Zoe Gilby’s Pannonica
Nik Svarc Quartet
David Newton and Denny Ilett
Dale Storr
Shirley Smart Trio
Ingham-Davison Allstar Sextet
Pete Rosser’s Rhubarb Patch + Ben Gilbert/Edison Herbert Duo
Liam Noble’s Long Game
Tom Harris Trio feat. Alicia Gardener-Trejo
Ian Shaw – Iain Ballamy – Jamie Safir
Trinity Laban Jazz Orchestra / Wallen-Koller Quartet
James Mainwaring’s Mycorrhiza
Brigitte Beraha’s Lucid Dreamers
Tim Knowles Quartet
Winston Clifford/Jonathan Gee Quartet – Alec Sykes Celebration Concert
Emily Brown Quintet
ISQ
Alexander Hawkins Trio
Chris Batchelor’s Zoetic
Zoe Gilby’s Pannonica
Friday 14 January 2022
The music of Thelonious Monk, as reimagined by Carmen McRae and now reinvigorated by Newcastle’s finest jazz singer Zoe Gilby, with her exceptional and exhilarating trio.
Zoe Gilby – vocals
Paul Edis – piano
Andy Champion – bass
Richard Brown – drums
Website: www.zoegilby.co.uk
Nik Svarc Quartet
Friday 21 January 2022
New quartet led by the avuncular doyen of Leeds jazz guitarists Nik Svarc, playing originals and choice tunes, drawing on jazz, rock, blues and funk for some guaranteed foot-tapping head-scratching coruscating sounds.
Featuring Scott Devine of Scott’s Bass Lessons fame, Dave Walsh and Matt Ratcliffe.
Nik Svarc – Guitar
Richard Hammond – bass
Matt Ratcliffe – Piano/ Keys
Dave Walsh – Drums
“Guitarist Nik Svarc is certainly one to check out in the future.” – JazzWise
“Svarc’s pedal board enables him to produce myriad looping sounds but it is his guitar playing that truly dazzles.” – Bebop Spoken Here
“you’re getting great sounds… sounds awesome man” – Tim Lefebvre (Wayne Krantz/David Bowie/Tedeschi Trucks Band)
Website: https://niksvarc.com
David Newton and Denny Ilett
Friday 28 January 2022
16 times winner of Best Pianist in The British Jazz Awards, David Newton is joined by the renowned Denny Ilett singing and playing the guitar. Often found playing in Ronnie Scotts and as the Artistic Director of the Bristol International Jazz and Blues Festival we are delighted to welcome Denny to play alongside the ever popular David Newton, a long-time Wakefield favourite.
Denny Ilett – voice/guitar
David Newton – piano
Website: https://davidnewtonjazzpiano.com
Please note: this was a change from the originally advertised gig, as Liz Fletcher had unfortunately injured her ribs and was unable to sing.
Dale Storr
Friday 4 February 2022
Returning to Wakefield after 2019’s sell-out gig, Dale is the UK’s leading exponent of New Orleans-style boogie woogie and blues piano, channelling Dr John, Professor Longhair and Fats Domino with entertaining stories and songs.
Dale Storr – piano/vocals
Website: https://dalestorr.com
Shirley Smart Trio
Friday 11 February 2022 +
Eclectic invention led by cellist Shirley Smart, with influences from North African, classical and Jewish musics, Latin jazz piano and flamenco percussion.
Shirley Smart – cello
John Crawford – piano
Demi Garcia Sabat – drums/percussion
Website: shirleysmart.com
Ingham-Davison Allstar Sextet
Friday 18 February 2022 +
Wakefield trombonist Rory Ingham leads a stellar sextet celebrating the great drummer Art Blakey.
Rory Ingham and James Davison bring together an all-star sextet to celebrate the music of legendary drummer Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, but with the lesser-known sextet line-up as exemplified by the stellar 1960s front-line of Freddie Hubbard, Curtis Fuller and Wayne Shorter plus the powerhouse of pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Reggie Workman and Mr Blakey. This project demonstrates hard bop with a frighteningly fresh feel; the music is wildly high-energy and unbelievably swinging. Featuring some of finest talent on the British Jazz scene.
