The Jazz Cavern Latest

Below is updated information on my weekly radio show - THE JAZZ CAVERN.  My next show will be broadcast starting Monday, April 20. It will be largely new releases from Hannah Horton, Gary Topper, Malcolm MacFarlane, Eleanor Kelly and the band Five Way Split. There will also be earlier recordings from John Taylor/Stan Sulzmann and the NDR Big Band as well as the Dutch Jazz Orchestra playing rare pieces by Billy Strayhorn. There will also be a brief tribute to the late Mike Westbrook who sadly died on April 20 at the age of 90. He will be sorely missed for all that he contributed to British Jazz. 

Happy listening! Frank Griffith

www.purejazzradio.com.

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

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

Playlist 19/04/26 (repeated Tuesday 21/04/26)

Seasonal: Harry James.

Requests from Joe Steels' Bishop Auckland gig: Wynton Kelly/Wes Montgomery, Branford Marsalis, Daniel John Martin, Oscar Peterson, Charlie Byrd.

Michael Bede Dunlop introduces his new album

Requests: Tommy Dorsey, Ella Fitzgerald and the Inkspots.

New Releases: Jed Levy/Phil Robson, Javon Jackson, Madeleine Peyroux.

Tony Eales’ Best of British Big Bands: Skelton Skinner Allstars Big Band.

Request: Kurt Elling with the WDR Big Band.

Seasonal: Billie Holiday.

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

Late Night Chicago Radio w. Denny Farrell (April 16 - April 22)

Gerry Mulligan: Five Brothers.

Chet Baker: All the Things You Are.

Bud Shank: Shank's Pranks.

Ella Fitzgerald: The Man That Got Away.

Concord All Stars: Alone Together.

Jonah Jones: Tin Roof Blues.

Sarah Vaughan: Street of Dreams.

Don Elliott: Imagination.

Larry Branchetti: For Once in my life.

Stan Getz: Girl From Ipanema.

Beegie Adair: Stairway to the Stars.

LISTEN 24/7

Norman Redhead funeral details announced

The funeral of Norman Redhead who passed away on April 9 will take place on Friday May 8 12.30.

May he REST IN PEACE

Jazz FM Awards 2026

Winner's Names are in Bold Type

Breakthrough Act of the Year 

Donovan Haffner; Earth-o-Naut; Poppy Daniels 

International Jazz Act of the Year 

Linda May Han Oh; Nate Smith; Samara Joy 

Blues Act of the Year 

Alice Armstrong; Gary Clark Jr.; Mavis Staples 

Soul Act of the Year 

Omar; RAYE; Young Gun Silver Fox 

Press Release: Public nominations are now open for the 2026 Parliamentary Jazz Awards

Public nominations  are now open for the 2026 Parliamentary Jazz Awards. Entries are open to anyone. Public nominations open on Friday 17th April with the final deadline set for midnight on Friday 15th May 2026. The Parliamentary Awards celebrate and recognise the vibrancy, diversity, talent and breadth of the jazz scene throughout the United Kingdom.

"These awards are a great opportunity to celebrate the talents and energies of the great musicians, educators, promoters, record labels, jazz organisations, blogs, jazz magazines and journalists who keep jazz flourishing, in spite of the challenges they faced in the last couple of years”. Lord Mann and Dame Chi Onwurah MP, Co-chairs of APPJG and Jo White MP.

The Awards will take place at World Heart Beat on Tuesday 13th October 2026 at 7pm

Album review: Eddie Gripper - Americana (ECN Music)

Eddie Gripper (piano); Clem Saynor (double bass); Patrick Barrett-Donlon (drums)

Inspired by a six week trip hitchhiking from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Los Angeles the result isn't what you'd expect from the album's title. No hoedown music here, no sirree, just gentle, dreamy reflections on a once beautiful land.

What it may lack in earthy, grandiose, bravura punch is more than compensated for by the rich pastel shades Gripper and his cohorts paint. Capturing the multi-textured background to his journey to perfection. This is the America that was once the Land of Dreams - once...

Single Review - Fogging Up the Windows – Keith Fiala (Wayfarer Records)

Keith Fiala (trumpet and programming.)

Trumpeter Keith Fiala has not-so-quietly been solidifying his place as one of the more creative composers and highly talented trumpeters in the music world. Coming off the charting success of his last Wayfarer release - the moodily beautiful Dream of Me - the Texan has been touring the world as a key member of Arturo Sandoval’s ensemble where he’s a featured soloist and part of the killer horn line.

Fogging Up the Windows continues Fiala’s fine work. What’s most interesting and inviting about his efforts is the fact that, unlike some formulaic presentations of “Smooth Jazz,” (a description this writer finds nebulous and incongruent), Fiala’s compositions and arrangements defy that “norm” structurally and from an improvisational standpoint. He’s much more of a jazzer than some others on the scene. That’s no disrespect, but simply a listener’s observation.

Nick Mondello interviews Steve Lipman of Independent Music Schools

Another pertinent interview by Nick Mondello on the subject of finding the best music school for your child in the USA.

What are the options? Where to look? Who to guide you?

HERE IS A GOOD PLACE TO START. Lance

Stockport Jazz

This Sunday Stockport Jazz welcomes the Mike Hall Quartet to the Moor Club, featuring Mike on tenor sax alongside pianist Dan Whieldon with Gavin Barras (bass) and Eryl Roberts (drums). 

Sunday 19th 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)