Manchester’s premier jazz cub Matt and Phred’s has, over the last eight years, become a popular haunt. Snugly tucked into the heart of the city’s vibrant Northern Quarter, the venue has become a place treasured by locals and admired by visitors. Arriving is always a warm and welcoming relief after Manchester’s rainy winter evenings and it’s not just the pizza that attracts attendees. Matt and Phred’s manages to draw a range of diverse artists to its stage, including dynamic new groups such as Empirical, Polar Bear, and Led Bib, while still maintaining bookings from better known acts such as much respected singer Liane Carroll or trombonist Dennis Rollins. Wynton Marsalis has even been known to head over to the club’s after hours jam sessions, following a Bridgewater Hall gig a few years ago. 23.11.07

Jazz-rock group Partisans is celebrating ten years together with a monthly residency at the Vortex and its opening March performance featured special guest Jim Watson on Hammond Organ. This group has led the way for the new generation of jazz artists in the UK with their combination of the energy of a rock band with the subtlety and improvisational brilliance of world-class jazz musicians 03.04.07

More details of guitarist Pat Metheny and pianist Brad Mehldau's duo recording project for Nonesuch records have emerged. 26.07.06

Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau made their debut last night in London as a duo on the latest leg of their European tour. The pair, two of the most feted stars in the jazz world, appeared as a duo for the start of their concert at the Barbican and then were joined by Brad's regular band of Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard, drums. 02.07.07

Pat Metheny (pictured) releases the first disc, Day Trip, by his trio with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Antonio Sanchez early next year. The trio has been together since 2002 and has toured extensively since but has not yet visited the UK. Released through Nonesuch it follows hard on the heels of a duo disc with pianist Brad Mehldau and another this year with a quartet also featuring Mehldau. 20.11.07

This year’s Glasgow International Jazz Festival takes place from 22 June-1 July, the 21st birthday of the event. Among the names announced so far is an exclusive Scottish appearance by Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau, currently on their first ever tour together. Their concert is at the Glasgow Carling Academy on 29 June. The festival this year sees a guest programme director who has been announced as trombonist Dennis Rollins who will programme a series of concerts observing the bicentenary of the Abolition of Slave Trade Act in the British Empire featuring British jazz musicians who are descendants of the African diaspora. 
28.02.07

Widely respected percussionist Don Alias died aged 66 on 28 March in New York. He played trap drum on the track 'Miles Runs The Voodoo Down' on Bitches Brew and toured extensively with Nina Simone and Joni Mitchell. 06.04.06

Original Jazz Warriors flautist Phillip Bent launched his first album in 15 years at the Jazz Cafe in London last night with a band that included saxophonist Jean Toussaint, guitarist Robin Banerjee, percussionist Phillip Harper, two singers and late in the two hour set, guitarist Tony Rémy. 11.01.08

Pianist and composer Andrew Hill, one of the most advanced pianists ever to have recorded for Blue Note, died on Friday at the age of 75. He had been suffering from lung cancer. Long admired for his Blue Note albums recorded in the 1960s, he recorded again for the label in recent years, part of a big upswing in his career in the late 1990s for which he received belated recognition and critical acclaim. He toured in England for the Contemporary Music Network with an Anglo-American big band and as recently as last year toured with UK players Jason Yarde and Byron Wallen. 23.04.07

Seventeen-year-old pianist Alan Benzie was the winner of the first BBC Radio Scotland Young Jazz Musician competition held at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow during the Glasgow Jazz Festival. He took home a cheque for £500 and, among other prizes, the guarantee of a gig at next year's Glasgow Jazz Festival. 06.07.07

The German ACT label, currently celebrating its fifteenth anniversary, put on the second of two shows this week in London last night. The packed Pizza Express Jazz Club was waiting for a rare sighting of Polish virtuoso Leszek Mozdzer who on this occasion played with Swedish bassist/cellist Lars Danielsson. The pair has recently made the fascinating Pasodoble record for ACT and most of the set was taken up with some of the key tracks from the album. 24.05.07

Lifting the Lid, a three day piano festival, opens at London's Pizza Express Jazz Club tomorrow night with the pairing of famed South African pianist Bheki Mseleku and upcoming UK player John Escreet in a special double bill. The three night series, curated by pianist Robert Mitchell draws together a range of leading pianists for these intimate club gigs. Friday night sees a double bill of John Taylor and Mercury nominee Zoe Rahman and the festival concludes with a rare appearance by Django Bates and festival curator Robert Mitchell. 12.09.07

Twenty five years on and with a new tour and 2-CD set about to be released Pinski Zoo go back on the road next month to celebrate the milestone of a band thought to be one of the pioneers of the local punk jazz movement. 05.03.07

GMG Radio has been told by media regulator Ofcom that it cannot drop jazz programming on its Smooth radio stations in London and the north west. The stations play 45 hours of jazz, mostly, of the smooth variety, during the small hours of the morning to satisfy the regulator’s licensing stipulations while playing easy listening, pop and soul of the past 50 years during the day. 24.04.08

