{"id":1978,"date":"2010-12-20T17:36:23","date_gmt":"2010-12-20T16:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/?p=1978"},"modified":"2010-12-20T17:38:06","modified_gmt":"2010-12-20T16:38:06","slug":"all-that-jazz-gigs-of-the-year-on-radio-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2010\/12\/20\/all-that-jazz-gigs-of-the-year-on-radio-3\/","title":{"rendered":"All that jazz: gigs of the year on Radio 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the year draws to a close, time to reflect on the highlights of Radio 3’s series of jazz broadcasts over the course of the past twelve months.<\/p>\n

Stand-out gigs for me were Mark Lockheart’s In Deep<\/em> in session back in January<\/a>, a combined broadcast from The Jazz Bar<\/a> of the Martin Zenker Group and David Patrick’s Jazz Bar Quartet featuring a promising-souding sax player called Sam Coombs (who, to my ears, seems like a fledgling Vaughn Hawthorne), and Gilad Atzmon live at Ronnie Scott’s<\/a>.\u00a0 Special mention also to John Scofield at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Two different gigs appeared on the same programme<\/a>, eclectic pianist Martial Solal and the great trumpeter Tomas Stanko; I’m not sure if this should count, as strictly speaking both performances were from last year, but the Stanko set was fantastic.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure if any of the above compare to my favourite set from Jazz on 3 of all time, the Marcin Wasilewski trio recorded live at the King’s Place back in 2009<\/a>. Fledged under the wing of Tomasz Stanko, Wasilewski has an expensive touch and a delicate yet\u00a0profound improvisatory manner, where no gesture or phrase is unnecessary\u00a0– he reminds\u00a0me of another bastion of the ECM label, Keith Jarrett.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, 2009 was something of a bumper year, and we were spoilt for choice: the Robert Mitchell trio at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival<\/a>, Helge Lien at Pizza Express<\/a>, and a studio session by Martin Speake and Bobo Stenson<\/a>. My MP3 player plays these sets more often than any others. Except for the Wasilewski one, which, were it on LP, would have worn out by now.<\/p>\n

Jazz on 3 has a marvellous habit of sometimes re-broadcasting programmes, and occasionally playing parts of the original gigs that weren’t featured in the original airing. If these come round again, be sure to catch them.<\/p>\n

Here’s looking forward to 2011: thanks, Jazz on 3: worth the licence fee alone.<\/p>\n

Those were my favourites: what were yours ?<\/p>\n