TIM WHITEHEAD (saxes) at Jazznights, the Cock Inn, Clare on Sunday 11th May. ‘Tim Whitehead is one of the finest contemporary British saxists, at least the equal of better-known players like Andy Sheppard and Courtney Pine.’ Andy Hamilton – Jazz on CD

First gaining recognition as a member of the ground-breaking band Loose Tubes, Tim continued to develop his own music, recording for Spotlite Records and Editions EG – “English People” and “Decision” with his own bands. “There are many fine tenor players on the current British scene but Tim Whitehead is undoubtedly one of the best we have” Peter Lund – Crescendo.

“Whitehead has a highly personal, always gorgeous sound on tenor and an infinite vocabulary – in a country of fine saxophonists he is one of the finest.” Peter Bacon, Jazz CD of the Week, Birmingham Post *****

“There are many fine tenor players on the current British scene but Tim Whitehead is undoubtedly one of the best we have” Peter Lund – Crescendo

‘For my money, the finest tenor player in Britain today” Andy Hamilton – Jazz Review

‘Whitehead more than justified his growing reputation as one of Britain’s most thoughtful composers and improvisers.’
Chris Parker – The Times

‘Whitehead is one of the most creative, exciting and passionate saxophonists in Europe and also one of the finest small-group composers’. Ian Carr – A Rough Guide

Tim Whitehead was born in Liverpool , the son of one of the original writers of Dennis the Menace in the children’s comic, The Beano. His first public performance was as solo clarinettist in his school orchestra’s rendition of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, conducted by his fellow pupil, the now knighted, Sir Simon Rattle. From this promising musical beginning, Tim decided to follow a career in Law, but was pulled back to music, and more specifically jazz, soon after qualifying. During his career, Tim has played extensively throughout the UK and Europe, and more recently in the USA with American pianist Phil DeGreg. In the 70s he toured with Ian Carr’s Nucleus and Graham Collier Music and won the Young Jazz Musicians of the Year Award with his own band South of the Border in 1977.

In the 80’s he was a member of the ground-breaking big band Loose Tubes, and continued to develop his own music, recording for Spotlite Records and Editions EG – English People (1983) and Decision (1987) with his own bands, featuring at different times John Parricelli, Django Bates, Nic France and Pete Jacobsen. In the 90’s he recorded Authentic and Silence Between Waves, on Ronnie Scott’s Jazz House Label with Dave Barry, Pete Jacobsen and Arnie Somogyi, and received The Andrew Milne Award for Jazz, as well as several other commissions during this period. In 1999 Tim released Personal Standards, an album of soul and pop tunes arranged for jazz quartet, which received widespread interest and critical praise including Jazz Album of the Year in the BBC Music Magazine, and led to an educational project at Trinity College of Music under the same title.

In 2009 he was the first ever musician Artist in Residence at Tate Britain (funded by an award from The Leverhulme Trust),to research and compose music in response to the work of JMW Turner. During the residency he wrote “Colour Beginnings”,a series of compositions written from transcribed improvisations performed in front of and in response to a selection of JMW Turner’s watercolour sketches. The work was performed at Tate Britain in November 2009 following a series of lecture demonstrations in October.The performance was also recorded for release in 2010 and filmed for a profile on the project by Gwynhelek Productions. December 2009 saw a collaboration with Colin Riley and The Royal College Of Music String Orchestra, to perform “Landscapes With Birds”by Riley for tenor and soprano saxes, which Tim performed with them at St James Church Piccadilly in London , and which was also performed at The Royal College Of Music in January 2010. In 2010 he continued touring Nonsense with Michael Rosen and The Homemade Orchestra remained active in the Way Out West co-operative, and organised a fund raising concert for the charity “Parents For Inclusion”,for whom he serves as a trustee. In Autumn he toured and released the CD album “Colour Beginnings”, to critical acclaim, receiving a four star review in The Guardian, five stars in The BBC Music Magazine and three in The Times. He was also nominated and shortlisted for The British Composer Of The Year Awards 2010. The Guardian invited him to write a feature article on “Colour Beginnings”and his residency at Tate Britain which was published on September 24 th . In 2011 Colour Beginnings is again being toured from April onwards, and work begins on a new project for young children with Michael Rosen and The Homemade Orchestra, to be launched in autumn 2011.
Colour Beginnings has been shortlisted again, this time for the Parliamentary All Party Jazz Awards 2011 Album Of The Year.

