We have three pairs of tickets available for Jazzwise readers to hear the remarkable Storms/Nocturnes at the Purcell Room in London on 12 March.

The sax/piano/vibes trio – Tim Garland, Geoffrey Keezer and Joe Locke – has developed a strong following over the years and their return to London for this Southbank Centre concert is eagerly anticipated.

To win a pair of tickets simply answer the following question: Where was Joe Locke born? Was it

A Palo Alto, California

B Chertsey, Surrey

C Sydney, Australia

Email your answer to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with the subject line "Storms Nocturnes – Jazzwise". The closing date is 7 March. The first three correct names out of the hat will each win a pair of tickets. Good luck.

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The Manchester jazz renaissance continued last night at Ronnie Scott’s with the launch of Big Ideas by the main motivators of the city’s new jazz scene Beats & Pieces Big Band. With a recent strong showing by fellow Mancunian Stuart McCallum at Jez Nelson’s Jazz in the Round last month the scene has successfully exported itself to London venues and Beats & Pieces, who returned to Ronnie’s after a much talked about appearance last year in the Frith Street club during the Brit-Jazz fest, are clearly the motor that drives the current scene.

What is remarkable about the band led by Ben Cottrell is the original sounding charts that keep jazz at its heart but has the scope to incorporate experimental rock, notably their take on Radiohead. Big bands in recent years have never been the most cutting edge of outfits bogged down by boring swing rehashes, dodgy band tuxes, and clapped out charts that most young jazzers run a mile from. Beats & Pieces who were fairly unknown outside Manchester until they won a competition in the German city of Burghausen have managed to inject a vim and vigour to the big band construct, and they can truly claim to be a successor to Loose Tubes, although their style has less of the shambling anarchy and inspirations of Django Bates and co about it. But it does share the same spirit of adventurousness, although essentially B&P is less of a free jazz unit than an oversize prog jazz behemoth with the odd customised nod to the likes of Quincy Jones and even Stan Kenton. The band also manages to tap obliquely into its northern hinterland with recalibrated nods to brass band music along the way.

There are lots of great idiosyncratic players tucked away in the band and last night saxophonist Ben Watte, drummer Finlay Panter, and trumpeter Nick Walters stood out while the writing (‘Bake’ in particular) had an ingenious way of cross fertilizing rhythms and gaining traction across reeds and horns. There were some lovely flugelhorn passages and plenty of variety throughout. Cottrell did well to keep his cool to settle the full house when there were problems with both the bridge of the bass and snare drum at the beginning. No one was remotely fazed and you couldn’t help come away with the thought that big is most definitely back.

– Stephen Graham

Beats & Pieces play the Gateshead Jazz Festival on 24 March and the Queen’s Theatre, Barnstaple on 28 March

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Singer Claire Martin is to release her latest album Too Much in Love to Care on 30 April, her label Linn records has just confirmed. Martin appears on the release with the great US pianist Kenny Barron and an all-American band of bassist Peter Washington, drummer Kenny Washington and saxophonist/flautist Steve Wilson. Martin appeared with the Washingtons on her 1997 album Make This City Ours.

Too Much in Love to Care follows on from the Brighton-based classic jazz singer’s duo album Witchcraft with Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, which concentrated extensively on the Cy Coleman songbook. Too Much in Love to Care places itself completely in Great American Songbook territory a terrain Martin has become firmly identified with after brief forays into more singer/songwriter-derived material on earlier albums such as Perfect Alibi when she covered the likes of Phoebe Snow and Julia Fordham.

Martin, who also co-presents BBC radio 3’s Jazz Line-Up weekly Sunday night magazine show, was awarded an OBE last year for services to music. She has an extensive discography dating back to the beginning of the 1990s and her debut album The Waiting Game. Influenced by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Betty Carter early on and later Shirley Horn, Martin has a fan base both here in the UK and in the US following successful stints at venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center and the famed Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel where Jamie Cullum made his US debut and which currently faces closure. Cullum himself says of Martin: "Claire is unbeatable and sets the standard for all us singers."

Martin’s new album was recorded at Avatar in New York. The 13 tracks are: ‘Too Much In Love To Care’, ‘Embraceable You’, ‘Weaver of Dreams’, ‘Crazy He Calls Me’, ’You Turned The Tables On Me’, ’How Long Has This Been Going On?’, ‘Lazy Afternoon’, ‘Time After Time’, ‘A Time For Love’, ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’, ‘I’m Glad There Is You’, ‘Wonder Why’, and ‘Too Late Now’.

