Jazz Nursery 27/04/17

Jazz fan and photographer Joe McCarty documents the gigs at the White Horse in Bedford, which drummer Mark Hale presents to a faithful crowd each Monday. Here’s one Joe took of me. Check the rest of his photos here.  

Looking forward to bringing a trio to Belfast and Dublin in early May. It’s my first time playing in either of those places as a bandleader, so help me spread the word if anyone reading this happens to know anyone living there!I’ll be joined by a swinging young rhythm section of Jack Garside and Kai…

Born in 1928, Hampton Hawes was a pianist from Los Angeles who played with Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Wardell Gray and Art Pepper. I just finished reading his autobiography, Raise Up Off Me, written with Don Asher, himself a jazz pianist as well as an author. I’d rate it as perhaps my favourite book about…

I played live on BBC Radio 3 a few weeks ago with Alex Mendham & His Orchestra, which plays authentic 1920s/30s jazz and dance music and is resident at the Savoy Hotel in London. You can see footage from one of the tunes we played here, or listen to the audio from the whole show (In…

The May issue of Jazz Journal features an interview I did last summer with David West. It’s mostly about my duo album with Michael Kanan, which was released shortly after David and I had this conversation. Hoping to have some more concerts scheduled with Michael soon!

Chris Searle, the Morning Star’s jazz critic, has kindly written a couple of articles recently featuring yours truly: A feature/interview, where I talk about playing with Michael Kanan and the repertoire I like to play. And a review of a Barry Green Sextet gig at the Vortex.