From the Blue Note Harrogate to Mississippi Goddam!

(Preview by Russell)

Wynton comes to Yorkshire and Laura goes to NYC. BBC television does jazz well. The problem is, there isn’t enough of it. Two programmes (one after the other) on BBC4 this coming Friday (May 29) are welcome but there is precious little else. Grateful for crumbs tune in at 7:30pm for Nina Simone and Me with Laura Mvula. British singer Laura Mvula travels to New York to enthuse about her idol, Ms Nina Simone. Hard on the heels of the half hour documentary, Wynton Marsalis leads the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in a Blue Note special recorded at the Royal Hall in Harrogate – Wynton Marsalis Plays Blue Note (8:00pm).

From TV crumbs to more like a slice of the jazz cake on BBC Radio. Today (Saturday 23) Cleo Laine looks at the all-girl swing bands in the UK and USA. First broadcast in 1999, Archive on 4: Some Like It Hot airs on BBC Radio 4 Extra at three o’clock. JRR on Radio 3 at five o’clock remembers Wardell Gray (found dead in the desert outside Las Vegas all of sixty years ago). Jazz Line-Up follows at 6:00pm. The programme includes a concert performance by Konrad Wiszniewski (heard with SNJO at Sage Gateshead) and pianist Euan Stevenson. Bank holiday Monday’s Jazz on 3 features Joe Lovano and on Tuesday over on Radio 2, the man of the moment, Kurt Elling, presents an investigative report on Fats Waller’s encounters with Al Capone in Fats Waller and Al Capone (10:00pm).
Russell.