It's a big show spread over three floors. Entering the Hatton Gallery, much of the wall/floor space was temporarily given over to some of the students' work. Walking into a second room a painting immediately caught the eye...
Sunday, May 31, 2026
La Dolce Vita
More J.G. Windows...
I spent a huge amount of Thursday evenings (and a huge amount of my salary) in the Jazz CD Department in the 80s/90s/2000s - which was then upstairs - receiving a lot of great information and advice from a chap called Rob/Robert. Looking back at my collection now, I have remarkably few 'duds', which was entirely down to him - he was always trying to push me into less 'safe' jazz areas and steer me away from 'honking' tenor players for whom he had no time. It was a perfectly symbiotic relationship - I always left with 3 or 4 CDs on Thursday evenings which boosted the shops numbers a bit, and I ended up with an excellently curated jazz CD collection.
I lost touch with Robert after I left Newcastle College which I regret and wondered if you had any information as to his whereabouts. Andrew Pidd
Late Night Chicago Radio with Denny Farrell (May 28 - June 3)
Mel Tormé: Lullaby of Birdland.
Jimmy Yancey: 35th and Dearborn,
Eddie Condon: Embraceable You.
Dick Johnson: The Night Has a Thousand Eyes.
Harry Edison/Oscar Peterson: Makin' Whoopie.
Stan Getz: Over the Rainbow.
Bing Crosby/Lee Wiley: I Still Suits me.
Mary Lou Williams: Darn That Dream.
Johnny Hodges: Perdido.
Saturday, May 30, 2026
The Music of Charles Mingus @ Jazz at Obie's (Southgate Club), London - May 27
Malcolm Earle Smith (trombone, vocals); Art Themen (tenor sax); Gabriel Garrick (trumpet, flugelhorn); Kate Williams (piano); Larry Bartley (double bass); Ethan Sweeting (drums)
The Music of...Malcolm Earle Smith (Professor of Jazz, Trinity, London) has taken to putting together ensembles to play the music of whatever and whoever. This evening's all-star sextet, purposely restricted to a one hour rehearsal, would play the music of Charles Mingus.
The Southgate Club Ltd, on the Piccadilly line at, unsurprisingly, Southgate (two stops short of end-of-the-line Cockfosters), is home to Jazz at Obie's. It's a typical social club, not CIU, but, to all intents and purposes it could be. The all-star line-up tempted your correspondent to make the round trip of some 550 miles to listen to Malcolm Earle Smith and co play the music of Mingus.
Jazz Time Aycliffe Radio - Sundays 6.30-8.00pm (repeated Tuesdays 8.00-9.30pm).
https://www.ayclifferadio.co.
Playlist 31/05/26 (repeated Tuesday 02/06/26)
Requests: Stan Kenton, Kenny Barron Trio, Bix Beiderbecke (Bing Crosby), John Coltrane, Nina Simone, Dave Douglas, Bill Evans/Stan Getz, Django Reinhardt, Dave Brubeck.
Tony Eales’ Best of British Big Bands: John Dankworth.
New Release: Rachel Therrien.
Memories: Benny Goodman, Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra/Frank Trumbauer.
What’s On in the NE: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band.
Remembering Miles Davis.
Aycliffe Radio is now available on DAB in County Durham & the Darlington area or via your smart speaker.
Friday, May 29, 2026
Matt Holborn & Kourosh Kanani @ Cafe Boheme, London - May 27
A few days shy of 'Flaming June', the last week in London had been hot, hot, hot. Underground trains were hot, China Town was hot, Soho sizzled. On this Wednesday afternoon, on the corner of Old Compton Street, Cafe Boheme offered refuge from a burning sun.
It's the kind of place where the few listen and the many chatter, volubly. The musicians at work this afternoon - Matt Holborn and Kourosh Kanani - got on with the job. Without introduction - words would have been lost on the noisy majority - our violin-guitar duo opened with Days of Wine and Roses. Playing for themselves, no doubt, and good for them, and the very few intent on listening, Holborn and Kanani were as relaxed as could be. Exchanging extended solo improvisations, this was top class stuff worthy of the concert hall.
Press release: NCRO - Annual concert at New Venue
Once again our special guest on piano is Martin Litton, an internationally renowned musician, arranger and bandleader, specialising in all the classic styles of jazz from ragtime to swing. Also joining us will be our good friend Nick Ward on vintage percussion, Steve Andrews will present the show, and not forgetting our very own Caroline on vocals!
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool - BBC Four tonite!
