adh1907

We are visiting in mid June, first time in nearly a decade. Aside from the usual places, the Vanguard (we have already booked for Mark Turner), Smoke (used to love this place, from the Augie’s days but I am told it’s more of a food place now), Fat Cat and Smalls, does anyone have any recommendations for any slightly less mainstream places? Is the Jazz Gallery still Ok? There was also the John Zorn place, lower east side I think, is that still going? I am out of touch! thanks in advance for any suggestions Anthony London

Thanks for all the helpful replies! Anthony

Mel Torme swings Shubert Alley, HMV Mono, sounds perfect. Each track a miniature masterpiece. Anthony London

I think it’s a good line up this year, not too dominated by middle of the road vocalists. Have family in Tetbury so not too far to travel for us, once we have escaped London. First visit to Cheltenham for a few years, looking forward to it! Anthony London

Off to Cheltenham Jazz Festival to see the Nu Civilization Orchestra ( playing What’s going on) and Nubya Garcia on Saturday. Would have loved to see Mike Westbrook on Sunday, but could only attend Saturday. Anthony London

Interesting. Do you remember where that was? You could see some major US jazzers in the most obscure places in the 70s. I didn’t go but I remember seeing posters for Dexter Gordon mid 70s in Preston, appearing in a pub or a small club. Anthony London

https://www.jazzmessengers.com/en/91514/new-jazz-orchestra/western-reunion-london-1965-limited-edition?mc_cid=e0df77c200&mc_eid=cfc96a8c1a there was a good Vocalion CD reissue of this years back. This looks a bit dodgy, no provenance quoted. anthony london Sorry, great album by the way!

Yes, two nights at the Church of Sound. As an old fart, I do miss the old listing magazines, city limits, time out. It seems you have to subscribe or follow so many websites to not miss out on the good jazz gigs in London. As I experienced at the last Cookers gig at the Church, Billy Harper’s fiery sax lost out and sounded very shrill echoing around the rafters. Eddie Henderson and David Weiss’s trumpets seemed to work better and sounded good. Would love to hear them at a smaller venue. Billy Hart was brilliant. anthony london

The Cookers at the Church of Sound, London. Saw them here a few years ago, I remember it took a while to get the sound balance sorted, in what is an actual old Victorian Church with a very high ceiling. Anthony London

What is amazing in retrospect is that if you were a member of Ronnie Scott's as I was in the 80s, (and I don't think the membership charge was excessive), you could get tickets to performances for a pittance. I can't remember how much, but a few quid. And I always loved it when Ronnie Scott answered the phone when you called to book tickets. Always very polite plus the occasional quip. It's a very slick operation now but I prefer the old days when the sets ran late and the noisy crowd usually disappeared for the late second set. Anthony London

Simon has been excelling himself in the past year or so on his blog, eg his recent piece on the Southend Benny Goodman https://blog.simonspillett.com/blog/the-southend-steamer.aspx A lot of Tubby on the blog but Simon has also been covering some of the more obscure highways and byways of the 50s and 60s UK jazz scene. Fascinating stuff, I love it. Anthony London

How sad, RIP. I must admit that I had only recently started to get to know his music on the back of a very good reissue of Infinity on Paul Murphy's Jazzroom records. Searching around for more information after buying the record, I came across this interesting interview in Cadence: http://www.cadencejazzmagazine.com/membersonly/admin/assets/Khan%20Jamal.pdf As an aside, I miss the interviews in Cadence, most of the current jazz press is bland. Anthony London

Channel hopping, came across corny 60s British film ‘Beauty jungle’, blown away by appearance of Tubby Hayes quartet in nightclub sequence! PS more jazz connections, the main character in the film is Jannette Scott, daughter of Thora Hird, who was married to Mel Torme.

That Pacific Jazz 1230 has a stunning cover ( Claxton photo I think). I have a Japanese copy of this and though the Mosaic CD reissue sounds much better, i can’t let go of the LP. Were there other LP covers of this quality and colour around in 1957?

Thank you very much!

Don’t know that one, is it a compilation?

Just catching up with these reissues. Blown away by the sound. I have an original new jazz orchestra (and a poor CD reissue of Windmill Tilter) but there is no point hanging on to these, the reissues are on another level. Looking forward to the rest of the series. Anthony London

Any UK licence payers watch the Guy Barker big band on BBC 4 last night? The presenter was corny and stilted and I found the singers were mostly terrible. The drummer was also either massively over the top or something went wrong in the mix. Nikki Yeoh was the best thing about it. Mind you, the audience clapped like seals throughout so I may be in a minority! Anthony London

Dragon Hill, Ray Russell. CBS Mono. great album. The tracks with Harry Beckett, Lyn Dobson etc are brilliant. ‘Something in the sky’ is a gem.

Bought Ray Russell’s Dragon Hill today Off the rack in a proper shop. Mono copy, sounds great. Never heard before. And managed to bargain with the owner and knock the price down. Took me back to heady pre eBay days. Anthony London.

Saw him at Ronnie Scott’s with Ravi Coltrane, must have been late 80s or 90s, not too loud at all. Seen to remember his Japanese wife involved in some way.

Saoirsa Ronan in the tragedy of Macbeth at the Almeida in London today. Absolutely harrowing. Saoirsa was lay in a puddle water for about 15 minutes at the end. Blood and water everywhere, we got splashed in the third row. Front row looked a nightmare. Anthony London

Love that album.

Matthew Halsall at the Barbican last night, part of the London jazz festival. Never seen him before but he seems to be very popular. The massive venue looked to be full (hardly anyone masked!). He managed to get possibly the best sound I have heard at this hall. To me the tunes sounded a bit samey after a while (I think the harp and congas tended to add a similar flavour to everything ) but there were a few stand out tunes ( generally at the start and end of both sets). Looking forward to Yazz Ahmed later this month. Anthony London.

The Simon Spillett big band at the 100 club playing Tubby Hayes a week ago was amazing. The 100 club is a long narrow basement room and I mistakenly chose the side of the room in front of the trumpet section for my seat. Once the band kicked off with ‘Dear Johnny B’ I immediately lost the upper range of my hearing. It was loud! I moved towards the saxophone section and it sounded much more balanced for me. Top notch musicians and extremely lively performance. Simon was in his element and on top form. Unforgettable, I hope the band is recorded live at some point. Anthony London