September tour dates with Michael Kanan

I’m playing a few concerts in Spain next week with my good friend, bassist Dario Di Lecce. On 12 and 13 February we’ll be in Madrid at Cafe Central with very swinging Spanish drummer Esteve Pi. Then on 16 Feb we’ll be playing as a trio with the great Valencian pianist Albert Sanz at Jimmy…

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…

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.  

I’m recently back from a fun trip to Spain recording with an international quintet featuring Jorge Rossy. We recorded in Jorge’s studio in Begues, a small town outside Barcelona, and the resulting album should be here in the not too distant future. The band (now called Jorge Rossy’s ‘Rebop’) also features Linus Eppinger on guitar,…

Introducing REBOP is now available on Unit Records. REBOP is a collaborative, international band, featuring: Jorge Rossy (Barcelona) – vibraphone Sam Braysher (London) – alto saxophone Linus Eppinger (Amsterdam) – guitar Tilman Oberbeck (Hamburg) – double bass Phelan Burgoyne (London/Basel) – drums Listen/buy it on Bandcamp.

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…