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…
Author: wakefieldjazz
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…
Shirley Smart Trio, 11th February 2022
Shirley Smart, cello.John Crawford, piano.Demi Garcia Sabat, drums and percussion. No one with even a glancing familiarity with jazz would have any difficulty naming numerous bass players; and one probably wouldn’t need to strain to name half a dozen violinists. But cellists? It’s an enduring mystery why an instrument held dear by countless music lovers…
Dave Newton and Denny Ilett, 28th January 2022
David Newton – piano. Denny Ilett – voice and guitar. A full house is an expectant one—and both are assured whenever Dave Newton is on the bill. A long-time favourite of Wakefield Jazz regulars, Dave was to have appeared with the singer Liz Fletcher who was unfortunately indisposed. Up stepped guitarist and vocalist Denny Ilett—and…
The Wakefield Jazz Christmas Gig, 10 December 2021
Patsy Gilbert and Jenny Smith, vocals.Richard Ormrod, saxes, flute and clarinet.Ben Gilbert, piano. Pete Rosser, piano and accordion.José Canha, bass.Caroline Boaden, drums. In a year marked by uncertainty and disruption, Wakefield Jazz didn’t escape entirely, but thanks to quick thinking by the Promoter and Treasurer and a bit of good luck, the peak of the…
19 November 2021, Eternal Triangle:
Trevor Watts, alto and soprano sax.Veryan Weston, keyboard.Jamie Harris, congas and percussion. A tireless instrumentalist, composer and collaborator, Trevor Watts has been at the leading edge of British and international jazz for more than fifty years—and on tonight’s showing, he’s a young lion still. All of the familiar characteristics of his saxophone style were in…
Alison Rayner Quintet, 29 October 2021
Alison Rayner, bass.Diane McLoughlin, saxophones.Deirdre Cartwright, guitar.Steve Lodder, piano.Buster Birch, drums. There is a certain magic to some jazz performances which can’t entirely be put down to some combination of instrumental mastery, strong material and the coherence of the players as a fully realised band. For reasons never entirely clear, the band begins playing in…
Green Tangerines, Friday 22 October 2021
Sarah Sands, vocals and sax.Sam Taylor, trumpet.Jack O’Hanlon, guitar.Fran Mills, bass.Tom Hudson, drums. Jazz funk passed by a certain segment of jazz listeners; and those unimpressed probably never saw a live performance by a capable band. The uninformed expectation would probably have been propulsive but relentless drumming; rudimentary melodic lines and uninspired soloing. And then…
Ubunye, Friday 1 October 2021
Nokuthula Zondi-Kamudyariwa – vocalsXolani Mbatha – vocalsThandanani Gumede – vocalsDave Evans – keyboardsKenny Higgins – bassSean Hunt – drumsLiam DeTar- guitar Ubunye is a single, coherent musical group, not a vocal ensemble that happens to be backed by instrumentalists. After all, the name means ‘Oneness.’ And if the configuration is a little unusual, it’s a…
Alan Barnes Quartet, 4 June 2021
Alan Barnes–alto + baritone sax/clarinet Robin Aspland – piano Simon Thorpe – bass Alphonso Vitale – drums The earth is back in its orbit, Spring is well advanced and the Alan Barnes Quartet plays Wakefield Jazz. Surely all three are connected… And what a great pleasure it was to watch and listen to a superb…
The Rory Ingham Quartet
Jonny Mansfield vibes Rory Ingham trombone Sam Quintana, bass Luke Tomlinson drums plus guest Jacob Cooper trombone Ah, live music at last! Our collective release and relief from lockdown blues was probably best expressed by Rory Ingham in the first words he addressed to the audience ‘….This is really weird…’ But Rory and the band…
The Whitman Review 