Rory Ingham – trombone
Nadim Teimoori – tenor sax
James Davison – trumpet
Nikki Iles – piano
Steve Berry – double bass
Sebastiaan De Krom – drums
Website: roryingham.com
Pete Rosser’s Rhubarb Patch + Ben Gilbert/Edison Herbert Duo
Friday 25 February 2022 + Support +
A unique line-up put together by Wakefield Jazz promoter and effervescent pianist Pete Rosser, to play his specially-commissioned and newly-expanded Rhubarb Suite in honour of Wakefield’s Rhubarb Festival.
Pete Rosser – piano
Anna Chandler – saxes
Jonny Enright – trombone
Nik Svarc – guitar
Paul Baxter – bass
Steve Hanley – drums
Website: peterosser.co.uk
Support:
Edison Herbert – guitar
Ben Gilbert – piano
Liam Noble’s Long Game
Friday 4 March 2022 +
For more than two decades Liam Noble has been a key figure on the vibrant British Jazz scene, both as a sideman and leader. The Long Game finds him in exciting new territory, with a new band and a new album, released two years ago, an album that draws out the concept of waiting, not rushing the process but waiting for the right moment to come along.
Liam Noble – piano/kybds
Tom Herbert – bass
Will Glaser – drums
Website: liamnoble68.wordpress.com
Tom Harris Trio feat. Alicia Gardener-Trejo
Friday 11 March 2022 +
Tom Harris is a Mancunian pianist, improviser, and composer, who has been working with artists from across the UK, including Rosie Tee, Marco Woolf, and Nishla Smith. This is his new regular trio, about to record their debut album, with special guest Birmingham-based saxophonist Alicia Gardener-Trejo.
He also has a handful of longer-term projects – voice/piano duo wilkins/harris, music-driven theatre collective ulita, and CANYON, a multi-media collaboration with drummer Kai Chareunsy.
After building up an oversized collection of never-played compositions, he has now formed a regular trio, featuring different horn players/singers for each gig – allowing for lots of new input/direction while fostering a strong rhythm section relationship and identity. He is currently planning a UK tour for spring 2022, set to culminate in the recording of a debut album.
Alicia Gardener-Trejo – bari sax/flute
Tom Harris – piano
Josh Vadiveloo – bass
Kai Chareunsy – drums
Website: tomharrismusic.com
Ian Shaw – Iain Ballamy – Jamie Safir
Friday 18 March 2022 +
Astonishingly accomplished trio led by the hugely popular jazz vocalist Ian Shaw play music from their latest album What’s New.
Unquestionably one of the worlds finest male jazz vocalists, the hugely popular and award-winning Ian Shaw is a familiar face at venues across the UK and far beyond, his unique style, hip phrasing and a real sure-footedness around the repertoire continues to gain him new fans. What’s New is his most recent album and he’s joined by legendary saxophonist Iain Ballamy and his fantastic regular accompanist and rising star, Jamie Safir, the trio effortlessly breathing new life into a wonderful selection of timeless songs from Bernstein to Bacharach. They will be playing music from the album and there will no doubt be some new additions and surprises along the way!
Ian Shaw – vocals
Iain Ballamy – tenor sax
Jamie Safir – piano
Website: ianshaw.biz
Trinity Laban Jazz Orchestra / Wallen-Koller Quartet
Friday 25 March 2022 +
A remarkable double bill featuring tutors and students from the renowned Trinity Laban Conservatoire – a quartet set playing the music of Thelonious Monk, followed by big band interpretations of the music of Charlie Parker. Led by inventive pianist Hans Koller and featuring some inspirational mainstays of UK jazz plus some of tomorrow’s upcoming stars.
Talfan Jenkins, Gabriel Maric, Matty Lambert, Morgan Wallace – saxes
Josh Short, Alex Polack, Byron Wallen – trumpets
Matt Seddon, Marty Gionis, Olivia Hughes – trombones
Hans Koller – piano
Calum Gourlay – double bass
Cassius Cobbson – drums
Website: trinitylaban.ac.uk
James Mainwaring’s Mycorrhiza
Friday 1 April 2022 +
Inspired by the past, present and future, saxophonist James Mainwaring leads a real exploration of music and how it can be influenced by the world around us.
What better way to describe an album than it ‘appears to occupy its own space’? Leeds-based saxophonist James Mainwaring has bought together an ensemble of powerhouses from the fields of jazz, classical and improvised music to create a truly unique recording where the collection of songs, instrumental tracks and conducted improvisations are shaped by stories of the relationships between humans and nature. Full of emotional textures, poignant melodies and sci-fi influences.
