Top UK & Irish jazz gigs - 13-19 April

Top UK & Irish jazz gigs - 13-19 April

Billy Marrows and Grande Família Pizza Express Jazz Club, London Monday 13 May Playing music from guitarist Billy Marrows' poignant album, Penelope. Shell’s Belles Beeston Library, Nottingham Mon 13 May Singer Jeanie Barton joins the swinging …

Published: 11 May 2024. Updated: 12 days.

Playing music from guitarist Billy Marrows' poignant album, Penelope.

Singer Jeanie Barton joins the swinging big band.

  • Alex Webb, Tony Kofi, Dave Green, Clark Tracey, Alan Barnes & others plus the Jam Collective Watermill, Dorking Tuesday 14 May

Ben Webster celebrated - sold out.

Drummer Roan Anderson with Ewan Johnston on keys, Simon Herberholz on saxophone, and Chris Quinn on bass.

Cadair Idris has proved one of the best UK jazz albums so far in 2024. Named after a mythology rich peak of Snowdonia you don't have to be a Welsh speaker at all to appreciate it. Partly because beyond the Welsh lyrics that are further interspersed with spoken word in English there is plenty of instrumental prowess on display - 'Ionawr' from Cadair Idris was a track of the week on marlbank in February. Leeds based, this ''alternative folk jazz collective'' - the word ''Awen'' in their name means ''poetic inspiration'' - is infused by Amy Clark's fine Lauren Kinsella-esque vocals and yet these are only one element in a portfolio of approaches that the band come up with. Guitarist Ruari Graham is certainly impressive on 'Idris' and when Clark sings in English on 'Unsettled' you'd swear counter intuitively that there's even an influence of Madonna in the timbre of her voice. 'Zorny' is the greatest of the tracks from a committed jazzhead's perspective. So, amen to an album that doesn't tightrope walk on eggshells among jazz and folk genres but proves more of the good mixer dipping in and out and not getting too hung up on what genre their explorations happen to land in. Ultimately the spoken word of 'Upon Leaving the Dream' - you can't but not think - is pure poetry.

  • Mike Stern Band featuring Dennis Chambers, Leni Stern, Hadrien Feraud & Bob Franceschini Ronnie Scott's, London Wed 15 May, Thursday 16 May

Manchester guitar legend Stuart McCallum with trumpeter Neil Yates, bassist Pete Turner and drummer Luke Flowers.

GIG OF THE WEEK

The highest profile Scottish jazz musician since Tommy Smith first emerged, Scottishness is important in the grace notes, accents and naturalistic influences that pianist-composer Fergus McCreadie weaves in to his piano trio settings. Look no further on new album Stream (Edition) than 'Driftwood' for proof. A very solid release up there with Cairn, McCreadie is a natural and newcomers can start right here or go back to his most acclaimed recording Forest Floor for more. David Bowden on double bass and Stephen Henderson on drums again excel within team McC. The hymnal 'Mountain Stream' is just one of several tracks that reward repeated play.

Pianist Neil Angilley with bassist Davide Mantovani - known for his work with Alex Wilson - and drummer Davide Giovannini of Trypl.

Last year we heard singer/songwriter-pianist Joanna Eden at Ronnie's and thought that there was a certain sepia tinted quality to the 1970s latin-jazz style of Eden who was appearing with guitarist Guillermo Hill. He is in Eden's band for this Nottingham show, the quartet completed for next week's show by bassist Andrés Lafone and by drummer George Double. Eden's latest album is Love Quiet. Live Eden presses and cajoles chords in accompaniment to her flexible surprisingly high often quite soulful lilting voice choosing songs that she wrote for instance on a trip to Uruguay or while in Italy in Bologna, writing there as a ''cure'' for her melancholy. Songs of summer and covers including a well aimed treatment of The Isley Brothers classic 'Summer Breeze' and Wayne Shorter's 'Footprints' were included in a very persuasive performance. The little finger of Eden's left hand often acted as a lever to allow her hand to dive into a chord often favouring samba-like rhythmical accents as well as more 1970s singer-songwriter type settings. Set highlights during that Ronnie's gig upstairs included as unlikely as it sounds a fairly jolly take on Fran Landesman and Tommy Wolf's 'Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most' first recorded by Jackie and Roy in the 1950s that certainly exhibited a glimpse of the width of interpretations possible in the classic song. Eden's originals have a thoughtful blissed out quality to them especially 'Love Quiet' the title track of her fine album.

Jazz-rock guitarist Tommy Halferty has a new record out called Contrasts.

Adventurous pianist Andrea Vicari appears with bassist Andy Champion and drummer Russ Morgan.

Joanna Eden, pictured, plays Nottingham on the 18th

Tags: Gig guideUK

Euro jazz club action, 11-18 May

Joe Farnsworth feat Sarah Hanahan Jamboree, Barcelona Saturday 11 May. The Swinging Wyntonian, drummer Joe Farnsworth, is in Barcelona with altoist Sarah Hanahan, the great pianist Aaron Goldberg of the Yes! trio and highly rated bassist Alex …

Published: 10 May 2024. Updated: 14 days.

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The Swinging Wyntonian, drummer Joe Farnsworth, is in Barcelona with altoist Sarah Hanahan, the great pianist Aaron Goldberg of the Yes! trio and highly rated bassist Alex Claffy.

  • Palatino - Paolo Fresu, Glenn Ferris, Michel Benita, Aldo Romano Sunside, Paris Sat 11 May

GIG OF THE WEEK: A rare chance to hear the newly reformed 1990s Label Bleu band Palatino.

Sold out.

  • Bill Evans & The Vans Band All Stars ft. John Medeski, Keith Carlock, Felix Pastorius Blue Note, Milan Tues 14 May, Wednesday 15 May

June sees the release of the latest Blue Note album entitled Unomkhubulwane from the formidable South African pianist-composer, a three movement work featuring Makhathini in a trio setting. What we have heard from it so far Makhathini is sounding more like the towering figure of Abdullah Ibrahim than ever with his own cosmic twists thrown in for good measure. Makhathini appears in Paris with bassist Zwelakhe-Duma Bell Le Pere and drummer Lukmil Perez.

Such a natural, Manchester singer Mica Millar - think a sister sound close to the sheer natural swagger of the great Lisa Stansfield circa Real Love stripped of any 1990s trappings. Millar's 'Heaven Knows' is a must.

Also streaming.

We appreciated a good deal 2022's Parallel Motion - so Bob's your uncle in Amsterdam if you bowl up for this gig. You need to have already snagged a ticket as it's sold out. A high water mark in their illustrious discography. Jazz-rock fusion has changed over the years and one of the agents of change is certainly Yellowjackets. If you subscribe as we do to the view that the genre was made coherent most by Weather Report and then developed in myriad ways to eventually change into something far more funky in the hands of the greatest exponents of the form these days Snarky Puppy, the evolution of jazz-rock was later ushered in by bands like Yellowjackets who still act as a bridge back to the original heyday of the genre and face forward through the rugged strength of the ensemble sound and their quality compositions. Parallel Motion was not blood and guts fusion or overly smooth tat. Yellowjackets were and are about neither.

Distinguished Detroit singer Carla Cook plays the Danish capital's top jazz club.

  • Joel Frahm, Staffan William-Olsson, Pat Bianchi, Joris Dudli Birdland, Hamburg Sat 18 May

Tribute to Pat Martino. Check Hammond organist Pat Bianchi's superb album Three released recently.

Nduduzo Makhathini, photo: Blue Note