BIG congratulations to Paul Baxter, bass player of the York jazz parish, and Angela Zagorski, who were married last weekend. Honoured guests were Andy Hillier, drummer/bandleader Colin Byrne and other sundry musos.

Angela's sister Nina and Karl Mullen were pressed to sit in with the Mardi Gras Band and it was a joyful experience.

Karl Mullen manages the changing programme of York's finest for the jazz piano nights each Friday at the Jacobean Lodge, Plainville Lane, Wigginton (01904 762749).

Karl and Nina Zagorski alternate keyboards duties and bring along guests every Tuesday at the Last Drop Inn, Colliergate, York (01904 621951).

Jazz In The Spa presents trad with Chesterfield's Southside Jazz Band tomorrow night. The venue is the Trustees Hall, High Street, Boston Spa (01937 842544).

Scarborough Jazz has the region's favourite saxophonist/clarinettist/vocalist Frank Brooker on Tuesday night. Frank plays everything from Jelly Roll Morton to Sonny Rollins.

One of the longest-running jazz clubs around, Scarborough has a venue crisis and is looking for somewhere new for its Tuesday sessions. Phone Marian and Mike on 01723 379818 with suggestions.

The Ryedale Jazz Club specialises in trad and their next session is at the White Horse, Kirkbymoorside, on Wednesday (01723 859495).

Check your diary for the Jazz Weekend at York's National Centre For Early Music (NCEM) from May 4 to May 6. Perfect Houseplants is one of Britain's most innovative groups and featured guest is recorder virtuoso Pamela Thorby (Friday).

The Snake Davis Band (May 5) is probably sold out, but try for returns. Snake will also run a late-learners' workshop, a repeat of last year's event with Rob Lavers, which was greatly over-subscribed.

When drummer Adrian Mcintosh left York for London many years ago, I went to hear him paying his dues for subsistence fees with an up-and-coming band in a pub near to Tower Bridge. The singer was Norma Winstone and the pianist John Taylor. Adrian was to find fame with the Humphrey Lyttelton Band, while John Taylor and Norma Winstone went on separately to collaborate with some of the world's finest musicians and to record with the ECM Record label.

We are privileged that now John Taylor is on the faculty of the University of York music department and therefore well-placed to trot down the road to the NCEM, Walmgate, for a Sunday concert at 4pm on May 6.

The Proper Music Distribution group has produced yet another treasure chest 4CD set, Kenny Clark's Klook's The Man. One of the most influential drummers in all jazz and an early innovator of the Bebop style of drumming, Clarke defuses all the jokes about a drummer being "someone who hangs around with musicians".

He was not only a composer of considerable merit, but in 1954 become the house drummer and talent scout for the Savoy Record label. For his salary of $7,000 a year, plus session fees, during his first couple of years he brought Bobby Jaspar, Horace Silver, Pepper Adams, Donald Byrd, Cannonball and Nat Adderley and many others, to the label.

This boxed set celebrates his career from his first recording under his own name in1938, to 1956, taking in a who's who of jazz greats. It also makes available once again some treasured albums.

Telefunken Blues (1955) featured Henry Coker, Frank Wess and Milt Jackson, while Bohemia After Dark (also 1955) had Donald Byrd, Jerome Richardson, Hank Jones, Horace Silver and the Adderley brothers, Nat and Cannonball.

The informative 56-page booklet reveals that the Florida-based Adderleys were on vacation in New York for a few days, and sat in with Oscar Pettiford's group, with Klook on drums.

Klook booked them immediately to record the next day and the Bohemia album became an essential in most record collections, reckoned by Richard Cook to be Klook's "finest hour".

Klook's Jazz Men Detroit (1956) and Plays Andre Hodier (1956) are also included in this massive compendium.

Essential music and the Properbox sets retail for around the same price as a single CD.