Martin works with Kenny Barron for the first time on this album. Now 68, the multi-Grammy nominated Barron originally from Philadelphia began his career with Mel Melvin’s orchestra in the 1950s before becoming heavily associated with James Moody in the 60s following Barron’s earlier move to New York. He toured with Lalo Schifrin’s quintet for four years in the 1960s, and saw out the decade with Freddie Hubbard before working with Yusuf Lateef and Ron Carter in the 70s. The 1980s saw Barron co-lead the band Sphere with Monk’s former close playing associate saxophonist Charlie Rouse, and Barron has more than 30 albums to his own name as a leader. Night and the City with Charlie Haden, for instance, released in the 1990s, made an impact internationally as did later album The Traveler and Barron’s many compositions, including notably ‘Phantoms’ (from The Traveler), which Eddie Henderson performed to effect at Pizza Express Jazz Club last autumn, have become latter-day standards.

Ahead of the album’s release Martin appears in a fundraiser on 30 March for Brighton & Hove Women Against the Cuts at Sallis Benney Theatre in Brighton accompanied by guitarist Jim Mullen. The Guardian’s Polly Toynbee is to introduce the event. Other upcoming gigs include Buxton Opera House, Buxton (25 February) in duo with Sir Richard Rodney Bennett; guesting with the Steve Grossman / Damon Brown Quintet at Pizza Express Jazz Club, London (27-28 February); Maltings, Farnham (15 March) again with Richard Rodney Bennett; and in duo with Bennett at Town Hall, Chipping Norton (18 March).

– Stephen Graham

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Nothing if not prolific and following quickly on from last year’s superlative solo Live In Marciac set Brad Mehldau returns in March with his latest album Ode, his label Nonesuch has confirmed.

A trio studio album, the first since Day is Done, when drummer Jeff Ballard first joined Mehldau and bassist Larry Grenadier for their initial outing on record released seven years ago, Ode features none of Mehldau’s trademark alt. rock covers but instead concentrates on the pianist’s original compositions.

The album is a portrait of real and fictional characters, ‘odes’ to their personalities seen through Mehldau’s distinctive compositional lens. Eleven tracks in all, the album recorded in 2008 and 2011 opens with ‘M.B’, for Michael Brecker, whose final album Pilgrimage Mehldau appeared on, and continues with the elegiac title track following built on quietly enveloping tremolos.

‘26’ takes the energy levels up a notch followed by ‘Dream Sketch’ which has a real stamp of quality about it, punctuated as it is by tersely dissonant “wrong notes” punched out intuitively as the tension is ratcheted upwards. ‘Bee Blues’ is the bebop-type interlude Mehldau fans will be familiar with at concerts, the kind of inconsequential loosener that makes what comes afterwards that more vital.

‘Twiggy’ draws to mind Highway Rider in its narrative urgency with Ballard coming to the fore on leathery percussion while ‘Kurt Vibe’ gives Grenadier the chance to establish the mood, and Mehldau sounds as if he’s in mid-thought rather than halfway into a habitually intense piece of soul-searching. Oh, in case you were wondering, the Kurt is as in guitar supremo Rosenwinkel not his grungeness, Kurt Cobain.

‘Stan The Man’ opens with a Leonard Bernstein-type set up, before launching into furious bebop, while the heart of the album can possibly be found on the ‘outlaw’ homage to Easy Rider’s George Hanson on ‘Wyatt’s Eulogy for George Hanson.’

‘Aquaman’ and the nine minute-long ‘Days of Dilbert Delaney’ complete the album, which as a whole firmly shifts our focus back on to Mehldau the composer, and the potency of his formidable trio.

– Stephen Graham

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The Buddy Rich 25th Anniversary Memorial Concert is set to take place for the first time in the UK at the London Palladium on 2 April 2012. This bombastic showcase of world-beating drummers packs in an impressive line up of heavy hitting players from across the worlds of jazz, fusion and rock that this year includes Dave Weckl, Gregg Bissonette, John Blackwell and Gregg Potter from the US alongside Ian Paice from Deep Purple, a rare appearance by former Cream drummer Ginger Baker, Buddy Rich band drummer Gavin Harrison and Elliott Henshaw from the UK.

One of Buddy Rich’s last requests to his daughter Cathy, was to keep his band working, his music alive, and to do something for young people. No mean feat for such an all consuming musical force as Rich, but an annual memorial concert since his death in 1987 has been a fitting testament to the man and his music. The first concert in 1988 at the celebrated Carnegie Hall in New York, since then shows have followed in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Boston with the who’s who of the drumming world taking part and the shows being described as the ‘The Greatest Drum Show Of All Time’. Artists who’ve taken part over the years include such Mel Tormé, Joe Williams, Stan Getz, Steve Gadd, Peter Erskine, Dave Weckl, Vinnie Colaiuta and Dennis Chambers.

Taking place on the exact date of the 25th anniversary of Buddy’s death, the show comes to the UK for the first time and will be co-hosted Rich’s daughter Cathy who will introduce the US-based Buddy Rich Big Band supported by UK session musicians who used to play with Buddy. Cathy will also present Lifetime Achievement Awards to three rock drumming legends.]

