• Capital City Jazz Orchestra with special guest soloist Alison Jiear St David's Hall, Cardiff Tuesday 31 January

• Tony Burkill Seven Arts, Leeds Wednesday 1 February

Leeds scenester tenorist Tony Burkill known for Work Money Death is a spiritual jazz journeyman who keeps it real in the same way as Coltranian Nat Birchall never sells anyone short.

• Straight 8s Big Band feat. Dennis Rollins Peggy's Skylight, Nottingham Wednesday 1 Feb

• Matthew Kilner quartet with Colin Steele Blue Lamp, Aberdeen Thursday 2 Feb

• Harry Greene The White House, Oxford Thurs 2 Feb

• Jon Lloyd quartet 1000 Trades, Birmingham Friday 3 Feb

Adventurous saxist Lloyd appears with pianist John Law, bassist Henrik Jensen and drummer Andy Chapman.

• Beats & Pieces Big Band Crookes Social Club, Sheffield Fri 3 Feb

GIG OF THE WEEK

With their third studio album on release Beats & Pieces Big Band 14 years on sound as good as ever pushing at the boundaries of big band which in lesser hands is an anomaly. The real meat of the album centres on the tough, cynical, world weary 'Op' while the elastic feel of 'Elegy' and above all in terms of confounding our expectations the tender 'Cminriff' are key tracks. Ben Cottrell's outfit recorded Good Days in Scotland and Manchester and utilise field recordings from Bern and Berlin. Tunes are mainly by the visionary Cottrell plus a couple by saxist Anthony Brown and one, 'Op', (streaming already) by drummer Finlay Panter. Where the band really comes into its own is when it does rain streaked melancholy and becomes more intimate as on 'Cminriff' which is not easy given the arsenal at the band's disposal that needs using. They all can't resist a bit of a blast when they get past the opening pleasantries of '(Blues for) Linu' and go raucous on 'Woody'. But stylistically Beats & Pieces are hard to place - they aren't old fashioned or at all American sounding in outlook. And they aren't avant-garde either. But they do deliver some individual statements that play with the form and manage to somehow locate intimacy even when everything goes full tonto. Their northernness certainly wins out in the end.

• Lewis Smith Ensemble Scott's Jazz Club, Belfast Friday 3 Feb

• Dave O'Higgins, Rob Luft, Dennis Rollins, Wendy Kirkland, Pete Long, Georgina Jackson, Liane Carroll, Jeremy Sassoon, the Alan Barnes octet Southport Jazz Festival, Southport Friday 3-Sunday 5 Feb

Beats & Pieces Big Band, photo: publicity shot, play Sheffield on Friday night