Jazz breaking news: Birmingham and London scenes join forces for Jazz At The Salisbury series
Thursday, January 5, 2012
The rising Birmingham and London creative jazz scenes are coming together for a special season, which gets underway later this month at Harringay pub the Salisbury.
The series of gigs builds on the burgeoning scene already up and running at the cavernous Grand Parade venue in Green Lanes, with curators Birmingham Jazz and The Cobweb Collective ramping up the momentum achieved there during November’s London Jazz Festival. Jazz @ The Salisbury in just under four years has played host to a wide range of improvising styles “from Pete Churchill’s London Vocal Project to Martin Speake and Hans Koller’s Fun House Living,” says Ryan Williams, the guitarist from Cornwall who as a student at Guildhall formed his quartet Flashmob in 2007, and who along with pianist Hans Koller and Andy Button organise the series. 
The Salisbury stocks good draught beers including George Gale HSB, the ubiquitous Fuller’s London Pride, and some Belgian and Czech tipples with what Time Out calls the “barn-like side room”, the space for the gigs.
Jazz @ The Salisbury aims to put under the spotlight some of the brightest young talent from the scenes in both cities, according to the organisers. Most of the Birmingham players are graduates of the jazz course at the Birmingham Conservatoire and are players the organisers say “that have transformed the scene in Birmingham. There is no Birmingham sound as such, but a number of bands that have their own distinctive style.”
The first gig is on Sunday 15 January with the Jonathan Silk Quartet (Birmingham) plus Map (London) followed by The Harlech Road Band featuring Robbie Robson and Paul Clarvis on Sunday 29 January. Next month sees pianist Matt Ratcliffe’s trio plus the Hans Koller large ensemble Fun House Living (12 February) at the Salisbury; with the Jim Rattigan Quartet on 26 February; the Button Band plus Soma featuring Joe Auckland and Will Collier on 11 March; the Golden Age Of Steam plus Snack Family on 25 March; and on 22 April the Rachel Cohen Quartet (Birmingham) plus Alex Bonney Trio featuring Ollie Brice and Jeff Williams (London).
– Stephen Graham
Main picture, the Salisbury with Matt Ratcliffe (above) and Hans Koller (right)