Award-winning pianist Andrew McCormack is set to make a dramatic return with his next solo project, Graviton, which features a stunning line-up that includes two Mercury nominees, vocalist Eska and saxophonist Shabaka 'Comet is Coming' Hutchings, alongside a powerful rhythm team of first-call session bassist Robin Mullarkey and explosive Phronesis drummer Anton Eger.
A successful jazz festival is made in the mix: the weave of established players (maybe even a couple of icons) with new ones on the way up; the incorporation of names that tick the jazz credibility box, and others that help to pay the festival bills; the geographical sweep that when it comes to jazz means, crucially, the transatlantic balance – all these are important.
Rock'n'roll icons The Rolling Stones walked away from last week's Jazz FM Awards with three gongs to their name – most controversially winning for Album of the Year – which caused some outrage among jazz musicians but garnered the event some high profile coverage.
GoGo Penguin have always had one eye on the dancefloor.
Given the fact that Swiss record company Intakt has been one of the most adventurous outlets for improvised music for over three decades it makes perfect sense for a festival in its honour to run for no fewer than 12 nights.
The fourth edition of the Jazz FM Awards, presented by broadcaster Jez Nelson at Shoreditch Town Hall on 25 April, highlighted the innovation and strength of the British and international jazz scenes, with a double hat-tip to jazz and blues loving legends The Rolling Stones, who were winners of Blues Artist of the Year and whose album Blue & Lonesome scooped Album of the Year.
As part of the global celebrations for International Jazz Day on Sunday 30 April, the French Bureau Export, in association with 'Jazz on Film' events-organizer Offbeat, presents French director Louis Malle's mesmerising classic Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958) at the Lumiere, South Kensington SW7.
To coincide with International Jazz Day, Leamington Spa-based promoters In The Moment are putting on an event featuring Norma Winstone on Monday 1 May at 7.
Adventurous Mercury Prize-nominated folk singer Sam Lee's nature-bound concert series, Singing with Nightingales, returns for a second run of 30 gigs in four locations in woodland locations in Kent, Essex, Sussex and Cambridgeshire from 13 April to 13 May.
MOBO Award-winning Brit-jazz four-piece Empirical are set to take their boundary-busting Pop-up Jazz Lounge to three locations around the UK this year, which kicked off with a weeklong string of dates in Birmingham from 25-29 April.
