GUITAR GREAT GOES GENTLY

Beck rarely, if ever, used a pick. He’d strum with his thumb and index almost immortally, as if the heavens touched his hands in a way the rest of us will never experience. 50 years have passed and all of Beck’s creative ticks and tricks are still indescribable.

WHEN JAZZ GOES MARCHING IN

First, though, Jazz at the Merchants House in Glasgow continues its current successful season with a visit from saxophonist Martin Kershaw's octet on Sunday 12th. As well as being a Scottish National Jazz Orchestra stalwart and a founder of Edinburgh's Playtime sessions, Martin (left) is a hugely accomplished composer who often takes great inspiration from literature. Drawing on poets from Virgil to Sylvia Plath and more, Martin's latest work reflects life in all its experiences and he has a superb band to bring his reflections off the page including Scottish National Jazz Orchestra colleagues, Sean Gibbs (trumpet) and Liam Shortall (trombone), Playtime playmate Graeme Stephen (guitar), and Paul Harrison (piano)

THE JAZZ MOB

It’s a quirk of history that around the same time the music was first taking shape, organized crime in America was also in its incubation stage. In New Orleans, where jazz began (though today some jazz historians take issue with this fact), the Sicilian mafia emerged in the early years of the 20th century. The Matranga crime family, an offshoot of the Stuppaggieri, a faction of the mafia based in Monreale, Palermo, were among the first club owners to hire young Louis Armstrong. In his memoir, Armstrong describes working at a club called Matranga’s, located in Black Storyville, the city’s renowned vice district.

joy for JAZZ GRAMMY WINNERS 2023

The Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra, co-led by pianist/composer Steven Feifke and trumpeter par excellence Bijon Watson, is a seventeen-member ensemble comprising seasoned players paired with young lions who are poised to capture pride of place

CENTURIES OF CLASSICAL MUSIC

With a growing reputation for the courage, vitality and intensity of its performances the Marmen Quartet (left) is fast establishing itself as one of the most impressive and engaging new talents in the chamber music arena.

WYNTON AND WILLIE at The Lincoln 2007 & JAZZ in Reading 2022

fifteen years after the event I learned of a concert that had taken place in 2007. I caught Wynton and Willie, jazz and Americana sharing music, nad it has taken the shades from my eyes-

CONCIERTO RENACENTISTA

A capital city in name, Arrecife would be a town in the UK, being about the same surface area and population as Rochdale where I sued to live. And yet this felt like a world class performance by skilled players to a knowledgeable and appreciative audience. Credit to all concerned.

EL AFECTO ILLUSTRADO & Soprano Jone Martinez

Their standing ovations were truly deserved but I would also like to think the ovations were also showing gratitude to the Annual Canary Islands Festival Of International Classical Music, that this year, as in the 38 that preceded it, offered us musical excellence, entertainment, education and energy.

MORE FOLK ´N GOOD MUSIC

Back in my days on the folk circuit some forty years ago there was a vast no-man´s land and some intense suspicion between traditions and contemporary folk music, much as there once was (still is?) in Jazz. UK Folk has found an arbitrator and revivalist in the English Folk Expo organisation and Jazz fans can settle their differences over Steve Bewick´s weekly eclectic mix cloud jazz presentation of Hot Biscuits.

OSCAR AND BARNEY TABOR classical musicians

We have noted that Rochdale Music Society has some wonderful concerts still to take place at The Heywood Civic Centre during the remainder of the 2022/3 season, and we list details below for our readers.