London Jazz News

I was invited to blog from the July 2009 Krakow Jazz Festival. I wrote three reviews and three diary posts conveying the atmosphere around the festival. Krakow with it’s beautifully restored historic […]

Greetings from another city in middle Europe where I am happy to be marooned.Back Saturday.

LIVE: NDR Big Band (above) plus guests-Mali Rynek Square, Krakow, Saturday July 18th, 2009-Opera Krakowska, Sunday July 19th, 2009This was the big one. The third of the four evenings of the NDR […]

It was one of those chance conversations. Talking to a complete stranger at breakfast in my hotel. But it’s not one I’m likely to forget for a long time.I never found out […]

The second night of the NDR Big Band’s stint as artists in residence at the Krakow Jazz Festival had the band working with Joao Bosco (above) playing originals and Jobim tunes in […]

Jazz Club U MuniakaI’ve been mulling over some sentences from my horoscope (Scorpio) in the free English language newspaper Krakow Post, written by “Astro Seltzer.”“You could worry that you’re floating off to […]

Guest critic Phil Woods reviews the North Sea Jazz Festival:　The North Sea Jazz Festival takes place in fifteen concurrently competing venues at Rotterdam’s Ahoy, which reminded me of Birmingham’s NEC, perhaps on […]

Krakow’s new Opera House, designed by Romain Loegler (2008)Live: NDR Big Band/ Maria Schneider / Nils Landgren.(Krakowska Opera, July 16th 2009)Maria Schneider’s three-part suite, Scenes from Childhood , originally commissioned for the […]

“This siddy is so….PRIDDY!!!” The mother and daughter eating their breakfast next to me are Californian. They start to weigh the pros and cons of a trip to the salt mines with […]

I will be blogging for the next few days- intermittently- from the Krakow Jazz Festival ….

I spoke to two people this morning who are involved with lobbying to get a small gigs exemption to the 2003 Licensing Act. They are both palpably disappointed.The Culture Select Committe had […]

The Hampstead Theatre have contacted me about a play. “Spike Milligan’s Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall”, will be on at the Hampstead Theatre, right by Swiss Cottage tube, from 22 […]

I like Glasgow. And Glaswegians. And Sarti’s Cafe (above) . Byas’d Opinion – named after the tune by Don Byas -is a jazz blog from Glasgow. And I like that too. Byas’d […]

I’ll be off heading off for the Krakow Jazz Festival this Thursday. But London is a city which musically never sleeps, and I will miss some great gigs. What’s caught my eye? […]

Here’s an opportunity to be Cartier-Bresson (above) for an evening. Well, actually to be Ronnie Scott’s house photographer during the Brit Jazz Festival.Interested? Katherine ames at Ronnie’s needs an email from you. […]