Sandy Brown Jazz
What's New
September 2026
This mural of John Coltrane in North Philadelphia replaces an original that was destroyed to make way for a housing development. The artist, Ernel Martinez, says: "I wanted the mural to reflect his humanity, more than anything else." Miles Davis is once quoted as saying: "You can tell the history of jazz in four words - Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker." but there are so many who have contributed to that history. It is John Coltrane's centenary - he was born in September 1926 - others born that year include Cy Laurie, Don Rendell, Bud Shank, George Melly, Frank Rosalino, Phil Seaman, Urbie Green and Stan Tracey . We thank them all.
The Ronnie Scott's Story
The Ronnie Scott's Story is a show that has been touring the UK direct from London’s world-famous jazz club and combining world class live jazz, narration and rare archive photos and video footage, "Set amongst the dive bars and jazz juke joints of London’s Soho, we hear about the desperate hand-to-mouth finances of the early years and the frequent police raids. We hear how Ronnie’s became neutral ground within rife gang territory and their scrapes with gangsters including the Krays who were rumoured to have taken Ronnie and Pete “for a little drive”! Future dates are not easy to find at the time of writing, but it will be at Cheltenham, Colchester, Milton Keynes and Bexhill in November. A search here might give some 2027 dates but if a better list becomes available we'll share it. A video about the show is here.
Eva Cassidy - Jazzed
The late vocalist Eva Cassidy who tragically died at the age of 33 was not initially known as a jazz singer but her fine interpretations of jazz standards have emerged since she passed away. In November an album of her jazz songs is to be released on the Blix Street Record label as a CD and double vinyl LP. Details and samples are here, downloads and streaming here. Listen to her singing It Don't Mean A Thing from the album here.
Diversification
Many jazz musicians teach to supplement their unpredictable income, but American drummer, Curtis Nowosad, has come up with a novel idea - the Noisy World Cap Rattle™. Curtis, who has been recently named to Downbeat Magazine's 2026 "Rising Star Drummer of the Year" list, says: "Inspired by West African and South American percussive rattles made from goat hooves and seed pods, Noisy World Cap Rattles are lovingly handmade by me, from upcycled, sanitized plastic bottle caps, nylon string and hand-wrapped cotton blend rope handles. They come in 5 different sizes (mini, small, medium, large and jumbo) and each one is completely unique - I pay close attention to the sonic and aesthetic design of each one." There are more details here. There is an example video here.
AI And Musical "Fingerprints"
Limelight magazine features an article from a new study in Nature Machine Intelligence in which "Machine-learning models have identified distinctive melodic, harmonic and rhythmic patterns that can distinguish 20 leading jazz pianists with up to 94 percent accuracy. Artificial intelligence can identify the individual artistic fingerprints of jazz pianists by analysing the musical patterns embedded in their improvisations". More details are here. Interesting, yes, but pianist Bill Evans is quoted as saying: ""It bugs me when people try to analyse Jazz as an intellectual theorem. It's not. It's feeling."
Blue Note London Launches in September
The new Blue Note Jazz Club in St Martin's Lane, London, WC2N 4EJ opens to a sold out show on 23rd September featuring American pianist Robert Glasper. There is a page about the prestigious club on their website here, a schedule of their upcoming shows is here and frequently asked questions about the club can be found here.
Video Juke Box
Click on the pictures to watch the videos..... or take pot luck and click on the picture of the Juke Box and see what comes up.
Having celebrated Miles Davis' centenary earlier this year, we follow it with John Coltrane's centenary. Here is John Coltrane with Stan Getz in a selection of tunes culminating in Autumn In New York.
We have featured this band once before but this seemed appropriate during the August heat waves. The Ljubljana Academy of Music Big Band in Slovenia is clearly a nice, tight, big band with a fine vocalist in Ana Čop. Here they are with Cole Porter's It's Too Darn Hot.
Sacha Distel doesn't seem to get much of a mention these days, and he was probably better known for his song hits than his guitar playing, but here he is on guitar jamming Honeysuckle Rose with the formidable Stéphane Grappelli in the late 1950s.
