26 September-2 October live selection:
Arun Ghosh, The Yard, Manchester Monday
Capital City Jazz Orchestra feat. Dave O'Higgins, St David's Hall, Cardiff Tuesday
Blue Lab Beats Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds Wednesday
Colectiva 91 Living Room, London Thursday
Paul Dunlea, Trevor Mires, Scott Flanigan Scott's, Belfast Friday
Anita Wardell quartet Peggy's Skylight, Nottingham Saturday
Bill Charlap trio Ronnie Scott's, London Saturday
Last year Bill Charlap's Street of Dreams wasn't the kind of trio album where standards are deconstructed and the wheel is reinvented. It was the very opposite and basked in the classic, sleek, lines of the format, standards and Broadway songs as its vocabulary and treasure chest. Elegance and sophistication are written into its DNA. Charlap has immaculate touch and on the album Charlap and Peter and Kenny Washington in their long-running collaborative journey finished each other's sentences. Textbook piano trio in other words in the classic mould, this album could have been made in the 1950s or 1960s and is a period piece in that sense. Included on the album are Charlap's elegantly swinging version of Brubeck's paean to Duke Ellington 'The Duke' and a treatment of the Victor Young and Samuel M. Lewis song 'Street Of Dreams'. The inclusion of 'I'll Know,' a Frank Loesser standard from Guys and Dolls that you don't often hear so obviously these days, is a good choice. Best of all was 'Your Host' the perky Kenny Burrell composition that appeared on the 1956 album Jazzmen:Detroit. Kenny Washington's busy scuffling momentum gives the treatment a lot of life. You'll be snapping your fingers before too long.
Shifa + Bex Burch/Leafcutter John + Farida Amadou Lit and Phil, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Sunday
Top jazz singer Anita Wardell - photo: press - appears in Nottingham on Saturday night