Gig Listing no 3

-

Spring is in the air here in the UK and there is so much great music to listen to. Let me know if you make it along to any of these gigs.





Friday 26 to Sunday 28 April 2024: Brick Lane Jazz Festival

Some amazing artists on stage, including our very own Rob Luft. More info


Wednesday 1 to Monday 6 May 2024: Cheltenham Jazz Festival

Guests just announced include: Lucy-Anne Daniels, Dionne Warwick; Robert Plant; Sophie Ellis-Bextor; Jack Savoretti; UB40; Dee Dee Bridgewater; Morcheeba; Courtney Pine; Clare Teal; Huey Morgan; Snarky Puppy; Brand New Heavies Orchestra; Brad Mehldau Trio; Jordan Rakei; Bettye Lavette; Ladysmith Black Mambazo; Theo Croker; Lakecia Benjamin; Nubiyan Twist; Norma Winstone; Fatoumata Diawara; Zara McFarlane and many more. Find out more


Sunday 12 May 2024: Nikki Iles, Pizza Express, Dean Street, London W1

The marvellous Nikki Iles (hopefully a future guest) brings her big band to the regular Sunday big band session in Soho. Find out more


Friday 5 to Sunday 7 July 2024, Love Supreme Festival, Glynde Place

I'll be there! Lots of past and future guests appearing, including Christian McBride. Find out more


Friday 12 to Sunday 14 July 2024, NN North Sea Jazz Festival, Rotterdam Ahoy

Billed as the world’s largest indoor music festival, this has some great names announced, including:Sting, Joshua Redman, Jamie Cullum, Cécile McLorin Salvant, John Scofield & Dave Holland, Chucho Valdés, Lizz Wright, Shai Maestro, Laura Misch, Myra Melford, Reuben James, Walter Smith III, Ibrahim Maalouf, a new quartet featuring Chris Potter, Brad Mehldau, John Patitucci and Johnathan Blake and much more. Find out more



Ongoing

Check out one of my favourite venues - London's marvellous 606 Club

In Milton Keynes, there's also the Stables Theatre, which often features live music

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Big Wade - 'Piano Man' out now

-
Image
Big Wade and Black Swan Theory collectively blends funk, soul, jazz and everything that fills the cracks between those genres: his new album -  Piano Man - on all major streaming platforms ahead of the Piano Man Tour 2024 , which has dates across the US. Piano Man  brings a selection of original and covers, including a stunning version of Autumn Leaves , which reinvents the song as the funky, electronic Autumn . Big Wade's voice takes the song's melody and improvises around and around, with backing vocals and a deliberately sparse arrangement underpinning the song. Similarly, on Children of the Ghetto , the lead and backing vocals blend in with the soulful musicians of Black Swan Theory. Electronics are used with dexterity, often expanding the vocal lines, as in the ethereal and ghostly opening of Don't Let Me Go . However, the tools never dominate - simply adding depth and layers to the funk. Never more than when Big Wade enters a new world in Interludes , including vocals...
Read more

The Darius Brubeck Quartet live at Jazz Cafe Posk

-
Image
My first visit to Jazz Cafe Posk in London's Hammersmith coincided with the 60th anniversary of Posk - The Polish Social and Cultural Association - and the first performance in the club by pianist and composer Darius Brubeck. Photo credit @ Hilary Seabrook Darius was 10 when he joined his father on a historic tour of Poland. The Dave Brubeck Quartet toured Poland from 6 to 18 March 1958, just three years after the communist regime's ban on jazz was lifted. Without a doubt, this was the biggest jazz event in post-war Poland, with the archetypal and hugely successful outfit of Dave Brubeck (piano), Paul Desmond (alto sax), Eugene Wright (bass) and Joe Morello (drums). Sixty years later, in  2018, Darius took his own quartet - the same one he brought to Posk in May 2024 - to Poland for a significant tour, recorded and released as the Live in Poland album. Several of the tracks from this album were in the set at Posk and this quartet displayed in depth the benefits of playing to...
Read more

‘Memory in Motion’ with The Jazz Defenders

-
Image
A packed Pizza Express in London’s Soho was blasted by The Jazz Defenders as they unleashed their new album on the world - celebrating International Jazz Day 2024 in style. The Jazz Defenders Memory in Motion is a great album, out now on Haggis Records , with touches of Horace Silver and tinges of Herbie Hancock. There was something slightly disconcerting about an electronic keyboard sitting on top of the wonderful Dean Street Steinway and George Cooper handled them both with a dexterity and panache that made it all make sense. A talented bunch, The Jazz Defenders take their influences from wherever they choose, including some of the other ensembles in which they strut their stuff.  Horns are courtesy of Jake McMurchie (tenor sax) and Nick Malcolm (trumpet) and they are as much at ease on stabbing and intricate lines as they are on solos through the tracks. A solid rhythm and added excitement comes from Ian Matthews (drums) and Will Harris (double bass and bass guitar). Matthews ...
Read more