Russian pianist Evgeny Sivtsove had a nine year residency in New York but had to return to Moscow when his visa was not renewed. Here he is recently with his trio playing Cole Porter's Let's Do It. His 2019 album Zoo was released just before his residency ended.
Sarah Vaughan was in her early thirties when this film of her singing Mean To Me was made in 1958. There is extensive text about Sarah with the video.
Somi (Kakoma)'s music spans Africa and America. Here she sings If The Rains Come First. Her new album What Does It Take To Bloom? came out in August - see our Recent Releases page for details and samples.
Two Ears, Three Eyes
Brian O'Connor LRPS from Images of Jazz took this happy picture of djembe player and percussionist Cheikh Diop at the East Grinstead Jazz Festival, St. Swithun's Church, East Grinstead in West Sussex on Saturday the 15th August. Cheikh was part of pianist Basil Hodge's Jazz Africa Sextet that included Tony Kofi (sax); Andrew John (bass guitar); Winston Clifford (drums) and Stuart Fiddler (guitar).
Brian says: "This group brought the house down. This was the main gig of the festival and it was a scorcher. A must see and hear. Remember the ear plugs though! Brilliant."
We don't have a video of this particular band to share, but Basil Hodge's website is here with samples from his albums. The band will be playing at Birmingham Jazz on Friday 20th November 2026 at 8pm
Did You Know?
Freddie Freeloder
Freddie Freeloader is a track from the legendary Miles Davis album Kind Of Blue, but who was Freddie Freeloader? The fact is that nobody is sure. There are a number of theories of course.
Vocalist Jon Hendricks and Kind of Blue chronicler Ashley Kahn claim that there was a Philadelphia bartender, Fred Tolbert, whose business card read "Freddie the Freeloader", but according to the documentary Kind of Blue: Made in Heaven, (16.35 minutes into the documentary) and an anecdote from the jazz pianist Monty Alexander, the tune was named after an individual named Freddie who would frequently try to see the music Miles Davis and others performed without paying (freeloading). Another explanation is that the name may have also been inspired by comedian Red Skelton's famous character, "Freddie the Freeloader" a hobo clown.
When Jon Hendricks added vocalese lyrics to all of the original solos, he reimagined it as a story about a barman who allowed jazz musicians to freeload at his bar at the expense of other patrons. You can listen to it here.
.... and here is the track from Kind Of Blue
Insight
A series in which musicians give us insight into the background of one of their recordings
Sam Furlonger
Get Out And Get Under The Moon
When we buy an album we quite possibly don't give much thought to what has gone into producing it. When we do start to think about it, we begin to appreciate the challenges involved.
Vocalist Sam Furlong has recently released his debut album Get Out And Get Under The Moon. Sam is an established vocalist based in London and, amongst others, he sings regularly with saxophonist Fraser Smith's band. We asked him about the process involved, starting with why he had decided to make an album and why now?
"Performing at gigs and posting videos on social media is great but none of it has true longevity like a physical album, so I was keen to put something together that will be there forever, something a listener can hold in their hands. It's so easy to say "I'll do that, next year" and to keep kicking the dream down the road. Not even due to laziness, but down to wanting everything to be absolutely perfect - that can cause delays. I found it better to call the studio and to book a date for 6 month's time, then there was no backing out, I had to make it fit.
A few of the guys in the group had already recorded albums at various studios - Fraser Smith in particular gave me plenty of guidance on what it would entail, what to consider etc. Being relatively naive in this space, I was keen to get their input on best practises and what to avoid.
I did make a plan. Chronologically - the first thing I did was to make sure the band I wanted were keen to be involved, otherwise it'd be pointless! Then it was to create a theme for the album, get the song choices planned, get arrangements written, find and book a studio, find an artist for the album cover, figure out who mixes and masters music, how to distribute online and roughly plan a release show.
I spoke with Fraser Urquhart, my pianist, on the theme I wanted for the album, as he was to arrange it. I didn't want it to sound like any other male jazz singer's album, filled with Fly Me To The Moon and other overplayed standards. The concept I wanted was the journey of being single, pushing yourself to get out into the world, falling in love and settling down - that's the story arc I wanted to convey. Fraser Uruqhart penned some fantastic and really unique arrangements, I tried very much to just give him artistic freedom to do what he felt was best and I'm so impressed with the final results.
