bebop spoken here

• Winner: Samara Joy – Portrait
• Dee Dee Bridgewater & Bill Charlap – Elemental
• Terri Lyne Carrington & Christie Dashiell – We Insist 2025!
• Michael Mayo – Fly
• Nicole Zuraitis, Dan Pugach, Tom Scott, Idan Morim, Keyon Harrold & Rachel Eckroth - Live at Vic's Las Vegas

• Winner: Sullivan Fortner feat Peter Washington & Marcus Gilmore – Southern Nights
• Chick Corea, Christian McBride & Brian Blade – Trilogy 3 (Live)
• Branford Marsalis Quartet – Belonging
• John Patitucci feat Chris Potter & Brian Blade – Spirit Fall
• Yellowjackets – Fasten Up

© John Lyons

The room was crowded, there was a feeling of youthful pizzazz in the air. An air of eager anticipation from the younger element and curiosity from those of a more mature persuasion. Come the end of the evening both factions were happy with what they'd heard.

© John Lyons

Leading from the front he led his troops through a mix of well crafted originals and a few contemporary standards that were after my time but which I loved anyway. Several numbers had unaccompanied tenor passages in which his rich tone shone through whilst others displayed his formidable technique only rarely travelling too far in to the harmonic extremes of the instrument. The same agility was applied equally effectively to soprano. Olly Styles is the real deal.

Every so often, an album arrives that feels less like a release and more like a quiet revelation. Moon Over Mildmay is exactly that - a record that sidles into your life with the intimacy of a late-night conversation and leaves you wondering how this voice has been hiding in plain sight.

Emerging from the vibrant jazz scene of Newcastle upon Tyne, tenor saxophonist Olly Styles is bringing his unique sound and energy to the Globe for his debut headline show.

Inspired by the both the modern and old school tenor sax titans Olly’s music draws inspiration from the likes of Joshua Redman, Chad LB, Bob Reynolds and Hank Mobley. His sound fuses the old and new, blending bop with groove based music and the great songwriting storytellers, to create his own unique voice.

The second album by Five-Way Split maintains the high standard set by their 2023 debut album All the Way. The hard bop quintet still relates to the founding fathers of the idiom such as the Jazz Messengers or the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet only this time re-imagining them in terms of today. It's not as raw as the originals, maybe a little softer around the edges which is no bad thing.

Dan Coulthurst arrived at Gateshead's Central Bar twenty four hours after a successful gig (100 plus audience) at Cobalt Studios in Newcastle. This evening, on Half Moon Lane, the affable Coulthurst would play to a somewhat smaller audience. 

The Dan Coulthurst Quintet opened with What is to be Done? In possession of a formidable technique, trumpeter Coulthurst touched base with NYC's loft scene of some sixty years ago, similarly Chicago's AACM, through to twenty first century developments, jazz and, fleetingly, improv. Studious, if not earnest, in demeanour, Coulthurst and his bandmates were fully immersed in the music. 

Rummaging amongst the shelves of the Cancer Research shop in Morpeth can sometimes reveal hidden gems. A large tranche of CDs by the BBC Concert Orchestra (Plays Bach, Plays Debussy, and, I wouldn’t wonder, Plays Dominoes and Darts), was neighboured by Glad Day: Settings of William Blake by Mike Westbrook.