Michel Legrand all week on Radio 3

This week's Composer of the Week is conductor, composer, arranger and pianist Michel Legrand. 

Across five programmes (Monday to Friday) there is quite a bit of jazz - by way of composers and performers on disc - to be heard. 

Tune in to BBC Radio 3 at four o'clock. Russell

Richard Iles Trio @ the Moor Club, Heaton Moor, Stockport - Jan. 5

© Jeff Pritchard

Richard Iles (flugelhorn); Richard Wetherall (keys); Uli Elbracht (guitar)

A change in the line-up due to hazardous road conditions across the Pennines meant that bassist Ben Crossland and guitarist Jamie Taylor couldn't make it so two local musicians, Richard Wetherall and Uli Elbracht, were called in at short notice.

In spite of the heavy rain there was a good turnout for this, the first gig of 2025, and the audience seemed to like  what they heard which was a selection of well known standards plus one original tune, Secret Bossa, and a twelve bar blues making a total of nine tunes. 

Peter Gunn (1989 movie/DVD)

Peter Gunn was one of the early American hardboiled private eye TV shows. It ran from 1958-1961. The theme and incidental jazz was by Henry Mancini and supplied by Hollywood A-listers such as Shelly Manne, Victor Feldman, Larry Bunker, Ted Nash and many others.

The series also spawned a couple of movies in 1967 and 1989. It's the latter one that I've got on DVD.

Although now in colour it remains firmly entrenched in the 1950s and '60s with Cadillacs 'big enough to have a bowling alley in the back' and guys all smoking and wearing fedora hats.

Album review: John Stein - Next Gen, Jazz for my Grandchildren (Tiger Turn)

John Stein (guitar); Ed Lucie (bass guitar); Mike Connors (drums)

Reading the sub title - Jazz for my Grandchildren - my initial response was a measured "Aaah..." before moving on to more verdant pastures. However, a twinge of guilt halted my departure. Let's face it, if Stein has taken the trouble to write music for his grandkids then the least I could do was to listen, and I'm pleased that I did!

Five family related tunes and six jazz standards made for a pleasing mix.

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

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

Playlist 05/01/25 (repeated Tuesday 07/01/25)

Seasonal Requests: Sackville All Stars, Eartha Kitt, Trygve Seim and Andreas Ultnem, Emma Fisk, Barbara Dennerlein, Count Basie.

Memories: MJQ, Trombone Shorty, Louis Stewart, Alex Welsh/Wild Bill Davison, Red Allen.

Requests: Paul Edis, Ramsey Lewis Trio, Hank Jones, Robert Glasper, Tim Boniface.

What’s coming up in the NE: Mark Toomey, Alan Barnes.

Aycliffe Radio is available on DAB in County Durham & the Darlington Area.

Yamaha strikes a chord in North Shields (Jan. 5)

This time last year Steven Moore took the bold step of opening a Yamaha Music School in Blyth. Twelve months on, it's courses galore (name your instrument), many oversubscribed, plus a weekly Monday lunchtime concert series (classical, folk, jazz etc), it's fair to say the Seaforth Street music hub has been, and is, a resounding success. 

Album review: Towner Galaher Organ Group - Brothers (Rhythm Royale Records)

Towner Galaher (drums, conga); Jimmy Sanders (B3, Rhodes, clavinet); Randy Monroe (bass); Marvin Horne (guitar); Craig Handy (tenor sax)

The fifth album by Portland, Oregan, drummer/ percussionist Galaher slots easily into a funky soul mode ideally suited to any Hammond orientated band although the Towner Galaher Organ Group is more than 'just any' such group.

Sanders and Galaher have a hand in all the compositions either individually or as a team. They are both definitely on the same wavelength as indeed are their fellow travellers Monroe, Horne and Handy. The album title is appropriate.  

Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club - Jan. 3

Jim McBriarty (alto/soprano sax, clarinet, vocals); Alan Marshall (tenor sax, clarinet); David Gray (trombone, vocals); Jeremy McMurray (piano); Alan Rudd (bass); Ian Stocks (drums); Olive Rudd (vocals)

Hell and high water, not to mention Metro disruptions and the threat of snow on the  horizon didn't stop Classic Swing's fanbase turning out for the first Friday session of 2025. The traumatic journey home was but a minor blip in a very enjoyable afternoon.*

Kicking off as per with their signature tune, Tommy Moran's eponymously titled Classic Swing, it soon became evident the band were 'up for it' with cutting solos all round.