Here we are with Keeping Out Of Mischief Now:
When I moved to London eight or so years ago, Fraser Smith was the first to express interest in working together; he introduced me to so many other musicians, many of whom I still play with today. They've really helped me grow as a singer and performer, being honest with areas I should improve and praising areas that go well - the feedback has been invaluable and I still look for it every time we perform. It also helps they're all great friends and world class musicians with a true love for the repertoire.
Discussing studios, Fraser had played at StudiOwz before in Pembrokeshire, so he introduced me to Owain, the owner. I was very keen to go outside of London where we could get away from it all and have no distractions. I can't recommend the studio enough, it's a real beauty.
While I organised everything about the recording itself, I wanted Fraser Urquart to really lead the recording session with the musicians. After all, they are his arrangements and he alone knew how they were supposed to sound on the day. He has a great talent for communicating what he wants from other musicians. He and I sat in on the mixing together, as I hadn't done this before. Fraser led with what he thought sounded best regarding the levels of the various instruments - the vocals were a little quiet nearing the end of mixing so I worked with them to convey how I wanted it to sound - I'm happy with the final result of this, and I'm glad I voiced my opinions rather than staying quiet!. Mastering was done separately - a case of sending them the files, describing how you'd like it to sound, then waiting for them to be sent back. Peter Beckmann, the Masterer, was fantastic with his feedback, I'm happy glad I chose him to work with.
Missing Letters
Replace the missing letters
for the song title
The Story Is Told
Fatha Hines
From The Deep Forest
"One night an announcer - let his name be forgotten, Earl says - was given a fatherly talking to by Hines. He'd been drinking too much on the job and Hines was asked to talk to him and he did.
Later that night he opened the show, sprawling on the table and leaning over the mike, lushed to the gills. He said, "Here comes Father Hines through the deep forest with his children." And the tag stuck, becoming the Hines trademark.
(Hines and Reginald Forsythe, the British composer, wrote that theme song, "Deep Forest", while the latter was staying with Earl in Chicago ...)
... One of the legends about Earl Hines that was settled in our hotel-room interview was the story that he had had the webbing between his fingers cut to enable him to make larger chords.That one is strictly a legend and was put out by a pianist who didn't like Earl, he says. "My normal reach is a tenth, though I can make elevenths and sometimes twelfths. But I really have to slip over them. The way I invert chords makes them sound bigger," he says."
Ralph J. Gleason (from Jam Session, An Anthology of Jazz edited by Ralph J. Gleason).
The Jazz Quiz
Mothers And Fathers
For our quiz this month we challenge you with fifteen questions concerning jazz Mothers and Fathers, Mamas and Papas. How many can you work out?
The September Jazz Quiz is
Tea Break
A series where musicians and others stop by for an imaginary Tea Break to talk about their music and projects.
Sam Braysher
As I made my way towards Café Le Rêve to meet with saxophonist Sam Braysher I noticed a small crowd gathered further up the street. They were listening to a skiffle group - two young guys on guitar and two young women on tea chest bass and washboard. They were playing that old Alexis Korner number I Ain't Gonna Worry No More. Not what I expected, the group that is, not the song.
Ferdinand, the owner of Café Le Rêve was amongst the audience. "Hi, Ian, they are good, aren't they. I have not heard a band like this before."
"Hi Ferdinand, skiffle was popular back in the 1950s when it didn't cost a lot to put the instruments together but yes, they are very good, they must be music students, I guess."
At which point Sam Braysher arrived and joined us. I introduced Sam to Ferdinand and then just as the band finished the number they must have spotted Sam's saxophone case. All four enthusiastically pleaded with Sam to sit in. He finally agreed "for just one number" and they decided on It's Tight Like That. It was exceptional - one of those musical events that only comes along unexpectedly every blue moon.
The rain started as they finished. We headed for the café, the band ran for cover and the small crowd quickly dispersed.
