia Hampton

Josh Bentham (tenor sax, flute); James Corking (trumpet, flugel); Paul Donnelly (guitar); Dave Archbold (piano); John Daniel (bass); Jonny Mohun (percussion); Richard Miles (drums).

Playing their first gig together, this newly formed band led by saxophonist Josh Bentham gave the near capacity audience a night of most interesting music from around the world played with great passion and excitement whilst maintaining the high standards of Dorman's guest bands.

Opening with jazz from South Africa, McCoy Mrubata's Entiombeni a medium swing number was a good choice to showcase the band's ensemble work with excellent rhythmic support provided by Richard, Jonny and John.  

Staying in South Africa with Abdullah Ibrahim's beautiful ballad Whoza Mtwana, the number that inspired Josh to form the band, showed how well Josh's tenor sax and James trumpet blended together before they each played a moving solo followed by Paul's fine guitar work.

Dean Masser Quintet @ Llandudno Jazz Club - October 5

© Richard Morris

Dean Masser (tenor saxophone) Neil Yates (trumpet); Richard Harrold (piano); Gavin Barras (double bass); Ric Weedon (drums)

It is a tribute to Neil Yates, curator of Llandudno Jazz Club, that musicians travel from far and wide to play there as this night proved with Dean Masser travelling from Wigan (140 miles), Richard Harrold from Knutsford (134 miles), Gavin Barras from Glossop (182 miles) and Ric Weedon from Manchester (156 miles). Neil, born in Stockport, is now a local so does not have too far to travel.

The musicians are all well known to the club regulars and I often see both Ric and Richard either here or in Liverpool. Gavin, as well as being a long standing member of Matthew Halsall’s band is also part of Dean Stockdale’s Quartet. Dean (Masser) himself is a frequent guest. In two weeks’ time (Oct. 19) the main guest will be one of Dean’s pupils - the 2020 finalist in the BBC’s Young Jazz Musician of the Year - sax player Alex Clarke.

Preview: Ray Brown's last pianist, Larry Fuller, Celebrates Ray Brown 100 (PizzaExpress Soho)

Larry Fuller (piano); Lorin Cohen (bass); Carmen Intorre (drums).

A taste of what you might expect at Pizza Express on Nov. 10. Lance

Stockport Jazz

This week’s Stockport Jazz gig at the Moor Club sees the return of the West Coast Jazz Octet playing classic 1950s arrangements from Shorty Rogers, Marty Paich, Andre Previn, John Williams, Bob Florence and many others. 

The Octet comprises Gair Carson (tenor sax), Neil Kershaw (flugelhorn), Duncan Winfield (trombone), Simon Reynolds (baritone sax), Eileen Guppy (piano), Paul Hartley (guitar), Ben Wiltshire (bass) and Andrew Bold (drums).

Sunday 11th October 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)

Apphia Campbell: Black is the Color of my Voice @ Northern Stage, Newcastle - Oct. 6

Apphia Campbell (actor, playwright)

A sparse setting (see graphic taken before the performance) was all that was needed. That and Apphia Campbell.

I'd seen Black is the Color of my Voice ten years ago and little had changed except Ms. Campbell's voice which now seemed stronger, more powerful than I remembered.

The theme then is the same as it is now, as it was 100 years go - maybe since the beginning of time.  RACISM - the ugliest word in the dictionary.

It's the heart rending story of a thinly disguised Nina Simone's life as singer, pianist and activist for the Civil Rights Movement told emotionally and vocally by the play's multi-award winning sole performer.

She laughs (with irony), she cries (sorrowfully), she sighs (philosophically). Even at the age of three she realises the sense of injustice there is in the world.

They stepped out of a dream

Last night as I lay a-sleeping, a soporific fantasy imagined a band made up of some musicians who'd impressed me at live gigs during 2026. But, like with most dreams, come dawn's early light I was awake and the dream was gone.

However, although the dream was gone the idea wasn't so, thinking over the gigs I'd attended, I came up with the following line-up: Mejedi Owusu (trumpet); Lewis Watson, (tenor sax), Mikey Owers (trombone); Andrzej Baranek (piano); Andrea Di Biase (bass); Bill Bruford (drums).

Of course tonight's dream maybe totally different and, if I'm lucky, might feature Meryl Streep in The Bridges of Tyne & Wear County - dream on... Lance

Photos

Lewis Watson © John Lyons.

Mejedi Owusu, Andrea Di Biase © Pam

Mikey Owers, Bill Bruford © Sylvia

Andrzej Baranek © Patti