Ronnie Scott’s, gearing up for its 50th anniversary celebrations in the autumn, is already booking some high powered artists in the coming month and May is already shaping up to be one of the most illustrious in some time.
Jazzwise celebrates Babel Records’ 15th anniversary in April with a fantastic free CD featuring more than 12 tracks from Babel artists, representing a who’s who of the cutting edge UK scene.
Surrey’s Watermill Jazz Club celebrates its fifteenth anniversary on 19 March with a special concert by pianist Dave Newton that will be recorded for a forthcoming live album.
In the stuccoed splendour of west London’s Bush Hall last night, a monument to a lost age of elegance, pianist Matthew Bourne fittingly performed his Songs From A Lost Piano, complete with a half dozen or so pianos on stage in various states of disrepair.
This year’s Budvar Cheltenham Jazz Festival launched its line-up yesterday with a lunchtime event held at Ronnie Scott’s club in London.
The trumpeter, writer and educator Ian Carr died yesterday at the age of 75.
A new documentary, The Jazz Baroness, due to air in April on BBC4, charts the unlikely friendship between Thelonious Monk and Rothschild heiress Nica de Koenigswarter.
Belfast’s Moving on Music Festival, taking place fom 25-29 March, has booked an interesting bunch of jazz and beyond gigs for its second outing.
Yet more bad news for the jazz community comes with reports that the Glastonbury Festival’s Jazz Lounge has been cancelled by the festival organisers due to current economic conditions.
Leading drummer Steve Smith is bringing a special Vital Legacy line-up into Ronnie Scott’s from 9-11 March that combines his two bands Vital Information and Jazz Legacy.