Jazz musician Chris Ingham and folk musician Chris Wilbraham cast their expert eyes over the local music scene
JAZZ with Chris Ingham: cjr.ingham@outlook.com/chrisingham.co.uk
Sunday, June 9
ROB TOGNONI (Venue 16, Ipswich, 2.30pm, £15, ipswichjazzandblues.com) Known as The Tasmanian Devil, Aussie blues rock guitar great Rob Tognoni is fiery, energetic, inventive and explosive, with echoes of Cream, Jimi Hendrix and BB King.
KYM CYPHER’S BRIGHTER TOMORROW (Colchester Arts Centre, 7.30pm, £16, colchesterartscentre.com) Upbeat performer sometimes described as ‘funky saxophonist meets 1940s’ jazz singer’, Cypher is joined by Chris Cobbson (guitar), Anders Olinder (keyboard), Mike Green (bass), Mike Cypher (drums).
Wednesday, June 12
ADRIAN YORK TRIO (Stoke By Nayland Golf Club, 8pm, £18, 01787 211865, fleecejazz.org.uk) Pianist, educator and broadcaster Adrian York presents Conversations With Bill: A Celebration of Bill Evans with Paul Whitten (bass) and Mark Fletcher (drums).
FOR THE DIARY
Saturday, June 15
PAUL HIGGS – PAVANE (Hadleigh Town Hall, 3pm, £20, ticketsource/whats-on/ipswich/hadleigh-town-hall) Special matinée performance (evening is sold out) of a unique six-piece jazz-classical crossover group led by trumpeter/ composer Paul Higgs. Featuring Natalie Rozario (cello),
Andy Watson (guitar), Chris Ingham (piano), Jerome Davies
(bass) and George Double.
Tuesday, June 18
PHIL ROBSON TRIO (Maddermarket Theatre Bar, Norwich, 8pm, £16/£8 u25, norwichjazzclub.co.uk) Award-winning, versatile and creative guitarist/composer Phil Robson joins forces with Hammond virtuoso Ross Stanley and the powerful and inspiring drummer Gene Calderazzo to bring their own refreshing touch to the organ trio tradition.
Friday, June 21
CROOKS/FOWLER QUINTET: AL & ZOOT - A SALUTE (Hunter Club, Bury, 7.30pm, £19, headhunterslive.org, 07799 650009) Witty, tuneful and unfailingly swinging, the legendary 28-year Al Cohn/Zoot Sims tenor sax partnership specialised in good-natured, cultured, straight-ahead jazz. Mark Crooks (John Wilson Orchestra, Jazz at the Movies) and Robert Fowler (Pasadena Roof Orchestra, Humphrey Lyttelton) revisit Al and Zoot’s uniquely appealing music with consummate artistry.
Sunday, June 23
SI CRANSTOUN (Apex, 7.30pm, £28, theapex.co.uk, 01284 758000) Popular singer and entertainer Cranstoun is a fabulous throwback to the old swing blues shouters of the 1940s and 1950s.
FLETCH’S BREW (Stoke By Nayland Golf Club, 8pm, £18, 01787 211865, fleecejazz.org.uk) Virtuoso-heavy quintet blending the idioms of fusion, funk, bebop, reggae and rock. Led from the drums by Mark Fletcher and featuring Freddie Gavita (trumpet), Paul Stacey (guitar), Jim Watson (piano) and Steve Pearce (bass).
Thursday, June 27
MARK LOCKHEART’S DREAMERS (Hidden Rooms, Cambridge, 7.30pm, £20, cambridgejazz.org) Stylistically free and slightly psychedelic new project from saxophonist and composer Mark Lockheart, featuring keyboardist Elliot Galvin (Dinosaur, Elliot Galvin Trio), bassist Tom Herbert (Polar Bear, The Invisible) and drummer Dave Smith (Robert Plant).
Friday, June 28
JAZZ AT THE GUILDHALL (Guildhall, Bury, 7pm, £55 incl canapés and two-course supper, email: fundraising@swcab.org.uk) Regular fundraising event for the Citizens Advice Bureau, featuring singer Joanna Eden and Chris Ingham (piano), Owen Morgan (bass) and George Double (drums).
