The "acid jazz" years may not seem too long ago but the 1990s reinvention of soul jazz and Hammond flavoured swing plus the newly developing hip hop currents have just been given the reissue treatment with some of the key groups of the movement featured. 30.08.06

Manchester provided the backdrop to the twelfth triumphant instalment of the recent Manchester Jazz Festival. Jazz and its inter-connectedness with world roots music dominated, illustrated by Neil Yates' New Origins group exploring Celtic-Iberian connections. Meanwhile the evocative playing of The Chosen, Sylvan Richardson's latest project, fused classical, jazz and Middle Eastern sounds. Tango and jazz were once considered uncomfortable bedfellows, but Tango Siempre impressively continue the classic repertoire, weaving in contemporary influences from Pablo Zeigler to Goldfrapp. Defying a gusty wind, their performance and latest CD, Tangents make for essential listening. 01.08.07

On the day Spike Lee was premiering his new documentary When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts in New Orleans, the composer of the music trumpeter Terence Blanchard was playing 'The Katrina Suite' at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in London's Soho. 17.08.06

US trio The Bad Plus returns to the UK for a six-date tour beginning today in Manchester. 18.05.06

The Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival gets underway on 27 July, running through until 5 August, with a substantial programme. Highlights of the festival, one of Scotland’s major jazz events, includes US drum master Jeff Tain Watts, ex-Miles Davis drummer Al Foster, New Orleans great Dr John, genre-bending jazz trio The Bad Plus, Scottish award winning trumpeter Colin Steele, British R&B legend Georgie Fame, saxophonists Courtney Pine and Tommy Smith in a special Coltrane-themed concert, guitarist Martin Taylor, leading Scottish pianist Brian Kellock, trombonist Chris Barber, saxophonist Scott Hamilton and organist Dr Lonnie Smith. The festival also features a range of free events and an education and family programme designed to attract new audiences to the festival.  21.06.07

Hard-centred, jazz-rock group The Blessing – drummer Clive Deamer, electric bassist Jim Barr, trumpeter Pete Judge and saxophonist Jake McMurchie – return next month for their second tour this year, as Barr and Deamer are released from Portishead duties, which have occupied them fully since the launch of the acclaimed Third album released back in April. 19.05.08

Following the release of its vibrant album All Is Yes on new label Cake, The Blessing is well into its stride on tour. The four-piece group, with drummer Clive Deamer and electric bassist Jim Barr plus trumpeter Pete Judge and saxophonist Jack McMurchie, performed earlier this week at the Islington Bar Academy in London in a performance led from the drums and bass that featured healthy improvising throughout but which did not deter the dancing going on in the audience. 08.02.08

Saxophonist Charles Lloyd, who turns 70 this Saturday, is to release a new live album titled Rabo De Nube for ECM on 24 March, recorded last year with pianist Jason Moran, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland, the group he appeared at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival with last May. 10.03.08

Johnny Griffin, once widely known as the fastest tenor in the west and more commonly “the Little Giant”, is 80 today. The Chicagoan best known for his tough tenor partnership with Eddie Lockjaw Davis, extensive sideman work with Thelonious Monk, his own highly regarded Blue Note albums, and his contribution to the influential Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland European big band, is also the subject of a new book, The Little Giant: The Story of Johnny Griffin by Mike Hennessey. 24.04.08

Sitarist Jonathan Mayer, son of the revered violinist John Mayer best known for his Indo-Jazz Fusions pioneering work with Joe Harriott, has teamed up with guitarist Justin Quinn, of the F-IRE Collective group Bakehouse and Australian tabla player Neil Craig for the startlingly accomplished debut album The Teak Project, due in March. 23.01.08

An excellent new opportunity for jazz students to win a £1,000 scholarship and the chance to perform at a high profile concert is being offered in a new initiative organised by DAB radio station theJazz, Yamaha and the All Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Society. The scheme, which is also supported by Jazzwise, aims to assist and showcase emerging new UK jazz talent and will initially run for three years. The three most outstanding musicians selected by a panel of experts will each be offered a £1,000 award to help in their musical and promotional development.
14.05.07

To celebrate 10 years of Jazzwise next week at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in London's West End, a special series of concerts is running from 26 March-31 March with a range of the biggest names in British jazz spanning some 40 years. 21.03.07

Hugely influential iconoclastic saxophonist and towering figure of New York’s Downtown scene saxophonist Tim Berne returns to the UK to unleash another blast of his pioneering post-jazz genre-mashing music. His influence has been felt across the youthful UK jazz scene with many F-ire and Loop Collective bands embracing his rock edged and avant-garde elements. 15.04.08

The Northern Underground Jazz Orchestra featuring Tim Garland (pictured) with special guests Jambone appear at Hall Two of the Sage, Gateshead on 8 December. The 14-piece band features Chick Corea sideman Garland plus his colleague in the group Acoustic Triangle, the highly rated pianist Gwilym Simcock as well as Cinematic Orchestra guitarist Stuart McCallum and soul singer Hannah Jones.  05.12.07

