You could say that it was ‘the shock of the old’ as the Kevin Figes Sextet played the music of Keith Tippett and his contemporaries.
Mario Bakuna Band. 3rd February 2023.
Mario Bakuna, a man who exudes music
The Frank Griffith Trio. 27th January 2023
The Frank Griffith trio played these Ellington/Strayhorn tunes with elegance and grace—not at all reverently, but with deep familiarity and evident pleasure.
Greg Abate and Wakefield Jazz House Trio, 18th November 2022
Greg was on powerful form—power that was expressed lyrically, with wonderful Parkeresque articulation and fluency
Tori Freestone Trio, 11th November 2022.
Tori Freestone, tenor sax. Dave Mannington, bass. Tim Giles, drums. Pic by Pete Woodman A pianoless saxophone trio is a high-wire act. The mere fact of it is an assertion of confident musicianship and group coherence. But what kind of approach might it take? What repertoire? How to provide dynamism and variety over two full…
Hannah Horton Quartet, 28th October 2022.
Hannah Horton, tenor and baritone sax. John Crawford, piano. Rob Statham, bass. Steve Taylor, drums. The best saxophonists are able to display the instrument’s many, quite contrasting facets: urgent and piercing with tender; soulfully expressive with punchy and raw; joyous with wistfully melancholic. But the real test of a jazz performer is whether she can…
Art Themen Organ Trio: 14th October, 2022.
Art Themen, tenor sax. Pete Whittaker, organ. George Double, Drums. It is one of the glories of jazz that a trio (at least one of this calibre) can perform with such expressive range. It’s not just a matter of wide-ranging material, or the particulars of instrumentation or styles that cover the span of jazz history…
Chris Batchelor’s Zoetic. 10th June 2022
Chris Batchelor, trumpet.Margrit Hasler, viola.John Parricelli, guitar.Steve Watts, bass.Paul Clarvis, table and percussion. There are many ways of expressing power in music—and these days, there’s no shortage of ‘fast and furious’. But good writing and deft musicianship combine economy of effort with something rather special: revealing the power of beauty. It’s soon gone on the…
Alexander Hawkins Trio, 3rd June 2022
It is a privilege to witness creative musicians at full stretch and we the audience knew that this evening was something special.
Tim Knowles Quartet. May 6th, 2022
Tim Knowles, guitarEmma Johnson, tenor saxJohn Pope, bassSarah Heneghan, drums Bands have personalities, too. The Tim Knowles Quartet displayed an unaffected sweetness, a relaxed demeanour and a sense of playfulness and fun. Just add committed playing—there in abundance—and a warm, responsive audience was guaranteed. The world is not short of very able guitarists in all…
The Koller-Wallen Quartet and the Trinity Laban Jazz Orchestra. 25th March 2022
Hans Koller, piano. Byron Wallen, trumpet.Calum Gourlay, double bass.Cassius Cobbson, drums. Talfan Jenkins, Gabriel Maric, Matty Lambert and Morgan Wallace, saxes.Josh Short, Alex Polack and Byron Wallen, trumpets.Matt Seddon, Marty Gionis and Olivia Hughes, trombones. The evening was a remarkably rich two sets: a top-flight quartet playing Thelonious Monk, followed by students of each of…
Liam Noble’s Long Game, 4th March 2022.
Liam Noble – piano and keyboards.Tom Herbert – bass.Will Glaser – drums. Most evenings, if you turn up at a jazz club you can expect a band that will play a mixture of swinging standards and ballads, with a well-judged mix of chorus and solo turns. But sometimes a band will adopt a very different…
The Whitman Review 