Ace Sax Gigs to see from 29th June 2015
2 July Martin Genge The Inn at Freshford, near Bath http://www.bristoljazzsoc.co.uk/jazzdiary.htm
4 July Iain Ballamy/Trish Clowes Parabola Arts Centre, Cheltenham http://trishclowes.com/dates/
5 July The Uncommon Orchestra Hen & Chicken, Bedminster, Bristol http://jazzata.com/gignews.html
6 July Dave Betts Group The Bell, Walcott Street, Bath http://www.kevinfiges.co.uk/live-dates/
9 July Pete Gage Band (Craig Crofton) Coronation Tap, Clifton, Bristol http://www.petegagemusic.com/#!gigs/c1c5j
10 July The Emperials Tunnels, Temple Meads, Bristol http://www.bristolticketshop.co.uk/eventdetails.aspx?e=9478
Chris Gumbley Quintet Meeting House, Ilminster http://www.themeetinghouse.org.uk/music
11 July Get the Blessing Iford Manor Arts Festival, near Bath http://www.ifordarts.org.uk/midsummer-jazz/
James Hunter Six The Lantern, Colston Hall, Bristol http://www.colstonhall.org/shows/the-james-hunter-six/
Spandau Ballet Westonbirt Arboretum http://www.ticketline.co.uk/spandau-ballet#tour
12 July Pete Gage Band (Sean McBride) Cornerhouse, Frome http://www.petegagemusic.com/#!gigs/c1c5j
15 July Femi Kuti & the Positive Force Colston Hall, Bristol http://www.colstonhall.org/shows/femi-kuti-the-positive-force/
Andy Sheppard Fringe Jazz, Mall pub, The Mall, Clifton, Bristol http://www.fringejazz.com/gig-list.html
17-19 July Marlborough Jazz Festival http://www.marlboroughjazz.com/index.php/programme
17th – Gilad Atzmon; Stan Sulzmann; Baraka; Yolanda Brown; Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band; Red Stripe Band
18th – Darius Brubeck Quartet; Roy’s Big Smoke Family; Adam Winslet Band; Jive Aces; Midwest Big Band
19th – Bratislava Hot Serenaders;
24 July The Paperboys Chapel Arts Centre, Bath http://www.chapelarts.org/index.php?main_page=products_all
Tommy Smith Meeting House, Ilminster http://www.themeetinghouse.org.uk/music
26 July Greg Abate Hen & Chicken, West Street, Bedminster, Bristol http://jazzata.com/gignews.html
2 August Bad Manners The Fleece, Bristol http://thefleece.seetickets.com/event/bad-manners/the-fleece/846609
Gianni Denitto Future Inn, Cabot Circus, Bristol http://www.jazzatfutureinn.co.uk/gig-list
3 August Dakhla The Bell, Walcott Street, Bath http://www.dakhlabrass.com/gigs/
7 August Baila La Cumbia (Craig Crofton) Canteen, Stokes Croft, Bristol https://bailalacumbia.wordpress.com/gigs/
8-9 August Brecon Jazz Festival http://breconjazz.com/programme/
8th – Courtney Pine; Scott Hamilton; Partisans; Julian Arguelles;
9th – Stan Sulzmann; Sons of Kemet; Joan Chamorro; Capital City Jazz Orchestra
14 August Alex Garnett Meeting House, Ilminster http://www.themeetinghouse.org.uk/music
18 August Simon Spillett New Inn, Westerleigh http://www.simonspillett.com/forthcomingliveappearances.htm
19 August Monkey Chuckle Old Duke, King Street, Bristol http://monkeychuckle.co.uk/
20-23 August Mindi Abair Pizza Express Jazz Club, Soho, London http://www.mindiabair.com/
28 August Ronnie Jones Quartet Meeting House, Ilminster http://www.themeetinghouse.org.uk/music
30 August 2Rude The Fleece, Victoria St., Bristol http://thefleece.co.uk/events_category/touring-shows/
6 September The Slackers The Fleece, Victoria St., Bristol http://thefleece.co.uk/events_category/touring-shows/
12 September Madness County Ground, Nevil Road, Bristol http://www.madness.co.uk/live/
19 September The Dualers Tunnels, Temple Meads, Bristol http://www.bristolticketshop.co.uk/eventdetails.aspx?e=7694
24-26 September Loose Tubes Ronnie Scott’s, Soho https://www.ronniescotts.co.uk/schedulemonthly/2015/september
