Billy Pod, Elysium, Puzzlemuzik ****

Track of the day not a case at all of beware Greeks brandishing drum kits. Quite the reverse. That's because Billy Pod aka Vasileios Podaras comes over elegantly here on a formidable Wurly soaked track. On the keys is the supple Rupert Cox while …

Published: 9 Sep 2022. Updated: 19 months.

Track of the day not a case at all of beware Greeks brandishing drum kits. Quite the reverse. That's because Billy Pod aka Vasileios Podaras comes over elegantly here on a formidable Wurly soaked track. On the keys is the supple Rupert Cox while the glorious guitar harmonies are provided by the dreamy axe wielder to have broken through most on the London scene last year Tom Ollendorff who is superb here in a Jakob Bro-type reverie happy as a freely flowing Pod in an Asaf Sirkis-type style dances around him. A discreet Mirko Scarcia is in tow on bass. A very fine introduction to Quintessence, the new Pod album out in November. The ballad is an original of the drummer's and very lovely it is too. The upcoming album also includes a version of Sibelius' 'Valse Triste.'

Hear Pod on tour beginning in Nottingham on Monday. More dates are on the drummer's website. Billy Pod, photo: press

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Alina Bzhezhinska, Laura Jurd, Courtney Pine, Jason Moran - jazz ahead at Kings Place & Wigmore Hall

The two best small concert hall venues for acoustic jazz in terms of sheer sound resource on the London scene are Wigmore Hall and Kings Place - both KP's halls 1 and 2 have amazing reverb delays designed to near perfection. What's coming up in …

Published: 9 Sep 2022. Updated: 19 months.

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The two best small concert hall venues for acoustic jazz in terms of sheer sound resource on the London scene are Wigmore Hall and Kings Place - both KP's halls 1 and 2 have amazing reverb delays designed to near perfection. What's coming up in Kings Place, tucked away at the back of St Pancras Station not far from Central St Martin's - ultimate art school shangri-la?

A lot actually. Alina Bzhezhinska & HipHarpCollective (30 September), Laura Jurd (5 October), the iconic Vijay Iyer (8 October) and acts galore during the London Jazz Festival including Courtney Pine launching Spirituality on 18 November, the sax titan's first album in 5 years leap from the page of the programme.

Digging into the programme a bit more zoning in on the Laura Jurd potential we took to the charming 'Henry' with its rumbling undertow and Scottish feel (imagine the North Channel somehow transformed into the balmier Mediterranean given its warm cafe bar-like lilt) one of the tracks streaming from Jurd's The Big Friendly Album the Englishwoman's latest released this month. Featured guests on this studio album that finds Laura switching from her customary trumpet to cornet and piano include Django's brother violin erstwhile wunderkind Paganini of Penge, Dylan Bates.

kp

Kings Place entrance photo: marlbank

Wigmore jazz highlights are slimmer but no less juicy with harps of a very different stripe courtesy of Edmar Castañeda and Grégoire Maret on 17 November again like the Pine concert held during the London Jazz Festival. The great Jason Moran returns the week before Christmas for an appearance on the 18th of December.

Kings Place programme

Wigmore Hall what's on

Alina Bzhezhinska photo: press