10.06.08

There’s a rare UK appearance by legendary Circle drummer Barry Altschul in a quartet with clarinettist Gebhard Ullman, trombonist Steve Swell and bassist Hilliard Green at Leeds club The Wardrobe on 1 November. It’s part of the group’s first ever European tour. 
05.10.06

There's plenty happening at the Spice of Life in London's west end in the run up to Christmas. Tonight there's a rare chance to catch the hKippers, featuring actor/musician Paul Bradly on guitar, Oscar winning Stephen Warbeck on accordion, John Eacottt, trumpet, Sarah Homer, clarinet, Rob Townsend saxes, Richard Lee, bass, Paul Clarvis, percussion and Andrew Ranken, drums. 06.12.06

Next month’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, a key UK “New music” festival that encompasses contemporary classical music, improv and jazz takes place from 17-26 November. 
25.10.06

The Basquiat Strings had a rare old time last year when cellist Ben Davis’ group was catapulted from obscurity to relative fame when their disc Basquiat Strings With Seb Rochford was Mercury-nominated. There’s no word of a follow up yet but the group embarks on a tour next month with support, on most of the dates (but not Essex and Bristol), from the up and coming “love vibed-up” Portico Quartet (pictured).  28.01.08

The Electric Proms next week in London's Camden promises a feast of music for the discerning music fan. Aside from the big rock and indie names there's an interesting choice of jazz performers, too. In the Roundhouse's Freedm Studio on Thursday 25 October Japanese futurebop hipsters Soil and Pimp join forces with Jamie Cullum while the next night in the same venue Jazz on 3 presents the Mercury-nominated Basquiat Strings led by cellist Ben Davis plus special guests. 17.10.07

This year sees the first Bath Music Festival (19 May-4 June) with new artistic director pianist Joanna McGregor installed. The Jazz Weekend strand of the festival takes place over the weekend of 26-28 May although there are break out jazz concerts beyond the weekend. 03.02.06

In a series of changes to BBC Radio 3’s schedule a number of programmes are to be scrapped next year to allow for an increase in the airing of full concerts. 
06.11.06

The nominations have been announced for this year’s BBC Jazz Awards, to be held in London on 12 July. Organised by BBC Radio 2 and Radio 3, you can now vote online on the BBC website. The nominations so far are as follows for: Best Album: Tom Cawley’s Curios, Hidden; Neil Cowley Trio, Displaced; Fraud, Fraud; Soweto Kinch, A Life In the Day of B19; Byron Wallen, Meeting Ground; Abram Wilson, From the Ferris Wheel to the Modern Day Delta 16.04.07

BBC Radio Three has extended its sponsorship of the London Jazz Festival until 2012, it was announced this week. Speaking at the festival's launch in Blackfriars, BBC Radio Three controller Roger Wright said: "This new deal will ensure that live jazz will remain a key part of Radio 3's unique commitment to new music in the future." 21.09.07

In this the year of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac's seminal On The Road, the London International Poetry and Song Festival is hosting a Beat Weekend starting this coming Saturday and running until 12 November. Composer David Amram (pictured), who performed with Kerouac, is leading the three nights of jazz rock, music and poetry. 07.11.07

Brazilian bossa-jazz star Bebel Gilberto, daughter of Joao Gilberto, and legendary Cuban bassist Israel ‘Cachao’ López, who is credited with inventing the mambo, are among the headliners at this year’s La Linea festival of Latin Music that takes place in London from 13-30 April. Launched by one of Cuba’s most exciting timba bands, Los Van Van, at Hammersmith Palais in late February, the festival, has one of the broadest, most exciting line-ups in its history, with artists such as Cuban guitar giant Eliades Ochoa, LA’s Ozomatli, Spain’s Patriarcas de la Rumba and Chango Spasiuk from Argentina. 12.03.07

There’s a rare chance to hear South African expat pianist Bheki Mseleku on tour in the UK next month with a string of dates as part of a Jazz Services tour with more to come in the upcoming months. 10.10.06

Sunderland becomes a mecca for big bands next month with the launch of the Sunderland Big Band Festival on 9 March. The event promises a weekend of serious big band action beginning with the Noel Dennis Quartet with guest Lewis Watson on 9 March at the city's Bonded Warehouse. Next day at the Manor Quay there's a school and youth big band competition from noon followed on Sunday 11th by a jazz improvisation workshop. Adult and university big bands have their chance to compete for glory on Sunday 11th from 4pm, again at the Manor Quay, with the weekend drawing to a close with the Voice of the North Jazz Orchestra with guest Mark Nightingale on the afternoon of Sunday 11th. For tickets phone Sunderland Tourist Information on 0191 553 2001. 13.02.07

