Alina Bzhezhinska Quartet The Verdict Friday 17th March 2017 The harp has a very marginal history as a jazz instrument, barely even appearing in the ‘miscellaneous instruments’ category in the self-appointed arbiters that are magazine polls. However, it does possess at least one major voice, and one that’s closely linked into the very […]
Geoff Simkins with Terry Seabrook The Snowdrop, Lewes Monday 23rd January, 2017 Whilst alto saxophonist Geoff Simkins is well known for his West Coast cool and bebop playing, performing uptempo versions of Anthropology, Invitation and I Remember April, the highlight was a beautiful rendition of Billy Strayhorn’s ballad Chelsea Bridge which exhibited Simkins’ […]
South Coast Jazz Festival 16th – 29th January 2017 The Verdict, Brighton and Ropetackle Arts Centre, Shoreham-by-sea Now in its third year, with the first festival being a weekender and the second festival a long weekend, the South Coast Jazz Festival is now a more all-encompassing festival, in keeping with the original aims […]
Court and Spark: Reinterpreting Joni Mitchell 29th October 2016 The Verdict, Brighton The title of Brighton musician Lucy Pickering’s project: Court and Spark is from the 1974 album of the same name by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. As a long-standing Joni admirer (one is supposed to refer to artists by their surname […]
The Impossible Gentlemen 19th October 2016 The Old Market, Hove Starting with the title track from their latest album, Let’s Get Deluxe, this was a group that started with a real, tight-knit groove to start the beginning of something that Brighton (and Hove) hasn’t heard in a long time. With legendary drummer […]
Ashley Henry Trio The Verdict Brighton 29th August 2016 Ashley Henry is in town as part of the New Generation season, to promote his LP 5ive, recently released on Jazz:refreshed, and he’s brought along the bass and drum team of Sam Vicari and Sam Gardner who backed him on the record (Verdict regulars […]
Love Supreme Festival Glynde Place, near Lewes Friday 1st July-Sunday 3rd July Friday evening began with a number of local bands performing at both the Bandstand and the Arena tent, with the unique sound of Leroy Horns’ Barnacles being well received along with the grooving Ezra Collective displaying their youthful virtuosity. If […]
Victor Wooten The Komedia, Brighton Tuesday 5th July 2016 A queue stretching down the street outside the venue showed that Stanley Clarke’s appearance at Love Supreme Festival on the preceding Saturday night had whetted rather than blunted local appetites for fusion bass wizardry. Victor Wooten got straight down to business, taking to the […]
Neal Richardson Band Ronnie Scott’s, London Sunday 5th June 2016 This was my first proper visit to Ronnie’s since the change of ownership way back when. Yes, inevitably things have changed, but it was nice to see that the club has retained a feeling of the original, and of course unlike Pete and […]
Kevin Flanagan Quartet Friday 17th June 2016 The Verdict, Brighton Beginning with Midnight Voyage, pianist Dave Gordon excelled with free-flowing solo lines reminiscent of the tune’s composer, Joey Calderazzo. Combining lesser-played jazz standards with his own original compositions, Kevin Flanagan’s original tune Newk was dedicated to Sonny Rollins and aptly illustrated his influence […]