Natalie, the waitress, greeted Sam and we made our way to the booth reserved for us at the back of the café.
"How long have you known Sam, Ian?" Natalie asked.
"Quite a while," I replied, "but sadly I haven't seen him for some time. Sam originally came from Norfolk and went to London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After graduation, he played with other Guildhall musicians in a big band led by trumpeter Barney Lowe - it was an amazing band, packed with talent, and Sam played some wonderful alto sax solos. The band was featured at Ronnie Scott's Club, but eventually dispersed. Sam has since made a real impression on the jazz scene both here and in Europe and has some fine recordings to his name. I'm lucky he has been able to drop in - he's a pretty busy guy these days!. Sorry, Sam, am I embarrassing you?! That was quite an experience with the skiffle group! You fitted in so well with them and your solo was inspired!"
Anyway it's really nice to see you Sam, can Natalie get you a tea or coffee – what do you fancy?
Nice to see you too, Ian! Tea for me, please: milk, no sugar.
I'd like a coffee please Natalie. Americano with milk as usual please. I get the feeling you deserve a well earned beak, Sam, and a decent holiday?
Yes, I have been quite busy. I do some teaching in addition to quite a few gigs, so the school holidays are always a welcome opportunity to rest, but also to practise the saxophone a bit more than I can during term time. I’ll be going away a few times over the summer and visiting some family.
Do a recap for me on what you have done this year – it seems to have been busy; have you travelled a lot?
A highlight of this year has been getting the band from my album of Kurt Weill’s music back together, including Sara Dowling and Dario Di Lecce, who both now live in Valencia. We did a couple of gigs, including one at Ronnie Scott’s, in the UK in January, and then some festival performances in May. I also released an album as co-band leader with my friend Linus Eppinger, who is a great guitarist living in Amsterdam. So that band has toured a couple of times, with gigs in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany, which I’ve really enjoyed. Otherwise, it’s been business as usual: performances with my band, some sideman engagements, bread and butter gigs around town and further afield, and teaching.
I have to ask you about your recordings with international musicians. Your latest album ‘A Sinner Kissed An Angel’ came out in April and once again you are recording with musicians from Europe. You have been developing these international connections for some time now – how does it happen?
Most of those connections have come about quite organically. That said, I attended a jazz summer school near Barcelona in 2015 and 2016 (Jorge Rossy’s Begues Jazz Camp), and that was quite a transformative experience for me, in terms of connecting with lots of European musicians for the first time. I met Jorge Rossy there and subsequently toured in a band with him and recorded my own trio album with him. I met Linus indirectly through connections I made at the Camp, and I met Michael Kanan, who I recorded my first album with in a duo setting, in New York, but then got to know him more at Begues, where he was a tutor. A Sinner Kissed an Angel features a great international rhythm section: Eric Ineke, a Dutch drummer who I met on a gig in the Hague, and Darryl Hall, an American bassist living in France, who Linus had toured with previously.
It is hard to believe that album with Michael Kanan was eight years ago! Michael came over for a few gigs at the time I remember - I have a video on my laptop of you both playing There's A Small Hotel - let's take a look:
How are things going with the new album? This one you have released as a digital recording and a CD – you asked in your mail out a while ago what readers thought about formats and some said they would still like CDs. How do you decide on whether to go for CDs, Downloads or Vinyl?
Things have gone well with the album, thanks. We’ve had some nice reviews and it was a real treat to play five gigs in a row - all in different cities - with the same band, which is a rarity in this day and age. As for the release format, that depends on the project, and it’s something I’m still figuring out. "A Sinner Kissed An Angel" was very much a collaborative project with Linus and it came out on Spanish label Fresh Sound Records, so they decided upon the release format.
The question that I put to readers of my mailing list, which you allude to, was actually in reference to a forthcoming duo album with Michael Kanan - a follow up to the one we released in 2017. I am planning for that to be my first ever vinyl release, but I wanted to gauge the thoughts of my newsletter readers: would they buy a vinyl album? Would they be disappointed if I released an album without a CD option? Or do they just stream all the music that they listen to? So, the plan is to try that duo record as a vinyl release and then I’ll potentially do vinyl runs for other projects in the future, depending on how it goes.
