THE city of York is blessed with many opportunities to hear quality live jazz, often at no cost, in the pubs and restaurants around town.

This is down to the many venues which recognise the seat-filling attributes of jazz, and also thanks to the energies of the city's musicians who tirelessly canvas the venues for playing opportunities.

The ever-expanding York Brewery has become a solid patron of the jazz arts in its Three Legged Mare and Rook and Gaskill pubs.

Jo Swiss and her band Square are regularly heard at the former, as is Paul Kind and his Modest Jazz Quartet. Nina Zagorski and Karl Mullen, in the guise of Fine and Mellow, are heard every Monday night at the Rook and Gaskill. Nina and Karl have recently colonised a couple of new venues, Mowbray's Caf in Stonegate and York's smart new watering hole on Ouse Bridge, the Living Room. Karl has also collared the jazz franchise at a new York restaurant, Anastasia's, previously Partners, on High Ousegate.

Guitarist Don Lodge and saxophonist/flautist Tim New, with their band Bejazzled, have provided music for the York Hilton and have had a residency at the Old White Swan for more than ten years. Catch them at the Swan on Thursday and the night before at a special session at the Tap and Spile, Monkgate. The Wednesday session is sponsored by the York branch of the Musicians' Union and is in aid of Amnesty International.

Jools Slater is a York saxophone and flute player who has worked tirelessly to open up new venues for live jazz in the city. For some months he played at El Piano in the Swinegate Quarter and he and Karl Mullen have launched a new enterprise of Jazz In The Sticks. The venue is the Farmers Inn, at Brafferton, and it features the various line-ups formed by Jools and Karl every Thursday. Next Thursday, the featured artists at the Farmers Inn are The Garden Party, a piano/vocals duo of Carole Eve Bell and Stuart Garden.

Bettys Caf and Tea Rooms continues to promote various local bands to accompany a series of special jazz dinners held throughout the year. The latest of these is tonight (20th), when the Mardi Gras Band will be playing in the Belmont Room at 7.30pm.

Young double bass player Paul Baxter and his crazy band Headfirst have brought a breath of fresh air into York. On Sunday night (22nd), Headfirst brings its mix of Mingus, Monk and wacky originals to City Screen, Coney Street.

From tales of old York to tales of New York, which I am sure vocalist Kelly Dixon will have plenty of when she swings into Scarborough Jazz at Scholars on Tuesday (24th). After wowing audiences in the Big Apple and recording a new album with American musicians, Kelly returns to her British residencies at the Mezzo in London's Soho and the Wardrobe in Leeds. For more details call 01723 379818.

The giant musical legacy of Duke Ellington never ceases to amaze and his recordings for the Columbia label are generally to be treasured. On the newly re-released album Piano In The Background (Columbia Legacy) the theme was for Duke to take the first chorus on each tune, before the orchestra joined in. In fact, it is Duke in the foreground, particularly since the piano used here had 91 rather than the usual 88 keys.

This 1960 album is once again a timely reminder of the ground-breaking audacity of much of the Duke's work, the masterly interweaving of orchestra and various star soloists. The many favourites here include Johnny Hodges, Ray Nance, Paul Gonsalves and Jimmy Hamilton.

During this busy time in the Duke's life, he drafted in other arrangers. A young Gerald Wilson gave the Ellington standard Perdido a subtle new counter melody. Stan Kenton arranger William Mathieu produced new, equally invigorating versions of I'm Beginning To See The Light and It Don't Mean A Thing

This album is re-released alongside two other Ellington CDs, Blues In Orbit and Piano In The Foreground. Brian Priestley provides the reason for the seemingly endless flow of Duke CD re-releases. From the 1950s on, he used his song-writing royalties to subsidise the continuing existence of the band and also to pay for taping material that he didn't think his record company would be interested in. Kinda Duke-ish.

Updated: 15:13 Thursday, August 19, 2004