Future of Nottingham venue Peggy's Skylight up in the air

Nottingham jazz venue Peggy's Skylight has a fight on its hands. The venue is looking for signatures in their campaign against Nottingham City Council who are planning to sell the Peggy’s Skylight building at auction next month. Business owners …

Published: 9 Jan 2023. Updated: 15 months.

Nottingham jazz venue Peggy's Skylight has a fight on its hands. The venue is looking for signatures in their campaign against Nottingham City Council who are planning to sell the Peggy’s Skylight building at auction next month. Business owners Rachel Foster and Paul Deats who also perform as vocals-piano duo Me & Mr Jones have a lease for 10 years and want to buy the property but need six months to secure funding. Nearly 1,000 people have signed their petition at the time of writing. ''I absolutely love going to Peggy’s Skylight in this beautiful building,'' says George Greszczuk who has signed the petition. ''It’s unique and a real gem for us in Nottingham and I and many others would be very sad to lose it. The music and food are excellent. Please allow Peggy’s to remain open in this great venue''. Another supporter on the change.org site where the petition is hosted Debs Hancock adds similar sentiments typical of the many comments on the site: ''Peggy's Skylight is an important jazz destination both for audiences and musicians. It quickly became a key venue for jazz and associated music 7 days a week, surviving the pandemic and all its associated problems, to become one of the best jazz clubs in the country.''

Rachel Foster and Paul Deats of Peggy's Skylight, photo: press

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Joe Locke, 'Love For Sale,' Circle 9 ***1/2

From Makram US vibist Joe Locke's 17 February quartet album besides this Cole Porter 1930s era cover you'll also find originals by Locke and by the quartet's pianist Jim Ridl and drummer Samvel Sarkisyan. The quartet is completed by bassist Lorin …

Published: 9 Jan 2023. Updated: 15 months.

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From Makram US vibist Joe Locke's 17 February quartet album besides this Cole Porter 1930s era cover you'll also find originals by Locke and by the quartet's pianist Jim Ridl and drummer Samvel Sarkisyan. The quartet is completed by bassist Lorin Cohen while guests include English sax icon Tim Garland.

'Love for Sale' comes at the beginning of the album. It's the sort of interpretation that is perfect if you imagine yourself in an upmarket jazz club these days where dinner is being served and there is a certain buoyancy in the air, a breezy proficiency and ease with the material without being at all complacent. Locke is a bravura player technically as advanced as anyone and when he goes way up tempo as he does here against the rest of the band it's of course a feat but that's not the point, more so the fertility of ideas vaulting chord changes and reacting to the rhythms and shards of melody around him. Ridl is no slouch following on and there is a certain ritual in the soloing, later the drummer has fun against the agile Locke and Ridl vamp. There are something like 800 known versions of 'Love for Sale' but it's a song that is future proofed and it's very hard to tire of.

While you may yearn for the words - and in recent years Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga did these justice - in terms of instrumentalists just like Locke pianist Dave Kikoski also came up with a valid treatment back in 2019 on his Phoenix Rising album.

Actually listen to that against the Locke and you will see how frenetic Locke's version is by contrast to Kikoski's more New Orleans flavoured take which uses the creamy sax of Eric Alexander as a lead solo vehicle.

Locke's Makram arrangement is also far more complex. Fans will certainly return to a Walt Weiskopf-led version of the standard dating back to the very late-1990s on Anytown for Locke's excellent solo on the piece as Renee Rosnes comps but the new version certainly does not tread water.

Joe Locke, photo: detail from the Makram cover

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