Jazz notes

If you couldn't get into the concert, the CD cannot give you the glorious spontaneity of the live performance, but it has captured most of the energy. The CD, Conversations With The Unseen (Dune Records), aims for the concept of a live club gig on disc, the first track being Intro, with a spoken rap over the guitar, bass and drums trio. Later there is an Intermission rap and at the end a spoken Outro. To a usual jazz buyer, it may sound contrived, but the audience at the NCEM loved it, as witnessed by the wide smiles and flushed faces at interval time.

Soweto Kinch shows his awareness of the diversity of contemporary music in his choice of cover art, a joint tribute to Hip Hop graffiti and Blue Note sleeves of the 1950s and Sixties. For a young musician who has won the BBC Jazz Award and the Montreux Jazz Festival Saxophone Competition, this first CD under his own name promises more treasures for the future.

Sunday's concert by John Warren's Brass Junction was an exciting affair, with 12 musicians onstage, including the staggeringly gifted Mark Nightingale (trombone) and Steve Waterman (trumpet/flugelhorn). The jazz quintet was joined by a seven-piece brass band choir in the premier of John's newest work, Mixing It. Only someone of John Warren's experience (Voice of the North Big Band, the John Warren/John Surman Brass Project) could have conceived such an imaginative juxtaposition of two such distinct traditions, brass band and jazz. The increasingly complex and satisfying mingling of the two ensembles was truly uplifting.

The next chance you have to hear it for yourself is on June 22 at the Durham Brass Festival in Durham Town Hall. It will be well worth the trip.

Wakefield Jazz promises hot stuff tonight with young British pianist Jason Rebello. For the last couple of years, Rebello has been touring the world with Sting, so take the rare chance to catch him with his own trio. Details from 01924 782339.

The acclaimed vocalist Anita Wardell will appear tomorrow night at Helmsley Arts Centre, with her excellent group of Robin Aspland (piano), Gene Calderazzo (drums) and Jeremy Brown (bass). Details from 01439 771700.

Tomorrow night, Jazz at the Crown, Boston Spa, presents Sportinghouse Strings, attribute to the music of the late Tommy Burton. Tommy was notoriously non-PC and between his vocal/piano selections, with many Fats Waller tunes, he smoked and drank prodigiously onstage. The band was Tommy's rhythm section and they aim to recreate something of his music and humour. Details from 01937 842636.

There is more good-time music at Scarborough Jazz, Scholars Bar, on Tuesday when the Mike Gordon Trio provides backing for the Heavy Horns. The Heavies are saxophonists Rod Mason, Stuart MacDonald and Jim Corrie, and between them they play soprano, tenor, baritone and bass saxophones, plus bass clarinet. Call Marian and Mike for more details on 01723 379818.

Another heavyweight saxophonist flies into Leeds Jazz on Wednesday, in the shape of American Ellery Eskelin. Ellery brings with him one of the key members of contemporary American jazz, Jim Black on drums and percussion and Andrea Parkins on accordion, piano and sampler. That last is electronics, rather than Victorian needlework, by the way.

Reserve next weekend, June 7 and 8, for the Shed's 11th Birthday Party and the Yorkshire Pudding Boat Race. It will be in Malton's Market Place and artists booked include Ian McMillan, Snake Davis Band, Annie Whitehead Band, Billy Jenkins with the Blues Collective and Hank Wangford and the Lost Cowboys. Even more amazing, it's all free. How does Shed man Simon Thackray do it ? Like his fellow wizard David Porter, he has mastered the rare art of successfully completing funding applications. More details on www.theshed.co.uk or 01653 668494.

Updated: 10:14 Friday, May 30, 2003