Kay chose the duo after hearing Shetland-born saxophonist Norman Willmore’s debut album, Alive and Well at the Muckle Roe Hall.

“I loved Norman’s approach to improvising and the way his group worked with the Shetland tradition and other folk influences on that album,” says Kay.

Willmore, a graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama’s jazz course, has since joined forces with drummer-percussionist Corrie Dick, who, like Kay, is a former Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year and a former member of the Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra.

Norman&Corrie launched their debut album, Twa Double Doubles, to an enthusiastic reception at EFG London Jazz Festival in November and have since won more admirers at Celtic Connections in Glasgow.

“I’ve been listening to their album a lot,” says Kay. “I love the way they interact spontaneously and create music that’s daring but also very melodic, again with that Shetland influence. I’m looking forward so much to hearing them live.”

Kay’s own group features an especially familiar rhythm section as pianist Peter Johnstone, bassist Calum Gourlay and drummer Alyn Cosker all play with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, as does Kay. They arrive at the Queen’s Hall fresh from the SNJO’s latest project, “Nu-Age Sounds: Planet World”, a suite for which Kay composed one of the movements.

“We’ve played in the Queen’s Hall often with the SNJO and it’s a fantastic venue but this is the first time we’ll have played there as a quartet,” says Kay. “It’ll feel quite different having just the four of us onstage instead of being part of a sixteen-piece ensemble. We’ll have so much room to work in!”

The post Helena Kay Quartet – ‘Golden Sands Revisited’ + Norman&Corrie first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Here is the list – the link below goes through to the homepages for each of the concerts. We have had it confirmed from Maria Schneider that the 2 March concert is the UK Premiere of “Data Lords”, not stated in the publicity material.

Sat 15 Feb 2025: Theo Croker’s DREAM MANIFEST with guests Corto Alto, Theon Cross, Coby Sey, Kassa Overall, Ego Ella May and Sheila Maurice-Grey.

Sun 2 Mar 2025: Maria Schneider and Oslo Jazz Ensemble – UK Premiere of “Data Lords”

Sat 15 Mar 2025: Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, LSO & Sir Antonio Pappano perform Wynton Marsalis’ Symphony No 4, “The Jungle”

Sun 16 Mar 2025: Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra/ European Premiere of The Democracy! Suite

Tue 18 Mar 2025: Lizz Wright

Sat 3 May 2025: ‘Whiplash’ In concert – Conductor Justin Hurwitz + the Benoît Sourisse/ André Charlier’s Multiquarium Big Band

The post Six Jazz Events at the Barbican, Feb-May 2025 first appeared on UK Jazz News.

The choices are staggering, and overwhelming, some might say, but with this highlight on a well known special venue, the daunting task can be made a little bit easier for jazz lovers to veer away from the big concert halls to hear something equally great. Also, as an arts council supported venue and an overall ethos towards making theatre and music accessible, their ticket prices are extremely reasonable and they even offer discounted tickets for students and MU members.  

The Cockpit, located near Marylebone station, advertises itself as a “theatre of ideas and disruptive panache” and while they host a myriad of different events from workshops to festivals to new works, their “Jazz in the Round” series has been one of the longest standing and most successful elements of their programme. Started in 2015, and hosting shows for the LJF since 2016, they have become a stalwart venue to hear anything from emerging artists to legends, large ensembles to intimate solo performances and new collaborations to reunions. 

This year, the programme is as eclectic as ever. 7 shows on offer, every night except Monday 18 November.

• Sunday 17th November – Chiminyo Presents: Uniri

Uniri, a term coined by chiminyo, means “one unified dream” and really encapsulates his approach to crafting this extraordinary musical venture. It is a psychedelic, synth-laden, groove machine that taps into the vibrant influences of the Beat and Jazz scene, crafting a distinctive interpretation that is unmistakably unique. This gig features chiminyo on drums, Alex Wesson on synths, Al Macsween on synths and Luke Wynter on bass.

• Tuesday 19th November – Songwriters in the Round 

A showcase of some of the city’s finest jazz and jazz-adjacent vocalists, instrumentalists and songwriters presented by London-based artist and frontwoman of 10:32, Bridget Walsh. Artists Isobella, Sofia, Momoko, Inês and Bridget will take us on a free-flowing journey, reimagining each others’ songs and holding space to explore their original music with new voices, new arrangements and new instrumentation.