FOLK with Chris Wilbraham: chris.wilbraham@tinyonline.co.uk
It is only three weeks until Bury Folk Festival returns to Nowton Park’s walled garden, on Saturday, June 29. I asked festival organiser Tony Phillips what extra features we can expect to see this year:
“The festival team has added an all-day session tent, a special guest appearance of the Milkmaid Molly dance club and an extended market stall area this year. Our other major innovation is the introduction of evening only tickets, so if you can’t make it for the whole day you can still have a great night out for the amazing price of just £15 for four great acts, including the fabulous punk-folk vibes of Frazer Morgan. Check out the updated website for biogs of all performing artists, kids activities, stallholders and our fine selection of food and drink providers. Tickets are only £22.50, £7.50 for 12 to 16-year-olds, and under 12s are free of charge.”
Headlining the afternoon session on the main stage is Reg Meuross, who I was lucky enough to see perform with Cohen Braithwaite-Kilkoyne and Jali Fily Cissokho at Burton Folk Club in January, playing songs from his song cycle Stolen From God, a reflection on the effects of slavery over the centuries. Reg, who has released 16 albums since 1996, has told me he’ll be playing some new material along with old favourites and some songs from Stolen from God. His set starts at 3.10pm.
The afternoon line-up begins at 11am with Tony Phillip’s Ceilidh band The Doghouse Collective. They are followed by Milkmaid Songwriting Competition runner-up Samantha Penman, aka Retro Firefly. The winner, Robin Torbitt, takes the stage at 2.25pm, just before Reg Meuross.
John and Lynn Ward bring their brilliant songs of Lowestoft to the stage at 12.45pm. I fell in love with their music years ago on hearing Stornaway to Lowestoft, their tale of a Scottish herring girl falling for a Suffolk ploughboy. Listen out for songs from John’s album Congress, about Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show’s visit to Lowestoft in 1903 and Dock Side Dandy, which tells of a housewife escaping from her dreary life on the back of a Triumph Bonneville, driven by the eponymous trawlerman clad in bright teddy boy clothes.
Solo performers Vic Lennard and Petra Garrard play before and after The Wards and Isle Av A Shanty finish the afternoon with a singalong flourish.
In the evening, The Sheri Kershaw Trio follow Frazer Morgan onto the stage, The Wilswood Buoys play their lively mix of traditional folk and modern alternative acoustic pop at 7.45pm and Red Velvet start their festival ending set at 8.45pm, with the music finishing at 9.30pm.
Round the corner, The Green Stage will run a line-up of performances from 11am until 5pm that includes fully-booked Open Mics, a Ceilidh and sessions curated by Bury Folk Collective and The Bridge. There is a kids zone between 11am and 5pm and a “chill zone” all day. Throw in an appearance from Glenmoriston Pipe Band in the main arena around 5pm and it all looks like extraordinary value.
Here are some gigs happening sooner. Entry for some of them costs more than a festival ticket!:
Friday, June 7
Beer Café, Bury St Edmunds, 3pm, Folk Session.
John Peel Centre, Stowmarket, 7.30pm, Suntou Susso. £17.
Hadleigh Folk Club, Ansell Centre, 8pm, Gwendal Moële and Paul Riley + Chris King. £8.
Sudbury Arts Centre, 8pm, Fiona Bevin and Adam Beattie. £15.
Golden Hind, Cambridge, 8pm, Cambridge Folk Club: Open Stage with special guests Shock the Pilots. £3.
Sunday, June 9
Cambridge Junction, 8pm, Sam Sweeney Band. £23.50.
Wednesday, June 12
Banham Barrel, 8pm, Later with James Veira.
Thursday, June 13
The Apex, Bury St Edmunds, 7.30pm, The Red Hot Chilli Pipers. £32.
Friday, June 14
Golden Hind, Cambridge, 8pm, Cambridge Folk Club: The John Ward Trio. £9.
