Jazz musician and folk music's Chris Wilbraham with all the gigs happening in the Suffolk area
JAZZ with Chris Ingham: cjr.ingham@outlook.com/chrisingham.co.uk
Friday, March 7
A BRIEF HISTORY OF JAZZ (Diss Corn Hall, 7.30pm, £18, thecornhall.co.uk, 01379 652241) A delightfully entertaining presentation led by Paul Higgs – former musical director for the National Theatre and RSC and one of the UK’s finest jazz trumpeters. With Chris Ingham (piano), Malcolm Creese (bass) and Neil Bullock (drums).
Sunday, March 9
GEORGIA MANCIO QUARTET + TASSOS SPILIOTOPOULOS TRIO (Venue 16, Ipswich, 2.30pm, £15/£7.50, ipswichjazzandblues.com) Impressive double bill featuring highly refined singer/songwriter Georgia Mancio, with Gareth Lockrane (keyboard/flute), Andrew Cleyndert (bass) and Dave Ohm (drums), plus opening act led by guitarist Spiliotopoulos with Andrea Dibiase (bass) and Jon Scott (drums).
Tuesday, March 11
Q3 (Maddermarket Theatre Bar, Norwich, 8.30pm, £18/£9, norwichjazzclub.co.uk) Led by pianist Martin Hallmark, Cambridge-based quartet Q3 present an evening to perform tracks from their 2024 album Water-Speckled Midnight, combining jazz with latin, funk, Arabic and Mediterranean influences. With Kevin Flanagan (saxophone), Tiago Coimbra (bass) and Chris Diamand (drums).
Wednesday, March 12
TIM KLIPHUIS TRIO (Stoke By Nayland Golf Club, 8pm, £27.50, fleecejazz.org.uk, 01787 211865) Award-winning Dutch violinist Tim Kliphuis has created a brand new style that embraces classical, gypsy jazz and folk. Hailed as a ‘current-day improvising Paganini’, his inclusive and innovative approach to music has united audiences and is influencing a new generation of string players. With Nigel Clark (guitar) and Roy Percy (double bass).
FOR THE DIARY
Thursday, March 20
ALEX HITCHCOCK’S DREAM BAND (Hidden Rooms, Cambridge, 7.30pm, £22 & £16.50, cambridgejazz.org, 01223 514777) New York-based, London-born saxophonist is a distinctive improviser and a provocative, playful composer. With Will Barry (piano), Mats Sandahl (bass) and Marc Michel (drums).
Saturday, March 22
HANNAH HORTON WITH DENNIS ROLLINS (Haverhill Arts Centre, 8pm, £15/£10, haverhillartscentre. co.uk) Swinging Cat Jazz Club hostess Hannah Horton welcomes funky jazz trombonist Dennis Rollins, whose credits include Courtney Pine, Maceo Parker, Jamiroquai, US3, The Brand New Heavies, Blur, Monty Alexander, Pee Wee Ellis and Jean, among many others.
Sunday, March 23
DIXIEMIX (Yalm Food Hall, Norwich, 7.30pm, £13, norwichjazzclub.co.uk) Popular Norfolk-based traditional jazz group led by cornettist Simon Nelson and featuring Chris Wigley (trombone), Karl Wirrmann (clarinet/saxes), Kevin West (banjo/guitar), Maurizio Borgna (bass) and Tony Wilkins (drums/vocals).
Wednesday, March 26
DEAN STOCKDALE QUARTET (Stoke By Nayland Golf Club, 8pm, £20, fleecejazz.org.uk, 01787 211865) Based in the north of England, this skilled four-piece celebrate the centenary of Oscar Peterson’s birth, with Dean Stockdale (piano), Tim Williams (guitar), Gavin Barras (bass) and Gaz Hughes (drums).
