Jazz Nursery 27/04/17

One of the songs I picked for my recent duo recording with Michael Kanan was Way Down Yonder in New Orleans. Written in 1922 by Turner Layton and Henry Creamer, the African-American songwriting team also responsible for the more well-known After You’ve Gone, Way Down Yonder seems to only really be played by more trad/Dixieland…

I recently read two great books about jazz that paint vivid pictures of important and fascinating times and places in the history of the music. A.B. Spellman’s Four Lives in the Bebop Business is divided into four sections, each one portraying a key figure in the 1960s jazz avant garde: Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Herbie…

My album release tour with Michael Kanan seems like ages ago now, but we had great time and I’m finally getting round to putting up some videos from the album launch we did in Dalston, London. There are four videos: two short promo clips (an extract from Cole Porter’s You Do Something To Me and…

Looking forward to playing songs by Harold Arlen this Sunday 18 May in the intimate basement space of the Green Note in Camden.Tickets here. I’ll be joined by Sam Watts on piano and Jack Garside on bass and we’ll be playing some well known hits and some obscure gems by the composer of “Somewhere Over…

I recently my second album as a bandleader. It’s a trio record with Jorge Rossy on drums and Tom Farmer on double bass and we did it in Begues, a small town near Barcelona. Much more info and content to follow, but needless to say I felt very lucky to play with such amazing musicians…

Very much looking forward to playing some gigs this month with an international quintet put together by young London drummer Phelan Burgoyne and featuring the great Jorge Rossy on vibraphone. Best known as a drummer (and particularly for his role  in Brad Mehldau’s trio from the mid ’90s to the mid ’00s), Jorge has, in more…