R***** S***** It had to happen sometime. I set foot in the hallowed jazz institution Ronnie Scott’s after years of working in Soho but being far too intimidated to set foot in it. A boozy dinner followed by a boozy couple of drinks of booze and we were ready to go in, armed with my […]
There are some places that resonate with you, sometimes for reasons you can’t explain. They just do, and always have, almost instinctively in fact, as if they seem for whatever time you’re in them to be just the right spot on earth for you to be. Travelling around the UK as a working musician over […]
One-year anniversary edition! Wow, it’s been a whole year of being snarky about jazz. It’s been a ride and I’ve come to look forward to Lisa sending through memes to review. These usually arrive at an inappropriate moment such as being at someone else’s gig which is no place to laugh until you’re nearly sick […]
As festival season proceeds regardless of the changeable weather, leading us damply but surely towards the autumn touring and album release schedule, when new releases drop as swiftly as autumn leaves, the protean artform known as jazz continues to attract media attention, holding out the possibility that some of the online verbiage will translate into […]
New Toy! Ever a slave to the thought that a small piece of equipment was going to improve my fortunes, somebody who runs one of my regular gigs suggested that I invest in a vintage- style mic – you know the one: it’s based on a 1930’s car grill, and the sight of which, when […]
By comparison with the many rumbustious characters who populate the teeming history of the Golden Era of jazz, Bill Evans appears as very much the quiet man of jazz. Bassist Chuck Israels, who has documented their relationship in interviews in some detail, sums up their relationship thus: “My relationship with Bill was largely non- verbal. […]
To scat or not to scat? The time has come, folks, to consider scat singing! What does it mean to scat, who should do it, and why? I tend to improvise around the melody a bit, usually sticking to the words, but increasingly I want to express myself more and join in with the […]
Are there any self-declared fans of jazz-and-related-musics out there who don’t like Blue Note records? This year marks the 80th birthday of the label, and there’s presents for everyone in the form of a slew of re-releases, lost sessions from the vaults and the release of not one, but two high-end documentaries telling the well-known […]
Last month Rottingdean celebrated Peter’s arrival as a local resident with an exhibition of his paintings at the Grange Gallery and an evening of jazz music at the Plough Inn. It was good to hear that the arrival of such an outstanding jazz musician in our local community was being recognised. If you look into […]
The nominations for the JazzFM Awards are in, and it’s especially gratifying to see how many of the nominees have been active within our area of the Jazz-o-sphere over the past twelve months. On the gig front, the Verdict has once again proved its worth as a viable performance space for touring jazz artists, having […]