Album review: Sam Braysher - A Sinner Kissed an Angel (Fresh Sound Records - New Talent)
A truly international quartet led by an English saxophonist, an Amsterdam based German guitarist, an American bassist living in France and a Dutch drummer playing a selection of lesser known tunes and making them, if not their own, at least joint share-holders.
Leader Braysher has been well represented within these pages both on record and live. On this, his latest album, the sound of the alto sax has the warmth of Johnny Hodges, the creativity of Charlie Parker and the bite of Phil Woods - a potpourri of urbane sophistication well-suited to the opening track.
Thursday, May 28, 2026
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)
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
Stockport Jazz
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)
Wednesday, May 27, 2026
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.
Tuesday, May 26, 2026
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
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
Monday, May 25, 2026
Davina & the Vagabonds @ Cluny 2, Newcastle - May 23
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.
Book review: A Man Called Adam
And not just the music but the man, like his Caucasian counterpart Chet Baker, has been the subject of many books, films and TV documentaries that are interesting if not always accurate. How could they be with such an enigmatic genius as Miles?
A Man Called Adam makes no claim to be in any way related to Miles. Its antihero certainly doesn't bare any resemblance to Louis, Dizzy, Lee Morgan or any other jazz musician of the era and yet the aura of Miles is present throughout the book and, I'm sure the film, which I haven't seen, does likewise.
Paradoxically, Louis Armstrong portrays a Bunk Johnson related character whilst Sammy Davis, Jr. (no relation to Miles) plays the title role.
Miles Davis 100: Composer of the Week and more
Facebook favourites
Facebook, that seeker of wisdom and truth and the font of all knowledge (sometimes) recently posed the question to its followers as to who is their favourite jazz saxophonist of all time.
The results were predictable. Not those players who sat at the right hand of God (a.k.a Bean, Pres, Trane, Bird or Frog) but those who weren't even mentioned or received one vote at the very best.
Thus I offer:
Alto: Lennie Niehaus, Sonny Criss
Tenor: Wardell Gray, Brew Moore
Baritone: Serge Chaloff, Cecil Payne.
Sunday, May 24, 2026
Album review: Peter Erskine - Peregrine (Hard Wag Records)
Peter Erskine (drums); Alan Pasqua (piano, elec. piano); Scott Colley (bass) + Kate Lamont (vocals tk 5); Bob Sheppard (saxes tks 5, 8); Brian Kilgore perc. tk 5)
A most enjoyable album by three fine musicians, plus guests, that doesn't insult your intelligence or have you searching for something that isn't there.
A well tempered mix of pop standards and originals that are tastefully tailored to suit the trio's strengths (if they have any weaknesses I've yet to find them - chances are I never will.)
Kate Lamont respects Phoebe Snow's enigmatic Poetry Man with a sensitive version. Less in your face than the original - there's room for both. Nice tenor solo by Sheppard and haunting percussion from Kilgore.
Miles and more Miles on JRR (Sunday)
On this afternoon's edition of Jazz Record Requests (May 24), Alyn Shipton introduces Miles and Miles of listeners' requests alongside interviews with former Miles Davis sidemen George Benson and Dave Holland. Tune to BBC Radio 3 at four o'clock. Either side of JRR, there is more, much more of Miles...
Saturday, May 23, 2026
Jazz Time Aycliffe Radio - Sundays 6.30-8.00pm (repeated Tuesdays 8.00-9.30pm).
https://www.ayclifferadio.co.
Playlist 24/05/26 (repeated Tuesday 26/05/26)
Memories: Artie Shaw, Miles Davis, Zoë Gilby & Noel Dennis.
Seasonal: Blossom Dearie, Nat 'King' Cole, John Hallam.
Requests: Freddy Hubbard.
New Releases: Gerald Albright, Heidi Martin, Hannah Horton.
Requests: Wigan Youth Orchestra, Lee Morgan/Ron Carter, Duke Ellington, Lester Young, The Boswell Sisters/Dorsey Brothers, Thelonius Monk/Milt Jackson, Sarah Vaughan/Dizzy Gillespie, Zoot Sims/Bob Brookmeyer, Art Tatum.
Paul Edis Trio @ The Gala, Durham - May 22
 |
| © Malcolm Sinclair |
Another full house. What's new? The Gala's lunchtime concert series is on a roll with sold out performances now considered the norm. This afternoon's concert would continue the trend. Although now based in London, Paul Edis continues to programme the concerts, and today, for a change, pianist Edis himself would take centre stage.
