CD Round Up: Quercus/Wako/McCormack/Simkins/Baptiste/Latchin/Malija

I have been steadily listening and reviewing a few CDs for London Jazz News over the last few months (other distractions notwithstanding) – more than I thought looking back.  Here’s a round up.  The obvious thought is how much great music is being produced,  how varied it is and how much it deserves  proper attention […]

Album/ CD : Last Things Last, Greg Cordez

Greg Cordez has been heard to describe his music as ‘wonky Brooklyn jazz’.  He went the whole hog with this album, recording in Brooklyn at Bunker Studios with some of Brooklyn’s most in demand, hardworking musicians.  Great move.  There’s a slew of remarkable music being produced all around us, locally and nationally let alone transatlantically,  […]

Nick Dover/Malcolm Edmonstone Quintet, The Fringe, Wednesday 18th October

It’s a great gag. The presence of the tenor man Nick (Dover), pianist Malcolm (Edmonstone) AND trumpeter Nick Malcolm on the stage allowed Malcolm (Edmonstone) to try and persuade us the band was called Nick Malcolm Nick Malcolm (so good they named it twice). The real story was the music and the playing of course. […]

My Bristol week: From Craig Handy to Thelonius

As if last Friday’s outing to see Entropi wasn’t enough, catching Craig Handy mid-tour with a mouth-watering quartet at the Hen and Chicken on Sunday was followed on Wendesday by Thelonius celebrating the centenary of their eponymous inspiration at The Fringe. Soaking up the music and earning a crust has meant I’ve yet to reflect […]

Entropi, BeBop Club, Friday 6th October

A gale force blast of sax and trumpet pinned my ears back as I poked my head round the door of the BeBop club last night.  I don’t think it was a comment on my late arrival; the band where in the middle of an unstructured collective workout. My tardiness aside, venturing out on an […]

We are Leif – Forge Session, Wednesday 4th October

The funky environs of The Forge, tucked away in Colston Yard, was the venue for We are Leif‘s launch of their EP back in May, reviewed approvingly at the time by Tony Benjamin.    They were back on Wednesday  to record live and film, meaning headphones were supplied. Heads nodded and bodies swayed as the beautifully […]

October Fest – Bristol: Be-Bop Club & Hen and Chicken gigs

I’m pretty sure no-one co-ordinated it, but if we all start saying it, maybe the word will get out. It’s October Fest! The Be-Bop Club’s every Friday gig schedule, combined with a for-one-month-only every Sunday flurry from the Hen & Chicken, makes a October a bustling month for gigs.  And you already know about every […]

Fringe Jazz Notes – and a New York connection.

Fringe Jazz, the weekly gig in Clifton’s Fringe Bar that never seems to rest, is celebrating 5 years this Autumn.  They’ve moved out to the pub round the corner and back again in that time and Jon Taylor has put together the usual mouth watering programme to celebrate.   I’ve also detected an (admittedly tenuous) New […]

Ambleside Days – the last post

The bass was parked, music scattered, instruments abandoned to be collected later.  The musicians had left the stage. As we all left  Screen 2 at Zeffirellis for the last time in the four-day-fest, there was an inescapable sense of having witnessed something momentous. I mused mid fest about the ‘recipe’, orchestrated by Derek Hook the festival […]

Ambleside Days – the first post

After two evenings of the Ambleside Days ‘Contemporary Music Festival’, it’s quite hard to contain the excitement at what’s still to come. What we’ve already experienced has been quite breathtaking.  For four nights at Zeffirellis in Ambleside, a shifting roster of musicians have assembled to play music that has as its touchstone  an ‘exciting beauty’, […]