Julian Siegel Quartet The Verdict, Brighton Friday 23rd May, 2014 Saxophonist Siegel brought his powerhouse of a quartet to The Verdict at the end of May, playing to a packed-house. A veteran of the London scene, Siegel was accompanied by Liam Noble on piano, Oli Hayhurst on double bass and Gene Calderazzo on […]
Roy Hilton’s Jazz Messengers The Verdict, Brighton Friday 30th May, 2014 An evening of hard bop tunes by Horace Silver is always sure to go down well with a jazz audience. Local pianist Roy Hilton was joined by fellow locals bassist Dan Sheppard and drummer Spike Wells and augmented by the trumpet of […]
Katy O’Neill Trio with Rebecca Fidler The Verdict, Brighton Saturday 31st May, 2014 The group were augmented by Tim Wells on organ who added a gospel touch to many of the tunes. Highlights included the Etta James classic I’d Rather Go Blind, a beautiful interpretation of a Tom Waits tune […]
Mornington Lockett The Verdict, Brighton Friday 16th May Former Ronnie Scott sideman Mornington Lockett performed at The Verdict with an all-star band including local drummer Spike Wells who was joined by his old friend pianist John Critchinson, who turns 80 later this year, and young(er) bassist Jeremy Brown. After ‘Critch’ counted in The […]
Howard Alden with Geoff Simkins & Simon Woolf The Verdict, Brighton Sunday 18th May, 2014 American guitarist Howard Alden is best known for performing the guitar parts for the Woody Allen film Sweet & Lowdown but has also performed with legends such as Woody Herman, Dizzy Gillespie and Red Norvo. In the UK […]
Joss Peach’s Full Circle The Verdict, Brighton Saturday 24th May, 2014 Pianist Joss Peach began by dedicating the evenings performance to the late Simon D’souza and explained that the first set would consist entirely of Thelonious Monk tunes. There were some fantastic performances of Monk’s Dream, Blue Monk and Bemsha Swing amongst […]
Charlotte Glasson Band The Verdict, Brighton Tuesday 29th April, 2014 Multi-instrumentalist Charlotte Glasson returned to her home town of Brighton to launch her new album Festivus and begin her nationwide tour. Playing tunes from the new album, she explained that she wanted to call the album ‘Festival’ but was reminded of the ‘Festivus […]
Basil Hodge Quartet The Verdict, Brighton Friday 9th May, 2014 This was Basil Hodge’s second gig at The Verdict with long-time collaborator Tony Kofi and it will surely be one of many in the future. Basil Hodge’s tribute to one of his favourite pianists, entitled Mode for McCoy, showed both the powerful […]
The phrase ‘not much jazz on this year’ is becoming an annual complaint about Brighton Festival. To counteract this omission, Verdict club owner Andy Lavender has seized the initiative and organised his own Verdict Jazz Festival throughout May. The programme features extra comedy evenings as well as gigs on Sunday evenings, with the […]
Damon Brown International Quintet The Verdict, Brighton Friday 29th November, 2013 This was an evening of some great modern hard bop playing which kindled memories of the Donald Byrd/Jackie McClean partnership of the late Fifties. And if anyone can imitate the sound of Fifties Jackie McClean it’s certainly French saxophonist Pierrick Pedron. […]