Music 8.00 – 10.30pm   Admission £10.00
at The Cock Inn, Clare, Suffolk CO10 8PX
Reservations strongly advised on 01787 237653  or or email Your booking is held until 8pm on the night. Doors open 7.30pm.
For details of future gigs go to www.jazz-nights.com

LOZ SPEYER (trumpet) gave us a stunning gig at Jazznights on Sunday 27th April at The Cock Inn, Clare.

(Click on images for larger pictures)

The music of Loz Speyer combines a cutting-edge playful and subversive spirit with a melodic sense deeply rooted enough to draw people in – with or without their having jazz ears! He takes in a broad sweep of the vast music culture available but with a central focus on jazz. He currently leads two of his own bands, Time Zone and Inner Space Music.

Besides leading his own groups, Loz Speyer has worked with Sarah Jane Morris, Clifford Jarvis, Brian Abrahams’ District Six, Yann Tiersen, iGospel, Rare Mix (collaboration with Jason Yarde, Julian Siegel, Ben Davis, Brian Abrahams etc), Chris Biscoe, Steve Buckley, Hugh Metcalf, Birdyak, Test Dept, John Bennett Band… and in Cuba with Inaudis Paisan (elder statesman of Son trumpet) Orquesta de Sabor Chepin-Chovén (a Cuban national treasure working since its foundation in 1932), Marcos Fernadez’ Trio Acorde (pianist now with Eliades Ochoa), Proyecto Evocación (collaboration with master percussionist Rafael Cisneros)

Festivals include France (Transmusicales Rennes, Vitroles, Le Havre), Belgium (Gent, Brussels), Switzerland (Sommersnacht), Canada (Jazz Festivals including Edmonton, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal).

UK Jazz Festivals:
with Time Zone – Manchester, Lancaster, Lichfield, Marlborough
with own Quartet – Warwick and Leamington, Swanage, London

UK clubs, venues:
with Time Zone – a week at Ronnie Scott’s opposite Airto Moreira; tours around England and Scotland including many of the main Jazz venues. Similar touring with Loz Speyer Quartet and Inner Space Music.

own CD releases:
2013 – Inner Space Music – ‘Infinity Sea Rockets’ – Spherical Records
2011 Time Zone – ‘Crossing the Line’ – Spherical Records
2010 Proyecto Evocación – ‘Roots en Route – Raices en Viaje’ – Spherical Records
2008 Inner Space Music – ‘Five Animal Dances’ – Spherical Records
2004 Loz Speyer’s TIME ZONE – 33 Records
2000 Rare Mix – ‘Everything is Possible’ (limited edition)
1999 Loz Speyer Quartet – ‘two kinds of blue’ – 33 Records