• Wednesday 20th November – Jazz On The Box

Jazz 625 ran from 1964 to 1966 and was the most iconic jazz programme on BBC TV.  For the 60th anniversary, this is a tribute featuring Robert Mitchell on piano, Jean Toussaint on saxophone, Larry Bartley on bass and Rod Youngs on drums. As well, legendary UK bass player Dave Green, one of the only people still alive who appeared on the show, will play a special solo set and join the band for a jam. Host Jez Nelson will also be talking to a Jazz 625 expert.

• Thursday 21st November – Bridge The Gap Take-over 

Drummer and producer Myele Manzanza and songwriter, singer and producer MADELEINE join together to put on a show….

• Friday 22nd November – Tomasz Bura Group featuring Rouhangeze

This project started as a collaboration with Guthrie Govan on guitar as well as (appearing on this date) Laurence Cottle, bass; Mark Mondesir, drums; and featuring Mauritian-born Rouhangeze, Vocals. They create what has been described as “hard-hitting fusion á la Chick Corea or Ursula Dudziak, with vocal improv from the enchanting Rouhangeze Baichoo, reframed for today.”  

• Saturday 23rd November – Chris Dowding’s #BEACHfest

The ‘BEACH’ project by Chris Dowding – in solo, duo and trio groupings, including renowned UK musicians such as trombonist Annie Whitehead, guitarist Anton Hunter, trumpeter Charlotte Keeffe, drummer Johnny Hunter and others. #BEACHfest celebrates the music that Dowding recorded for a monthly subscription project where people signed up and received a piece of his music each month for a year. 

• Sunday 24th – Golding/Edwards/Noble plus Special Guests

Tenor Sax player Binker Golding, bassist John Edwards & Drummer Steve Noble teamed up to record Moon Day during the pandemic and, using the first major moon conspiracy of 1835 as a launching off point, have created a captivating, varied and inventive album that showcases each musician’s abilities equally. Hearing it live will be an exciting opportunity.

Everything from seasoned favourites to the fresh faces emerging from some of the best music schools around, The Cockpit’s Jazz in the Round offerings are well worth checking out. Special mention to the Female Songwriters in the Round (19.11) and Jazz on the Box (20.11).

The post EFG London Jazz Festival 2024 at The Cockpit first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Early bird tickets for the festival are now on sale with day passes starting from just £29, and weekend passes from £125.

The post Brick Lane Jazz Festival announces first wave of artists first appeared on UK Jazz News.

UKJazz News: How did Spirit Fingers get going?

Greg Spero: I’ve been a jazz player for my whole life. For 4 years, I took the position as pianist and sound designer for the pop artist Halsey, and supported her rise to fame. It was about halfway through my tenure with the group that I began to go insane playing 3-chord songs night after night. My mind needed more stimulation, more exercise, more excitement, something deeper than what I was playing constantly.

It was during our tour of the UK, when the band would go out partying after our shows, that I would go back to the double-decker tour bus, and turn the top lobby into my studio where I would compose music that would twist my brain inside out. I experimented with various complex time signatures, harmonic structures and counterpoint. The result would take my mind on a journey and break me free of the mundanity of pop music.

UKJN: Who is Spirit Fingers for?

GS: As I began expanding the Spirit Fingers repertoire, I found the only players that I thought would be able to execute it effectively at the time; Mike Mitchell and Hadrien Feraud. All the subsequent music was written with them in mind, so you could say I wrote it for the players. But I also wrote it for myself, to give my mind the thing it was craving; deep complex music strongly rooted in the basic tenets of musicality.

UKJN: Tell me more about the Spirit Fingers London Crew.

GS: When Lox was 18 years old, he saw the original Spirit Fingers perform at Ronnie Scott’s. He was so inspired by Mike Mitchell’s performance of the material, that he ended up learning the material himself, and adopting some of the core aspects of the material in his own creative output. 8 years later, Lox was the first and obvious choice when putting together Spirit Fingers London Crew, along with other great young players who had similar experiences with the material, including Ben Glasser and Matt May. This is London’s next generation of instrumental superstars and I’m so excited to have them as part of the project.

UKJN: What are the main things going on for you musically right now?

GS: I’ve been releasing a single every Friday for the past 2 years now, often with some incredible collaborators. Some of my most popular works are with MonoNeon and Ronald Bruner Jr, some with legendary drummer Harvey Mason, and most recently some with incredible up-and-coming sax player Nicole McCabe. I’ve made it a point to keep producing new works, no matter what else is going on in my life, and that grounding in musical productivity is what has kept me happy and healthy.

UKJN: By all accounts you have always been very entrepreneurial. How do you balance your various ventures with your piano playing?

GS: Everything I am building is centred around two words: EMPOWER CREATIVITY. I’ve built a members club for artists in LA called The Recording Club, where an artist can have everything he/she needs for a well balanced healthy creative lifestyle. We have top-tier recording facilities, a robust health/wellness center, and a community of like-minded passionate creative people.

My technology company, Artist AI, is an AI-based artist management system, with the vision of allowing every artist to focus on their art, while offloading all the mundane and non-artistic tasks to an AI system to deliver their art effectively into the world. It has worked for me, and we’ve had 160 AI-powered releases for other artists so far in our beta platform.  

If what I’m doing is not enabling myself and people around me to be more creative, then I eventually catch and change it. Every day, I make it a point to practice the piano, and both of my businesses are built around giving me and the people around me more time and capability to play and record music and produce creative output.

UKJN: What would you say to someone who was about to listen to Spirit Fingers for the first time?

GS: Don’t try to analyse it. It might be some of the most complicated music you’ve heard, but its depth is not in its complexity. I explain this at masterclasses all over the world; the complexity is a landscape but the expression is simple. So don’t think too hard about it – just listen and allow your consciousness to fuse with the music!!

Last time Spero played in the UK, it was for a pop-up concert organised by Jazz Re:freshed with just a week’s notice – and 200 people showed up. When remarking on the impromptu nature of the show, UKJN said “It makes you wonder what they could achieve with more time.” Well, now here we are with days to go until Spirit Fingers (London Crew) play Ronnies Scott’s and you can be sure it will be something to look forward to.

The post Greg Spero – Spirit Fingers at Ronnie Scott’s, 13 Nov. first appeared on UK Jazz News.

World Heart Beat have programmed a diverse line-up of established and up-and-coming jazz artists for this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival. 

November 15th kicks off with ‘Secret Night Gang‘ – British jazz, funk and street soul masters led by Manchester musicians and childhood friends, Kemani Anderson and Callum Connell. They’ve appeared at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz and Primavera Sound, so this will be a rare opportunity to see them play in such an intimate setting.

Bassist Orlando Le Flemming brings his Romantic Funk project to World Heart Beat for the second night of the festival on Nov 16th, with a killer lineup of UK heavyweights: Nathaniel Facey on alto sax, Tom Cawley on piano and James Maddren on drums. There will also be a special opening set from fusion jazz pianist, Asa Martinson. By far the funkiest night of the festival program!

Sunday 17th hosts a special tribute to Jamaican guitar legend Earnest Ranglin, led by Nick Cohen on bass, who spent time touring with Ranglin. The band (Femi Temowo on guitar, Jason Rebello on keys and Kenrick Rowe on drums) will perform some of Raglin’s most iconic tunes, including music from his Below the Bassline album. 

On Monday the 18th the ‘Cameron Scott Jazz Orchestra‘ will be squeezing their 18-piece band into the World Heart Beat concert hall to perform Cameron’s original compositions and arrangements. A talented young trombonist, euphoniumist, composer and arranger, Cameron sites Duke Ellington, Thad Jones, Bartók, Stravinsky and Shostakovich as his musical influences. 

Rosie Frater-Taylor will be performing her celebrated new album, Featherweight, on Tuesday the 19th. This young virtuoso guitarist and vocalist has caused serious waves in the UK and Europe with her unique style that boldly blurs the lines between rock, alt pop, neo soul, jazz and folk. 

Wednesday the 20th hosts an incredible double-bill for an evening of traditional jazz with the Ayo Vincent Trio and the Deelee Dubé Quintet. With so much genre bending and jazz-adjacent music in this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival, Ayo and Deelee are joyously bringing things back to the tradition. 

British jazz legend Zoe Rahman will be performing music from her 2023 album Colour of Sound alongside brand new compositions in an intimate trio performance on Thursday the 21st. She is joined by Gene Calderazzo on drums and Alec Dankworth on double bass. A rare opportunity to see Zoe perform in such a stripped back setting. 

Friday the 22nd hosts a very special evening with legendary pianist, composer and World Heart Beat artist in residence, Julian Joseph – ‘Atmospheres in Audio Theatre’. Julian is joined by Benet McLean on violin and Alok Verma on tablas performing new music specially composed to showcase the groundbreaking capabilities of the d&b Soundscape System.

Lastly, renowned jazz guitarist and composer David Preston presents Volume 2 of his acclaimed quartet album, Purple / Black, released in September this year. He is joined by Marc Michel on drums, Ivo Neame on keys and Kevin Glasgow on bass for what promises to be a stunning end to the World Heart Beat EFg London Jazz Festival program. 

On Wednesday the 27th, if you still want more, why not join the ‘Jazz Supper Club’? Guests will enjoy a light 2-course meal with wine, and jazz from the students at the World Heart Beat Academy. These events help raise vital funds to support the World Heart Beat charity’s work with children and young people. 

Ticket prices for the EFG London Jazz Festival program range from £14 – £35 with the average ticket price sitting at £25.

The post EFG London Jazz Festival at World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens first appeared on UK Jazz News.

UK Jazz News: What does Stańko’s music mean to you and when did you first encounter his music?

Chris Batchelor: I have been a big fan of Tomasz Stańko ever since I first heard him in the early 1980’s. He was one of those rare musicians with an instantly recognisable and unique sound, smudged and crackling, and an intriguing mix of delicate lyricism and fiery free improvisation. 

There are traces of Miles Davis’ and Ornette Coleman’s approaches in Stańko’s playing, but the moods created by his compositions are distinctly European and lead the listener down an alternative path. Stańko’s influence goes on, with the huge legacy of recordings and writing recently added to by the posthumous release of the excellent September Night on ECM. 

UKJN: You invited some of the greatest British jazz musicians to this project… who exactly, and why?

CB: I have invited Mark Lockheart, Liam Noble, Dave Whitford and Will Glaser to play at this tribute. They are all incredibly talented musicians, sensitive to Stańko’s aesthetic, creative within set structures and also in more open improvisational settings, and are able to spontaneously stretch and develop the material.

Stańko talks about his music using “arched time” – he describes two moving walkways, one going at a constant speed, the other slowing down and speeding up (rubato). He then asks his musicians to imagine moving between the two walkways. These are the kind of refined concepts which these outstanding players are able to work with.

UKJN: What will the group be playing?

CB: The Jazz Café POSK concert will feature a range of his compositions – free ballads, waltzes, grooves, with pieces taken from early albums like “Balladyna” through to later ECM records such as “From the Green Hill”, “Dark Eyes”, “Litania” and “Leosia” – as well as some pieces written for film and theatre. 

Stańko’s music is atmospheric, cinematic, melodic and above all accessible. He said, “to me, the ideal composition is one that speaks to everyone. The sophisticated listener will catch the nuances, while a different listener will come to my concerts because he likes my hat. That’s the ideal of art.”

Line up:

Chris Batchelor – trumpet

Mark Lockheart – tenor sax

Liam Noble – piano

Dave Whitford – double bass

Will Glaser – drums

Tomasz Furmanek is Artistic Manager at Jazz Café POSK.

The concert ‘Remembering Tomasz Stańko’ by Chris Batchelor Quintet takes place on Friday 1 November 2024 at Jazz Café POSK, 238-246 Kin Street, London W6 0RF.

The post Chris Batchelor Quintet – Remembering Tomasz Stańko first appeared on UK Jazz News.

The reconfigured band comes to the Midlands minus vibraphone player Lewis Wright, who had been a stalwart member of the questing, rhythmically complex, multi-award-winning outfit for 16 years.

Founder members Nathaniel Facey (alto sax) and Shaney Forbes (drums) are joined by bassist Tom Farmer, who was added to the band in 2007, a month after the recording of their gong-festooned debut, following the departure of Neil Charles, with guitarist David Preston propelling the four-piece in a very different direction.

Farmer told me: “Lewis hasn’t officially left – he’s just moved to Nashville [laughs], so it makes planning dates with him really hard, obviously! We still need to figure it out to be honest. I think we will try to play together again.”

Preston, whose 2023 album Purple / Black (Whirlwind Recordings) drew excellent reviews across the board, has already played with Facey, Forbes and Farmer.

“Dave has been around, because he’s a London-based musician, he’s been playing with Shane and Nathaniel for almost 20 years as well!” Farmer said.

“So it felt like a really good match, and we’ve done loads of stuff over the years, but actually it was during the lockdown, we did one of those livestreams from a club in London called the Green Note with Dave, and we were like ‘this is great!’ It was just myself, Nathaniel and Shane and Dave. And we did a mixture of material. And we thought ‘it’s got that thing!’ And also the nature of a guitar as well, not being a piano, it’s a bit more transparent, especially the way Dave plays – he uses some effects and it’s not traditional jazz guitar.”

Thrilling footage from that 2020 show exists on YouTube, under the name of the Nathaniel Facey Quartet, revealing a forceful unit with plenty of scope for on-the-spot inventiveness (Link below). To this writer, it brought to mind Dave Holland’s superlative Extensions band, with guitarist Kevin Eubanks, altoist Steve Coleman and drummer Marvin ‘Smitty’ Smith.

Farmer agreed: “Eubanks for sure – he’s bringing a different flavour to it, but yeah, to a certain extent. I’m thinking of Lionel Loueke – it’s not ‘normal’ jazz guitar, so we really liked it. That’s how it came about, and we did a gig at Ronnie’s, we did some stuff at 606 Club, a few things around. This month we’re doing the Vortex to launch our vinyl [of latest record Wonder Is The Beginning], so we’ll be bringing a flavour of that up to Wolverhampton.”

Road-tested, then…

“Absolutely. And we’re gearing up to record. There’s a bunch of music written by Shane which actually we released on an EP called Like Lambs – it never really got the traction and delivery, so we’re going to record a version of that again, but with Dave, and Ivo Neame.”

The band has had the further challenge of working round Facey’s commitments outside of jazz, as a London Underground worker.

“Yeah, it’s amazing – inspirational to me that he can keep it going,” Farmer said.

“It must be getting on for seven years now – he’s a customer service supervisor at London Bridge, so he was managing a team, and it was shift work but he was public facing, so he was just dealing with customers. But now he’s in the middle of a quite high-level promotion so he’s hopefully getting this new job which is to be in charge of a whole line, so a controller, effectively. Yeah, it’s been difficult but I would say, since he started this job he has been playing better than he ever has, and it’s to do with, it’s like a weight lifted off of him, of having to make money and relying on music. So now he just plays for enjoyment – he plays what he’s into, and that really comes through in the performance and I would say that the last few years he’s just been playing so good!

“When it was shift work that was really hard to manage, but now he’s in this training so it’s more 9 till 5, so he’s been able to say yes to a load of people in the last year or so, which is great, because nobody plays like Nathaniel – he’s a really unique voice in our scene. The way he approaches music and the dedication to it, the discipline and the study. So yeah, he has been around a bit more, and also he only does the gigs that he wants to do which is really good. So if you get him on a gig, it’s like, wow!”

(*) Steve Bradley is Jazz Development & Programme Officer at Newhampton Arts Centre

The post Empirical at Newhampton Arts Centre, Wolverhampton first appeared on UK Jazz News.

“I’ve always loved playing at Ronnie’s,” Locke continues. “Of course, I miss the old guard, and I miss ensconcing myself in Soho for a six-night run at the club, which I always used to do. Oftentimes I’d follow Roy Ayers’ residency and arrive in London a day early, to catch Roy’s last night. It’s always been one of the preeminent clubs in the world, and we’re always warmly welcomed.”

He’ll project a decidedly different ambience than the six-night residence in 2005, which featured fellow mainstem jazz masters Mike LeDonne (piano), Bob Cranshaw (bass) and Mickey Roker (drums), and resulted in the inexorably swinging, jazz radio chart-topping Milt Jackson tribute, Rev-elation (Sharp-9). Twenty years later, Locke, with pianist Jim Ridl and bassist Lorin Cohen from his multi-generational American working band, along with Alyn Coster (subbing for regular drummer Samvel Sarkisyan), will navigate repertoire from his summational album, Makram (Circle 9, 2023). Makram spans standards to the leader’s rhythmically challenging, harmonically dense post-bop compositions, as well as music from Subtle Disguise (Origin, 2018), on which David Binney (alto saxophone) and Adam Rogers (guitar) augment the group at various points, as does singer-guitarist Raul Midon on three songs.

Locke also intends to perform “a contemporary, very masked version of ‘Airegin’” and a song called ‘Is There A Heart In This House’, that he dedicates to the prominent civil rights activist Reverend William Barber. Both pieces appear on a forthcoming Criss Cross album by Vladimir Kostadinovic, the drummer on the Italian gigs, who developed simpatico with Locke in Amaranth, a collective Euro-based quartet with bassist Ameen Saleem and alto saxophonist Jaka Kopač. Amaranth’s debut album is scheduled for imminent release.

“Everyone is deeply rooted in the jazz tradition but has very eclectic tastes, which comes across in the range of music we play,” Locke says of his quartet. “They can deal with a lot of compositional stuff and also swing hard and groove, which I’m looking for to get the music across. I love that each [player] individually has a lot of history in their playing. Jim Ridl loves Oscar Peterson and Wynton Kelly, but he’s also very much a modernist. The same for Lorin Cohen, who’s really into Ray Brown, but also plays great electric bass and is into all styles. The same for Alyn and Vladimir as well as Samvel – super-smart, high-end players who can fill the formidable role of the drums in my music.”

“Often I go to Europe as a guest with someone else’s band or meet a rhythm section there and do a tour that’s rather quickly put together. This is my first opportunity in ages to bring my core band playing music that’s been gestated and realised over a period of time. So I feel we’ll have something really well-sculpted to present.”

Locke last visited the UK in January, mixing master classes and performances in London and Birmingham with the incomparable woodwindist Tim Garland and pianist Jason Rebello – who was filling the large shoes of Geoffrey Keezer, who has been for the last 25 years the third member of the beyond-category chamber trio Storms/Nocturnes. Locke and Keezer have also played in various quartet and duo endeavours, and they share a long-standing relationship with tenor saxophonist Tommy Smith and his Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. Another more recent high-level UK collaborator is pianist Gwilym Simcock, a partner on several occasions since the 2010s.

“The UK scene seems very healthy to me,” Locke says. “I’m impressed by the influx of inspiring young musicians, such as Helena Kay, Jonny Mansfield, Ben Shankland and Emma Rawicz, to name but a few.” Among the UK or European vibraphonists catching Locke’s ear are Lewis Wright (“a monster player”) and Jim Hart (“one of my favourites in the world”); he adds that Warren Wolf, Simon Moullier and Joel Ross are “absolutely transcendent players who honour the music, honour the tradition, and look forward and push the music forward, each in their own unique way.”

“When I moved to New York in 1981, there were other very good vibes players, but I think myself and Steve Nelson were the young voices coming heavily out of Milt Jackson and Bobby Hutcherson and the jazz tradition,” Locke continues. “Most vibes practitioners couldn’t hold their own with the great pianists, trumpet players, guitarists and saxophonists of the time. I think because of Gary Burton’s influence, a lot of them were weighted down trying to learn how to play ‘Waltz for Debby’ with four mallets instead of just thinking about playing a good linear solo on a blues. That’s changed. I’ve been inspired by the state of the vibraphone today, because there’s a plethora of really good improvisers who would have been great on whatever instrument they chose, but happened to choose the vibraphone. It’s hard to transcend the coldness of the vibraphone, but each one has found a way to make poetry on the instrument.

“I’m a champion of the younger players, because playing the vibes is not an easy path. There’s an extra level of difficulty just because the instrument is unwieldy. So when I see a young vibes player doing well and getting their music out there, it makes me happy.”

It’s clear that Locke’s discursive musical path – along with his legendarily fast hands, precise attack and warm, expansive tone; his expansive harmonic imagination; his command of multiple genres, ranging from swing to post-bop to fusion to avant; and not least, his charismatic stage presence – has influenced the aesthetic development he discerns among his younger legatees. Simcock told UK Jazz News in 2020: “It’s clear how much love and passion Joe puts into what he plays. It’s genuine love for playing music, not affected in any way. Putting ourselves on the line like that is really the best we can do as musicians. Working with Joe has been a great lesson in how to do this.” In a Downbeat Blindfold Test about a decade ago, Warren Wolf – who’s performed several two-vibraphone concerts with Locke in recent years – called Locke “one of the true legends of the instrument.” 

Legend or not, Locke – who was born six months before Ronnie Scott’s opening night – must uphold the high bar he’s set on his physically demanding instrument every time he performs. Towards that end, he regularly lifts weights, as he did directly before our conversation, which transpired as he undertook a daily five-mile walk in the woods around his central New Jersey home.

“I feel in better shape now than in my early 30s,” Locke said, not sounding even slightly winded. “I haven’t slowed down at all. I’m grateful for my good health. I still need to practise as much as I ever did, because, as I tell anyone who asks, I’m only as good as the time I’m putting in on the instrument. What I work on most is language, vocabulary, and how to express what I want to say artistically. I have a bigger palette now. When I want to express something, I know how to get to the heart of it a little more easily than I once did. Sometimes that means playing a lot of notes. Sometimes it means knowing how to not play very many notes to make the statement you want to make. Maybe my development over more recent years, as I’ve gotten older, is learning how to edit and say specifically what I want to say without too much searching.”

The post Joe Locke at Ronnie Scott’s, 29 Oct first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Benoit Viellefon, originally from Northern France, has led various bands since arriving in the UK in 1998, and regularly plays at Ronnie Scott’s, the Toulouse Lautrec, Café Zédel, the Nightjar Carnaby, etc. but somehow I never got to see him in London. I first saw him play a couple of years ago in St Leonards-on-Sea where I now live and where he has also settled. The show was in a delightful venue called Crown House. Outside, it is an elegant mansion, inside The Regency Rooms resemble a cross between a Russian Tea Room and a Montmartre Cabaret, all mirrors and chinoiserie wall paper, velvet curtains and festoon lights. There’s a stage at one end, a bar at the other and seating in between for about 100, around tables, cabaret style, perfect for Hot Club-tinged dance music. It was a terrific night’s entertainment, and now I go and see him perform whenever I can. I have heard various iterations of the band play over the last two years, including a trio show right on the shingle at a beach bar Goat Ledge.

