Music / Jazz
The week in Jazz January 23 – 29
So – a big week for Bebop Club mailman Andy Hague who brings his trumpet to a couple of highly promising gigs, notably a rare sighting of his truly excellent Andy Hague Big Band (Hen & Chicken, Sunday 29). This 17-strong behemoth really is a check list of stand-out players and they are gifted Andy’s great compositional and arranging skills. The band’s set of mostly original numbers combines big musical ideas and rich textures with plenty of space for hot-shot solo playing. By contrast Andy is also blowing for pianist Ray D’Inverno’s Quintessential Groove (Bristol Fringe, Wednesday 25) alongside Canadian saxophonist Terry Quinney in a set of contemporary tunes from Keith Jarrett, Joshua Redman and others (including Ray himself, natch).
This week’s programme also offers a couple of hits for fans of the organ trio starting with a debut performance by Hammond, Hammond, Hopkins at Future Inn (Thursday 26). Not, as it might sound, a double keyboard affair, this is Ruth Hammond and husband Scott on organ and drums, respectively, with guitarist Matt Hopkins making up the threesome and Ruth contributing the occasional soul-jazz vocals. Matt recently launched 16/17, a Pat Metheny tribute project that’s also well worth keeping an eye out for. Meanwhile Pushy Doctors keyboard player Dan Moore (above) makes his monthly visit to Leftbank (Friday 27) with Dan Moore’s Organ Trio.
Friday night offers a couple of other jazz treats, however, with this week’s Bebop Club guests being the Julien Alenda Trio, a nicely European outfit joining the French sax player with the Italian rhythm section of Pasquale Votino and Paolo Adamo. This project sees Julien switch from alto to tenor sax for a session of cool hard bopping. Further afield in Bath’s Burdall’s Yard you could catch hip and soulful jazz vocals from Emily Saunders‘ (above) band. London-based Emily’s quartet includes the entertaining trumpeter Byron Wallen.
Finally a plug for something that’s not exactly jazz but should be pretty amazing: The Breath (Canteen, Monday 23) is a folk-rock collaboration driven by the great drumming of Luke Flowers. A crucial part of the Manchester spiritual jazz scene, Luke is very much a drummers drummer and this spin-off from Cinematic Orchestra also features Honeyfeet’s powerhouse vocalist Rioghnach Connolly.
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