Miles and Miles and Miles of Miles on the Beeb
Miles Dewey Davis III. A name to conjure with. Tuesday (May 26th) marks the centenary of the birth of Miles Davis and the BBC (radio and television) is marking the occasion with a slew of programmes. The first of them - Legend: the Miles Davis Story - a five-part series on BBC Radio 4, presented by Clark Peters, begins this morning at 10:30am (repeated Monday 4:30pm).
Friday, May 22, 2026
Announcing the Durham Jazz Festival!
The Space Between the Notes took centre stage. John Lyons' photography exhibition will be in situ up to and including the festival weekend (Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th October).
Album review: Lou Marini and The Italian Groovers - Playtime (Azzura Music)
Woodwind artist “Blue” Lou Marini is one of the most recognized musicians in the world. From his early days on Saturday Night Live – who could forget his gilded-faced entry on Steve Martin’s King Tut? - to his bravura film performances and world tours with the Blues Brothers. With Playtime, Marini joins forces with a trio of Italian-based musicians plus guest to deliver a dozen superb tracks - all Marini originals, save one. The vibe here ranges from free to funk and to straight-ahead, all superbly performed.
The Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Millstone, South Gosforth, Newcastle - May 21
David Gray (trombone, trumpet, vocals); Jim McBriarty (tenor sax, clarinet, vocals); Brian Bennett (banjo); Jamie Wadkins (double bass)
The Millstone, a stone's throw from South Gosforth roundabout, with the Ouseburn in Jesmond Dene eddying its way past the pub's beer garden, was to renew acquaintance with the local jazz scene. The Vieux Carré Jazzmen were a once familiar fixture, now, as the Hot 4, it would be like old times.
The Glory of Love. We've been here before. The Vieux Carré playing Billy Hill's timeless number is nothing new, more power to their collective elbow. Bring Me Sunshine, a somewhat less predicable choice, kinda worked, Whenever You're Lonesome (Just Telephone Me) most certainly worked, all in an afternoon's work for the VC Hot 4.
Cheltenham Musings 2
Wandering
round the town there seems to be more jazz around than in previous years. You
could easily have a day’s entertainment flitting between the free stage in Montpelier Gardens and
the new free stage in the Brewery Quarter, (we caught singer Josh Hicks and
band sound checking, soulfully) not to mention the occasional busker, such as
the bloke on a bench near the bogs running through some pin sharp Metheny-isms
whilst we queued for the facilities. It does feel like jazz is all around.
Thursday, May 21, 2026
Album review: Duchess: A Marvelous Party (ANZIC Records)
Think of the Boswell Sisters, the Andrews Sisters, the Keynotes and, more recently, the Puppini Sisters. Girl vocal groups whose harmonies defined the times be it the Wall Street Crash, World War ll or its aftermath.
Duchess have absorbed all of those elements as well as adding a few distinctive harmonic touches of their own on this, their fourth release.
It's a concept album. Once upon a time you had to have a gimmick. These days you have to have a concept. In this case the concept is a party and given credibility by stringing together a dozen loosely related lyrics that form the basis of A Marvelous Party.
So, let the party begin.
Cheltenham Jazz Festival: Yazz Ahmed @ The Parabola Arts Centre, Cheltenham - May 3
Yazz
Ahmed (trumpet, flugelhorn); Ralph Wylde (keys, vibes, marimba); Elizabeth
Knott (percussion); Berlinde Deman (serpent) (Yes, you read that right, it does say serpent)
The Cheltenham Festival
has previous for commissioning works and, for this one at the Arts Centre, Yazz
Ahmed, Anglo/Bahraini trumpeter, has recruited an unusual instrumental line-up.
She has revisited some of her previous work and remodelled and ‘remixed’ those
pieces for this new group, so, whilst the music may not be new, the treatment
of it certainly is.
They open with Wah-Wah Sowahwah with the deep voice of the cello on the original album track being taken by the serpent. Deman’s playing seems to require her to play short passages before she manipulates her serpent’s sound using one of the array of pedals, switches and knobs arranged on the floor in front of her.
An Interview with composer, author, poet, improviser, producer Mary Moreno by Nick Mondello
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZN2-H3Vizs
This is an
interview I did yesterday with Mary Moreno. Mary was married to Blues Brother and trumpet great Alan Rubin.