The final gig of the tour was at London’s Pizza Express in July – because the other guys were over in the UK for the gig I hope you had a good audience?
We had a lovely audience in the end, thanks. I really enjoyed that gig and it felt good from a musical perspective, too: one of my favourite performing experiences of the year so far, and a great way to finish off our album release tour in one of my favourite jazz clubs.
By the way, who chose the title for the album? On the surface it seems an odd choice until you read Sinatra’s lyrics.
I think it was Linus’ idea! There’s no deep meaning behind it, really: it’s one of the tracks on the album and I think we thought it would make a striking name for the record.
Do you have a favourite track from the album?
I really enjoy playing “Put On A Happy Face”, which was introduced by Dick Van Dyke in the film Bye Bye Birdie. I also like our rendition of Dusty Springfield’s “Spooky”, which is a bit different from the repertoire I normally play.
I have always loved Spooky as a song; you and Linus interpret it beautifully - I have given Natalie a copy of the CD - let's get her to put Spooky on - I think the expression is "get in the groove" for this one:
Time Out Ten
Magnolia's Wedding Day
Chris Barber's Jazz Band
For this item you need to be able to stop for ten minutes.
We are often moving on to the next job, the next meeting, scrolling down social media, taking the next call ......'Time Out Ten' asks you to stop for ten minutes and listen to a particular piece of music; to find a time when you won't be interrupted, when you can put in/on your headphones and chill out. Ten minutes isn't long.
This month we bring you a 'pick-me-up' for our ten minutes time out. This is the Chris Barber Band in 1955 at the height of their 'jazz revival' period with Chris on trombone, Pat Halcox (trumpet), Monty Sunshine (clarinet), Lonnie Donegan (banjo), Mickey Ashman (string bass) and Ron Bowden on the drums.
It is time to kick off your shoes and let go (no-one is watching - or if they are, get them to join in).
Bill Oddie, Mike Gibbs
The Goodies and Me
by Robin Kidson
Bill Oddie (1941-2026)
Bill Oddie died in July at the age of 85. The master of many trades - comedian, writer, naturalist and broadcaster - he was also a great lover of jazz. In the 1960s, when his career was starting to take off, he began a friendship with Mike Gibbs, the composer and jazz musician.
Born in Rhodesia, Mike Gibbs studied at the Berklee College of Music in America. Moving to the UK in 1964, he became a jobbing musician, mainly playing trombone. He also arranged and composed, often for bands which he led.
In the late 1960s, Oxbridge comedians, Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor came up with an idea for a new comedy show for the BBC to be called The Goodies. Drawing on their friendship, Oddie asked Mike Gibbs if he would be the show’s musical director. The Goodies eventually ran from 1970 to 1980 and was hugely popular. Gibbs’s association with it lasted from 1970 to 1974. In collaboration with Oddie, he wrote the show’s theme tune. He also wrote and performed much of the incidental music using a 5-piece band which usually included Chris Spedding on guitar and Dave MacRae on keyboards. After 1974, MacRae took over as musical director.
Here is a selection of The Goodies music from both the Gibbs and MacRae eras. Some of the early pieces clearly display the characteristic jazz-rock Mike Gibbs touch:
Mike Gibbs’s jazz career moved up several gears when, in 1970, he released his first album, Michael Gibbs. This contained eight of his own compositions played by a large orchestra which included the main British jazz luminaries of the era: John Surman, Alan Skidmore, Kenny Wheeler, Barbara Thompson, Chris Spedding… the list goes on. Ex-Cream member, Jack Bruce, was on bass guitar.
The music was a particularly imaginative brand of jazz rock and the album received much critical acclaim at the time. Perhaps it’s best known track is Family Joy, Oh Boy! where the exuberance of Mike Gibbs’s music is on full display. Listen here:
(I seem to remember that another of its tracks, And On The Third Day, became the theme tune of a BBC Radio jazz programme but I can’t be sure of this – perhaps older readers may have better recall than me…)
In January 1970, around the time the album was released, Mike Gibbs and his Orchestra appeared in a concert at the London School of Economics. The promoters were the School’s very active Jazz Society (known as JazzSoc) together with an organisation called the London Jazz Centre Society (LJCS). The LJCS mainly existed to campaign and raise funds for a National Jazz Centre in Covent Garden and often collaborated with JazzSoc in putting on fund-raising concerts at the LSE.
