Album Review: Jan Harbeck Quartet – Conversation (Stunt Records)

Jan Harbeck (tenor sax); Henrik Gunde (piano) Eske Nørrelykke (bass); Anders Holm (drums)

This is a lovely album of solid blowing, pretty firmly in the mainstream and all the stronger for it. Harbeck’s influences include many of the old masters (Webster, Getz, Gordon) and he’s backed by a solid rhythm section and it all makes for a hugely enjoyable forty or so minutes. Gunde’s piano can be fluid and melancholy or Monk-ishly angular and he adds all sorts of rills and thrills to his wide spectrum playing.

As a group they can romp effectively through the lively numbers and can slam on the brakes for something bluesier. Opener, Passing Clouds, is a dark lit/late night club of a tune and the third piece, Odd One Out is in a similar vein. Harbeck’s slides and elisions draw you into the emotions in these songs, and, by the end of the latter piece you can see, in your mind’s eye the desperation of our imaginary protagonist. It’s crying out for a good lyricist and a blues voice. Nørrelykke is solid at the back whilst Holm adds minimalist brush strokes.

Sting likes Knats

In an interview on ITV news in the Tyne Tees area, local boy made good, Sting,  talked about the forthcoming London presentation of his shipyard based musical The Last Ship.

Without actually mentioning their name, he also managed to slip in a plug for Knats, a north east, London based, band who are being heard in all the right places - just as Last Exit were some 50 years ago.

Nice one Gordon (Sumner) - Lance

Album review: Heidi Martin – Attunement (self)

Heidi Martin (vocals); Marc Carey (piano); Michael Bowie (bass); Eric Kennedy (drums) + Elijah Easton (tenor sax tks 2, 3); Ethan Bailey Gould (guitar tks 3, 4, 8)

There is something deeply courageous about an album like Attunement. In an age where so much music feels designed for instant consumption, Heidi Martin has instead chosen patience, reflection and total immersion. What began as two years of academic research into the estate of Abbey Lincoln at Rutgers University slowly evolved into something far more personal than a traditional tribute record. This album is not interested in recreating the past. It is an album that attempts to sit beside it, listen to it and absorb its spirit.

Martin’s time studying Lincoln’s journals in chronological order clearly left a profound mark on her writing. You can feel it throughout these songs. Not through imitation, but through atmosphere, philosophy and emotional honesty. There are moments on Attunement where it feels as though Martin is less concerned with performance and more concerned with emotional alignment, trying to understand what it means to create from a place of complete truthfulness in the same way Lincoln always did.

Sonny et moi

This is the closest I ever got to meeting the late Sonny Rollins - Paris circa 1980/81. Lance
 

Stockport Jazz

This Sunday Stockport Jazz welcomes the Munch Manship Quartet to the Moor Club, featuring Munch on tenor saxophone with Richard Wetherall (piano), Dave Lynane (bass) and Dave Hassell (drums). 

Sunday 31st May 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)

Jazz at the Lit & Phil: Noel Dennis salutes Miles Davis - May 26

© Ken Drew

Noel Dennis (trumpet); Harry Keeble (tenor sax); Dean Stockdale (piano); Mark Williams (guitar); Andy Champion (double bass); John Bradford (drums) 

My first attempt to sally forth since my recent mishap was well worth the effort. How could it not be when a team of north east big hitters got together to perform the  music of Miles Davis?

The 2 x 45 minute sets touched upon several different periods of the trumpet legend's career ranging from the 1949 groundbreaking Birth of the Cool album through to the jazz/fusion of  Bitches Brew with, naturally, a couple of numbers from, Davis' legendary best selling jazz album Kind of Blue. And it was with So What from that latter album that the concert began. Champion's extended bass introduction setting the mood for the solos that followed.

Album review: Callum Au - Sing Seven Seas (ECN Music)

There is something deeply reassuring about hearing a record like Sing Seven Seas at a time when so much modern music feels disposable almost before it has landed. Callum Au’s ambitious new large ensemble project arrives not simply as another big band album, but as a statement of intent from one of the most in-demand arrangers and orchestrators working in Britain today. Known for shaping music behind the scenes for artists as diverse as Michael Bublé, RAYE and Josh Groban, Au finally steps fully into the spotlight here with a body of work that feels intensely personal, wildly ambitious and overflowing with musical imagination.

What immediately strikes you about Sing Seven Seas is the sheer scale of it. Written for an expanded ensemble of more than eighty musicians across two volumes, this is music that constantly shifts shape. One moment it swings with the swagger and elegance of classic big band writing, the next it opens into sweeping orchestral colours, contemporary jazz textures or cinematic passages that feel almost transportative. Yet despite the scale, there is warmth running through everything. Nothing here feels academic or distant. Even at its most complex, the music breathes.

 

Miles @ Newcastle City Hall

Friday, October 7, 1960. Newcastle City Hall had an air of anticipation about it as the seats were being leisurely taken. Not all were yet occupied. Had the supporting Jazz Five (Vic Ash, Harry Klein, Brian Dee, Malcolm Cecil and Bill Eydon) been playing on another night at another, smaller, venue such as the New Orleans Club or the Down Beat the fans would have been fighting to get in.

On another night.

On this night there was only one game in town and only one person - Miles Davis.

So whilst the Jazz Five were attempting the impossible, the pundits and aficionados were propping up the bar (not me guv!)

At last the moment arrived. Within minutes all seats were filled. Kind of Blue had just been released the year previous and some were muttering darkly at the presence of Sonny Stitt in place of Cannonball and Trane.

R.I.P. Sonny Rollins (1930 - May 25, 2026)

© Derek Cogger

When I switched on to the BBC news channel this morning I did so with the faint hope that they would acknowledge Miles' centennial. Of course they didn't although they did have some jazz news albeit not what I was looking for.

I never got to hear Sonny Rollins live although I know a man who did.

I first met Ron Ainsborough at a Mark Toomey gig at the sadly missed Cherry Tree restaurant in Jesmond. This was in 2009 and Ron had just returned from hearing Sonny at the Barbican. In one of his rare reviews, Ron described that concert as "the best jazz concert I'd ever been to." You can read his review, which began life as a comment, HERE. 

Sadly missed - thank you for the music, Sonny. Lance      

Davina & the Vagabonds @ Cluny 2, Newcastle - May 23

Davina Sowers (vocals, piano); Becca Lozier (trumpet, vocals);  Matthew Hanzelka (trombone); Graydon Peterson (double bass); Connor McRae Hammergren (drums) 

A long overdue return visit to Newcastle by Davina and the Vagabonds. It had been all of fourteen years since Davina Sowers last walked along the Ouseburn. The Cluny, Cluny 2 to be precise, couldn't have been busier with all seats occupied for an eight fifteen start. The Vagabonds line-up has seen many changes, this 2026 UK tour iteration was, according to Sowers, the best yet.

Sowers' raw vocal power, impassioned, knowing lyrics, the Vagabonds' instrumental excellence, the evening's two sets embraced jazz, blues, jump jive and rhythm 'n' blues shot through with a bucket full of soul.