2 October Snake Davis Chapel Arts, Lower Borough Walls, Bath http://www.snakedavis.com/tourdates.asp
5 October Snarky Puppy O2, Frogmore St., Bristol https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/snarky-puppy
12 October Simon Spillett Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham http://www.simonspillett.com/forthcomingliveappearances.htm
13 October Andy Sheppard St George’s, Bristol http://www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk/events/2015-10/?mcMonth=2015-10
26 October Alan Barnes Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham http://www.cheltenhamjazz.co.uk/
11 November Monkey Chuckle Old Duke, King Street, Bristol http://monkeychuckle.co.uk/
12 November The Beat The Fleece, Bristol http://thefleece.seetickets.com/event/the-beat/the-fleece/854642
13 November Maceo Parker Under the Bridge, Chelsea, London http://underthebridge.co.uk/events/
14 November Maceo Parker Under the Bridge, Chelsea, London http://underthebridge.co.uk/events/
29 November Tower of Power Koko, Mornington Crescent, London http://www.koko.uk.com/listings/tower-power-29-11-2015
4 December Jean Toussaint Victory Club, Lypiatt Road, Cheltenham http://www.cheltenhamjazz.co.uk/
5 December Blockheads, The Fleece, Victoria Street, Bristol http://www.thefleece.co.uk/shows/
7 December Supertramp O2 Greenwich, London https://www.ents24.com/london-events/the-o2/supertramp/4199295
18 December The Beat Cheese & Grain, Frome http://cheeseandgrain.ticketsolve.com/shows/873528529
20 December Blockheads Komedia, Westgate Street, Bath http://www.theblockheads.com/page/live
La Folie Douce and ace sax
Check this out, One of my fav students Elle told me about saxophonists who play at the ska resort La Folie Douce Val d’Isère
here’s one example-
PlucknBlow – Lettice Rowbotham & André Brown at La Folie Douce,
Van Morrison’s knighthood caps career for visionary singer and saxophonist
Here comes the knight: Van Morrison’s knighthood caps career for visionary singer who we used to see in Bath all the time.
Van Morrison
Van Morrison has been honoured for his services to music and tourism in Northern Ireland
“Take me back, take me way, way, way back,” Van Morrison whispers at the beginning of On Hyndford Street.
That’s where it began, on a working-class Belfast street, with his father’s classic jazz and blues records ringing through the red-brick terraced house in the east of the city.
Now, more than 50 years on from his first recordings and two months shy of his 70th birthday, a knighthood in the Queen’s honours caps a career that has seen the singer achieve the rare double of consistent commercial success and widespread adulation from the critics.
An enigmatic figure, Morrison has always taken shelter from the spotlight.
It was typical, as a man of precious few words, that he offered little to the press in reaction to his latest, and possibly greatest, honour.
“Throughout my career I have always preferred to let my music speak for me,” he said.
“It is a huge honour to now have that body of work recognised in this way.”
Breakthrough
His music does indeed speak volumes.
Impossible to define, he has managed to blend blues, country, soul, jazz and Celtic folk with evocative lyrics that have earned him comparisons with some of Ireland’s greatest poets.
His songs are unique products of his home city and the music he absorbed as a child – Hank Williams, Muddy Waters and Lead Belly he cites as major influences.
Morrison left school at 15 without qualifications, taking a job as a window-cleaner as he sang in various bands in Belfast.