At the time, I was a first year LSE student and very much involved with JazzSoc so I was present at the Mike Gibbs concert. His Orchestra included many of the musicians who had played on the album, including Jack Bruce. Most of the JazzSoc concerts were held in the LSE’s Old Theatre, an ideal venue for jazz, and were usually open to the general public.
The concert had created quite a buzz and the Old Theatre was full. Many students attended most of whom I suspect weren’t really jazz fans at all but were attracted by the presence of Jack Bruce. He was still a big name then, even though he’d largely renounced pure rock and had gone back to his first love, jazz. He stayed largely in the background at the concert but his bass guitar was to the fore helping to provide the vital pulse of Mike Gibbs’s music.
The audience also included people I recognised – jazz critics, for example, together with various pop and rock musicians with an interest in jazz. It also included Mike Gibbs’s old friend, Bill Oddie.
Zoe Rahman
The Hull Suite
by Howard Lawes
World Piano Day was celebrated in Hull for the first time on the 88th day of 2024 at Humber Street Piano Sessions, 88 being the number of keys on a piano. Local pianists were invited to come along and play a tune during the day which culminated in the world premiere of the Hull Suite composed and performed by pianist Zoe Rahman. Talking over Zoom, Zoe described receiving a call from Hull Jazz Festival founder David Porter asking her to compose a twenty-minute suite but leaving her only two weeks in which to compose it. The work was to be based on the themes of voyage, migration and family, taking inspiration from two statues in Hull. The first, called The Migrants statue, commemorates the 2.2 million people who passed through Hull as a port between 1836 and 1914, travelling from northern Europe to America. The second statue, called Voyage, looks out across the Humber towards the sea and commemorates the fishermen, seafarers and trade shared between Hull and Iceland, where there is a twin sculpture.
The Voyage statue
Zoe’s links with Hull go back a long way. Zoe had played a spellbinding gig with Courtney Pine at the 2021 Hull Jazz Festival, but her first visit to Hull was much earlier, playing with Hull’s own Roland Gift, former frontman of the Fine Young Cannibals, at the grand opening of the Hull City Stadium in December, 2002. It was a freezing cold day, and Hull City beat Sunderland 1-0.
When considering the family theme, Zoe’s thoughts turned to memories of her parents who as young people met at the University of Sydney in Australia. Zoe’s mother emigrated to New Zealand as a 10-year old girl, travelling by ship. The journey took 6 weeks. As a young woman, Zoe’s mother studied at the University of Sydney where she met Zoe’s father who had travelled from Bengal. Her father had to go back to Bengal for a family matter but before returning to Australia had to show that he had sufficient funds to support himself. Zoe’s mother sold her new piano to raise the money.
The Voyage statue and her parent's story inspired the Voyage composition from Zoe's suite. The statue, Voyage, looks paradoxically serene given the dangers faced by Hull’s fishing trawlers over the years but the music takes its inspiration from the statue and includes a lovely double bass solo.
Zoe told this story at the premiere of the Hull Suite and until recently had been unaware that her mother may have had ambitions to be a musician. As it turned out the couple settled in England, her mother becoming a GP and her father a teacher of English Literature and they bought another, second-hand piano, and the rest as the say, is history.
The Rahman family were keen on the arts and Zoe and her siblings started to play the piano, more out of curiosity than parental pressure. Zoe’s talent for music rapidly became apparent, encouraged, Zoe remembers by a wonderful teacher at primary school called Mrs Hawkins. Zoe went on to become a Junior Exhibitioner at the Royal Academy of Music, took a music degree at Oxford University and then won a scholarship to study jazz performance at Berklee College of Music, Boston, where she studied with the inspirational pianist JoAnne Brackeen.
