At a mere 21 years old, Emma Smith has a musical career and performance experience that must be the envy of her peers. From a musical family, she followed her father’s footsteps into NYJO and became its vocal coach at 15. She has appeared at all of London’s leading jazz venues and the London and Cheltenham Jazz Festivals. Now at the Royal Academy of Music, Emma is a member of her mentor Peter Churchill’s Vocal Project. So perhaps it is a surprise that she has waited so long to release her first album, The Huntress, which she launched at a packed Pizza Express Jazz Club last night.

Her opening song, the CD title track, set the tone of the evening. The melody soared and swooped, imaginative lyrics unfolded a dramatic narrative, sung and recited, before releasing into a fine piano solo by Matt Robinson. ‘Stolen Child’ combined Smith’s own lyrics with those of WB Yeats in a pleasing musical setting inspired by English folk music. Her compositions reveal an adventurous mind, prepared to depart from conventional song forms and harmonies and to explore melodic ideas reminiscent of Kenny Wheeler or Norma Winstone, while her treatment of standards can be iconoclastic with an up-tempo Latin arrangement of the ballad ‘Don’t Worry About Me’ and a subtly re-harmonised ‘Old Devil Moon’. Along with Matt Robinson, bassist Tim Thornton and drummer Andy Ball complete a first-class rhythm section, one can that deliver the tempo changes, accurate rhythms, dynamic variations and the driving swing that Ms Smith’s music demands. In exchange she offers plenty soloing space for all three to display their individual musical voices.

Stan Sulzmann, who guests on her debut CD, took to the stage in the second set, his probing sax lines, obligatos and solos the perfect complement to Emma Smith’s vocals. A confident and seasoned performer who engages her audience from the first moment, hers is a career trajectory to watch with interest.

– Charles Alexander

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Triggering the new season at Turner Sims in Southampton will be guitarist Vieux Farka Touré, son of the late, great Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré. Vieux’s own compound of western and African pop music, distinct from his father’s innovations, was unveiled last year with the release of his latest album The Secret that featured guest appearances by jazz guitarist John Scofield and rock singer/guitarist Dave Matthews. Farka Touré’s trio will be playing in Southampton on Thursday 16 February.

Young Norwegian saxophonist Marius Neset follows next day on Friday 17 February. His album Golden Xplosion, featuring British keyboardist/composer Django Bates, garnered a string of five stars reviews following its release last April. Neset will be joined on stage by all three members of Phronesis: bassist Jasper Høiby, drummer Anton Eger, and pianist Ivo Neame.

Julian Joseph is also heading south, and will be playing at Turner Sims with his regular trio of bassist Mark Hodgson and drummer Mark Mondesir on Saturday 3 March. This appearance comes on the back of the release of the leading pianist’s solo album Live at the Vortex in London, which comes out two days before on 1 March. Other dates later in March include Equivox Trio on Sunday 4 March and the Tord Gustavsen Ensemble on Friday 16 March.

– Chris Hyde-Harrison

Vieux Farka Touré (above left) and Marius Neset. For tickets go to www.turnersims.co.uk

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This year’s Bath International Music Festival will be the last to have artistic director Joanna MacGregor at the helm. MacGregor, who has been at Bath since 2006, and who has now started a new role as head of keyboards at the Royal Academy of Music in London, is also continuing as a high profile concert pianist. Bath has announced that composer Alasdair Nicolson, artistic director of the St Magnus International Festival in the Orkney Islands, is to be the new artistic director. Tord Gustavsen, Courtney Pine (pictured), Food, Andy Sheppard’s Trio Libero, Beats & Pieces, McCormack /Yarde MY Duo, Gwilym Simcock and Stan Tracey are all confirmed for this year’s festival, which runs from 30 May-10 June.
– Stephen Graham

For more go to www.bathmusicfest.org.uk 

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Marylebone’s Cockpit theatre saw the launch last night of Jazz in the Round, the first in a new monthly club night series featuring cutting edge jazz and improv, curated by broadcaster Jez Nelson. With its 1970s design and small performance space redolent of a bygone era of experimental theatre, the evening had a holistic feel, with swirling light show effects in the bar where Nelson was DJ-ing spinning Coltrane’s ‘Blue Train’ and slabs of early jazz-rock on pristine analogue vinyl.

Jazz in the Round summons the spirit of the legendary populist classical music TV presenter Humphrey Burton who presided over shows at the Cockpit when the theatre was still in its infancy, and Nelson mindful of the need to respect Burton’s pioneering spirit and his compulsion to present something fresh opened with a trio led by young cerebral flugelhorn player Yazz Ahmed. Her precise at-times Arabic influenced music and take on Janek Gwizdala material aided and abetted by contrapuntal vibes lines unfolded impressively stark melodic ideas.

Stuart McCallum’s solo guitar set that followed was paradoxically the most crowded set with the Mancunian playing most of his tunes with his coat on, reminiscing wryly about teaching the chords of ‘Wonderwall’ to kids in Manchester’s Hillcrest school which lent its name to the best tune of the set (it’s on last year’s Distilled) although ‘Softly as in a Morning Sunrise’ was good if a bit truncated. McCallum’s guitar was all set against the swell of his own self generated strings and beats which allowed his interesting tunes plenty of room; the switch to acoustic guitar at the end was a masterstroke.

Topping the bill was Black Top, in trio mode, a totally improvised set by resurgent tenor and soprano saxophonist Steve Williamson, pianist/ keyboardist Pat Thomas and Orphy Robinson on marimba. Thomas and Robinson had a deep empathy that manifested itself by blocked out dense chunky Cecil Taylor-like chords that Williamson was able to bounce off with abstract lullabies and piercing asides. Complex and impressive Black Top as a trio works on so many more levels than when Williamson and Thomas opened, playing as a duo, for Steve Coleman at the London Jazz Festival. The shorter second piece with its sharp accents and intervalic leaps was worth waiting for. Black Top laughingly calls itself “step dub”: more like a big step up.

– Stephen Graham

The next Jazz in the Round on Monday 27 February features Sons of Kemet

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