Jazz notes (From York Press)

Jazz notes

3:10pm Friday 9th April 2010 in Music news and reviews By Ron Burnett

WAKEFIELD Jazz has sent out an SOS to boost funds for the long-running club. The club will run a car boot and table-top sale on Sunday, July 4, and is keen for offers of help. Contact colin_booker25@yahoo.co.uk

In the meantime, make a date for next Friday, when Centre-Line, with Darren Altman and Russell van den Berg, will lead the next band at Wakefield. Both have built solid experience playing with such greats as Carla Bley and Phil Woods, details from 01977 680542.

This year would have been the 100th birthday of jazz and jive legend Louis Prima and his continuing popularity will be boosted by the Jazz Connection’s appearance at Jazz In The Spa tomorrow night.

Jazz Connection is a versatile group from the Netherlands, dedicated to the Louis Prima legacy, and they brought the house down on their last visit to Boston Spa in 2008.

Together with Louis Jordan’s Tympani Five, Prima was one of the founding fathers of rock’n’roll and his infectious music always entertains. Details from 019378 842544.

The Blue Flies will be at the Roman Bath, St Sampson’s Square, York, tomorrow night. Not jazz, but hugely entertaining, soul-stirring music from a virtuoso trio.

Two helpings of Sunday jazz in York begin at the Jazz Carvery, the Coach House Hotel, Marygate (01904 652780); the carvery from 1pm to 9pm and the jazz with Ali Lawrence from 5pm to 8pm. The Phoenix Inn, George Street, is the place to be on Sunday nights for top-drawer jazz standards and originals with the Ian Chalk Quartet, from 8.30pm (01904 656401).

In a special presentation, the Phoenix will host a visiting band on Thursday. The Martin Kemp Quintet has Martin and Bill Goyder on tenor saxophones in a programme ranging from Ellington and swing standards, to Gerry Mulligan classics and Piazolla jazz tangos. The following Thursday, April 22, will be the regular Jules and the Gang fortnightly band.

Scarborough Jazz has an almost unbroken run of 25 years in the town and has sessions at the Cask, Cambridge Terrace every Wednesday night (01723 500570).

Next week, Joel Purnell will be the guest, “a muscular, assertive saxophonist whose fluent solos show a strong sense of direction”, according to Jazz UK magazine.

The Old White Swan is not far behind Scarborough Jazz, having hosted jazz every Thursday for 16 years, with Bejazzled and the Mardi Gras Band alternating. Next week it will be the turn of Mardi Gras.

The audio manufacturer Naim has followed the lead of Linn in producing CDs of high-quality jazz groups. The impressive young Australian piano trio Trichotomy has a debut album on its label and the title, Variations, is an apt description of the range of the music.

The opening track, Island Of The Sun, begins with a brisk, Bach-like fugue, suggesting that in common with many young contemporary groups, these are conservatoire-trained musicians as well as being well schooled in jazz.

The group dynamic moves from quietly ruminative to full-tilt up-tempo and this emerges as a statement of intent for the album, a truly communal effort, particularly in the improvised sections.

Pianist Sean Foran’s melodic flights have much in common with Keith Jarrett, plus group influences from the Esbjorn Svensson trio, but with less use of occasional electronics. Warm-toned violin, viola and alto saxophone join the trio briefly in baroque minimalism on Start and Peter Knight’s crystalline trumpet joins for the ballad Ascent.

ADVANCE NOTICE: Jacqui Dankworth Quartet at the National Centre for Early Music, Saturday, April 17, at 7.30pm – unmissable! (01904 658338).

Ron Burnett