Friday, March 28
JAZZ SAMBA (Hunter Club Arts Centre, Bury, 7.30pm, £20, headhunterslive.org, 07799 650009) Led by John Wilson’s star reedsman Mark Crooks (saxophone) and the award-winning Nigel Price (guitar), with Chris Ingham (piano), Marianne Windham (bass) and Demi Garcia Sabat (drums/percussion), this is a joyous blend of Brazilian rhythms, jazz attitude the majestic compositions of Jobim, Donato and Mendes.
FOLK
Last week I competed for the Robbie Callas Cup, an unaccompanied singing competition first run in 2015 by Bury Folk Collective. Since 2022 it has been staged each February at Risbygate Sports Club, Bury St Edmunds. Entries this year were affected by ill health in the local folk singing community, which meant several of the usual contenders were absent. Even Oscar, organiser David Bartlett’s old English sheep dog, was under the weather and could not attend.
Nevertheless, ten singers competed, each singing one song then, after all competitors had performed, voting for their favorite performance.
I started proceedings with Jim Radcliffe’s song The Shores of Normandy, a first-hand account of D Day from the point of view of Jim, then a 15-year-old galley boy on his first trip to sea. Many of the songs, including mine and the the eventual winner, were contemporary.
The two songs that raised most laughter were traditional songs, Courting Too Slow, a ballad telling of a fella losing his love to a fast-moving sailor sung by Gren Penn, and The Parson and the Maid sung by Simon Kelso, a tale of a quick-witted maiden duping an amorous parson out of money and shaming him into the bargain.
Last year’s winner Paul Gill showed off his singing skills beautifully with his rendition of Dick Gaughan’s When I First Came to Caledonia. Amy Pearl’s rendition of Craigie Hill was equally expert, earning her second place this year.
I particularly enjoyed Steve Atkinson’s performance of The Crow on the Cradle. I have heard the song sung by David Cambridge and Jenna Walker and assumed it was traditional. Steve explained it was in fact written by Sydney Carter in the 1960s. Inspired by living under the shadow of the Cold War, it speaks of a baby’s destiny in gloomy terms, sadly still prescient in our times of war in the Middle East and Ukraine:
The sheep’s in the meadow, the cow’s in the corn
Now is the time for a child to be born
Reach for the moon, and laugh at the sun
If he’s a boy he’ll carry a gun
Sang the crow on the cradle
Now your mammy and pappy, they scrape and they save
Lord they build you a coffin and they dig you a grave
Hushabye little one, never you weep
‘Cause we’ve got a toy that can put you to sleep
Sang the crow on the cradle
The winner was Liz Miller who sang her song Nightingale, based on Oscar Wilde’s story The Nightingale and The Rose. It is another sad song, in which a nightingale sacrifices itself to help a student woo his love with a red rose, which is ultimately rejected. I usually accompany Liz on guitar. Somehow her unaccompanied voice seemed to accentuate the beauty of self sacrifice in the name of love.
Perhaps that’s the point of unaccompanied singing?
Here are next week’s gigs:
Friday, March 7
The Milkmaid Folk Club, 7.45pm, The Fried Pirates. £12.
Beer Café, Bury St Edmunds, 3.30-5.30pm, Folk session.
Hadleigh Folk and Acoustic, Ansell Centre, 8pm, Chris Fox, support from The Browns. £8.
Golden Hind, Cambridge, 8pm, Cambridge Folk Club: Open Stage with special guests Causeway. £5.
Saturday, March 8
Hungate Theatre, Beccles, 8pm, My Darling Clementine. £16.
Sunday, March 9
Geldeston Locks, 7.30pm, Nick Hart. £13.
Monday, March 10
Colchester Arts Centre, 8pm, Katherine Priddy. £19.50.
Cambridge Junction, 8pm, Mike McGoldrick, John McCusker and John Doyle. £25.
Wednesday, March 12
Banham Barrel, 8pm, Later with James Viera.
Friday, March 1
Golden Hind, Cambridge, 8pm, Cambridge Folk Club: Dave Ellis and Boo Howard. £11.
