• Mario Caribé Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow Monday 20 February

• Andrew McCormack trio The Irving Studio, Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham Mon 20 Feb

• Ezra Collective Opium, Dublin Tuesday 21 Feb

• Huw Warren Bristol Music Club, Bristol Wednesday 22 Feb

• Ant Law and Alex Hitchcock Tap Social, Botley Wed 22 Feb

• Derek Nash Funk Experience Maritime Room, Cliffs Pavilion, Southend Wed 22 Feb

• Tommaso Starace Power of Three Stoke By Nayland hotel, Leavenheath Wed 22 Feb

Jim Watson on terrific form with Tessa Souter earlier in 2023 is the pianist here with Starace

• Ezra Collective Albert Hall, Manchester SOLD OUT Thursday 23 Feb

• Tim Garland and Jason Rebello Dora Stoutzker Hall, Cardiff Thurs 23 Feb

• Liane Carroll White Rock Theatre, Hastings Thurs 23 Feb

Labour support gig by the great Liane for Hastings and Rye prospective parliamentary candidate Helena Dollimore

GIG OF THE WEEK

• Michelson Morley Hen and Chicken, Bristol Thurs 23 Feb

Wonderful live it's been a while since we caught Michelson Morley, some seven years, but the memory lingers long. Back then Aether Drift was long gone and Dan Messore was fully in the band, the Indigo Kid guitarist who in a way performs a Christian Fennesz-like role in a quartet that thrives on open improvisation contoured by effects triggered by leader/composer Jake McMurchie and Andy Sheppard Hotel Bristol drummer Mark Whitlam at a gig in the Vortex. McMurchie, on tenor and later soprano saxophone, is best known for his time in Get the Blessing. Michelson (pronounced “Michael-son”) Morley sound very different, Whitlam, an exciting source of rhythmic invention, was playing a bit like recent Robert Plant/Strobes drummer Dave Smith although the Strange Courage context on that occasion was a quieter less thunderous sound, the volume ramped up towards the latter part of the set. It could have got much louder to even better effect, Whitlam’s playing enhanced by unobtrusive use of a Kaoss Pad. The best part of the set was the avant riff-led section initiated by double bassist Will Harris who like Whitlam plays in the excellent Moonlight Saving Time. When Messore took a drum stick to his strings, scraping new slithers of resonance to slide and smear over the ensemble sound, we were entering a parallel dimension.

• Brigitte Beraha’s Lucid Dreamers Gonville Hotel, Cambridge Thurs 23 Feb

• Ferg's Imaginary Big Band Brudenell Social Club, Leeds Thurs 23 Feb

Super sized up from the trio, last heard just a few months ago from super busy bassist Fergus Quill, it's raucous stuff and fairly rough around the edges in places on their new self titled release but certainly full of a Zornian spirit and a certain excellent anarchy in the thinking. This Leeds lot recall Loose Tubes more directly than big brothers from above the Watford Gap, Beats & Pieces. Quill and the quorum are where it's at for big band right now.

• Szymon Mika & