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.
- 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 […]
- Disinterested recommendations - A confession: now and again I urge attendance at a gig here because I’m going, and I’d like there to be a decent crowd. The audience for the various weekly jazz gigs in Bristol isn’t huge. Nor is the readership of this little blog (discounting a recent, puzzling rise in hits from the USA – […]
- Matt Anderson Quartet – Future Inns, 17 May - “And, we have lift-off.” So I noted down half-way through the third tune of the gig. Not that the two openers weren’t good. This was a very accomplished quartet – led by an up and coming sax player and composer. Two of them, Mark Whitlam on drums and ace pianist John Turville, were playing the […]
- Bristol jazz this week – 14 May - Lots of stuff going on – in Bristol and, as Tony Benjamin highlights in the Bristol247 preview, in Bath. The Bath Festival doesn’t reach the jazz heights that is used to, but there are several gigs that might be worth a look East. Personally I’ll be overdosing on theatre this week, courtesy of Bristol’s now […]
- Slightly spoiled of Bristol - Didn’t book on time to get a ticket for Art Themen at the Fringe this week – a shame, judging by the sample from that gig posted on youtube. Still, there were good things to be heard at both of our other main weekly venues – courtesy of players who are perhaps less familiar. Caught […]
- Bristol jazz week – May 7 - Somehow, while keeping up with the Cheltenham Jazz Festival for Jazzwise, Tony Benjamin has managed to compile and post a preview of all this week’s gigs in Bristol, so here it is. Art Themen was one of the nicest gigs at the Fringe last year, so great to see him making a return visit on […]
- George Crowley and friends, BeBop Club, May 4 - You can tell something about a jazzer by the company they keep. Hence all those mini-features in the jazz mags that resort to lists of people-the-musician-has-played-with. I don’t criticise. I do it too. Words for music are hard and it’s much easier just to invoke other people who make good noises than to describe what […]
- Bristol (and Cheltenham etc) jazz this week – 30 April - As Tony Benjamin notes in his weekly rundown, it’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival week. He’s got a full festival preview here, too. And a great programme it is this year, with plenty of those difficult clashes that typify a real festival. Roller Trio or Jason Moran? Donny McCaslan or Christian McBride? I’ve plumped for Moran and McBride, […]
