Jazz notes

Jazz at the Cairn Hotel, Harrogate, favours women vocalists and tonight's choice is Sara Colman, plus the phenomenal Leeds-based pianist, Jamil Sheriff. Details from 01423 504005.

The Trad stronghold of Jazz at the Crown, Boston Spa, presents the Old Fashioned Love Band tomorrow night. Details from 01937 842544.

It is written that on the seventh day there shall be jazz from morn 'til night in York. Tim New's Band strikes the first notes for Sunday lunch at the York Hilton. From 1.30pm Joan Whitehead sings jazz standards and your jazz Sunday winds up in jam session style at the Black Swan, Peasholme Green.

Nina and Karl play Fine and Mellow every Monday night at the Rook and Gaskill, Lawrence Street, York.

On Tuesday, Scarborough Jazz presents a Tribute To Benny Carter by the Ken Marley Trio with Al Wood. Al is at home on trumpet or saxophone and like the great Benny, he can alternate between the two at will. Call 01723 379818 for more details.

Dave Cook, the regular Wednesday jam session drummer at the Black Swan, has invited top session drummer Paul Smith to join the house band for one night only on Wednesday. Paul has played with US jazzers Harry Edison, Teddy Edwards and Jimmy Witherspoon amongst others, so he is a proven crowd-pleaser.

Also on Wednesday, Hulljazz will be running a players' night, all musicians welcome. The house band, BeBob.Org is a new, three-parts-Yorkie affair, with Bob Smeaton playing Hammond organ, Ray Cooper (bass) and Martin Boyd (saxes). The quartet is completed by Hull drummer, Steve Barwell. Details from 01482 492868.

On Thursday, saxophonist Jools Slater plays in the Sunshine Room of El Piano, the veggie, bring-your-own-booze restaurant in the Swinegate Quarter. A stone's throw away in Goodramgate, the Don Lodge band will be at the Old White Swan, a residency alternating with the Mardi Gras Band which will be ten years old in January.

The York-based Martin "Kid" Boyd Band is a favourite at jazz festivals around the country, not surprising when Martin can add Frank Brooker and James Lancaster to his own considerable talents. Next weekend, the Kid Boyd Band will be playing at the Preston Jazz Festival (October 17) and again with Alan Barnes as guest in a Salute To Swing concert on Saturday afternoon (October 18). Call 01772 258858 for information.

In Aaron Neville's new album Nature Boy (Verve), he essays the Great American songbook, a radical departure from his usual voodooland territory with the Neville Brothers Band. On first hearing his vocal technique seems in danger of swamping the songs. His heavily articulated vibrato breaks into distinct notes above and below the melody note in soulful embellishment, almost a natural version of that trick electronic yodel laid on Cher's voice in her hit Believe.

In a selection of songs we have come to regard as the property of Sinatra, Ella and their mainstream heirs, his velvet glove of a voice seizes each one by the throat and gently seduces it to his own style. But thinking of Billie Holiday and Betty Carter, some of the most seductive singers in jazz share Neville's fiercely personal approach.

Pianist, arranger and producer Rob Mounsey must share responsibility for the success of this standards project, as Nelson Riddle does for classic Sinatra albums. Mounsey adds a Gil Evans/Miles Davis-style backing to bayou bongos and guitar to provide a syncopated lope for Gershwin's Summertime and the album's high spot, Lionel Bart's Who Will Buy. Elsewhere his horn voicings are as subtly atmospheric as Steely Dan's, although jazz fans would expect fuller contributions from the guest musicians (Roy Hargrove, Ry Cooder, Michael Brecker, Ray Anderson) beyond their token eight-bar solos.

I'm not sure about the title song, but perhaps it will grow on me as I continue to enjoy the rest of this classy selection - Blame It On My Youth, Cry Me A River, The Shadow Of Your Smile, etc.

Updated: 12:48 Friday, October 10, 2003