Good news for jazz fans nationwide with the announcement that GCap Media is to launch a national digital radio station. Based at Leicester Square in London, the station will begin broadcasting by the end of the year. 19.09.06

Due in March the Aberdeen Jazz Festival has announced a strong line-up that includes Polar Bear, the Neil Cowley Trio, Martin Taylor and the BBC Big Band. 19.12.06

The Aberdeen Jazz Festival, which begins on 7 March and runs until 11 March, is one of the key Scottish festivals and this year boasts a varied programme that bolsters its reputation. Key names booked include the Neil Cowley Trio, the Tommy Smith Quartet with guest Joe Locke, Martin Taylor, Gwilym Simcock, Viktoria Tolstoy, Colin Steele and Ulf Wakenius. 02.03.07

18.06.08

Last night saw The Neil Cowley Trio launch their new album in emphatic style at a packed club date at Cargo in London. More than living up to the album’s title ‘Loud… Louder… Stop’ there was evidence aplenty that the band has matured and grown in terms of both strength and dynamics. While Cowley still favours a deeply melodic approach to his writing, rather than angular harmonic explorations, his immaculate technique benefited from impassioned abandon that found him bashing the piano with a thrilling energy. The opening ‘Dinosaur Die’ is the frenetic side of his sound, but poignant songs such as ‘Clumsy Couple’ and ‘Degree In Intuition’ (from the band’s debut LP Displaced), revealed a new breadth in their cohesiveness. 03.04.08

The Neil Cowley Trio has signed to new Candid records imprint Cake. The trio of pianist Neil Cowley, bassist Richard Sadler and drummer Evan Jenkins is set to release its debut for the label Loud... Louder... Stop in March, a follow up to Displaced.
07.01.08

The hottest demo to reach Jazzwise this year is Neil Cowley's Displaced. 30.03.06

Three of the most in-demand bands on the current UK jazz scene head to Finland this weekend for the left field Tampere Jazz Happening, taking place in the northern Finnish city of Tampere. The Finns have booked the Neil Cowley Trio (pictured), which won the BBC Jazz Award for best jazz album in 2007 for Displaced, double Mercury-nominated Seb Rochford's band Polar Bear and the classically influenced chamber jazz trio Acoustic Triangle led by bassist Malcolm Creese with highly rated pianist Gwilym Simcock and Chick Corea sideman, Tim Garland. 01.11.07

One of the most active and prodigious UK jazz musicians, saxophonist Tim Garland is going on the road next month with the Northern Underground Orchestra, his burgeoning showcase for musicians in the north of England where Tim has been based for the last few years. An offshoot of his original Dean Street Orchestra Tim’s group has also recorded for the north eastern jazz label Jazz Action for a new release, Due North, due this month. The 12-piece touring group also features singer Hannah Jones and well known players such as the Cinematic Orchestra’s Stuart McCallum on guitar, Gwilym Simcock, piano and Phil Donkin, bass. 14.09.07

Candid records may be best known for artists who have made their names on the label like Jamie Cullum and Clare Teal but the London-based record company is in the process of promoting a whole new breed of artists and this month holds its annual week at the Pizza Express Jazz Club, London from 30 October-4 November.
13.09.07

Horizons Touched: The Music of ECM is a new book set to be published in March and the first to comprehensively cover the achievements of the ECM record label. Edited by Steve Lake and Paul Griffiths and to be published by Granta Books, the book includes extensive interviews with ECM producer Manfred Eicher plus over 20 specially commissioned essays on all aspect of the label’s work by an international line-up of leading music journalists and writers. 05.02.07

Trombonist Dennis Rollins has been commissioned by the Norwich festival to compose a piece to be performed by Norwich's 100-strong Bigger Sky choral group, alongside his group Badbone & Co. The commission will act as the festival’s finale on Saturday 19 May. The singers of community choir Bigger Sky are an extraordinary group. Of all ages and from very different backgrounds, they may never have performed before and may not even read music. In the months before the concert, they will undergo an intensive process to develop their vocal and choral skills; their spirit and dedication will make this a night to remember. 08.02.07

The new digital jazz radio station set for launch has finally been given a name. Media giant GCap will begin its new service on Christmas day with the station to be called theJazz.
28.11.06

Since the demise of the Caber record label and the dispersal of musicians involved with that innovative label, the Scottish jazz scene to the outsider at least has remained a closed book. The iconic figures of jazz in Scotland such as Tommy Smith and Brian Kellock are as high profile as ever but beyond it’s a complicated picture of artists hovering on the verge of breakthrough careers.