Renowned jazz and fusion drummer Dave Weckl said, “Anytime I get to pay tribute to one of the greatest players of our instrument, I am first in line. To be able to play with a great Big Band and play songs from the Buddy Rich book is one of my favourite things to do as a drummer.”

Joining Dave Weckl are in-demand session man Gregg Bissonette, flamboyant jazz funk virtuoso John Blackwell who’s currently playing with Prince, and Gregg Potter from the Buddy Rich Big Band. From the UK, Deep Purple’s distinguished drummer Ian Paice, renowned Cream drummer Ginger Baker, respected session drummer Gavin Harrison and Elliott Henshaw a veteran of over 20 West End shows and drummer for Tony Christie who will also perform. For more info www.london-theatreland.co.uk

– Mike Flynn

Legendary jazz rock drummer Ginger Baker, best known as a member of Cream and Blind Faith, is set to appear for two nights at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club on 27 – 28 April. A regular at ‘the old club’ in the 1960s, Baker makes his debut appearance as a bandleader with an intriguing line up of bassist Alec Dankworth, former JBs saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis and percussionist Abass Doodoo, the group will perform a highly charged mix of jazz, fusion and African sounds.

Baker’s appearance is just one of many strong bookings for April that also sees resurgent Bristol-based heavy prog jazzers Get The Blessing perform in a double bill with feisty singer songwriter Sarah Gillespie on 3 – 4 April. Renowned French pianist/singer/composer Michel Legrand appears the following week bringing his alluring brand of chanson to the club on 10 – 12 April, while the highly emotive US soul jazz diva Carleen Anderson, an ever popular performer at Ronnie’s, returns on 13 – 14 April with a fine UK band that includes Peter Gabriel pianist Tom Cawley, guitarist Al Cherry and versatile saxophonist Ben Castle.

The evergreen Georgie Fame is back for another weeklong residency between 16 – 21 April, closely followed by stunning post-bop virtuoso guitarist Pat Martino who appears on 23 – 24 April. May is also looking busy with the debut appearance in the club by guitar legend Al Di Meola on 16 – 18 May, and fellow six string slinger Lee Ritenour returning for another three-night stint with Dave Grusin running 25 – 26 May, along with appearances by Abram Wilson, Manu Dibango, Kyle Eastwood, Claire Martin and Lou Donaldson.

For more info www.ronniescotts.co.uk

– Mike Flynn

The Partager festival returns to London this week, and kicks off tomorrow at Shoreditch jazz club Charlie Wright’s International. First off are Jean-Michel Pilc and bassist François Moutin, who will be joined by American drummer Ari Hoenig. After the opening night at Charlie Wright’s the festival moves to the Vortex in Dalston. The first gig there sees Nelson Veras, the French guitarist and former Steve Coleman sideman, in duo with Belgian drummer Stéphane Galland on Friday. Their set will be followed by another duo, made up of Russian expat Zhenya Strigalev and Birmingham-based tabla player Sukhvinder Singh Namdhari aka Pinky.

Following the release of Montauk Variations, pianist Matthew Bourne’s first solo studio album released earlier this month, Bourne plays Partager with French clarinettist Laurent Dehors in the first of two collaborations at the Vortex on Saturday. After their set, free-improv great saxophonist Evan Parker is on stage in duo with French prepared piano player Benoît Delbecq.

The festival’s closing night is on Monday 27 February, again at the Vortex, bringing together another pair of duo sets. The first, between drummer Minino Garay and pianist Baptiste Trotignon, promises to be a blend of jazz, tango and world music. The second set moves into the realms of free jazz , with British trumpeter Tom Arthurs and French pianist Denis Badault.

– Chris Hyde-Harrison

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The inexorable rise of singer Gregory Porter continues. Hearing songs from his new release Be Good during this four-night season confirmed it to be a new classic of vocal jazz.

Heard on Be Good as a kind of closing, valedictory a cappella hymn, ‘God Bless the Child’ was transformed here into a soulful mid-tempo groove with Porter’s scatted coda offering a taste of the musical riches that awaited us. With deluxe phrasing, a notable use of his upper register and an even more euphoric feel to the choruses, ‘On My Way To Harlem’ held the entire space in a trance, while the title track (and debut single) reminded us that Porter’s biggest influence – his mother – was both minister and poet. As it curled its way upwards, Porter’s control of the vocal line in ‘Real Good Hands’ demonstrated his absolutely flawless intonation.

For the first time in the UK, the singer was accompanied by his regular New York band of pianist Chip Crawford, alto saxist Yosuke Sato, bassist Aaron James and drummer Emanuel Harrold. Both in terms of his commanding (and occasionally out-there) soloing and his evident rapport with the singer, Crawford was the key presence, bringing impressionistic touches to ‘Water’ and real heft to ‘The Way You Want To Live’.

