Looking forward to this on Thursday...

 This is really good

 Enjoyed giving an 'introduction to jazz' workshop at Barts and the London Medical School the other week

 

 

Had a great time over the last few weeks with the East London Creative Jazz Orchestra. Led by creative director Paul Griffiths, the ensemble comprises talented young musicians from across the ten Olympic gateway boroughs. Along with some other Guildhall musicians I was lucky enough to be doing some coaching with the band and helping out with rehearsals for their latest project, a collaboration with New York singer Gretchen Parlato and her band as part of the 2011 London Jazz Festival. Taylor Eigsti (piano), Alan Hampton (bass), Kendrick Scott (drums) and Gretchen were all great musicians, inspiring educators and lovely people, and the whole thing culminated with a performance on the Barbican Freestage. This was the second time I've worked with the ELCJO (there was a similar project with Robert Glasper for last year's festival) and hopefully there'll be many more to come. Below: me with Kendrick Scott (clang!)

Had a great time playing with the London City Big Band at the Guildhall graduation party on Friday evening. Below is a video of us playing Beyond The Sea (La Mer) at our debut gig at the Spice Of Life in Soho. See www.londoncitybigband.co.uk for more details, pics, audio and video.

 Very much looking forward to playing with the London City Big Band this Sunday afternoon (16th October) at the Spice of Life in Soho. We'll be playing lots of classic Sinatra repertoire as well as charts from the Basie, Kenton and Ellington bands. The band comprises students and recent grauduates from Guildhall, Trinity and the Royal Academy, and features the effervescent Billy Boothroyd on vocals.

Check out the London Jazz Blog preview here and the Facebook event here.

 As part of being a Jazz Fellow at Guildhall this year I'm helping run a jam session in Sundial Court Basement on Wednesday evenings. A mixture of current Guildhall students, recent alumni and more established names from the London scene are going to providing the house sets, which start at 8.45pm, with the jam following until around 11pm. Good friend and fellow Jazz Fellow Josh Jaswon played the first set to a packed house on Wednesday, and the dates for the rest of the Autumn term are as follows:

12th October - Gabriel Latchin with house rhythm section

19th October - Alec Harper Group

9th November - Alex Harris Group

23rd November - Nick Costley-White Group

30th November - Ed Blunt Large Ensemble

Free entry!

 Just got round to putting up a feature I had published I had published in the May issue of Jazz Journal on Ethan Iverson, pianist from the Bad Plus and prolific blogger. Check out my profile on him here.