The breakthrough was fronting and playing saxophone with his first band Them and the gigs they played at the city’s long-since-gone Maritime Hotel, where their garage-rock and dirty R’n’B became a sensation.
Their hits included Baby Please Don’t Go, Here Comes The Night and Gloria, but Morrison was destined for solo stardom.
Van Morrison has achieved the rare feat of combining commercial success with enduring critical acclaim
He broke away from the band, and in 1967 Brown-Eyed Girl, perhaps his most celebrated song, reached number 10 in the United States.
From there, his career began its upward spiral.
Spiritual
Astral Weeks followed in 1969, a jazz-and-strings album regularly cited as one of the finest records of all time, and that set the standard for the rest of his career.
He was prolific during the early-1970s, releasing Moondance, Tupelo Honey, St Dominic’s Preview and Veedon Fleece among others, and his soulful, formidable live sets meant he quickly became a performer sought after around the world.
As his career moved into the 1980s and 1990s, Morrison’s music adopted a more mystical, spiritual quality.
Van Morrison becomes the 79th recipient of the freedom of Belfast, as Mark Simpson reports
His 1995 release Days Like This became an iconic song of peace in the context of the troubled past of his native Northern Ireland.
Record after record followed throughout the 2000s and into the current decade as he dabbled with skiffle, country and other genres, before reworking his classics on a recent album of duets.
Morrison, whose knighthood is for services to the music industry and tourism in Northern Ireland, has a reputation for being grumpy and discontent.
In 1993, for example, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but declined to turn up to the ceremony.
He admits he has not worn his fame easily, and his relationship with the music industry and the media has often been a frosty one.
But his standing as one of the most visionary and talented artists of his generation has grown as the decades have passed.
Van Morrison
Van Morrison continues to write and perform regularly as he approaches his 70th birthday
Musicians as diverse as Bruce Springsteen and Ed Sheeran say Morrison’s extensive catalogue of over 360 songs has influenced them.
Morrison turns 70 in August, and to mark that milestone he will play two concerts on Cyprus Avenue, the tree-lined Belfast street that lends its name to one of his best-loved songs.
Even as he moves into his eighth decade, he is showing no signs of slowing down or losing his fire and passion for the music.
Perhaps, as he sings on Into The Mystic, it’s too late to stop now.
My New Beret from Meyer The Hatter Charles Street New Orleans
Have worn berets since way back when and my last one I bought was in 2001 from Meyer The Hatter which I even wore when my last son was born in 2005. And then in 2008 it disappeared and vowed never to buy another unless it came from N’Orleans.My son Belouis has just been and the timing was perfect just having had a very short and ill-concieved cut from my coiffeur and there it was in the post right on queue-Hurray!
Ornette Coleman, influential jazz musician, dies at 85
Ornette Coleman, influential jazz musician, dies at 85
Ornette Coleman performs at the 40th Montreux Jazz festival in Switzerland – 2 July 2006
Ornette Coleman was born and raised in Texas but made his name in New York
Ornette Coleman, one of the most innovative musicians in modern jazz, has died at the age of 85 in New York.
A saxophonist born in Texas, Coleman began his career in the 1950s and later pioneered an unconventional style described as “free jazz”.
His 1959 album The Shape of Jazz to Come is regarded by many as one of the most influential jazz records.
His publicist, Ken Weinstein, said the musician died on Thursday morning after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Coleman, along with fellow saxophonist John Coltrane, was credited with breaking down the traditional structures of jazz and creating a more free-flowing form of expression.
Critics branded his idea of improvising without chord changes as chaotic but it eventually became mainstream in both jazz and rock.
His influence was recognised later in his life and he received both a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2007.
Ornette Coleman’s key recordings
BBC Radio 3: Ornette Coleman profile
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, on 9 March 1930, he once said he grew up “so po” his family couldn’t afford the “o” or the “r”.