She also spent time writing jingles and producing jingle sessions in the halcyon days of New York advertising and NY GREATS playing those jingles. She also is a classical composer studying at Juilliard and in Paris (under the Nadia Boulanger method à la Quincy Jones). Nick
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Cheltenham Jazz Festival: Emma Rawicz’s INKYRA @ Parabola Arts Centre, Cheltenham - May 3
Emma
Rawicz (saxophone); Gareth Lockrane (flutes); David Preston (guitar); Scottie
Thompson (piano, Rhodes and prophet); Kevin Glasgow (bass); Jamie Murray
(drums)
The Parabola Arts Centre
is the space, at Cheltenham, for new, experimental ideas, unusual projects and
Festival one-off commissions. It’s also the best opportunity to practice your contortionism
as you knot your limbs up so they will fit into the seat rows.
Our second gig in the same seats on Sunday afternoon was for Rawicz’s INKYRA project. Rawicz is on a roll at the moment with three highly regarded albums on the German ACT label and a steady stream of awards. She’s here tonight with her INKYRA project and has been able to keep together the band from the album.
Stockport Jazz
This Sunday Stockport Jazz welcomes the Liam Byrne Quartet to the Moor Club, featuring Liam on tenor saxophone with Richard Wetherall (piano), Gavin Barras (bass) and Eryl Roberts (drums).
Sunday 24th 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)
Tuesday, May 19, 2026
Mark Williams Trio @ Blaydon Jazz Club - May 18
Mark Williams (guitar); Paul Susans (bass); Rob Walker (drums)
© Roly Veitch
More than a quarter of a century ago guitarist Mark Williams arrived on Tyneside from Belfast to study for a music degree. Our man stayed on and has long since been a mainstay of the regional jazz scene.
On a mild May evening, Blaydon Jazz Club's faithful duly turned up to welcome Williams' established trio - bassist Paul Susans and drummer Rob Walker. The Black Bull crowd would be treated to an evening of original compositions. A man of few words, copies of his albums - Last Bus to Bensham and Long Way Out - were in his car parked outside the venue, clearly the 'hard sell' isn't Williams' style!
Album review: Terry Waldo & the Gotham City Band - Treasury Volume 3 (Turtle Bay Records)
Treasury Volume 3 is pianist, historian Waldo's third* and final exploration of early jazz and ragtime and, like the previous two, features the best of Gotham City's hot musicians working in and around NYC.
It's a stomping, strutting, shimmying Dixieland clambake that's a potent mix of Chicago, New Orleans, Frisco and Whitley Bay. Yes, Whitley Bay deserves a mention as Fryer, Davis and Hancock are not unknown at the Classic Jazz Party (see right hand column) and it was only last week that Paxton was just up the road at Gosforth Civic Theatre.
Jazz on the Tyne Welcomes Alexia Gardner & the Hexham Jazz Weekender 2026
In the latest edition of the podcast, presenter Colin
Muirhead talks with acclaimed vocalist Alexia Gardner, ahead of
her quintet’s appearance at the inaugural Hexham Jazz Weekender. Along with music by Alexia, you’ll hear
tracks by the Chris Coull Quartet with Imogen Ryall, Abbie Finn, Paul
Edis, SwanNek, Threeway feat. Ben Crosland, Modern Vikings, and Joe
Steels, all of whom will be playing in Hexham. Colin also previews Courtney Pine’s gig at
the Glasshouse in Gateshead.
You can listen to the show anytime HERE.
Plus, you can request music for future programmes, pass on
news or leave feedback by emailing Colin at jazz.tyne.hive@gmail.com
or by heading to www.jazzonthetyne.org.
Monday, May 18, 2026
Julian Lage @ Royal Festival Hall – May 15
Julian Lage (guitar); John Medeski (Hammond
organ, piano); Jorge Roeder (bass); Kenny Wollesen (drums)
There’s something
about the walk along the South Bank towards the Royal
Festival Hall that makes it feel as though the evening has already begun
long before you reach your seat. London, in all of its colour and sound, slowly
unfolding around you like an overture. The Thames catching the last of the
early evening sun, the London Eye rotating
gently against a softening sky while, across the river, the newly restored Elizabeth Tower glistens gold in the fading
light. Overhead, triple sevens make their slow descent towards Heathrow Airport, banking low across the
skyline, while below by Festival Pier the rhythm of a reggae band drifts
upwards from an impromptu riverside performance that has stopped passers-by in
their tracks.
And somewhere in
all of that movement — the river traffic, the distant conversations, the hum of
trains arriving and departing across the city — Stephen Sondheim’s words
quietly come to mind: “Another hundred people just got off of the train…”
London carrying on exactly as London always does. Alive. Restless. Beautifully
chaotic.
