Jazz notes

1:40pm Friday 16th May 2008

PAUL Towndrow has visited Wakefield Jazz before with the saxophone quartet Brass Jaw and tonight he returns with his own bop-inspired Sextet - two saxophones, trumpet, piano, bass and drums. This is reckoned to be a reet rockin' band, so take your stomping shoes, details from 01977 680542.

The biggie this weekend will be at the Shire Hall, Market Place, Howden.

Hear and Now is a two-day festival devoted to jazz vocals and Howden Live has brought in the very best - Ian Shaw, Norma Winstone, Trudy Kerr, Christine Tobin and many more. The weekend includes jazz workshops with some of Britain's top musicians.

For full details call Mike Pinfold on 01430 422059.

Billy Jenkins And The Blues Collective is a North Yorkshire favourite from their many appearances at The Shed, Brawby. They return to Hovingham Village Hall tomorrow night, with the expected mixture of blues, hollers, jazz and great good humour. Events promoted by The Shed usually sell out quickly, so call 01653 668494 now and try your luck.

Jazz In The Spa has a big band special, also tomorrow night. The Night Shift Big Band recreates the sounds of the 1940s and 50s and the music of Glenn Miller, the Dorseys and Basie. The venue is the Trustees Hall, High Street, Boston Spa (01937 842544).

You will find world-class jazz in York every Sunday with the Rob Lavers Quartet at Kennedys, Little Stonegate (01904 620222), from 1-4pm. Rob has played with musicians as diverse as Evelyn Glennie and Juan Martin, he recently toured the USA and is somehow finding time to compose music for a new TV documentary.

The Rob Lavers Quartet has a stunning new album out, Small Creature, on 33 Records, but catch him live on Sunday afternoon and at the new Kennedys jazz club on Tuesday night from 8.30pm.

The long-running jam sessions continue at the Black Swan, Peasholme Green (01904 686910), on Wednesday.

Your alternative choice on Wednesday in York will be John Addy's Some Like It Hot, which continues its progress around the city centre pubs. The new fortnightly slot falls next Wednesday at Ye Olde Starre Inne, Stonegate (01904 623063).

Scarborough Jazz also runs on Wednesdays and their guest next week will be tenor, soprano and baritone saxophonist Stuart MacDonald. Scarborough Jazz is at The Cask, Cambridge Terrace (01723 379818).

Jazz on Thursday at the newly-refurbished Old White Swan, Goodramgate (01904 540911), is in the company of Don Lodge, Tim New and Co, known collectively as Bejazzled.

Dallas-born multi-reedsman David "Fathead" Newman began his career in the early 1950s with R & B musicians such as T-Bone Walker and Lowell Fulson. He made his name as a sideman for Ray Charles between 1954 and 1964 and went on to record a number of albums under his own name for Atlantic throughout the 1960s and early 70s.

A new compilation CD, Introducing David Newman (Warner) samples Newman's work from 1959 to 1977. The opener, Fathead, sets the scene for the 12 tracks, one of the many minor blues tunes. This one has big band backing, while others from the 1970s have strings or funky rhythms and in the case of Shiloh (1969), a strange call and answer with a gospel choir.

The marketing people were obviously desperate to cross Newman over into any genre that would sell, but on Lennon and McCartney's Yesterday his expressive saxophone is backed by muddy strings and a ponderously pedestrian orchestra.

Thoroughly professional and solidly soulful on flute, tenor and raw-edged alto, this is warm and workmanlike blues, but in the end Fathead's name is more memorable than his music.

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