Tommy Evans was winner of the British Composers Award in 2011 and his latest work is a suite of pieces dedicated to his eccentric uncle.

The music mixes jazz, Indian and folk, with shifting time signatures and odd harmonics, yet the result is fresh and accessible: tuneful, soulful, yet spiked with hypnotic grooves. His 12-piece orchestra assembles some of the finest musicians in the North of England, with Jamil Sheriff (piano), Dave Kane (bass) and Kris Wright (drums) at its core and includes three female vocalists in the front line. As part of the J-Night Autumn season, tonight the Tommy Evans Orchestra comes to the Hull Truck Theatre with the Green Seagull Suite (01482 323638 and jnight.org) before taking it to the London Jazz Festival on 17 November.

Wakefield Jazz has a meeting of the generations tonight when national treasure tenor saxophonist Bobby Wellins joins with the Tim Lapthorn Trio (01977 680542). An early highlight in Bobby’s career was his recording of the Under Milk Wood suite with Stan Tracey and he was a composer-in-residence at the University of York in the 1980s.

Traditional jazz from the Phil Mason era is presented at Jazz in the Spa with The Jazzaholics (01937 842544). As with most of the bands booked at Boston Spa, the band is banjo-driven and features Micky Cooke, who played trombone with Acker Bilk in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s.

• The dazzling Brazilian pianist Zezo Olimpio will return to Rio de Janeiro some time next month, but as far as I know, until then he continues his Sunday Lunchtime residency at Kennedy`s Café Bar, Little Stonegate (01904 620222).

The Wednesday night jam session at the Phoenix Inn, George Street, has become an amazing success story, with young musicians coming from across the region to try their chops in public. Many are still in their teens and still at school, but there is no upper age limit and all are given sympathetic support by pianist Chris Moore. The Legendary Trevor King is on drums (01904 656401).

The usual co-leader at the Phoenix is trumpeter James Lancaster, but he is taking a busman`s holiday next week, when he leads a family take-over at Scarborough Jazz at the Cask, Cambridge Terrace. James Lancaster & the Jazz Offspring comprises daughter Grace (vocals and saxophone) and Charlie (trombone) alongside dad`s trumpet (01723 500570).

• Two good reasons to buy this month`s Jazzwise magazine are: A big feature on jazz at the Phoenix Inn, York and a free cover-mounted CD.

“The Phoenix pub in York must surely be one of the most historically and atmospherically located jazz venues in the land…..a hidden treasure of York, a small yet vibrant nook that has to be sought out by reputation rather than espied casually from the street. A deeply old-school haunt, vending real ale, aiming for cosy comfort and shunning piped music, television screens and games machines.” Read the rest for yourself and enjoy Blue Blanc Jazz Vol.2, a 17-track CD of prominent French jazzers, including Henri Texier, a pillar of European jazz since the 1960s and newer sensations such as Armenian pianist Tigran and pianist/trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf.