News, reviews, features and comment from the London jazz scene and beyond

Congratulations to Radio Three and to Roger Wright on being awarded 2009 National Station of the Year in the Sony Awards. It did look something of a shoe-in, as LondonJazz wrote last […]

The Royal Academy of Music has just sent me a long list of “Honorands” who received diplomas from the Principal and the Chair of Governors at an annual ceremony in Marylebone Road […]

Cyberspace breaks down certainties as to what is real and what is imagined. For example, the singer Gracie Patton doesn’t actually exist. Except on her Myspace where she’s recorded with Gwilym Simcock. […]

Peter Slavid of Hillingdon Arts has sent me details of two interesting mainstream jazz evenings by top players on June 1 and June 2 in North-West London, run by drummer Brian Knapp. […]

Review: Youn Sun Nah (above), Ulf Wakenius/ Vortex It seemed an impossibly exotic juxtaposition: a Swedish guitarist plus a ….Korean singer. I hadn’t heard guitarist Ulf Wakenius in a small venue before, […]

Hold on a moment. Is there a Serendipity Dog in the BBC reading these pages? Or is it an accident? A post on this site a few weeks ago suggested that the […]

The Guardian and the Observer has a two-part guide to performing. Tomorrow’s Observer has Singing. Today’s Guardian has Acting. A fascinating and very well-written survival guide to the acting profession comes from […]

The Answer: MILES DAVIS. In the last decade of his life (1980 till his death in 1991) he devoted himself to painting. There is an exhibition/sale of this work at the Exchange […]

The 2009 Parliamentary Jazz Awards have acquired special prominence in this year’s jazz calendar. When the BBC withdrew from running its Jazz Awards in March, this event, to be held in Parliament […]

LIVE REVIEWJohn Surman and Jack DeJohnette plus Donny McCaslin Quartet (above)/ Ronnie Scott’s – 6th May 2009 After several years of absence from Ronnie Scott’s , John Surman was clearly in the […]

Janet McCunn writes: “Unfortunately I’ve just received confirmation from Alex at The Rising Sun that there will be no more music of any kind there, so sadly that will be the end […]

Jessica George, the daughter of Alan George, viola player from the Fitzwilliam String Quartet and of clarinettist Lesley Schatzberger died of an inoperable brain tumour fifteen years ago tomorrow. But her memory […]

Clarence Penn from Dave Douglas’ Quintet The Cheltenham Jazz Festival (sponsored by Budvar in association with BBC Radio 2) has been going strong and getting stronger since 1996. It’been a haunt of […]

a Off to Cheltenham ( till Monday) for one of these. (And for the Budvar Cheltenham International Jazz Festival in association with BBC Radio 2) Leaving you with some reading matter from […]

Len the Capetonian sage from Highgate sent in this Ronnie Scott joke .“We get some great jazz fans in the club. Like Erwin Rommel. Did you know that Rommel was a great […]