This is unclassifiable music led by James Mainwaring (formerly of the Roller Trio) on sax and electronics, featuring viola, cello and double bass as well as piano and drums. Organically-developing music and songs of deep ecology, bridging contemporary chamber music, is progressive folk and occasional heavy grooves, six of Yorkshire’s finest left-field improvisers will combine to provide gripping music, building from their recent CD on Discus Music.
James Mainwaring – saxophones/electronics/vocals
Aby Vulliamy – viola/vocals
Glen Leach – piano
Michael Bardon – cello
Dave Kane – bass
Steve Hanley – drums
Website: facebook.com/jamesmainwaringmusic
Brigitte Beraha’s Lucid Dreamers
Friday 29 April 2022 (plus Support) +
Vocalist Brigitte Beraha has been a regular visitor to Wakefield Jazz with her unique brand of melodic abstraction. Her new band features the excellent pianist Alcyona Mick.
Brigitte Beraha’s early incarnation of ‘Lucid Dreamers’ premiered at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall as a trio with the ‘inventive’ George Crowley (Melt Yourself Down, Yazz Ahmed) and the ‘high energy and powerful’ Tim Giles (Nostalgia 77, Iain Ballamy) in November 2019 as part of the London Jazz Festival, with music written by Brigitte, inspired by the industrial world that we live in. Now extended to a quartet with ‘world class’ Alcyona Mick (Natacha Atlas) on piano, the quartet released their debut album ‘Lucid Dreamers’ on Let Me Out Records in July 2020 and just recorded their second album due for release later in the year. The original music – with or without lyrics – is both melodic and abstract. It draws from the jazz, folk, contemporary classical and electronic worlds, with atmospheric and open improvisations, exciting grooves and impactful stillness.
Brigitte Beraha – voice/electronics
George Crowley – tenor sax/clarinets/electronics
Alcyona Mick – piano/synth
Tim Giles – drums/electronics
Website: brigitteberaha.com/luciddreamers
Support from Pete Rosser on piano
“A potted history of jazz piano” (but no snooker references…)
Tim Knowles Quartet
Friday 6 May 2022
The Tim Knowles Quartet are a dynamic band of young northern musicians who take a playful and interactive approach to melodic contemporary jazz. Crisp, folk-inflected compositions undergird vibrant exchanges, from the tender to the ecstatic.
Tim Knowles – guitar
Emma Johnson – tenor sax
John Pope – bass
Sarah Heneghan – drums
Website: facebook.com/timknowlesmusic
Support set from students at Leeds Conservatoire:
Eleni Olympiou (vocals) and David Bullock (guitar) – acoustic blues and soul
Winston Clifford/Jonathan Gee Quartet – Alec Sykes Celebration Concert
Friday 13 May 2022 plus support+
Wakefield Jazz was founded in 1987 by Alec Sykes, whose boundless enthusiasm for both the music and the musicians (alongside his wife Faith) made the club so popular with performers and audiences alike. Alec died in 2020 – this will be a special performance by musicians particularly appreciated by Alec and Faith.
Until now, we haven’t been able to put on a suitable commemoration at the club. This special quartet comprises four luminaries of the British jazz scene over the past 30 years, always popular at Wakefield Jazz, and will feature some of the music written a decade ago by Jonathan Gee to celebrate 25 years of the club.
Denys Baptiste – sax
Jonathan Gee – piano
Andy Hamill – bass
Winston Clifford – drums
Website: none
Support from Hyowa Project
Hyokyung Jung – guitar
Woody Hayden – bass
Louis Berthoud – drums
Guitar-led jazz-rock fusion trio plus guest sax.
Emily Brown Quintet
Friday 20 May 2022 plus Support +
Emily Brown is an experienced jazz singer with a gift for harmonic risk-taking and for accessing emotional depth in a song, with a fantastic band of Leeds-based jazzers.
You can expect to hear jazz, blues, soul & some ear-opening detours – all classics but delivered in Emily’s warmly alert & soul-enlarging style.
