Jazz musician and folk music's Chris Wilbraham with all the gigs happening in the Suffolk area
JAZZ with Chris Ingham: cjr.ingham@outlook.com/chrisingham.co.uk
Tuesday, April 8
KATE WILLIAMS QUARTET (Maddermarket Theatre Bar, Norwich, 8.30pm, £20/£10 u25, norwichjazzclub.co.uk) Estimable, original pianist/composer Kate returns to the city of her education with an excellent band comprising Gareth Lockrane (flues), Oli Hayhurst and David Ingamells (drums).
Wednesday, April 9
PAUL HIGGS’ PAVANE (Stoke By Nayland Golf Club, 8pm, £22, fleecejazz.org.uk, 01787 211865) The celebrated jazz/classical crossover band led by trumpeter/composer Paul Higgs and featuring Natalie Rozario (cello), Andy Watson (guitar), Chris Ingham (piano), Jerome Davies (bass) and George Double (drums).
Thursday, April 10
RALPH MOORE (Diss Corn Hall, 7.30pm, £18, thecornhall.co.uk, 01379 652241) UK-born, US-based since 1972, saxophonist Moore played with Horace Silver (1981-85), the Dizzy Gillespie Reunion Band (1987) and was in The Tonight Show band for 15 years. This is a rare and exciting opportunity to hear one of the leading tenor saxophonists of his generation in a UK jazz club. With Chris Ingham (piano), Simon Woolf (bass) and George Double (drums).
TOM OLLENDORFF (Hidden Rooms, Cambridge, 7.30pm, £22 & £16.50, cambridgejazz.org, 01223 514777) Rising guitar star, Ollendorff graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music in Cardiff, and is presenting music from his album Open House rated by by Jazzwise as a ‘combination of fearsome musical chops, sophisticated compositional sensibility and unashamedly tuneful and upbeat musical personality which is very hard to resist’. With Will Sach (bass) and David Ingamells (drums).
Friday, April 11
JO HARROP (Hunter Club Arts Centre, Bury, 7.30pm, £20, headhunterslive.org, 07799 650009) One of the busiest and most charismatic singers on London’s music scene garnering rave reviews for her live appearances and recordings. Jo’s latest album The Path of a Tear was produced by the legendary Larry Klein (Norah Jones, Madeleine Peyroux, Joni Mitchell). Tonight, her powerful, evocative songs and rich, sultry voice are accompanied by Sam Braysher (sax), Chris Ingham (piano) and Malcolm Creese (bass).
FOR THE DIARY
Sunday, April 13
THE 251s (Venue 16, Ipswich, 2.30pm, £15/£7.50, ipswichjazzandblues.com) An afternoon of jump blues, jazz and swing from one of Southend’s most popular retro acts.
Friday, April 18
MARK CROOKS/ROBERT FOWLER (Southwold Arts Centre, 7.30pm, £20, southwoldartscentre.co.uk) Two of the UK’s finest tenor saxophonists present From A to Z, a swinging salute to the legendary twin-tenor team of Al Cohn and Zoot Sims. With the George Double Trio.
Saturday, April 19
MARK CROOKS/ROBERT FOWLER (Hadleigh Town Hall, 7.30pm, £20, georgedouble.com) See April 18.
Friday, April 25
BEN HOLDER/JULIAN STRINGLE (Hunter Club Arts Centre, Bury, 7.30pm, £20, headhunterslive.org, 07799 650009) A sensational pairing of two of the UK’s most exciting and virtuosic swing musicians; the genius jazz fiddler Ben Holder and the prodigious clarinettist Julian Stringle. The quintet is completed by Chris Ingham (piano), Simon Hurley (guitar) and Paul Jefferies (bass).
HANNAH HORTON WITH IAN SHAW (Haverhill Arts Centre, 8pm, £15/£10, haverhillartscentre.co.uk) Swinging Cat Jazz Club hostess Hannah Horton welcomes singer/songwriter Ian Shaw, routinely cited, along with Mark Murphy and Kurt Elling, as one of the world’s finest male jazz vocalists.
FOLK with Chris Wilbraham: chris.wilbraham@ tinyonline.co.uk
Last week I had a glimpse into the life of a proper travelling folk musician.
Terry Dean, who saw The Larks’s set at Ely Folk Festival, invited us to play at Uxbridge Folk Club. After finding the club has a strong following and we would have our expenses paid, we accepted, despite the four-hour round trip, possibly longer in rush hour on the M25. We set off at 4pm arriving outside Uxbridge Royal Navy Association, the gig venue, which resembled a Scout hut nestling behind a parade of shops near the beginning of the M40, around six o’clock. After pancake rolls and jasmine tea in a nearby Chinese Restaurant, at 7pm we found ourselves inside a perfect cosy room for folk music, lined with Naval memorabilia, and Terence Blacker arriving from Diss to play the headline sets. Volunteers worked to unlock the mysteries of the sound desk and as sound checking finished, the room began to fill with the music lovers of Uxbridge.
We opened our set at 8pm with The Death of Queen Jane, following with eight original songs, including one about Shippea Hill railway station.
Terence followed us with material taken from his one man theatre show The Shock of the Old.
After the interval, floor singer Paul Fincken played beautifully and sang his own compositions, including one about Davey Graham and Trad Anon, a tribute to those anonymously responsible for songs classified as traditional but which couldn’t have written themselves.
Some think that folk clubs are filled with people singing traditional songs while sticking their finger in one ear. I saw no fingers in ears and our opener was the only trad song heard that evening. The rest were performed by the people who had written them, Uxbridge Folk Club fostering an evening of original, contemporary art.
Terence began his second set with Other People’s Lives, arguably the highlight of the evening. It tells of a dream in which he talks to his father on his death bed and goes on to reflect on how we see our own lives in comparison to those going on around us, and how we all end up in the same place. Most of his songs were much more humerous but no less well observed. He sang of pensioners using dating apps, rich middle class white people singing the blues and anything else he has seen and reflected on. Often backed by Latin rhythms, his songs are funny, pithy and delivered with expert and complex guitar playing.
Before leaving, we had a conversation about whether Shippea Hill is on a hill and discussed the legality of eating penguin eggs with a guy who served in the Falklands, after I said folk legend Nic Jones described himself as a driver rather than a folk singer after realising he typically would drive for six hours in a day, to sing for 90 minutes.
Terence was home at 2am apparently, we were home an hour earlier.
Will we ever get used to the glamour?
You won’t have to travel as far for these gigs:
Friday, April 4
Risbygate Sports Club, Bury St Edmunds, 7.45pm, Milkmaid Folk Club: Causton and Walker. £12.
Beer Café, Bury St Edmunds, 3.30-5.30pm, Folk session.
Hadleigh Folk Club, Ansell Centre, 8pm, Gemma Khawaja + Maggie and Stan. £8.
Chevington Greyhound, 7.40pm, Paul Thacker, Cottonfields.
Golden Hind, Cambridge, 8pm, Cambridge Folk Club, Open Stage with special guests Peter and Jane. £4.
Wednesday, April 9
Risbygate Sports Club, Bury St Edmunds, 7pm, Songwriting Competition Heat 4. £5.
The Wine Cellar, 33 Buttermarket, Bury St Edmunds, 7.30pm, Ed & Jane, Steve Winning, Steve & Elena.
Friday, April 11
Wingfield Barns, 7.30pm, Niepold-Cutting. £17.
Golden Hind, Cambridge, 8pm, Cambridge Folk Club: Plumhall, support from Kelly and Woolley. £13.
