SAXOPHONIST Frank Brooker, guitarist Pat McCarthy and bass player Paul Baxter will be stepping out with York’s Mardi Gras Band tomorrow night, when the seven-piece will be cruising down to London’s Embassy Club.

The occasion at the top club, (frequented by Princes Harry and William) will be the end-of-tour party for Indie band, The Enemy.

Enemy lead singer/guitarist Tom Clarke drops into the jazz band’s residency at the Old White Swan, Goodramgate, whenever he is in York and is much taken with the way such music emerges from the informal jocularity of the band when they perform.

The York jazzers will be keeping a paparazzi’s eye open for any royalty who may wander into the Embassy. Watch this space.

Wakefield Jazz is closed for Easter, so your first jazz this weekend will be Phil Mason’s New Orleans All Stars with Christine Tyrell, the featured band at Jazz In The Spa tomorrow night (01937 842544). The venue is the Trustees Hall, High Street, Boston Spa.

The usual difficult choice arises on Sunday lunchtime. The Rob Lavers Quartet plays at Kennedys Cafe Bar, Little Stonegate (01904 620222), and the Karl Mullen band plays at the Tanglewood Restaurant, Malton Road, Flaxton Moor (01904 468611).

The celebrated jam session continues at the Black Swan, Peasholme Green, York, quieter at present because the students are off home (01904 686910).

Scarborough Jazz at the Cask, Cambridge Terrace, next Wednesday will be a players’ night, open to all. The following Sunday (April 19) sees the 25th birthday of Scarborough Jazz. A full day of jazz begins at noon and the best of local talent will play throughout the day, including Frank Brooker, Julia Wray, Joel Purnell, Pat McCarthy, York’s Greg Wadman and more.

The triumphant end to the celebrations will be provided by the Alan Barnes Quintet at 9.30pm. Phone 01723 379818 for details.

Another diary date will be 8pm on Saturday April 18, when Xcess K comes to Howden Live. This is a star collective of Dave Newton (piano), Colin Oxley (guitar), Simon Thorpe (bass) and Steve Brown (drums). Details from 01430 431535.

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, trumpeter and bandleader Wynton Marsalis has released his fifth album on Blue Note Records, He And She, an ambitious project combining spoken word and music by his quintet.

The music is a tour de force of historic styles, from New Orleans syncopated rhythms (Fears), through cake-walks (School Boy) and Gospel, to Mingus –style asymmetrical melodies and rich ensembles (The Razor Rim).

Wynton’s trumpet technique shifts skilfully with the different styles of each track, slurred blue notes alternating with euphoric Dizzy Gillespie-ish fast runs across the octaves.

The joyful Latin beats of First Time prompt dizzyingly fast runs from Wynton and saxophonist Walter Blanding, whose tenor saxophone sound can evoke the muscle of Coleman Hawkins and the blues feel of Illinois Jacquet.

The light, bouncy melody of Sassy will bear comparison with classic John Dankworth compositions – think Tomorrow’s World theme tune.

As self-appointed custodian of the jazz heritage, Wynton Marsalis tends to take himself too seriously, as the “poems” which he recites before each track will testify.

However, there is no denying the accomplishment and passion of the music, moving from marches to waltzes, Latin to swing. The answer may be to rip the music to another disc, leaving out the so-called poems.