Battlers descend for a ''something to rely on'' weekend mix headlined by Darius Brubeck, Dinosaur and Elaine Delmar

Connoisseurs of well put together human scale jazz festival line-ups held in fairly out of the ordinary places will no doubt thrill to what's in store next weekend in historic Battle where one of the world's most reliably yearning gazillion …

Published: 14 Jul 2023. Updated: 10 months.

Connoisseurs of well put together human scale jazz festival line-ups held in fairly out of the ordinary places will no doubt thrill to what's in store next weekend in historic Battle where one of the world's most reliably yearning gazillion selling rock bands Keane hail from. As the bard-like Tom Chaplin insisted on Hopes and Fears' emotion soaked 'Somewhere Only We Know' exhaling sonorously: I'm getting old, and I need something to rely on. And rely fairly resolutely down in East Sussex dear readers by all means do. A stonkingly impressive line-up rustled up by the organisers is in the offing for the Battle Festival of Arts and Music over the weekend of 21-23 July.

With gigs at the Bull Inn, Battle Memorial Hall and Battle Abbey School battling jazzers for Sunday are in the afternoon Byron Wallen's 4 Corners, Detroit piano icon Kirk Lightsey with the ex-Billy Jenkins bassist Steve Watts in tow, the Denys Baptiste Quartet, Jason Rebello and Tim Garland and the Darius Brubeck Quartet topping the bill. The Sunday programme is no less tasty with retired orthopaedic surgeon tenorist Art Themen who knows more than most about shooting from the hip, pianist Robert Mitchell's True Think, Laura Jurd's band Dinosaur, bass don Orlando le Fleming and Romantic Funk and the Parliamentary Jazz Award winning singer Elaine Delmar with her Quintet featuring Jim Mullen in the mix. Click through for a link for Saturday tickets & for Sunday the link is here. Laura Jurd, photo: press

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James Weidman, Sonic Realities, Inner Circle Music ****

Album of the week for week beginning 17 July 2023. As so often when you hear something new and haven't heard the artist for a while you dredge your memory banks and think in this case when was the last time? In this case it was in 2009 at Ronnie …

Published: 14 Jul 2023. Updated: 10 months.

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Album of the week for week beginning 17 July 2023.

As so often when you hear something new and haven't heard the artist for a while you dredge your memory banks and think in this case when was the last time? In this case it was in 2009 at Ronnie Scott's when Joe Lovano was introducing his Us5 band, whose members included Lo's fellow Ohioan pianist James Weidman, live to London for the first time on a very warm Saturday night circa Folk Art.

Before dipping in to Sonic Realities, which is, verdict spoiler alert, a big pleasure, go back with us to his playing with Joe Lo on Folk Art and a glimpse of where Weidman is coming from playing on other people's records down the years.

Weidman has a strong definitive sound, so you get pithy statement and crunching cadences. When he spreads out Weidman comes quite close to the approach of the Dexter Gordon Detroit legend Kirk Lightsey. You get that impression most here when the trio - the drummer completing the sound is Alvester Garnett - rip into Bird's 'Steeplechase' which is so head bobbingly alive with motion.

Having the big beat of bassist Harvie S. to your side - good this year with Skip Grasso and the great Billy Drummond on 2023 release Becoming - is a plus.

Weidman recorded with Harvie S. on a 2013 album called Truth and Actuality but hasn't recorded with Garnett whom we liked on Charenée Wade's 2015 album Offering: The Music of Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson before but they have gigged together.

Sonic Realities includes a luminous version of Kurt Weill's 'September Song' and there's space for Weidman composition 'As Quiet As It’s Kept' that Jay Hoggard recorded on the vibist's 1990s album Love is The Answer.

That Joe Lo gig referred to up top was long ago and operated in a different space and idiom to what this trio album is about. But hearing this turns on an electric light that transports us back to that night in Soho. A tribute to Weidman's saxophonist dad on 'Jam for Jimmy James,' taking a line from a solo that his dad played during a version of Kool and the Gang's 'Give It Up,' puts another personal stamp on what is a very likeable trio recording that we strongly recommend.

James Weidman, photo: cover art detail