This year’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival will take place from 29 April-5 May with Bill Frisell’s new all star quintet and Jack DeJohnette (pictured) as the first headline acts to be announced. Now in its thirteenth year and sponsored by BBC Radio 2 and Jazzwise, the festival will again be presenting the major concerts at the Town Hall and Everyman Theatre. A celebration of the music of Billie Holiday curated by Guy Barker for BBC Radio 2’s Friday Night Is Music Night has been announced for Friday 2 May at the Town Hall, which will feature a number of prominent singers. The music of Sun Ra and his Arkestra will be celebrated by Jerry Dammers and the Spatial AKA Orchestra featuring Zoe Rahman on piano among other Britjazz names while the BBC Big Band will play a major concert with Italian guitarist/DJ/producer Nicola Conte. 25.01.08

Sunday afternoons will not be the same during November when guitarists Billy Jenkins and Steve Morrison return to the Vortex jazz club in London for the second running of the Chess Sessions. Fond of a cunning pun, Jenkins and Morrison's customised "Lewisham blues" combines a fondness for the heritage of the beloved Chicago blues record label Chess with a playalong chess session just feet away from the stage. 29.10.07

Guitarist Billy Jenkins has written the music for and appears in a new quirky documentary on DVD directed by Peter Cordwell and Dave Eyre called Ain't Going Yet. 25.07.06

Guitarist Billy Jenkins turned 50 earlier this year and to celebrate this milestone he is taking a sextet on tour next month for a tour called Songs Of Praise. 19.09.06

Africa's most important festival of its kind, the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, gets underway on Friday and continues on Saturday. 28.03.06

One of the most highly regarded and acclaimed jazz documentaries of the last 20 years, Let’s Get Lost is set for a welcome cinema release next month. Directed by fashion photographer Bruce Weber, with stunning cinematography by Jeff Preiss, the 119-minute black and white film is a fascinating rise and fall story with Chet Baker (pictured) portrayed not long before he died ravaged and worn, cruising in an open top car reminiscing on his life. 07.05.08

Long running jazz club night Blow The Fuse has a new home. Now based at the Drill Hall, in central London, the club run by Deirdre Cartwright and Alison Rayner has a fascinating range of gigs planned including Liane Carroll on 14 March, Anie Whitehead on 18 April and Polar Bear on 29 April 2006. For info go to www.drillhall.co.uk
01.03.06

Valentine's night at the Jazz Cafe in London's Camden Town is traditionally Billie Holiday night courtesy of bassist Gary Crosby, best known for post-Messengers hard bop group Nu-Troop and blue beat, rock steady and jazz-influenced big band Jazz Jamaica. 12.02.08

Ronnie Scotts club has just announced that the original Blues Brothers band will play the club for three nights on 4, 5, and 6 September.
25.08.06

This year’s Jazz Party At Sea cruise takes place from 14-23 November in the eastern Caribbean with an impressive line-up put together by Joe and Wayne Segal, who run Chicago’s legendary Jazz Showcase. Now in its eighth year Jazz Party At Sea is a free style cruise aboard the luxury liner Norwegian Dawn that departs from Miami and visits a number of picturesque locations that, this year, include Samana, Dominican Republic; St Thomas, US Virgin Isles; Tortola, British Virgin Isles and Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas. Concerts take place daily in the afternoon and evenings and all artists play a number of times throughout the cruise. 17.04.08

Nonesuch will release two CDs the music for which was written by pianist/composer Brad Mehldau on June 26. They are House on Hill, featuring the jazz trio he led for a decade, and Love Sublime, an album of songs he wrote for, and performs with, soprano Renée Fleming.
16.06.06

Pianist Brad Mehldau is set to release a new 2-CD trio album on Nonesuch, titled Brad Mehldau Trio: Live, with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard recorded at the Village Vanguard in New York from 11-15 October 2006. It charts the trio's residency at the club, known for a string of groundbreaking albums including key albums by John Coltrane and Bill Evans.
07.02.08

Earlier this month, in the Upper Ninth Ward district of New Orleans, the first three houses in the Musicians' Village project were dedicated in a ceremony that saw two of the new homeowners, J.D. Hill and Fredy Omar, among those who performed. 19.06.06

Fast becoming a major fixture on the UK jazz festival circuit, the Gateshead International jazz Festival returns for its third year on 16-18 March. As with previous years the event features some of the cream of the UK and international scene. Base at the prestigious Sage venue on the banks of the Tyne near the new Baltic art gallery, this year’s event begins with the BBC Big Band plus Monty Alexander and Lea DeLaria on 16 March in Hall One of the Sage. 
22.01.07

"This is cool", said Branford Marsalis, peering out into the middle of the new look Ronnie Scott's, after he took to the bandstand for the first time since the club was refurbished. 17.10.06

Braggtown, the latest album by the Branford Marsalis Quartet is set for a release on 11 September.  06.07.06

