Phil Robson has successfully forged relationships over the years with leading US jazz musicians including most notably with his fellow guitarist Wayne Krantz and saxophone legend Dave Liebman. Robson returns in January at the Recital Hall of Birmingham Conservatoire on the 19th as part of the new Birmingham Jazz programme with yet another UK/US collaboration this time in a new commission from Derby Jazz with the IMS Quintet featuring saxophonist Mark Turner who Robson has worked extensively with before. Turner, in the UK earlier this year as part of the highly rated trio Fly, joins the IMS which also features much talked about flautist Gareth Lockrane, bassist about town Mike Janisch, and drummer Ernesto Simpson.

Also Birmingham-bound in the New Year is the US cutting edge saxophonist Steve Lehman who appears with his Octet (21 Jan, CBSO Centre) as part of a short European tour which also takes in London’s Vortex the day before as well as dates in Paris, Amsterdam and Portugal. Lehman’s album Travail, Transformation & Flow was last year voted number one jazz CD by The New York Times.

The octet includes Drew Gress (a member of the Ravi Coltrane Quartet) and Tyshawn Sorey, the 30-year-old Tony Williams-rooted player who has worked with Steve Coleman and Vijay Iyer.

Following Lehman and marking the fifth anniversary of Jazz Club at the Rainbow the feisty trioVD appear there in a double bill with trumpeter Sam Wooster’s group Husk on 26 January; and then Birmingham Jazz begins February with the return of pianist Uri Caine on the 5th at the Town Hall with his groundbreaking Mahler project that owes its origins to his 1990s album Primal Light.

Caine is followed by the Matthew Shipp Trio (18 Feb, CBS0 Centre), sure to be an evening of hardcore improvising from the avant garde pianist to be joined by bassist Mike Bisio (known for his work with Charles Gayle) and long standing drummer Walt Dickey.

Local improv drum hero Tony Levin joins forces with tenor titan Paul Dunmall and bassist Nick Jurd at the Rainbow on 23 Feb, while the March programme kicks off with the Dylan Howe Quartet on the 1st at the Jam House.

– Stephen Graham

For more go to www.birminghamjazz.co.uk

Pictured above Phil Robson (photo: Anthony Statham)