It’s saxophones to the fore this week, with four players young and not quite so young, modern and mainstream, in the driving seat in four very different bands.
Tomorrow, start the evening at Symphony Hall in Birmingham where the ever-popular Chris Bowden leads his quartet in the foyer bar for a Birmingham Jazz Rush Hour Blues session.
Alto saxophonists have always been the most exciting and the most mercurial, and Birmingham’s Bowden has never disappointed. He has a rich, modern soulful tone not far from David Sanborn’s and can raise the temperature considerably in the course of one solo.
He leads a fine band, the music starts at 5.30pm, and entry is free.
From there, it’s a quick drive to Coventry and the Warwick Arts Centre where Jazz Coventry is presenting tenor player Sam Crockatt at the Studio Theatre.
Sam is a strong composer, player and bandleader who is a member of London’s Loop collective. His first album, Howeird, won a Parliamentary Jazz Award, and he has a new one out called Flood Tide.
His band is an all-star affair with the much in demand Kit Downes on piano, Oli Hayhurst on bass and Ben Reynolds on drums, and they play clever but playful modern British jazz of a highly accessible nature.
The concert starts at 7.45pm, tickets are £12 and are available at www.warwickartscentre.co.uk or on 024 7652 4524.
On Sunday down at Stratford Upon Avon, the saxophone wind has a bop edge, as altoist Jake Fryer lands with his quartet for the regular Sunday night Stratford Jazz session.
Jake’s main claim to fame is that he co-led a quintet with the legendary US West Coast flautist and saxophonist Bud Shank.
Called In Good Company, the 2009 recording was to be Shank’s last – he died a day later, at the age of 82.
Fryer flies the neo-bop flag and is a hard-working, long-distance jazz man – his gigs following Stratford are as far away as Hong Kong and New Zealand. For the Midland gig he has Rodney Mendoza on piano, Richard Sadler on bass and Jon Sargant on drums.
It starts at 8pm at No1 Shakespeare Street, tickets are £8 on the door and there is more at www.stratfordjazz.org.uk.
Our fourth saxophonist of the week is possibly the most exciting, and certainly heralds the beginning of a very interesting themed set of gigs from Birmingham Jazz. The player is Pete Wareham, and the theme is the legacy of the arranger and band-leader Gil Evans.
Wareham, who is best known for his Acoustic Ladyland band, looks at one of Gil’s, and Miles Davis’s, great achievements: Sketches Of Spain.
The original album rearranged part of a guitar concerto by the composer Rodrigo for trumpet and jazz orchestra, and set it alongside other richly Spanish influenced music.
It was a highly original move.
Wednesday night’s gig at the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath is likely to be just as original. With the DJ and producer Micachu and cellist Oliver Coates, Wareham will be reworking Sketches Of Spain for today.
I am sure Gil, who shared Wareham’s love of Jimi Hendrix and would have been 100 years old this year, would approve.
The Euan Palmer band will be in support, the gig starts at 8.30pm, tickets are £5 and you can find out more at www.birminghamjazz.co.uk.
Finally, if saxophones are really not your thing, never mind. Pianist Dan Nicholls is at hand with Sam Wooster on trumpet, Richard Foote on trombone and the awesome Dave Smith on drums, at The Spotted Dog in Warwick Street, Digbeth, on Tuesday evening. the music starts some time after 8pm.
This is a Cobweb Collective gig and there is more at cobwebcollective.com