Loz Speyer, the stellar trumpeter played at  Jazznights with the Roger Odell Trio who were:
Roger Odell – Drums
Roger was one of the founder members and drummer with the jazz-funk group Shakatak and the forerunner band Tracks. Roger has toured internationally and recorded numerous    CDs, which he continues to do on a regular basis to this day. Apart from a great power   drummer he is also a prestigious arranger. Musically, his first love was always straight-ahead contemporary jazz, and in the past he has played with many of the great names on the UK scene including Don Rendell, Barbara Thompson, Dick Morrissey, Terry Smith, Joe Harriott and countless others. Roger is the author of three technical articles which appeared in the international magazine Modern Drummer.
Steve Cook – Double Bass
Steve has a wonderful rounded tone with great clarity. He has played with Mike Westbrook, Mike Kilpatrick’s Duke Jazznights Steve Cook 010412Ellington Orchestra, Barbara Thompson, Soft Machine, Seventh Wave and Gil Evans big band at Ronnie Scott’s.
Simon Brown is a highly respected and popular jazz pianist who is equally known for his arranging skills. He is always in demand to play many gigs throughout East Anglia when he is not playing at Jazznights or with his own trio, quartet and quintet.
Simon’s piano playing has long been the sound accompaniment of first choice for nationally and internationally known jazz stars appearing at Jazznights as well as Norfolk’s two leading jazz venues, the Lakeside Jazz Club at Lyng and The Green Man at Rackheath. He is also an accomplished soloist in his own right, blending vivacity and creative attack with often gentle lyricism. His influences are Oscar Peterson, Nat “King” Cole and Bill Evans.
Larraine Odell – Vocals
Beginning her professional singing career with the group CMU with whom she recorded two albums, Larraine performed at numerous venues throughout the UK and Europe, including the Purcell Room, RFH, Boxford Fleece & Ronnie Jazznights Larraine 100612 (44)Scott’s.Larraine possesses a unique smouldering tonal quality and a subtle jazz phrasing style that has elicited great praise from two of her own vocal mentors, Mark Murphy and Sheila Jordan. “A sensitive singer who exudes a fine-honed jazz sensibility with every phrase”

Our resident songbird Larraine Odell opened the first set with the following songs:
Like Someone in Love (Music by Jimmy Van Heusen, Lyrics from Johnny Burke) was introduced in the movie Belle of the Yukon by Dinah Shore who played a dance hall singer in one of her early films.
You’re Sensational is a song written by Cole Porter for the 1956 film High Society, where it was introduced by Frank Sinatra
Where or When (1937) from Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.
The Masquerade Is Over (1938) with Music by Allie Wrubel and Lyrics from Herb Magidson.
This Can’t Be Love is a show tune and a popular song from the 1938 Rodgers and Hart musical The Boys from Syracuse.

Loz Speyer the joined the Jazznights Trio who played:
All the Things You Are is a song composed by Jerome Kern in 1939. Charlie Parker secured the place for this as a jazz standard in 1947.
The bluesy Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum by Wayne Shorter is titled after the trademark exclamation of the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk! played by Loz on the flugelhorn
I Fall In Love To Easily  Composed by Jule Styne for the 1945 film Anchors Aweigh but was first made a jazz standard by Chet Baker
But Not for Me is a popular song, composed by George Gershwin in 1930. It was written for their musical Girl Crazy but played by Loz in a very different modern style.

Following the interval and the Jazznights raffle of 3 jazz cd’s and a bottle of wine we had  the traditional Jazznights sitting in spot  which is open to all musicians who have an opportunity to play  with the band. Tonight we had the pleasure of Geoff Harriman playing his harmonica and Michael Mason replacing Roger on the drums for a fine version of Georgia On My Mind.

Loz Speyer then re-joined the band with Michael Mason on the drums for the first number:
An up-tempo swing version of By Myself (1937) composed by Arthur Schwartz. Loz again played flugelhorn for this which was based on an Art Farmer arrangement.
West Coast Blues written by Wes Montgomery and was featured on the West Coast Blues album by tenor saxophonist Harold Land.
Here’s That Rainy Day (1953) from Jimmy Van Heusen and it was considered that Frank Sinatra introduced it in to the jazz repertoire.
Chelsea Bridge (1941) is a jazz standard written by Billy Strayhorn. The song has been recorded by Duke Ellington, Ben Webster, Wynton Marsalis, Keith Jarrett, Joe Henderson and among many others.
Jule Styne’s 1956 Just In Time played on the trumpet was a great up-tempo finale to a fine evening of jazz

TIM WHITEHEAD (saxes) will be at Jazznights on Sunday 11th May 2014
First gaining recognition as a member of the groundbreaking band Loose Tubes, Tim continued to develop his own music, recording for Spotlite Records and Editions EG – “English People” and “Decision” with his own bands. “There are many fine tenor players on the current British scene but Tim Whitehead is undoubtedly one of the best we have” Peter Lund – Crescendo.