Zoe’s own children also enjoy making music and perhaps with some inspiration from their mother’s memory of Mrs Hawkins they composed a song that won a competition for their school in which the prize was Jamie Cullum’s piano. It goes without saying that Zoe believes music is important for children in many ways. Studies have shown that not only does music bring joy, but it has a wealth of personal and social advantages. Zoe is dismayed at how music education in schools has declined over the years and both she, through the National Youth Jazz Collective, and her brother Idris, through Youthsayers, involve themselves in music education. While an education in music brings many benefits, a career in music can be problematic, particularly for young women. Zoe’s ability has been widely recognised, being the first female jazz instrumentalist to be nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2006 and winning a Parliamentary Jazz Award (2006), a MOBO award (2012) and the Ivor Novello Impact Award at the Ivors Composer Awards (2021). A female jazz instrumentalist is perhaps less 'marketable' than a female jazz singer and Zoe decided very early in her career to self release her albums starting with The Cynic (2001). She named her record label 'Manushi', the name derived from the Bengali word 'manush' which means 'human'.
Although the premiere performance of the Hull Suite in 2024 was on solo piano, her new recording features her longstanding trio. Zoe has been performing with her current trio of Alec Dankworth on double bass and Gene Calderazzo on drums since 2003, and this recording is her first since 2001 to feature just the trio. Zoe speaks very warmly of Alec and Gene, highlighting their professionalism and innovation and the wonderful social and musical dynamic that exists between them. The recording, at The Vortex in London, was live with an audience and that gives the music a freshness and spontaneity that is impossible to achieve in a studio.
A Tribute To
Vinnie Colaiuta
Vinnie Colaiuta
This video, uploaded in August, features a fine performance by graduating drummer Yukai Yang from Berklee College of Music paying tribute to drummer Vinnie Colaiuta who received an honorary doctorate from the College. 'This performance pays homage to Colaiuta’s iconic 1989 rendition of Sammy Nestico’s “Ya Gotta Try” with The Buddy Rich Big Band at The Buddy Rich Memorial Scholarship Concert, that in turn honoured drummer Buddy Rich and the band’s celebrated 1977 recording of the piece. Colaiuta’s landmark drum performance has inspired generations of drummers and remains a touchstone for Vinnie fans and students of the instrument. Presented by members of the Class of 2026, this tribute is part of an interdisciplinary production that brought together 224 students representing 42 countries."
Jazz Played Here
Toots Jazz Club
Brussels
by Peter Maguire*
Toots Jazz Club is a relatively new jazz venue in the heart of Brussels, right by the Grand-Place. It opened at its current location in 2025, as a tribute to Belgian jazz legend Toots Thielemans, and is run by the Toots Live association.
The club features modern New York jazz, plus swing, mainstream, hard bop, funk, and gypsy jazz and hosts international musicians on a regular basis. The atmosphere is intimate, lively and deliberately "old-school jazz-club-like", with a weekly Wednesday night jam; Thursdays–Saturdays often have late jams after the main concerts too. Bar: beers, cocktails, wine/champagne and non-alcoholic drinks, with simple snacks such as cheese and charcuterie are on offer. It is a great venue for both musicians and jazz aficionados.
Toots can be found at 6 Rue des Chapeliers, 1000 Brussels. Its website with more information is here.
Here is a short video extract with Rick Margitza playing Cry Me A River at the club :
*Trombonist Peter Maguire is based in Belgium and is the creator of the Jazz Clubs Worldwide website, a valuable database if you are looking for jazz clubs elsewhere. Peter will be telling us of other clubs in future issues.
Forum
Roy Budd and Steptoe
Steve Gerrard asks: " Hiya Ian, I just read your site re Mr Roy Budd (here) as I am trying to find the end credit music to the Steptoe and Son film. It is a tremendous jazzy version of Mr Grainer's Old Ned theme from the TV series. Do you have any idea where I can find a copy of it? I have looked everywhere!"