Yet inside, another kind of listening waits.
Vince Dunn Quartet @ the Moor Club, Stockport - May 17
 |
| © Jeff Pritchard |
Vince Dunn (drums); Mike Hughes (vibes); Richard Wetherall (keyboards); Dave Lynane (bass)
Although Vince Dunn was listed as the leader of this group he delegated the announcements of tunes to his band-mate Mike Hughes - a vibes player from The Wirral who was also a person I had not heard before. The rest of the musicians were very well known to me and I suspect to the rest of the audience. The tunes played this evening were an interesting selection . 14 in total. Some familiar jazz standards and some great ballads you do not hear too much these days in jazz venues. There were some feedback issues during the opening number the Mike Gibbs composition Gentle Rain but they soon got it fixed and by the time the second tune got under way things were ok soundwise.
Sunday night @ the Globe: QOW Trio - May 17
 |
| © Dave Sayer |
Pronounced ‘cow’ from a tune by Dewey Redman, in case you were wondering. An evening of celebration in tha Toon as Newcastle score 3 for the first time, it seems, since Adam was a lad and from the same ‘Adam was a lad’ time scale we have, on stage, legendary drummer Spike (Michael to his mother) Wells and from a more recent era, Riley Stone-Lonergan, here along with Eddie Myer on bass and pleas to buy the new album they are touring The Rule of Three. The title track of which opens proceedings.
It rolls along nicely, mid-paced with an edge and lovely fluid runs from Stone-Lonergan, the others steady and solid behind him. The spare trio format throws all the attention on the sax, with Myer providing a prodding bass whilst Wells is on manoeuvres before an exchange of solos with Myer sharp and pointed, Wells bombing and snapping with delicate cymbal punctuations.
Cheltenham Jazz Festival: Camilla George @ Parabola Arts Centre, Cheltenham, May 3
Camilla George is one of the leading lights of the current generation of movers and shakers that emerged from the Tomorrows Warriors/Jazz Jamaica nexus led and guided by Gary Crosby and Janine Irons. (Well-deserved OBE recipients both). Of her band this afternoon, only Paris is unknown to me. Casimir brought his own large ensemble to Cheltenham last year. George is another of the current generation who look directly to their own personal African roots as a source of inspiration and energy for their work, more than they look to jazz’ roots in America.
Album review: De-Phazz - belooped (MPS)
There’s a point somewhere deep into the evening — the last
cocktail glasses catching the low light, conversations beginning to dissolve
into the room’s soundtrack — where De-Phazz have always made perfect sense. Not
in the traditional jazz-club way where audiences sit motionless in reverential
silence, but in those beautifully blurred spaces where rhythm, atmosphere and
memory seem to move together.
That has always been the magic of De-Phazz.
Taking the legendary MPS catalogue — recordings tied to the immaculate sound of Hans-Georg Brunner-Schwer and performances by artists like Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald and George Duke — and threading them through De-Phazz’s unmistakable electro-organic aesthetic could easily have become heavy-handed. Instead, it feels strangely natural, as though these recordings had been waiting patiently for someone to open a different door into them.
The Kaberry Big Band @ The Seahorse, Whitley Bay - May 16
The Seahorse is home to Whitley Bay FC's supporters' club. The clubhouse/pub is open to all and this evening the Kaberry Big Band would entertain an enthusiastic full house. Formerly the Vermont Big Band, the change of name honours the late Chris Kaberry, the band's much-missed MD.
Two sets, an interval with a free hot buffet (curry!), convivial company, what's not to like? Drummer Michael Mather, not unknown to BSH readers, is the ensemble's new MD and would direct affairs from behind his kit. Billed as 'Plays the Rat Pack & Sinatra', this evening's concert would, indeed, deliver what it promised on the tin/poster.
Sunday, May 17, 2026
The day the APPJG lights went out...
APPJG (All Party Parliamentary Jazz Group) voting forms were to be submitted by the midnight deadline on Friday (May 15). It's mid-afternoon Friday, right, let's make a start. Lots of time. And then...
At approximately 3:20pm the lights went out, metaphorically if not literally (it was broad daylight). Yes, a power cut or, as our American cousins might say, an 'outage'. Northern Powergrid estimated the electricity supply would be restored by 6:30pm. Damn! At half past six it would be time to set off to a gig. Oh, well...
The gig, the interval. A Northern Powergrid update suggested the power supply would be restored between 2:00 and 3:00am (Saturday). Oh, well, there is always the 2027 voting form...
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