Album review: Terry Waldo & the Gotham City Band - Treasury: Volume 1 (Turtle Bay Records)

Terry Waldo (piano); Mike Davis (trumpet/cornet); Ricky Alexander (clarinet, soprano sax); Jay Lepley (drums); Colin Hancock (cornet, tenor sax); Jim Fryer, Sam Chess (trombone); Jerron Paxton (banjo, vocals); Nick Russo, Arnt Arntzen (banjo); Evan Arntzen, Dennis Lichtman (clarinet); Jay Rattman (bass sax); Brian Nalepka (bass); Tatiana Eva-Marie, Veronica Swift (vocal). (Collective)

Slick, modern Dixieland reminiscent of the old Rampart Street Paraders, Bob Scobey's Frisco Jazz Band or, more recently, Vince Giordano's Nighthawks, featuring various combinations based around leader/pianist Waldo, Davis, reedman Alexander and drummer Lepley.

It's a fun album with spiky solos from the horns, some of whom are not unknown to those hardy souls who make their annual pilgrimage to Whitley Bay for the Classic Jazz Party, as well as  some feetwarming examples of Waldo's mastery of earlier jazz piano styles.

Album review: Edison Herbert - All I Need

Edison Herbert (guitar); Neville Malcolm (bass); Winston Clifford (drums); Sean Hargreaves (piano - tracks 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) + guests Cherisse Scott (vocals - track 4); Kim Cypher (tenor sax - track 5); Kevin Robinson (flugelhorn - track 9); Ben Gilbert (piano - tracks 1, 2, 5, 8); Chris Wells (drums - tracks 4, 5); Graham Maynard (piano - track 7)

All I Need comprises nine tracks, six of them written by Edison Herbert. The title track typifies guitarist Herbert's approach - bright and breezy, his sound bubbling over with glass half full optimism. Bassist Neville Malcolm and drummer Winston Clifford are established names and Herbert's guest contributors include Kim Cypher (tenor sax) and, formerly of the BSH parish, pianist Ben Gilbert.

Rossano Sportiello: Live at the Flat in Greenwich Village (#122) - a NYE livestream

Rossano Sportiello's weekly lockdown livestream from his flat in Greenwich Village proved to be one of the few plus points of Covid times. As things began to return to something like normal (whatever 'normal' is), Sportiello, in common with musicians across the globe, took to the road to play to a real, live - as opposed to a livestream - audience. However, old habits die hard and Italian born, NYC resident pianist Sportiello has, whenever possible, continued to present livestreams. 

Album review: Greg Abate - Road to Forever (Whaling City Sound)

Greg Abate (soprano sax, alto sax, tenor sax, flute); Tim Ray (piano, electric piano); John Lockwood (acoustic bass, electric bass); Mark Walker (drums, percussion)

One gets the impression Greg Abate is permanently on the road. 250+ dates a year takes the man from Woonsocket, Rhode Island, coast to coast USA, not to mention annual trips (July and November) to the UK. Perhaps the album title of this 2017 release - Road to Forever - is Abate's tacit acknowledgment of his globetrotting existence (in pursuit of music-making). Take the Crowell Train, a contrafact of Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise, is dedicated to California based, fellow musician Ken Crowell. And then there's Mr. Parker, without question referencing the pioneering bebop alto saxophonist, Charlie 'Yardbird' Parker, indeed it's a contrafact of Confirmation. 

Album review: Xhosa Cole - On a Modern Genius Vol. 1 (Stoney Lane Records)

Xhosa Cole (tenor sax); Liberty Styles (tap dancing); Steve Saunders (guitar); Josh Vadiveloo (bass); Nathan England-Jones (drums) + Heidi Vogel (vocal on Come Sunday)

Tap dancing on record isn't new. The first time I heard it was on a Doris Day recording of Crazy Rhythm. Doris did the singing and Gene Nelson did the dancing. Norman Granz also recorded Fred Astaire dancing to the JATP class of '52 and, of course, Ellington featured Bunny Briggs hoofing on David Danced Before the Lord on one of Duke's Sacred Concert recordings. That composition is actually an uptempo version of Come Sunday so with On a Modern Genius Vol. 1 we've come full circle.