Jazznights presents The best in modern jazz at
The Cock Inn, 3, Callis Street, Clare, Suffolk, CO10 8PX

Admission £10.
Doors open 7.30pm.
Music 8.00-10.30pm.

Reserve seating on 01787 237653 or email info@jazz-nights.com
Pay on the night.

For further information and future gigs go to www.jazz-nights.com

Anita Wardell gave Jazznights a superb evening on Sunday 13th April 2014.

(Click on images for larger pictures)

Anita’s singing was exciting and breath-taking. She is noted for her mesmerizing and captivating vocal improvisations and vocalese lyrics to instrumental solos. She is a musician who uses the voice as her instrument, displaying precision and agility, mixed with heartfelt emotion.

Anita received the prestigious BBC Jazz Award for Best of Jazz category in 2006 and Anita has been voted Best Vocalist in the 2013 British Jazz Awards. Baffling though they often are, this year’s BBC jazz awards got something right by handing this singer a Best of Jazz Award “for performing in a classic jazz style”. Though seldom heard on BBC airwaves, Anita Wardell is an exceptional talent. Whereas most singers bluff their way through wordless bars without
making any sense, Australia-reared, Guildford-born Anita is a true seat-singer. She thinks like a trumpeter or saxophonist, creating shapely lines to suit the song’s chord structure.

A rich, expressive and agile voice allows Wardell to excel not only with the great ballad standards, which she sings with remarkable expressiveness, but also with bop classics. The guru of contemporary jazz singers, Mark Murphy, has extolled the quality of her bop singing, stating that it is ‘always so clear and accurate in its linearism’. Wardell also makes considerable use of scat singing in her programming and while many young singers launch into scat with only a faint notion of its strengths and limitations, she is an exceptionally gifted user of the form.

Anita was singing with the the Jazznights Trio who were:
Roger Odell – Drums
Roger was one of the founder members and drummer with the jazz-funk group Shakatak and the forerunner band Tracks. Roger has toured internationally and recorded numerous    CDs, which he continues to do on a regular basis to this day. Apart from a great power   drummer he is also a prestigious arranger. Musically, his first love was always straight-ahead contemporary jazz, and in the past he has played with many of the great names on the UK scene including Don Rendell, Barbara Thompson, Dick Morrissey, Terry Smith, Joe Harriott and countless others. Roger is the author of three technical articles which appeared in the international magazine Modern Drummer.
Bernie Hodgkins – Double Bass Inspired by an uncle, who played and recorded with Django Reinhart and Stephane Grappelli in the legendary Quintet de Hot Club of France,Bernie grew up in a Jazz-oriented family.Their influence led him to  become a  respected bass player behind such people as Matt Munroe, Dickie Valentine and Dennis     Lotus, in the early stages of his career. Bernie is  particularly acknowledged as  being one of the few players to bring an authentic, driving jazz feel to both the double bass and the bass-guitar, and for his fluent and creative soloing. Tonight Bernie was playing his 5 string double bass with the extra C string.
Simon Brown – Piano
Simon’s piano playing has long been the sound accompaniment of first choice for nationally and internationally known jazz stars appearing at Jazznights as well as Norfolk’s two leading jazz venues, He is also an accomplished soloist in his own right, blending  vivacity and creative attack with often gentle lyricism.  His influences are Oscar Peterson,  Nat “King” Cole and Bill Evans. Since graduating from the University of East Anglia (UEA) in  1990,  Simon has worked as a performer, teacher of piano and music arranger and regularly appears at the most popular jazz clubs in East Anglia. His involvement in Blues, Jazz and Jazz-Funk combos have led to appearances at many jazz festivals and has shared the billing with the likes of Jools Holland, The James Taylor Quartet, Stacey Kent and Bobby Wellins apart from his regular performances as a primary member of the Jazznights Roger Odell Trio.
With additional vocals from:
Larraine Odell – vocals
Beginning her professional singing career with the group CMU with whom she recorded two albums, Larraine performed at numerous venues throughout the UK and Europe, including the Purcell Room, RFH.  Boxford Fleece & Ronnie Scott’s.Larraine possesses a  unique smouldering tonal quality and a subtle jazz phrasing style that has elicited great  praise from two of her own vocal mentors, Mark Murphy and Sheila Jordan. “A sensitive   singer who exudes a fine-honed jazz sensibility with every phrase.” She has since appeared at Ronnie Scott’s Club as a member of the group Jimpster, at the Boxford Fleece with pianist Steve Lodder, most of the other jazz clubs in the region, and at the Aldeburgh, Layer Marney and Southwold Jazz Festivals.