The new album Out of Dates was actually recorded some time ago on Brexit day 31 March 2019. It was recorded live, in the old fashioned way with a single stereo microphone positioned in front of the band, at The Kino-Teatr St Leonards another excellent venue in a shabby chic old cinema which is now a combination of picture house, concert hall, art gallery, and bar restaurant.

Some of the personnel in the band changes from time to time, and many previous members have gone on to develop substantial careers – for example Sara Dowling, Sam Braysher, most of the Kansas Smitty’s and Duncan Hemstock. This has, of course, often been the way of jazz bands – they act as spring boards for the next generation of musicians and new jazz movements. Former members of Ted Heath’s band famously include Ronnie Scott and Stan Tracey who went off in their own different directions.

I went to hear Benoit play again last week (back in Crown House) and I can report that the current band is top notch. In Hove, and on the subsequent tour, this is the band you will see. What with the global pandemic, and the travel restrictions of Brexit, the original band did not get to do the full planned tour, just a couple of gigs in Vienna and Bratislava.

I met him in his Japanese wife’s restaurant, and asked him about his musical life. He was very forthcoming.

I learned that Benoit (as he has asked to be referred to in this piece, as he maintains that hardly anyone can pronounce Viellefon) grew up in Northern France, in Douai. His was not a particularly musical family, though his grandmother had been a frustrated concert pianist. As a boy he attended lots of family parties where music from the thirties and forties was played. He himself loved English and American rock music, and wanted to be a rockstar like Jimi Hendrix when he grew up. He bought a guitar and taught himself to play. He actually saw his future as a bass player but could not afford a bass guitar at that point in his life. After university (arts, film and photography) he worked in Paris for a spell in graphic design, animation, video games and new media and was quite successful but not happy. He sold everything and went to America to follow his rockstar dream. Going to live in San Francisco, without knowing a soul, and only speaking a little English, was a bold move, and turned out to be a crucial part of his education. Growing up in fairly egalitarian France, he only knew the USA as it represented itself in the cinema, and through music – he had not anticipated the poverty that he would encounter in the Land of the Free. He was genuinely shocked by what he saw – and was chastened by the experience. He stayed for several months and returned to Europe, a changed man. He decided to go to that other source of rock music, England.

He moved to London and devoted himself to music in the time-honoured tradition, busking, following up on ads in Denmark Street and in Loot, looking for regular music work, but he soon ran out of money. Returning to his new media background he set up a company designing web sites etc to pay the bills, and had some pretty good clients, including the BBC, but his heart wasn’t in it – he had health problems, broke up with his girlfriend and took another step back. By 2004 he was back on his feet, doing various temp jobs, and then, for a spell, wound up working on 1920s bi-planes, not as a pilot but as mechanic and operation manager. He loved it, enjoyed dressing for the part, and spoke English all day during the flying season. Through this work he discovered the world of nostalgia tourism, with its historic reenactments of the 1930s and 40s, which chimed nicely with his parents’ interest in that period of history, the clothes and most importantly – the music. That autumn he signed up for a course at the City Lit, studying jazz harmony under Della Rhodes one day a week.

By this time he had acquired a bass guitar too, and now played in bands in a variety of genres including Gnawa music, ska, reggae and blues. He got a regular job as a guitarist with a band called the Skamonics. They played the 100 Club one night, after which, according to Benoit, a man in a hat came over and gave him a telephone number, asking him to call him the next day.

Fully expecting this chap to have forgotten him, he phoned as requested and the man in the hat turned out to be John Mayall’s son Gaz, who invited him to join his Celtic Ska Roots band The Trojans. This was the turning point for Benoit’s new life as a professional musician – he played lead guitar with Mayall from 2005 to 2012. Another key moment was touring Japan with the Skatalites in 2008. It was there he met Yuka, a Japanese woman who had also travelled the world, and was equally in thrall to Western popular music. They got married, and after a period in Japan, returned to England.