Emily Brown – vocals
Jon Taylor – sax
Ed Barnwell – piano
Fergus Quill – bass
Caroline Boaden – drums
Website: facebook.com/emilybrownjazz
Support from Sophie Speed Quartet
Sophie Speed – tenor sax
Nathan Lawson – guitar
Jaden Hart – bass
Miles Pillinger – drums
ISQ
Friday 27 May 2022 plus support +
“…sublime vocals…” – Jazz FM
ISQ are a critically-acclaimed quartet from London that combine elegant jazz-pop songs with powerful lyrics and Nordic Jazz sensibilities. The band is formed of Irene Serra on vocals/electronics (Wynton Marsalis, Norma Winstone, US3), Richard Sadler on double bass (founding member of the Neil Cowley Trio) Naadia Sheriff on piano (Yazz Ahmed, Hermeto Pascoal) and Chris Nickolls on drums (Andy Sheppard, Jean Touissant).
Described as “EST with vocals”, this crossover jazz outfit embrace song writing in their own inimitable style. Their unique use of beautiful melodies, space and dynamics coupled with Serra’s evocative lyrics weave stories of a rare intensity. Undoubtedly one of the most original bands on the scene.
Celebrating their 10 year anniversary this year since the release of their debut album and with a body of work that includes 4 critically-acclaimed albums, their performance tonight will include fresh arrangements of their most well-known tunes and a preview of new material from their forthcoming 5th album.
“…A group who hone in on the soulful possibilities offered by improvisatory music…” – Clash Magazine
4**** “…Performed midway between jazz and soul mode, Serra occupies terrain Billie Holiday would find familiar; Sade too…” JAZZWISE
Irene Serra – vocals/synth/fx
Naadia Sheriff – piano/synth
Richard Sadler – bass/fx
Chris Nickolls – drums/fx
Website: isqmusic.com
Video: ISQ – STONE | LIVE SESSIONS AT ALICE’S LOFT
Support from Nat Rakotoson Quartet
Nathalia Rakotoson – keys
Harry Souter – guitar
Jarred Dean – bass
Louis Berthoud – drums
Alexander Hawkins Trio
Friday 3 June 2022 +
Alexander Hawkins is a composer, pianist, organist, and bandleader who is ‘unlike anything else in modern creative music’. Of the first Alexander Hawkins Trio recording, The Guardian wrote that it “sounds like all the future jazz you might imagine without ever being able to conceive of the details”.
Working internationally in a vast array of creative contexts, his own unique soundworld is forged through the search to reconcile both a love of free improvisation and a profound fascination with composition and structure. His writing has been said to represent ‘a fundamental reassertion of composition within improvised music’, and his voice one of the ‘most vividly distinctive…in modern jazz’.
As a pianist, he has been described as ‘remarkable…possessing staggering technical ability and a fecund imagination as both player and composer.’
Alongside his acclaimed work as a bandleader, he has appeared with a wide array of leading figures from across the generations of contemporary music, including the likes of Anthony Braxton, Louis Moholo-Moholo, Evan Parker, Mulatu Astatke, Esperanza Spalding, Shabaka Hutchings, Tomeka Reid, Nicole Mitchell, and many others.
The Trio feature under Anthony Braxton’s leadership on the epic 13 CD box set ‘Quartet (Standards) 2020’, a release which featured on a number of end-of-year lists at the close of 2021. They have also recorded as a quartet with vocalist Elaine Mitchener (Uproot, Intakt), and they have performed in the USA, Canada, as well as throughout Europe and the UK.
Alexander Hawkins – piano
Neil Charles – bass
Stephen Davis – drums
Website: alexanderhawkinsmusic.com
Chris Batchelor’s Zoetic
Friday 10 June 2022 +
Most recently seen at Wakefield Jazz with the anarchic Pigfoot, Chris’ new unusual line-up features compositions inspired by the diversity of London’s musical life, from East African guitar band grooves to echoes of wistful European folk themes and sinuous lines reminiscent of Arabic music.
Chris Batchelor’s distinctive compositions for Zoetic are the outcome of his long lasting immersion in a wide range of music in London’s varied scene. Add the influence of Batchelor’s original voice throughout and you have a rich source of inspiration for this exceptional group of musicians: Margrit Hasler on viola, John Parricelli on guitar, Steve Watts on double bass and Paul Clarvis on percussion. It is this unique combination of musicians and instrumentation, the deep bonds these players have formed through years of playing together, and the subtle sensitivity of their inviting sound which makes Zoetic so special.
Chris Batchelor – trumpet
Margrit Hasler – viola
John Parricelli – guitar
Steve Watts – bass
Paul Clarvis – tabla/percussion
Website: chris-batchelor.com
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