Irene Serra’s -isq lift off at Pizza Express album launch
- Thursday, April 30, 2015
Squeezed into a packed house, last night I watched this refreshingly different jazz band present their latest album, -isq too.
Live Reviews
Wild Card run riot at Jazz Café POSK
- Thursday, April 30, 2015
Already hailed as one of the best 10 jazz albums of 2015 by The Telegraph and having being pronounced Album of the Week by the Evening Standard, bandleader Clément Régert was naturally in high spirits the night of his album launch at the Polish Culture Centre’s fantastic West London jazz club earlier this month.
French Quarter Festival gets down with the Dirty Dozen in the eye of the storm
- Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Rain stopped play, well, almost. Or intermittently, at least.
Geoff Simkins/Gareth Williams Quartet take fleet-fingered flights at The Verdict
- Monday, April 20, 2015
Spring heralds the welcome arrival of many elusive species to the coast; this is the second appearance this year by rarely-sighted Sussex altoist Geoff Simkins (pictured top), the first being his memorable double-header with Bobby Wellins at the inaugural South Coast Jazz Festival in January.
James Allsopp Quartet turn standards inside out at The Vortex
- Tuesday, April 14, 2015
The second set did not get underway especially auspiciously, drummer Tim Giles having seemingly mislaid his pint, reluctantly abandoning the search in order to join the other members of the band onstage.
Dave O’Higgins/Geoff Gascoyne bring the swing to The Verdict
- Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Dave O’Higgins takes to the stage wearing a natty brown pinstripe and an air of unshakeable confidence; behind him, Geoff Gascoyne exudes a similarly relaxed gravitas on bass; it’s apparent that these gentlemen mean business.
Gareth Lockrane’s Big Band blow hard at Ronnie Scott’s
- Wednesday, March 25, 2015
With a Gareth Lockrane gig you always get more than you bargained for: the latest outing of his Big Band at Ronnie’s on Sunday night amounted to two-and-a-half hours of tasty originals, each given an epic 18-piece treatment in front of a packed house.
Linley Weir sings Stevie and Elling at Pizza Express Jazz Club
- Wednesday, March 18, 2015
This is the third in a trio of vocal-led Sunday lunchtime gigs I’ve attended at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in the last few weeks, and it was easily the most ambitious of the three.
Hear Hear! A Scandinavian jazz showcase
- Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Photo: © Ragnar Berthling Hear Here, Café Oto, London If there is a dress code at all in the avant-garde then it is presumably not a black T-shirt, jeans, swirl around the bicep tattoo and nose ring.
Royal Academy big band goes back to Basie
- Friday, March 6, 2015
Sub-titled ‘Count Basie: Kansas City to New York’ this was another in the occasional series of RAM big band concerts devoted to the swing-era repertoire, curated and directed by jazz authority Keith Nichols, who teaches jazz history there.