In 2009 Benoit was ready to try out his new idea of creating a small orchestra, to play old-fashioned feel-good music. It was a success – the orchestra have performed in several films and TV shows where an authentic sounding (and looking) period band is required, and they also get gigs at themed private parties for the rich and famous from Madonna to the royal family, and the Hot Club is shortly off to India to play a private gig at the Lake Palace in Udaipur. Benoit is already working out the logistics of looking the part but keeping cool (he’s thinking linen suits all round for the band).

There are the regular gigs in London, and now a following on the South Coast too. Benoit has very firm views on the point of his music and his shows – he wants the audience to have a good time. His aim is to inspire and uplift them by putting on a show, and the band always look very smartly turned out – Benoit himself favours Dior and Jaeger suits, and he usually wears those two-tone correspondent shoes, English made, which I associate with tango milongas and prohibition era films. The first time I saw him perform, his wife Yuka was on the ticket desk, wearing 1940s evening dress, even the audience looked appropriately Bohemian – well this is St. Leonards. There is often a light touch of audience participation, call and response – the general plan is to send everyone home smiling, and it works.

His current band are terrific. He has a virtuoso guitarist – Brighton based Jarrod Elks, who really shines on the Gypsy jazz classics like Reinhardt’s Swing 39 and L’Indifference. On piano is the talented Alexander Bryson, such a versatile player, and also a fine composer and song writer (album reviewed here).

He and Benoit have worked together for several years, and are now doing some composing together. I look forward to hearing the results. At the gig Bryson excelled in the South American pieces (a beautiful tune by Cuban master Ernesto Lecuona from about 1915, Melodia del Rio, a barnstorming Tico Tico from Brazil from around the same period and a natty Tea for Two played as a lively cha cha cha) He also sang in Earl Hines’ Dinah in three part harmony with Benoit and Elks, an appealing rendition of this novelty song. Incidentally, Bryson is the only person on this tour who also played on the 2019 CD apart from Benoit himself.

On trumpet is “Magic” Mike Henry who played with the Big Chris Barber Band and the Pasadena Roof Orchestra for decades, and then freelanced with many others. He is steeped in these popular jazz genres, and his enjoyable playing seems effortless. His solos on Paper Moon and Caravan were particularly entertaining.

On double bass – well who knows? Several bass players play for Benoit. The last couple of times it has been Will Collier, another chameleon performer, who is a terrific bass player, but who also sings, and plays guitar and piano too. He is perhaps most well known as the bass player in Alex Horne’s comedy musical outfit The Horne Section, but I have heard both his Chet Baker and his Miles Davis Projects, as well as his rhythm support in this band, and others, and I enjoy his sure intonation and impressive technique very much.

I have also heard Simon Thorpe in the double bass chair with the Trio. He has played with many people (Stacey Kent, Bheki Mseleku, Alan Barnes) and has his own swing band Jivin Miss Daisy, and so is also completely at home with this sort of music. The bass player at the Hove gig will be newcomer Jack Garside, recent graduate from the jazz course at Leeds School of Music, and former member of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. Benoit assures me he will be a bass player to watch.

There is currently a guest in the Hot Club – a Romanian violinist called Rarès Morarescu, originally from Bucharest, and a star in that country, in Italy and in France. He studied classical piano and violin from a young age, and had a life-changing encounter as a teenager in France with Stephane Grapelli. Grapelli gave him some lessons and ignited in him a passion for Jazz and Swing. Morarescu has lived and played extensively in the US and in Europe, especially Italy – his wife is Italian. He performs in various musical styles: classical; traditional Romanian; Cuban violin; Neapolitan popular and, of course, the Hot Club de Paris. It is a rare treat to hear a violinist of his calibre.

Benoit himself, front man for the band, mainly plays rhythm guitar, taking the occasional solo, leaving the other guitar solos to Elks. He sings most of the songs though, and I do enjoy hearing him sing in French. At Crown House he gave us a lovely rendition of the Charles Trenet hit Ménilmontant, and a lively Neapolitan tune sung in French called Bambino.

It is difficult to choose, as the hits just kept coming, but my favourite of the instrumentals was probably L’Indifference, an old Hot Club tune by Colombo and Murena. The intricacies’ of the playing by this skilful ensemble and the appeal of hearing authentic Bal Musette music in such a perfect setting are hard to beat.

Fans of the popular music of the 1910s to the 1950s, particularly of the Hot Club de Paris, will want to explore more of the Great European Songbook as well as the more usual American one, with some classic Cuban and Brazilian tunes for good measure, go and see Benoit Viellefon and his Hot Club. You are guaranteed a band of fine musicians playing songs to gladden your heart, all fronted by the charming Benoit.

The post Benoit Viellefon and his Hot Club: ‘Out of Dates (Live)’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.