I’m a jazz enthusiast obsessive, and write about it occasionally for JazzWise, LondonJazzNews, and here, on my jazz blog devoted to musical happenings in and around Bristol. I used to document absolutely everything, for my own interest, but have shifted down a gear to now post news of upcoming gigs that catch my eye and reviews of ones that seem out of the ordinary. There are also links to Bristol venues and events listings if you want to know what’s going on.
By the way, it’s very kind of you to send me your CD, but I almost certainly won’t review it, and if I did the readership of a provincial jazz blog almost certainly wouldn’t do you much good. Do tell me about any under-publicised gigs, though, and I’ll make noise either here or (more likely) on twitter.
Posts start below.
- Stop the music! (not really): Bristol jazz week, June 18. - I’m having trouble keeping up with all the jazz events in town at the moment. Fortunately Tony Benjamin manages it – seeming to search out new bands and new venues every week. Here’s his listing for the week. Also having trouble sampling more than a fraction of the music. Of the baker’s dozen of gigs […]
- Bristol (and Bath) jazz this week – June 12 - The BeBop club now on a long Summer break, but still plenty going on, as Tony Benjamin details here. His listing includes a delightfully unexpected one-off – a visit to Bath Spa’s Micheal Tippett Centre by Paul McCandless. It’s a little way outside the city at Newton Park, but I teach there occasionally so can […]
- Sona Jobarteh – St George’s June 7 - Sona Jobarteh is a wonderfully charismatic performer – on kora, voice and guitar (played, as far as I could tell, in what I shall now think of as kora finger-style: thumb and index finger only). She has a great band, too. Last night’s show at St George’s was a treat, as recorded here by the […]
- Solo piano – two ways - It heats no homes, and grows no food, but the concert grand piano is on my list of finest human technological achievements. Almost anything you do with it sounds good. Great music on a great piano is an endless pleasure. Two samples this week bear comparison. First was Paul Lewis’s recital at St George’s. Lewis […]
- Bristol jazz week – 4 June - Here’s the rundown compiled by Tony Benjamin for Bristol247. I count 15 gigs listed there, but still a couple of things to add: TB says Thursday looks crowded. Yes, and there’s more. Big Bad Wolf, a London-based quartet, includes guitarist-of-the-moment Rob Luft, along with Owen Dawson (trombone), Micheal de Souza (Fender bass) and Jay Davis […]
- A clutch of 2018 CDs - Vanity reposting interlude: Still reviewing for LondonJazzNews – still about one a month – so here are the half dozen or so I tried to say something sensible about in the first months of 2018. Andreas Schaerer – A Novel of Anomaly – link Slightly more relaxed session than usual from the astonishing Swiss voice […]
- Bristol jazz this week – 29 May - As anticipated, I failed to benefit from several notable gigs last week. Eyebrow were excellent at St George’s, though. Not so taken with Mammal Hands, unlike the rest of the audience who responded warmly to their simple, riffy pieces. As Tony Benjamin relates, the sound wasn’t great, but there was another problem – I find […]
- Eyebrow/Mammal Hands – St Georges, May 24 - Here’s a neat piece of programming. Mammal Hands are everybody’s favourite spiritual jazz/trance/folk/electronica/minimalist (what else have you got?) trio – last seen in these parts at the Fleece last December. Tony Benjamin, as ever, captured the occasion for Bristol247. For this return date, in the slightly more genteel ambience of St Georges, they’re paired with […]
