The full programme has been revealed for this year's edition of the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, which runs from 2 to 7 May, and includes some very strong additions to its headline and core jazz strands.
Heavyweight Dutch jazz bands Quartet NL and Under the Surface (an adventurous trio led by drummer Joost Lijbaart, above right), make their UK debuts with gigs in London and Scotland on 19 and 22 February respectively as part of the Jazz Promotion Network's Going Dutch project.
GoGo Penguin, the Blue Note-signed Manchester piano trio whose fusion of acoustic jazz, glitchy rhythms, rock dynamics and dance-like loops earned them a Mercury Prize nomination for their 2014 album V2.
RAM.
Phantasm of fragmentary restraint, Japanese guitarist Taku Sugimoto, jostles with new modes of melodic languor on his forthcoming album, h, as well as guesting in collaboration on Bruno Duplant's forthcoming collection, Chamber and Field Works 2015-2017, both dropping imminently via the Another Timbre imprint.
What do Swaledale in North Yorkshire and Western Ghana have in common? It's not a rejected pub quiz question – both are in fact sources of inspiration and spiritual affirmation for Vula Viel's core songwriter, Bex Burch (above).
Having blown up a storm at the inaugural 2015 Jazz For Labour event at the Barbican, leading British saxophonist Courtney Pine heads to The Leatherhead Theatre, Surrey for a second JFL fundraising night on 3 March.
The acoustic at Soho's iconic venue changes quite considerably according to one's position in the room.
Texan Templars of outlier audio releases, Astral Spirits, have combined forces with fellow Austinite and double-bass phenomenon Ingebrigt Håker Flaten to help him curate and orchestrate his Sonic Transmissions Festival, which this year runs as a series of monthly performances.
The first tranche of names to appear across the Love Supreme Jazz Festival weekend, which runs from Friday 29 June to Sunday 1 July, have been confirmed and include heavyweight jazz trio Crosscurrents (featuring Zakir Hussain, Dave Holland and Chris Potter), groove-titan George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic plus jazz-influenced singer-songwriting legends Elvis Costello and Steve Winwood.