But it was the heartbreaking autobiographical openness of ‘Mother’s Song’ which delivered the evening’s emotional motherload and left more than one person dabbing their eyes. Following a rapturous standing ovation for a storming ‘1960 What?’, the beautiful conversational flow of ‘Illusion’ (from Water) provided the perfect encore.

– Peter Quinn

Read more on last night’s closing show on the Jazzwise live blog www.jazzwisemagazine.com/live-jazz-blog

Sometimes the word ‘supergroup’ is just unavoidable. No matter which way round you want to call it, ‘band’ or “all-star” line-up, just won’t do. The Cookers, who return to London for two dates next week, is definitely and unashamedly a supergroup. And, into the bargain, it’s an aggregation that digs deep into the heartland of hard bop without coming off second best. It pays tribute but there’s no cynicism involved and the band members contribute tunes that stand up well on their own merits as well as returning to some of their own compositions from differing times in their own careers as leaders.

The Cookers take their name from a Freddie Hubbard double LP set The Night of the Cookers: Live at Club La Marchal, which the late great trumpeter recorded in Brooklyn with fellow horn man the jazz clubbers-favourite Lee Morgan, James Spaulding (who guested on Gregory Porter’s Water more recently), Harold Mabern Jr, Larry Ridley, Pete LaRoca and Big Black back in 1965 for Blue Note records. Trumpeter and bandleader David Weiss, who was a friend and playing colleague of Hubbard’s in the latter years of his life, put The Cookers together partly in name at least to pay homage to Hubbard and the music he stood for, but also as a showcase for some fine players who have the right chemistry as well as the supreme musicianship to play in a band together. As Tony Hall has written in Jazzwise: “If you wondered what has happened to all the passion and intensity, once such essential ingredients of great swinging jazz and now virtually non-existent in so much of today’s outpourings, you’ll find it all in The Cookers.”

With Weiss there’s ‘conscious’ tenor saxophone hero Billy Harper, trumpeter Eddie Henderson of Mwandishi fame, tenor saxophonist Craig Handy, like Henderson known for his work with Herbie Hancock and who has played with David Weiss in their own band, classy pianist George Cables who played keyboards on the Hubbard album Liquid Love in the 1970s, legendary Charles Lloyd Quartet bassist Cecil McBee, and the great drummer Billy Hart, like Henderson a stalwart of Herbie’s Mwandishi band in the 70s.

The great thing about hard bop as opposed to certain period styles, and the UK’s Empirical prove this as an example that springs immediately to mind, is that the style is adaptable enough to not sound terribly dated when young players come to it with their own ideas. Compare it to say early jazz styles from the 1930s and 40s like stride, boogie-woogie or swing, even orthodox bebop, and you’ll get the idea. And when the veterans play it: you’re into another dimension. Hard bop always sounded modern and when its main building blocks are put into a blender with the passage of time and new twists as the active ingredients it always comes up trumps. Players like the members of The Cookers were never ones to stick to the orthodox in any case, and that’s partly why their London shows are so exciting a prospect. If you’re going along, keep an ear out to see if they play ‘The Core’ from their ear-catching album Warriors, and Harper’s ‘Capra Black’ the spiritual title-track from his famous thought provoking black consciousness album.

– Stephen Graham

The Cookers play Ronnie Scott’s in Soho on Tuesday 21 February and Wednesday 22 February. For tickets go to www.ronniescotts.co.uk 

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Loop Collective post-bop band Monocled Man will play the first of five residency gigs tonight planned for this year at the Forge in London. Trumpeter Rory Simmons (left) is joined by Troyka guitarist Chris Montague and Kairos Quartet drummer Jon Scott. The venue will also be hosting an array of jazz events besides the Loop Collective gigs. On Thursday 16 February Oxford singer-songwriter Theo Jackson will be joined by Empirical saxophonist Nathaniel Facey for an intimate duo gig where a mix of originals and standards will be on the agenda.

On Friday 17 February exciting dual drummer group Sons of Kemet will bring their post-jazz innovations to the Camden stage. The band features Shabaka Hutchings on sax/clarinet, Oren Marshall on tuba and both Seb Rochford and Tom Skinner on drums. Pete Churchill will be joined by guest singers for the latest in the Forge’s In The Round nights on Sunday 19 February, including Anita Wardell who has recorded an album that is due for release in March. Other upcoming gigs include young jazz vocalist Alexander Stewart on 24 February and pianist/singer Dominic Alldis presenting the songs of Bill Evans with his trio on Friday 2 March.

– Chris Hyde-Harrison

For more go to www.forgevenue.org/whats-on