The Branford Marsalis Quartet returns to London in July along with the Maria Schneider Orchestra and the Gary Burton Quartet Revisited with Pat Metheny, Steve Swallow and Antonio Sanchez. Just announced by the Barbican, Marsalis, who won the Jazzwise album of the year accolade for Braggtown in 2006 with the same longstanding band – Joey Calderazzo on piano, Eric Revis on bass and Jeff "Tain" Watts, drums – roll up to the Barbican on 8 July. 25.03.08

This year’s HSBC Brecon Jazz Festival running from 9-12 August features tenor great Joe Lovano as the artist in residence, Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra (plus Lulu), Curtis Stigers, The Big Chris Barber Band, Jessica Williams, Mulgrew Miller Trio, Martin Taylor, Mose Allison, Ray Gelato’s Giants of Jazz, Jazz Jamaica, Tina May, Tony Coe and Mica Paris. The festival is one of the highlights of the Welsh cultural and festival scene, with an influx last year of some 70,000 visitors to the festival who practically take over the town. 
10.05.07

A six figure sponsorship deal over three years has been announced by what has now become the HSBC Brecon Jazz Festival after the long running festival secured a title sponsorship deal with the multinational bank. 23.03.06

Organisers of the Brecon Jazz Festival have cancelled planned street music performances for this year's event in the face of rising police costs and safety issues. 12.06.06

This year's Brecon Jazz Festival opened last night with a rousing concert from Welsh Harpist Catrin Finch and her big band CF47. Her first major step in the direction of jazz was her last CD String Theory which saw Catrin moving away from her classical roots into more "funky" territory. Her reworking of Steve Reich's 'Electric Counterpoint' for harp was a highpoint of the concert but 'Hang 'em high', and 'Children of Sanchez' gave Finch scope to show her skills on the acoustic harp, on 'Hang 'em High' playing two harps simultaneously to great effect.  10.08.07

The Stroller programme for the HSBC Brecon Jazz Festival in August has been announced. This year stroller ticket holders can expect a mix of international names with the cream of the UK scene plus trad, contemporary jazz, blues, latin, funk, boogie-woogie and world music. The programme complements the concert line-up for diversity and contrast. The Liane Carroll Trio, Alan Barnes quartet, Art Themen and cult R&B singer Zoot Money are all on the programme. For more info go to www.breconjazz.co.uk 11.07.06

The Sands in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, was the venue for this year’s British Jazz Awards sponsored by Dransfield Properties. The winners were: Guy Barker (trumpet), Dennis Rollins (trombone), Alan Barnes (clarinet), Soweto Kinch (alto saxophone), Karen Sharp (tenor saxophone and rising star), David Newton (piano), Martin Taylor (guitar), (pictured)
25.09.07

A special jazz strand of the BBC Electric Proms will take place at the recently reopened Roundhouse in London on 25 October 2006. Presented by Jazz on 3 it will feature three special collaborations matching celebrated UK jazz players from the past with current players on the scene. 26.09.06

The Britten Sinfonia are set to embark on a major tour with a challenging programme of pieces by eccentric composer Moondog plus a more conventional diet of Bach. The Britten Sinfonia, known for its collaborations with jazz musicians in the past at the London Jazz Festival, will team up on this tour with Joanna MacGregor, Andy Sheppard, Kuljit Bhamra, Seb Rochford and Neville Malcolm. The dates are: Totnes, (18 April), Symphony Hall, Birmingham (19 April), The Fruitmarket Glasgow (23 April) and St Andrew’s Hall, Norwich (4 May). 28.02.06

Discovered by DJ Gilles Peterson performing in a Swiss spa resort hotel US pianist Elan Mehler makes his debut in London tonight with a gig at the Vortex in Dalston. 30.08.07

After the distraction of his Artie Fishel project, top UK saxophonist Gilad Atzmon gets back to business with his incendiary new album Refuge, featuring his superb Orient House Ensemble. Blasting his way across the country with a huge Jazz Services-sponsored tour Gilad and band call at the Huntsman Tavern, Salisbury (29 Sept), White Swan, Stratford-Upon-Avon (30 Sept), Brook Theatre, Chatham (2 Oct) 606 Club, London (5 Oct), Arts Centre, Colchester (7 Oct), The Rhythm Station, Station House, Rawtenstall (9 Oct), 5 Lamps, Derby (10 Oct), Wakefield Sports Club, Wakefield (12 Oct), Taylor John's House, Coventry (13 Oct) 
19.09.07

Trumpeter Byron Wallen (pictured) is to take part in the finale showcase of Africa Beyond on 1 February at the Africa Centre in London, one of the last performances at this historic venue. Conceived as a cross-artform experiment between leading African influenced artists, the three part ‘Translations’ is to feature three one-off collaborations between disparate artists, whose backgrounds are grounded in music, dance, performance, spoken-word and the visual arts. 21.01.08