WAKEFIELD Jazz enters its Summer Series tonight which highlights the talents of up-and-coming young bands in our region. Tonight’s session is with the Matt Roberts Quintet and the Will Howard/ Declan Forde Quintet (01924 253202).

The TG Collective is a joyful combination of gipsy hot-club, flamenco, jazz and contemporary classical influences, built around two guitarists, flutes, double bass, trumpet and cajon percussion. With influences as varied as Paco de Lucia, Django Reinhardt and J S Bach, the Collective comes to the National Centre for Early Music tomorrow at 7.30pm (01904 658338).

The Tame Valley Stompers is an entertaining band from west of the Pennines. Also known as Terry Brunt’s Dead Good Boys, the band specialises in traditional jazz with a humorous attitude and they are at Jazz In The Spa tomorrow night (01937 842636). The Trustees Hall, High Street, Boston Spa is unlicensed, so take your own tipple.

Sunday is a great day for jazz in York, beginning at Kennedy’s Café Bar, Little Stonegate, at 1pm, with Brazilian pianist Zezo Olimpio and his Trio (01904 620222). Later on Sunday. the Phoenix Inn, George Street, has the Ian Chalk Quartet, a must for anyone with ears (01904 656401). The Phoenix also hosts the celebrated jam session every Wednesday night, fronted by James Lancaster (trumpet) and Chris Moore (piano).

The Jazzbos is a mainly Trad/Dixieland group which plays regularly at the Bell Hotel in Driffield. The band will be back on Tuesday with their unusual line-up of guitar, trombone, clarinet and tuba (08457 660418).

Scarborough Jazz has been running a varied programme at the Cask, Cambridge Terrace, every Wednesday for over 20 years. Next week’s session will be a players’ night, a chance for anyone to get up and sing or play. Phone Mike Gordon (01723 379818).

The Old White Swan, Goodramgate, has been hosting live jazz in York for 16 years or so, with Bejazzled alternating with the Mardi Gras Band every Thursday. Next Thursday will be Mardi Gras night (01904 540911).

Review...

The Impossible Gentlemen is a new Anglo-American super-group, featuring British piano sensation Gwilym Simcock, Salford guitarist Mike Walker and American bass and drums superstars Steve Swallow and Adam Nussbaum.

This self-titled CD was recorded after bashing the material into shape on a short tour, always a recommended plan, and the result is a riveting selection of originals.

Given the range of the music and the instrumentation, comparisons with Pat Methey’s groups are inevitable, particularly since Walker uses guitar synthesiser on his composition Wallenda’s Last Stand and occasional others.

However, this is a unique across-Atlantic collaboration and the compositions reflect the backgrounds of the band members.

Walker’s When You Hold Her, moves from pastoral European piano ballad, to a majestic crescendo and back again, while Nussbaum’s Sure Would Baby is a States-side blues groove, although Walker goes a bit Pink Floyd, his guitar setting reminiscent of Dave Gilmour on the Floyd’s Money. You Won’t Be Around To See It is Simcock’s tongue-in-cheek reworking of Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise and his Play The Game is forcefully propelled by Nussbaum’s drums.

From the album’s breakneck opener, Laugh Lines, with its complex ensemble, through to Nussbaum’s bluesey closer, this is exciting debut leaves us panting for more.