We were able to find this clip for Steve (here) and there is also another Trad version here. (Ed}
Fitzroy Coleman and Lauderic Caton
A couple of months ago Alan Bond wrote: "Still picking up Sandy Brown Jazz magazine and enjoying it every month, it is one of the highlights indeed. For some strange reason I woke up this morning with two names running round in my head and they are Fitzroy Coleman and Lauderic Caton (pictured right with the Ray Ellington Quartet and Ray Nance), both Jamaican, and unsung heroes who passed through my consciousness many times over the years. Both are no longer with us but their legacies remain. They are two among a fairly large contingent of Jamaican musicians who made a mark on the U.K. music scene all those years ago and their talent was recognised by no less a man than Humphrey Lyttelton, with whom they, and others, recorded back in the 1950s."
There is more information about both of these guitarists online: Fitzroy Coleman here and Lauderic Caton here and here. In this video Fitzroy Coleman plays This Can't Be Love and here is Lauderic Caton with Harry Parry playing Sweet Georgia Brown (Ed}
New Merlin's Cave
Liz Silvester writes: "I just felt nostalgic for the New Merlin's Cave, gave it a Google search and came across your site (page here). In the mid-70s, following my parents' divorce, my Dad, Jim Silvester, would quite often take my sister and I to the NMC over Sunday lunch. We lived in Islington with our mother and brothers, while Dad was over in Chiswick so with his love of jazz and NMC being local to us, it was quite a good option for a divorced dad outing. I remember one Sunday Dad brought his friend Bud Freeman along, Bud lodged at my Dad's place for a while and usually stayed with him when he was visiting. We also met Peter Boizot, there, Pizza Express and Kettners founder, who Dad had also got to know over the years. After the music we jumped in a couple of cabs and went up to the Pizza Express in Hampstead for food. It was a lovely day and we sat in the garden at the back. My sister and I, aged about 12 and 14 at the time, were thrilled to be getting free pizza but were bored by the old jazz fans getting drunk together and slightly embarrassed that Peter Boizot sent a waiter round to the local Chinese to get a takeaway for all the auld fellas. A few years later, some friends who lived locally had a band who got a booking on a week night at the NMC. Their backing vocals hadn't turned up so my friend and I stepped in. I was rubbish but it felt great standing on that famous stage."
Departure Lounge
Information has arrived about the following musicians or people connected to jazz who have passed through the 'Departure Lounge' since our last update.
When this page first started, links to newspaper obituaries were free. Then increasingly advertisements were added and now many newspapers ask for a subscription to read a full obituary. Where possible, we initially link to a Wikipedia page which is still free of charge, but we also give links to newspaper obituaries in case you want to read them.
Geraldine Bey de Haas
American vocalist and concert organiser known as 'The First Lady Of Chicago Jazz'. Born in New Jersey she created the Duke Ellington Celebration in Grant Park in 1974 from which the Chicago Jazz Festival developed. She also organised other concerts and performance opportunities for young musicians and founded the jazz festival at the South Shore Cultural Centre in 1981. Obituaries: Wikipedia : Chicago Sun-Times : New York Times : A video of Geraldine with her sister and brother singing Willow Weep For Me from 1965 is here.
Recent Releases
A few words about recent releases / reviews:
Apart from where they are included in articles on this website, I don't have a 'Reviews' section for a number of reasons:
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I receive so many requests to review recordings it is impossible to include them all.
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Unlike some publications/blogs, Sandy Brown Jazz is not a funded website and it is not possible to pay reviewers.
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Reviews tend to be personal opinions, something a reviewer likes might not suit you, or vice versa.
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It is difficult to capture music in words, so much better to be able to listen and see whether the music interests you.
For these reasons in particular I just include a selection of recent recordings below where I share the notes issued by the musician(s) as an introduction and links to samples so you can 'taste' the music for yourselves. For those who like to read reviews, these, of course, can be checked out on other sites.
Some Recent Releases
You will find our Recent Releases page HERE where you can scroll down and see our featured releases, or click on the titles below for details of a particular album Included this month:
UK
Ben Crosland Quintet - North York Skies
Jack Wilson - The Bear And The Wolf
America
Linda May Han Oh / Melissa Aldana - Beneath Lifted Skies
Ralph Alessi - A Sun That Never Sets
Europe and Elsewhere
Somi - What Does It Take To Bloom?
Adam Baldych European Quartet - Endless