The Swallow Quintet
Last night’s gig by the Swallow Quintet at the CBSO Centre in Birmingham was a serious contender for my gig of the year. The CBSO Centre was packed and the whole audience seemed to really enjoy the whole gig. I won’t review it her as there is already a review by me on Pete Bacon’s [...]
Charles Mingus Documentary Producers seeking funding
Last night I was at a great gig by the Michael Janisch/Aruan Ortiz Group which also featured Greg Osby and Rudy Royston. It’s great to see such names playing gigs in rooms above pubs. However unfortunately on this occasion the lighting was virtually non-existent and I couldn’t get any good images so there will be [...]
Andrew McCormack and Jason Yarde Duo with Meadow
Last night’s gig by these two sets of musicians is no doubt going to feature on my list of gigs of the year. Both the duo and Meadow played beautiful music which was a joy to listen to. The only down side of seeing both bands on the same bill is that they played [...]
Gregory Porter
I woke up this morning with Gregory Porter’s song “Magic Cup” running through my head. It was still there a few hours later, as was the buzz from a fantastic gig by that singer at the Hare and Hounds last night. The feeling in the crowded room at the end of the gig was [...]
The TG Collective at A.E. Harris
This was a new venue for live music for me. I’d been to the building before to see an amazing exhibition by Stan’s Cafe entitled “Of all the people in the world.” Stan’s Cafe run the building and I am told there may be more live music to come there. You can find out [...]
The Tony Levin Tribute at the mac
These images were all taken at the mac on Saturday 18th June during the soundcheck for the musicians playing at the Tribute gig for Tony Levin. You can read more about the gig on the Birmingham Jazz website. Peter Bacon will be reviewing the concert on his site so I won’t write about the music [...]
Big Cat and Take to the Streets
This is an image from the Big Cat Gig at the Rainbow on Wednesday night. Big Cat are a band led by Ruth Goller, who plays bass in Acoustic Ladyland. The band also features James Allsopp (sax) and Tim Giles (drums) both also seen in Fraud and Kit Downes who seems to play in more [...]
Sid Peacock and Surge
Sid Peacock and Surge are yet another Birmingham based band that deserve to be much better known both in Birmingham and elsewhere. The size of this band must make it hard for it to get gigs and go on tour as there were seventeen musicians and Sid involved in the gig. Unfortunately the economics of [...]
Chris Mapp’s Gambol
For me one of life’s little treats is to have enough energy left by around 5pm on Friday to meet my partner Jenny after work and go to Rush Hour Blues at the Symphony Hall. Listening to some good jazz with a pint in hand in nice surroundings is a great way to start the [...]
The JJ Wheeler Quintet
I’ve been hearing good things about the JJ Wheeler Quintet for some time. I heard them play a very brief set during the event called Jazz and the Media which Birmingham Jazz co-sponsored last year. However, like many other people, I spent quite a bit of that brief lunch chatting to people I knew so [...]
The Mathew Shipp Trio
I last saw Mathew Shipp play live in 2003. He was at the Custard Factory with Spring Heel Jack, an ensemble put together by Ashley Wales and John Coxon that also featured William Parker, Evan Parker and Han Bennink amongst others. At that point I had heard some of Mathew Shipp and William Parker’s work [...]
Uri Caine meets Mahler
The image above is Uri Caine taken during the soundcheck for his Uri Caine meets Mahler concert at the Town Hall last night. Clicking on the image will take you to my photosite where you can see more of these plus images from the concert itself. The music was wonderful with Uri Caine’s mix of [...]
Husk And Trio VD
Husk are a new band led by Birmingham based trumpet player Sam Wooster. Trio VD are from Leeds and this was the second time they have played the Rainbow in Digbeth as part of Birmingham Jazz’s Jazz Club series. Both bands played on Wednesday the 26th January as a celebration of the 5th anniversary of [...]
The Steve Lehman Octet
Friday night started really well with the Chris Biscoe Quartet at Rush Hour Blues. Unfortunately I could only hear 10 minutes or so of this fine band as I had to leave to go to the soundcheck for the Steve Lehman Octet. This was an event I’d been looking forward to for months. I first [...]
The New Year starts: Live Jazz again!
On Friday, after what seemed like a long break from hearing live music I went to see the Bryan Corbett Quartet at Rush Hour Blues. The band were as good as ever, they deserve to be better known than they are, and it felt good to be hearing live music again. Some of the images [...]
My favourite images from 2010
This is Jasper Hoiby and Dave Smith. They played at Rush Hour Blues last night in a great band led by Sam Crowe. I was there and really enjoyed the gig but I’m afraid I didn’t take any photos as I was feeling wiped out after having had chemo again on Tuesday. This image is [...]
Soweto Kinch’s homecoming and some other stuff!
I had a few days in London with my partner at the start of the week and caught an awesome gig by The Thing at the Vortex on Monday night. All three musicians played brilliantly but Paal Nilssen-Love playing in a trio seems to give him more space than in a larger band. His drumming [...]
Christian Scott at the Hare and Hounds
This is one of the images I took of Christian Scott on Saturday night at the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath. I’ve been enjoying listening to Christian Scott’s latest album, “Yesterday you said Tomorrow” for a few months now so I was really looking forward to this gig. It really lived up to expectations. [...]
William Parker and some more photography stuff.
I’ve not actually been to any gigs this week I’m afraid to say. It’s not that there haven’t been any, just that I’ve been too tired in the evenings after a fairly heavy week’s work with my day job. This isn’t normal it’s just a side effect of the chemotherapy I’m having at the moment. [...]
New Book of my Jazz Photography available now.
I have just launched a new book of my Jazz photography. This features the best of my images taken between the start of September 2009 and July 2010. All the images were taken at Jazz gigs in and around Birmingham in the UK. All the images are in colour. They all feature on my website [...]
Photography on show in Birmingham and new Abram Wilson images.
These images were taken at Abram Wilson’s immensely enjoyable gig at Rush Hour Blues on Friday night. A packed Symphony Hall foyer obviously really enjoyed the music if the applause at the end was anything to go by. Abram’s playing was as good as ever but my partner and I were particularly impressed by the [...]
Tony Levin at 70.
Tony Levin’s history as a drummer goes back a long way. He played regularly in Tubby Hayes band and has performed with Mujician for twenty two years now. There is an interview with Tony about his life as a musician on Pete Bacon’s site here. To celebrate Tony’s 70th Birthday Birmingham Jazz put together a [...]
Under the Motorway project
These are the first images that don’t feature musicians that I have put on this site. I intend gradually adding some more from other projects I have undertaken. These images, which are split into three Galleries in a Collection named “Under the Motorway” come from a project I worked on between May 2007 and June [...]
The Flat Earth Society
These images were taken at the mac on Saturday night. They are of a Belgian band called the Flat Earth Society who were performing a score written to be performed with a showing of a 1919 silent movie called the Oyster Princess. Pete Bacon has reviewed the gig on his site here. I took the [...]