Copenhagen Rhythmic University

Summer Jazz Club:Weds 28th July at The Rainbow

Mirror : Nicholls / Allsopp / Smith

Wednesday 28th July
Jazz Club at The Rainbow Courtyard
9pm
£4

Birmingham Jazz ends this season of Jazz Club with an incredible band led  pianist and composer Dan Nicholls. Featuring reedsman James Allsopp of Fraud and The Golden Age of Steam and drummer Dave Smith of Outhouse and countless other bands.  Dan is one of the most promising young players to come from the Conservatoire jazz course.  He now spends his time between his home in Stafford and Copenhagen playing and composing music.  Combining the best of the Birmingham and London scenes, this gig promises to sign off Jazz Club for the summer in style. From Dan himself:

“Mirror is a new ensemble interpreting and reworking the compositions of keyboardist Dan Nicholls. Featuring the distinctive voices of James Allsopp (reeds) and Dave Smith (drums), the music aims for a fluidity between written and unwritten and explores the unexplicable connections between sound and image.”

Dan’s music can be found here:

http://www.myspace.com/risquearts

Jazz Club will be back in the Autumn with the 5th Anniversary Series starting on Wednesday 27th October.

www.birminghamjazz.co.uk

Django Bates Pays Tribute To His Childhood Inspiration: Charlie Parker, Sat 10th April, CBSO Centre,8pm

Django Bates & The Beloved Bird Trio
Saturday 10th April
CBSO Centre, Berkley Street
8pm
£13 (£11 Members & Concessions) Book Tickets

www.birminghamjazz.co.uk

Django Bates reaches his 50th Birthday this year in October and his project for at least the earlier part of the ’significant year’ for him is a tour built around an album issued this year dedicated to Charlie Parker, whose music he heard as a young boy and who inspired him to take up jazz.  The album is called Beloved Bird and it is played by a trio led by Django on acoustic piano and featuring two young players from Copenhagen where Django has been teaching for the last few years in the splendidly named Rhythmic University.  They are Petter Eldh on bass (seen here last year in Dan Nicholls’ Hyderabad) and Peter Brun on drums.

It’s a great album and it features some of the most famous tunes penned by Parker including Scrapple from the Apple, Billie’s Bounce, Moose the Mooche and other bop classics written by others such as Hot House. Reviews have pointed to the seriousness with which Django treats each piece and the avoidance of his normal quirkiness.  Mike Hobart in the Financial Times comments on Django’s clear ‘enthusiasm for bop piano’ and Ivan Hewitt in the Daily Telegraph describes the pieces as ‘true homages’.  John Fordham whose review you can read here describes the CD as ‘an astonishing achievement’ that in its creativity really delves into Parker’s psyche.

The trio comes to Birmingham’s CBSO Centre next week on Saturday 10th April at 8pm in a Birmingham Jazz gig.  You can buy tickets from the Symphony Hall Box Office on 0121-767-4050 or online here.

www.djangobates.com