He bought a cheap alto saxophone at 14 and played in local rhythm and blues bands before moving to Los Angeles.
Contemporary Records bought some of his compositions in 1958 but found studio musicians unable to play them so hired Coleman instead and they were released as his first album.
A year later, he moved to New York and was signed by Atlantic Records, who released The Shape of Jazz to Come in 1959. Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album at number 248 on its list of the 500 greatest albums.
Coleman married poet Jayne Cortez in 1954 but they divorced 10 years later.
He is survived by their son, Denardo, a drummer and producer who began performing with his father at age 10.
After near 2 decades we have finished 2 wonderful books for your enjoyment.
Sax Madmen on Amazon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sax-Madmen-Mark-Archer/dp/178003816X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428519580&sr=8-1&keywords=sax+madmen
Strikes a masterful, perfect balance between info, humour and insight, wonderfully informative, conveying strongly the passion and excitement these two wonderful music n sax-mad writers have for their subject. Superbly illustrated too.
This great book has abundant style and oozes character, just as I would expect, it’s authors do too.
A must for all players and lovers of the saxophone.
Flippin brilliant! Lovin’ it! Sax legend Snake Davis
Saxophonist Roz Sluman kicked off the BBC Music Day event at Hadrian’s Wall
Performers take part in BBC Music Day
Saxophonist Roz Sluman kicked off the event at Hadrian’s Wall
Hundreds of musicians have taken part in BBC Music Day, a UK-wide celebration of sound culminating in a gala concert at Glasgow’s City Halls and Manic Street Preachers playing in Wales.
A musical relay along the 73-mile length of Hadrian’s Wall began at sunrise. Later, Belfast’s Crumlin Road Gaol will also host a live concert.
Jamie Cullum, Deacon Blue and Lulu will be among the performers in Glasgow.
A world record for the longest distance between singers of a duet has been set.
Anna Flanagan contributed her vocals to the event
Accompanied by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, classical singer Shan Cothi in Cardiff sang the Welsh hymn Calon Lan with Andres Evans, a member of the Welsh community in Patagonia.
The distance between the two singers was 12,120 kilometres.
Singer Raer Morris performed live for Ken Bruce’s Radio 2 show
Events and performances are being broadcast across the BBC, with BBC One’s The One Show broadcasting live from the Music Day event in Glasgow.
BBC Music director Bob Shennan said the day was “a unique opportunity for people to celebrate music and musical talent, whether attending one of the many events taking place or tuning in at home”.
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Media caption Wall of sound: BBC’s Music Day heads east
Highlights in each location include:
BRADFORD – An open-air concert in Bradford City Park featuring wind bands, choirs and local acts;
BRISTOL – An afternoon concert featuring Charles Hazlewood conducting members of the British Paraorchestra;
LIVERPOOL – A free concert on the waterfront featuring a Mozart “mash-up” and Craig Charles’s Fantasy Funk Band;
LONDON – Various local music groups performing in different locations across the borough of Walthamstow;
NORTHERN IRELAND – An evening concert in Belfast’s Crumlin Road Gaol featuring Sir James Galway on flute;
PLYMOUTH – Live performances in the city’s piazza from young local talent and BBC Introducing bands;
PORTSMOUTH – A performance of Anna Meredith’s Ten Pieces composition Connect It by more than 500 local schoolchildren;
SCOTLAND – A live-streamed edition of Ken Bruce’s Radio 2 show featuring appearances from Midge Ure and James Bay;
WALES – Manic Street Preachers performing before 10,000 people at a sold-out concert at Cardiff Castle.
The Hadrian’s Wall of Sound began with saxophonist Roz Sluman greeting the day at 06:00 BST at Bowness-on-Solway. A BBC live page has been covering the event throughout the day.
The BBC Music initiative officially launched in October 2014 with an all-star reworking of the Beach Boys’ God Only Knows.
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