Talented amateur jazz and classical pianists across the UK are being offered the chance to take part in The Pianists competition, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play a major concert at a top London venue that will be broadcast on theJazz and Classic FM radio. The aim of competition, organised by Yamaha and The Pianist magazine, is to create a high profile platform for non-professional pianists as well as promote piano playing and repertoire to new audiences. The finals of The Pianists will take at place at Chelsea’s prestigious Cadogan Hall in November with the jazz piano winner going on to play a major concert with the Julian Joseph band and the classical piano winner performing with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The Pianist competition is a bi-annual event aimed at non-professional players over 30 years of age and is supported by Jazzwise, theJazz digital radio and Classic FM.
01.02.07

Building on the solid start Ronnie Scott’s has made this year with a strong return to serious jazz from UK and international stars – with recent highlights including the Billy Cobham and Empirical double bill and Laurence Cottle’s Big Band – April sees breakthrough avant jazzers Polar Bear play three nights with support from Tom Cawley’s Curios. 22.02.08

The Jazzwise to the Power of 10 Festival continued in explosive form last night at London’s Pizza Express Jazz Club with a spectacular performance from Polar Bear, supported by the UK debut of Berlin-based [em] aka the Michael Wollny Trio. This cutting edge piano trio drew in a captive audience in the first half, with their highly dynamic blend of incendiary angular grooves and introspective improvisation, held together by a group empathy that bordered on telepathy. 28.03.07

 This year the Birmingham Jazz organisation celebrates its 30th anniversary. 04.04.06

Polar Bear play Jamm’s More or Less Club, 261 Brixton Road on 7 June.  05.06.06

Fresh from their performance at last weekend's Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Polar Bear play Cardiff University's CF10 venue on Friday 5 May supported by local group Sound Engineer. 02.05.06

The long delayed follow-up to Held On The Tips of Fingers, the influential post jazz group Polar Bear’s breakthrough album that influenced a new wave of progressive jazz groups, is at last set for release on 14 July. The album is to come out on the record label division of the Tin Angel venue in Coventry, with Polar Bear joining alt country singer Devon Sproule and singer songwriter Adrian Crowley on the indie label’s roster. Ahead of the release Polar Bear is holding a pre-release launch gig at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on Thursday 12 June. 02.06.08

Vibraphonic, Exeter's eclectic music festival, returns next month from 3-19 March with more than 50 jazz, soul, funk, blues, reggae and hip hop gigs and events.


08.02.06

The DIY spirit of young UK bands comes into its own once more this weekend when enterprising new band Porpoise Corpus takes over Pizza On The Park in London’s Knightsbridge for an ambitious two-day festival of cutting edge jazz and visuals. Having won last year’s Peter Whittingham Award, band leader and composer/pianist/bassist Dave O’Brien decided to use the £4,000 prize money to stage a showcase for imaginative and emerging new talent. So, tomorrow and on Saturday two sets of bands and accompanying video artists will perform alongside each other.  13.12.07

Porpoise Corpus, a group led by award winning pianist Dave O'Brien (pictured), launched its debut eponymously titled CD for the F-IRE label this week and performed at London's Vortex club in Dalston last night. 08.11.07

Just months ago the Portico Quartet were building a word of mouth buzz on London's South Bank as buskers. Things have moved on in an extraordinary way since then. The four piece group whose sound centres on the steel pan-like Swiss instrument the hang, has now been signed as the first artist on the new Vortex label and launched its first album for the label, Knee-deep in the North Sea last night in the calming atmosphere of St Barnabas’ church in Soho. But there was nothing low key about the turn out with the venue turning away 150 people once capacity was reached. 31.10.07

It’s not often that you get a chance to see three of the most exciting new bands in British jazz on one bill, so it came as no surprise two nights ago when an exuberant audience packed into the sold out Vortex jazz club in London. Opening the night were the explorative free-jazz group Gannets. A definite emphasis on humour prevented their riotous sound from taking itself too seriously, a lot like the Art Ensemble of Chicago after a hefty shot of adrenalin. Their extended collective improvisations were high in energy but were also able to maintain focus through an intelligent use of dynamic shifts. By juxtaposing dense periods of free creativeness with subtler instrumental tinkering, the texture of the performance was both eclectic and refreshing. 22.11.07

Trumpeter Gerard Presencer takes to the bandstand with his new Post Modern Jazz Quartet at 7.30pm this Friday (30 June) at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He is best known for his performance with Blue Note sampling group Us3 who reworked Herbie Hancock's 'Cantaloupe Island' into the catchy 'Cantaloop.'

28.06.06

The Musicians Benevolent Fund is hosting a special showcase at London's Vortex jazz club in Dalston tonight to celebrate some of the winners of the Peter Whittingham Award, including new Babel label signing Led Bib. 21.09.06