Jazz notes

Anita Wardell and Dennis Rollins are on tomorrow’s bill, Clare Teal, Omar Puente and Robert Mitchell on Sunday. York’s youthful six-piece band, Ben Beattie and the Jazz Age, will be playing in the Great Hall on Saturday and Sunday. Phone the ticket hotline 01262 490324.

Tomorrow night’s band at Jazz In The Spa will be the Harlem Hot Stompers, a great favourite at the Trustees Hall, High Street, Boston Spa. The hall is not licensed, so bring your own tipple (01937 842544/842636). Tim and Les, the organisers, have a new deal with the Days Inn Hotel, Wetherby, a double or twin B&B special rate of £49 for two.

Jazz with food is a big success in York and Sunday lunchtime at Kennedy’s Café Bar at 1pm is a foodie/jazz treat with the Zezo Olimpio Trio (01904 620222).

Later on Sunday, the Ian Chalk Quartet plays at the Phoenix Inn, George Street, York (01904 656401) and you can download the quartet’s debut album, First Days, on iTunes. Since reopening last year, the Phoenix has become an established jazz joint, and Sunday’s Chalkie session is followed by Monday jazz with the Andy Cox Quartet at 8.30pm. Wednesday night at the Phoenix is the Jazz Jam with James Lancaster, Chris Moore, John Marley and Colin Byrne, with the mid-evening session open for would-be musicians/singers. Scarborough Jazz at the Cask, Cambridge Terrace, also runs every Wednesday and next week’s guests will be the Julie Edwards & Kevin Dearden Quartet (01723 379818).

The long-standing jazz with food venue in York is the Old White Swan, Goodramgate, where Bejazzled and Mike Riley alternate with the Mardi Gras Band. Next Thursday is Bejazzled night, with a food theme based on the great British sausage (01904 540911).

Also on Thursdays, Paul Baxter’s 4 & More appear fortnightly at the Phoenix, Jules And The Gang, with Bob Smeaton, Frank Brooker and Greg Wadman, are at the Victoria Vaults, Nunnery Lane, and Karl Mullen’s Jazz Band is at the Churchill Hotel, Bootham. Phone for updates: The Phoenix, 01904 6656401; Old White Swan 540911; Victoria Vaults, 654307 and The Churchill, 644456.

University of York graduate, pianist Dave Moorcroft, has a full-page feature in the August edition of Jazzwise magazine, with news of the debut album from his World Service Project. The band played very effectively around York last year, and Dave is now establishing himself on the London scene.

The Shez Raja Collective is also active in London and their new album, Mystic Radikal (33 Records), is an enjoyable snapshot of the band’s joyful musical mix. Merseyside bass guitarist Shez has a masterful way with catchy melodies and his Stanley Clarke-inspired playing leads confidently from the front, with more than a hint of the heavy groove of George Clinton’s Parliament, peppered with James Brown-style horn lines. The instrumentation of electric violin, saxophone, flute, synthesiser and occasional wordless vocals also has elements of Pat Metheny’s atmospheric melodies.

Infectious dance rhythms are overlaid with colours of world music, strains of Indian classical and the Mahavishnu Orchestra weaving in, alongside the unmistakable sound of West Indian steel pans. Guests Andy Sheppard and South African trumpeter Claude Deppa join for three tracks each, rounding off a highly satisfying album full of joyful surprises.