27.03.06

The fourth annual Scarborough Jazz Festival will host the Bobby Wellins quartet, Tina May and the Nikki Iles trio, Liane Carroll and Ian Shaw and Georgie Fame with the Guy Barker quartet, as part of its three-day programme running from 15-17 September. 12.09.06

18.01.08

The participants for the next round of Take Five, the musician mentoring scheme organised by the Jerwood Foundation and PRS have been named. 13.10.06

Much touted pianist Tom Cawley steps out of the shadows of Acoustic Ladyland to launch his debut album and tour the UK. The pianist’s new trio, Tom Cawley’s Curios, recorded the album Hidden in breaks from recording sessions for Acoustic Ladyland’s latest album Skinny Grin, which was released in early December. Featuring bassist Sam Burgess and drummer Joshua Blackmore Hidden showcases Cawley’s imaginative composition and improvisation on an inspired set that draws on influences as diverse as Thelonious Monk, Lennie Tristano, Debussy, Rufus Wainwright and Phineas Newborn Jr. Over the past few years Cawley has also played with Charlie Watts Tentet, Gwyneth Herbert and Dave O’Higgins before forming Curios in 2006. 30.01.07

Loop Collective member and touring saxophonist and keys man for Jamie Cullum, Tom Richards launches his new Candid signed trio album ‘Smoke And Mirrors’ with an all star launch party at the Spice Of Life in London on November 11th at 1.30pm. Assembling his long-running ‘Orchestra’ the band will be playing selections from the album, with expanded arrangements for his talented big band. Former ‘boss’ Jamie Cullum will also appear to sing the album’s title track. 26.10.07

The summer jazz festival season draws to a close later this month with the long running Red Sea Jazz Festival held in Eilat in Israel from 27-30 August. Held outdoors this month's programme includes Tomasz Stanko, Incognito, the Mingus Dynasty Band and the Gonzalo Rubalcaba Trio. 03.08.07

Legendary Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko embarks on an Irish tour today, his first major tour of the country. Stanko, whose most recent album Lontano, was critically acclaimed last year, has had an extraordinary resurgence in his career over the past decade with a string of commercially successful albums and revived international recognition. 18.09.07

'Trio' featuring pianist Marcin Wasilewski, bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskiewicz, may be better known as Tomasz Stanko's band but since their solo debut on ECM last year they are fast becoming internationally known in their own right. 22.03.06

Tomasz Stanko's band, often known as the Simple Acoustic Trio, Nikki Yeoh, Gilad Atzmon and Steve Arguelles are among the talent booked for this year's Oxford Contemporary Music spring series.
07.03.06

The Jazzwise To The Power of Ten festival at Pizza Express Jazz Club came to a close on Saturday night with a celebratory jam in front of a packed club, the last of the festival's six nights. The evening featured two versions of Tomorrow's Warriors, the seedbed group organised by Dune Records' Gary Crosby who helmed both groups from his bass chair. It was an evening for talentspotting with a range of great new young hopefuls on show including tenor/soprano player Zem Audu, altoist Andre Brown, singer Zara McFarlane and tenorist Shabaka Hutchings. 02.04.07

Tomorrow's Warriors has announced plans for a series of intensive workshops aimed at intermediate/advanced musicians and vocalists aged 16-23 years. Taking place on 11, 15, 16 and 17 February 2006 at The Premises music studios in Hackney, east London the workshops will cover the fundamentals of jazz improvisation, harmony, transcribing jazz solos, and practice methods, with the prime focus being on developing technique, artistry and stagecraft.
The Move On Up! faculty features Abram Wilson, Trevor Mires, Soweto Kinch, Denys Baptiste, Andrew McCormack and Gary Crosby among other leading musicians. It's free to take part but you have to enrol by 3 February. For more details go to www.tomorrowswarriors.org or call Tomorrow's Warriors on 020 8424 2807. 02.02.06

On Thursday 20 July at the Spice of Life pub in Cambridge Circus, London there is a special tribute to the pianist and founder of the Jazz Messengers, Horace Silver featuring alto saxophonist/arranger Jason Yarde. Silver's Blue Note album Song For My Father is to be performed by the Warriors at the West End haunt.
12.07.06

If you're kicking your heels in the west end on the evening of Thursday 16 March you could do yourself a favour by checking out the latest jam session presented by Gary Crosby at the Spice of Life, Cambridge Circus, in the heart of London's theatre district. 14.03.06

The Spitz venue in east London has announced its programme for this month's London Jazz Festival. Ten shows running from 10-19 November are planned with highlights including Amsterdam band the New Cool Collective, Tony Kofi, Alex Wilson’s Aventuras and Billy Jenkins' Songs of Praise project. 01.11.06

