SIMON SPILLET began his tenor saxophone career by emulating his hero Tubby Hayes, and he still specialises in Hayes-style blistering bebop runs and fulltoned ballads.
Winner of the BBC Jazz Awards Rising Star 2007, he brings his quartet to Wakefield Jazz tonight. The quartet comprises John Critchinson, Alec Dankworth and Spike Wells, details from 01977 680542 and the Wakefield Jazz website.
Jazz In The Spa presents the Frisco Bay Hot Stompers tomorrow night. The name comes from the two trumpet frontline, which emulates the American bands of Turk Murphy and Bob Scobey in rollicking style. The venue is the Trustees Hall, High Street, Boston Spa (01937 842544).
Howden Live has bagged an R & B supergroup tomorrow night in the shape of the British Blues Quintet. Singer Maggie Bell is joined by the legendary Zoot Money and Colin Hodgkinson, Miller Anderson and Colin Allen.
Details from 01405 431535.
Two bands jostle for your attention in York on Sunday afternoons. The Rob Lavers Quartet will be at Kennedy's Bar, Little Stonegate (01904 620222)and the Bejazzled duo (Tim New and Don Lodge) will be at Revolution Bar, Coney Street (01904 676054). The big snag is that both play from 1pm to 4pm.
The Dean Court Hotel must be delighted with the public response to the First Tuesday Jazz Suppers. The resounding success is all down to Andy Hillier's Jazz Trio, which has been responsible for bringing people out on a generally quiet night of the week for restaurant custom. Usually booked months in advance, you can try for returns for next Tuesday, or the following one on March 4 on 01904 625082.
There is a bit more jazz jostling on Wednesday, when York students' favourite jam session at the Black Swan, Peasholme Green (01904 686910) is rivalled by John Addy's Some Like It Hot at the Old Orleans, Low Ousegate (01904 620158).
John's fortnightly sessions at the Old Orleans recommenced in the middle of last year and he cna now be seen fortnightly at the Tap And Spile, Monkgate for a trial period, starting on Wednesday, February 13.
Scarborough Jazz also runs on Wednesdays at the Cask, Cambridge Terrace (01723 379818). In something of a coup, Scarborough Jazz will present Alan Barnes' Liquorice-Stick AllSorts. The group aims to recreate the classic Benny Goodman small groups and compositions by Django Reinhardt.
Ashley Slater is a trombonist instantly recognisable to followers of the iconoclastic 1980s big band Loose Tubes. As trombonist/vocalist, he was also responsible for the 1995 number one, Europe-wide hit, Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out, by the band Freak Power, formed with Norman Cook, aka Fat Boy Slim.
Canadian-born Slater came to the UK in 1977 and joined the regimental band of the Royal Scots. Six years later, he became a top session trombonist, eventually forming his own band Microgroove in the late 1980s.
He continued to record prolifically with a variety of projects, and to add vocals to Fat Boy Slim's albums, but was lured back to the trombone by Gary Crosby, of the Jazz Jamaica All Stars. Lip in hand, he toured subsequently with Sam Rivers, Hermeto Pascoal, Hugh Masakela and with his own BigLounge project. Ashley has released a new BigLounge CD, Cellophane (Patsy/Plush).
Ashley's album are like eavesdropping on the private musings of an eclectic musician, from intimate duets to huge production numbers, produced mainly by BigLounge drummer Steve Arguelles.
There is not so much trombone on Cellophane, just eight bar solos here and there, with a short, but luscious outing on You Never Asked Me Why, co-written with Guy Barker.
The emphasis is on Ashley's song compositions, featuring his dark chocolate voice. BigLounge worms its way into your brain, with influences from the funk of Stevie Wonder and Incognito, the gentle poetic ramblings of Annette Peacock and Brian Wilson plus the musical iconoclasm of Django Bates.
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