Larraine Odell opened the first set which included:
Lullaby of the Leaves by composer Bernice Petkere and lyricist Joe Young, was featured in the 1932 Broadway revue Chamberlain Brown’s Scrap Book.
I Got Lost in His Arms is a song from the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun, written by Irving Berlin. It was performed by Ethel Merman in the original production of the musical.
This Can’t Be Love (1938) Music composed by Richard Rodgers withg Lyrics by Lorenz Hart from the 1938 Broadway show The Boys from Syracuse.
Love is Gone with an original arrangement by Roger Odell.
Misty is a jazz standard written in 1954 by the pianist Erroll Garner.
Originally composed as an instrumental following the traditional 32-bar format and first recorded for Garner’s 1955 album Contrasts, the tune was later paired with lyrics by Johnny Burke and became the signature song of Johnny Mathis.

Anita Wardell the then joined the Jazznights Trio with a selection including:
You Turned the Tables on Me (1936) Music composed by  Louis Alterwirth lyrics from Sidney D Mitchell. The song was introduced in the musical film Sing, Baby, Sing.
I’ll Remember April is a popular song and jazz standard with music written by Gene de Paul, and lyrics by Patricia Johnston and Don Raye. It made its debut in the 1942 Abbott and Costello comedy Ride ‘Em Cowboy, being sung by Dick Foran.
How Long Has This Been Going On? was originally written as a duet by George and Ira Gershwin for a Broadway show called Smarty in 1927.
Jerome Kern’s In Love In Vain from the movie “Centennial Summer”, directed by Otto Preminger. First performance by Margaret Whiting (1946).

Following the interval and the Jazznights raffle of 3 jazz cd’s and a bottle of wine we had  the traditional Jazznights sitting in spot  which is open to all musicians who have an  opportunity to play  with the band. Tonight we had the pleasure of Geoff Harriman playing his harmonica in a version of Sway

Anita Wardell then returned to sing:
My Shining Hour is a song composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was written for the 1943 film The Sky’s the Limit.
Blue Pelude – A song written by Gordon Jenkins and Joe Bishop. First released by the Casa Loma Orchestra (1933)
A Night in Tunisia is a musical composition written by Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Paparelli in 1942 while Gillespie was playing with the Earl Hines Band. It has become a jazz standard.
Meaning of the Blues (1957) was written by Bobby Troup with lyrics by Leah Worth.
But Not For Me Music from George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. Ginger Rogers introduced this during the first performance of Girl Crazy in 1930.
Lament (1954) from a transcription of the trombone solo written by J J Johnson.
“Lemon Drop” composed by George Wallington which was one one of his best known compositions and as been featured by Ella Fitzgerald on many of her albums.

A wonderful evening from this remarkable expressive jazz singer who all hoped would make another return to Jazznights in the future.

LOZ SPEYER (trumpet) will be featured at Jazznights on Sunday 27th April at The Cock Inn, Clare.
The music of Loz Speyer combines a cutting-edge playful and subversive spirit with a melodic sense deeply rooted enough to draw people in – with or without their having jazz ears! He takes in a broad sweep of the vast music culture available but with a central focus on jazz. He currently leads two of his own bands, Time Zone and Inner Space Music.

Music 8.00 – 10.30pm   Admission £10.00
at The Cock Inn, Clare, Suffolk CO10 8PX
Reservations strongly advised on 01787 237653  or or email Your booking is held until 8pm on the night. Doors open 7.30pm.
For details of future gigs go to www.jazz-nights.com