Saxophonist Tony Kofi continues his tour to support new album Future Passed. 02.06.06

Chelsea's 606 Club had a fully booked basement last Saturday and it was no wonder as the club staged award winning Monk exponent saxophonist Tony Kofi with Hammond organ player Anders Olinder and drummer Winston Clifford. 15.08.06

After the party in the city, a massive free show in Bath beginning this afternoon and continuing late into the evening tonight, the main jazz element of this year’s Bath Music Festival begins tomorrow with an international line-up that includes Jason Moran, with his multi-media Monk project, innovative cellist Ernst Reijseger, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and fun loving Tom Bancroft’s Kidsamonium.  23.05.08

“What you guys are doing has far more energy and soul than anything that is currently coming out of America”, was just one of the many comments from American musicians following Empirical’s storming performance at the closing session of this year’s International Association for Jazz Education Conference, that took place in Toronto’s Metro Convention Centre on 9-12 January. 15.01.08

Trumpeter Byron Wallen was once a much more visible part of the UK jazz scene but it’s been some years since he released a CD or carried out a major tour. All that is set to change with the release of Meeting Ground on his own Twilight Jaguar label. In many ways it continues Bryon’s global jazz manifesto following on particularly from his work for the MELT 2000 label. Byron’s quartet Indigo –Tony Kofi, Larry Bartley and Tom Skinner – underpin the sound of the album but the spice is added by the presence of the Moroccan gnawa singer Boujemaa Boubul which gives the album a true individuality. 
14.02.07

A series of gigs at the Pizza Express Jazz Club is paying tribute to John Coltrane this week. The run started on Saturday with the classic Blue Train performed by Tomorrow’s Warriors led by Gary Crosby and continues until tomorrow.
04.12.06

New book 1950s Jazz in London and Paris by photographer Walter Hanlon is published this week, complementing an exhibition of photographs at the National Portrait Gallery in London, which follows shows in Harrogate and Hull. Rare photos of Ronnie Scott, Coleman Hawkins, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Mahalia Jackson, Sarah Vaughan (pictured) and more are included in the book. 17.03.08

Mainstream jazz fans are in for a big treat at this year’s Ealing Jazz Festival,  which runs from tomorrow until 29 July at Walpole Park in London, W5. The Ken Baldock Quintet with Henry Lowther and Stan Sulzmann kick the festival off to hot start on the Main Stage on Wednesday 25 July at 5.45 pm while the Crypt Stage plays host later in the festival to a slightly more eclectic line-up including to Charlotte Glasson, Son De Havana, Trevor Watkis Quintet, Branco Stoysin Duo and the Tony Kofi Organ Trio. Entrance is just £1 and children are free.  
24.07.07

Michael Brecker, the tenor saxophone great who died earlier this year, is the subject of a special tribute tomorrow night at Soho's Spice of Life jazz club, tucked into the basement of the Spice of Life pub at Cambridge Circus. Easily the most influential saxophonist of his generation, Brecker was known for his work with brother Randy in the funky Brecker Brothers and as a leader of his own groups as well  as with Herbie Hancock in his all star band as well as performing on countless rock and pop sessions.
18.07.07

Pizza Express Jazz Club in London hosts the group Trio tonight and tomorrow. 03.05.06

Trio VD and Troyka, part of a burgeoning wave of new Brit jazz-rock bands emerging on the twenty-something UK jazz scene shared a double bill at the Vortex last night. Comprised of guitarist Chris Sharkey, tenorist Christophe de Bezenac and drummer Chris Bussey, Leeds based Trio VD has variously been described as “Tim Berne meets Queens of the Stone Age”, yet its mix of improvised sections that blur into extreme heavy riffing was absolutely its own.
21.02.08

The promise was made by the fantastic venue and the exciting line-up of musicians which included Sting and Jeff Beck sideman Jason Rebello on piano and a pair of Berklee-educated US musicians in Jean Toussaint on saxophones and Mike Janisch on bass, but did Troy Miller’s concert at Pizza Express Jazz Club fulfill its promise? Opener 40 Days more or less set the pace for the rest of the evening: an angular melody with lots of rhythmic interplay, a powerful groove set up by the group and then a series of highly competent but somehow un-magical solos.
20.04.07

The Ealing Jazz Festival in west London returns for its 22nd year running from 25-29 July at Walpole Park. The event promises a variety of acts ranging from traditional swing to Latin and Cuban-influenced groups and gypsy jazz musicians. With five days of live music and two stages, the highlights of the event include performances from the Frank Griffith Nonet with singer Trudy Kerr, Don Burrell and Martin Shaw. The rest of the line up includes The London Jazz Collective performing funk-swing numbers, Alan Tomlinson’s Trio, pianist George Arnold, Tony Kofi and many more. Entrance is only £1 for adults while children have free admission. 
06.06.07

20.06.08