The Homegrown showcase held during this year’s Glasgow Jazz Festival at the Old Fruitmarket featured eight bands, several of which could reach out to wider audiences, While the bands only occasionally offered a special “Scottish” identify (particularly saxophonist John Burgess with his hearty Celtic sound within the Jim Whyte band) there were plenty of fresh ideas and a multitude of approaches which suggest a wider individuality within the local musician community. 26.06.07

The Regal Social Club, a new jazz club in Glasgow, has recently opened its doors, and came alive with a vengeance during the Glasgow Jazz Festival with concerts by Cleveland Watkiss, Mina Agossi and Julian Arguelles among others. Owned by Glasgow entrepreneur Colin Beattie, the force behind the extraordinary Oran Mor complex, and managed by Mark Robb, the basement club, which has a capacity of 200, is dedicated to showcase the very best of local and international talent in jazz and alternative sounds. 
27.06.07

One of the leading lights of the new breed of Welsh musicians active on the Cardiff scene, pianist Dave Stapleton is set to launch a new record label, a successor to Red Eye which last year released his own album the acclaimed The House Always Wins and a live Keith Tippett Tapestry Orchestra album. 02.04.08

Leading jazz independent distributor New Note, based in Kent, has signed a contract with IODA (the independent online distribution alliance), a digital music distributor. The deal means that New Note will use the D3 (digital distribution dashboard) platform to offer, according to IODA, “virtual shelf space” at more than 350 digital retailers, mobile outlets and subscription services. 11.12.07

The Contemporary Music Network has announced some of its plans for the 2006-7 season with a raft of projects that cross musical and stylistic boundaries. 20.02.06

Versatile flautist/saxophonist Theo Travis releases his new album Double Talk, on November 5th (which is available from his website - see below). It's very much inspired by the multifarious projects he’s been involved that include Palle Mikkelberg, Soft Machine Legacy and Gong – as well as exploring ambient textures and psychedelic passages.  Based around the swirling organ of Pete Whittaker and skronking guitar virtuoso Mike Outram, the session is also blessed with ex-King Crimson guitar legend Robert Fripp on three tracks, alongside flexible drummer Roy Dodds adding many layers of rhythmic texture.
24.10.07

Classical violin star Nigel Kennedy makes his latest foray into the jazz world next week with the release of the peculiarly-titled set, A Very Nice Album. It follows Kennedy’s last major jazz project, his stellar homage to the Blue Note label, The Blue Note Sessions, which was released in 2006 when the violinist was joined by Ron Carter, Jack DeJohnette and Raul Midon among other big names. 09.06.08

June Tabor, Lea DeLaria, Georgie Fame and the Nigel Kennedy Quintet, are among the artists booked for the autumn and winter programme at the Stables theatre in Wavendon. 06.10.06

Violinist Nigel Kennedy has signed to Blue Note records and is to release Blue Note Sessions in the autumn. 06.06.06

The biggest jazz festival in Europe, the North Sea Jazz Festival, now based in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, has this year booked a raft of leading UK jazz acts for the festival set to take place from 11-13 July. 15.05.08

The Bath Jazz Weekend, part of the ongoing Bath International Music Festival, was dominated this year by the presence of a strong Norwegian contingent, an indication of the festival's longstanding commitment to European jazz. On Saturday the afternoon programme was dominated by the pairing of the esoteric trio In The Country with singer Hanne Hukkelberg. In his striped blazer, Morten Qvenild, the pianist of In the Country, seemed more Jerome K Jerome than a member of Oslo's cutting edge jazz community. His trio had a cheerful fatality about them ("We're all going to die", they sang) and their performance was soft and gentle, with a slight touch of the mood of Tord Gustaven's trio, also on at Bath later this week. 28.05.07

The Nostalgia 77 Octet changes stylistic tack this month with a release of a special free-jazz three track vinyl record. 03.08.06

Gary Crosby’s Nu Troop, a group of Dune records artists featuring up-and-coming singer Zara McFarlane, pays tribute to Bessie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald and Abbey Lincoln, on Thursday 19 October. 18.10.06