WAKEFIELD Jazz can be relied on for quality music and tonight's (6th) attraction is well up to scratch. Singer Liz Fletcher came to Wakefield last year unknown, and in the fierce company of Alan Barnes and Bruce Adams she more than held her own.

Tonight she returns with her own band, which features Marc Parnell (drums, son of the famous dad) and Leeds College graduate Pete Wareham on tenor saxophone. Phone 01924 782339 for details.

One of the longest established jazz clubs in North Yorkshire is Scarborough Jazz at Scholars Bar and on Tuesday its guests are Greg Wadman (trumpet) and Trevor Holroyd (guitar). More usually heard at the Old White Swan in York, the stylish duo will have the chance to stretch out with the smaller group format of the Mike Gordon Trio in Scarborough. Phone Marian and Mike Gordon on 01723 379818 for details.

On Wednesday (11th), there is a choice of events in Leeds. Graham Hearn, a lecturer at Leeds College of Music, will be playing in piano trio format in the college recital room at 7.30pm. Phone 0113 222 3434 for details.

A short step away, the Leeds Wardrobe will host a preview for Fuseleeds festival, the sharp end of the New Music spectrum. Nobukazu Takemura and the Child's View Band are a six piece group featuring voice, guitars, keyboards, drums and percussion. Find out more from www.fuseleeds.org.uk

Jazz with poetry married for a short time during the 1960s and their eventual separation in the 1970s was quiet and amicable, as I recall. Gil Scott-Heron was one of the most convincing exponents and he prepared the ground for rap and hip-hop. Also worthwhile are the collaborations between Kip Hanrahan and poet Ishmael Reed on Conjure (1984, American Clave) and Don Byron and Sadiq Bey on Tuskegee Experiments (1992, Elektra Nonesuch). Let us not forget the added speech passages in Fables Of Faubus, by Charles Mingus.

A collaboration between jazz and the spoken word appeared last year to add to the exclusive collection of the above successes, with an album titled Let Freedom Ring (Dune Records) by Denys Baptiste and Ben Okri.

Martin Luther King Day was celebrated on January 19 and saxophonist Baptiste's album is based on the I Have A Dream address from the historic rally at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC in 1963. In the CD booklet, Baptiste writes, "Although Dr King's speech was specifically written to address the struggle for civil rights in America, his goal was much larger than this. He hoped to achieve the same rights for all people, regardless of race or nationality, and so the speech has as much relevance now as it had in 1963.""

As in classical composition, where melodies can be inspired by the sounds of nature, of birdsong and of human speech, Baptiste takes the cadences of Dr King's speech rhythms as a starting point. In an interview in Jazzwise magazine, Baptiste said, "What I discovered was there was an awful lot of music in the way he delivers his speech... You listen again closely and you soon realise that part of the impact of his words was their music."

If all of the above sounds a bit airy and intellectual, listen to the music and you will find a joyful ebullience and some energetic jazz played by Baptiste's inspired 12-piece band. The exultant tempo changes range from 4/4, to 3/4, 6/8 and 5/4.

Little wonder that Let Freedom Ring was voted the album of the year by Jazzwise magazine. A great British project.

Updated: 16:05 Thursday, February 05, 2004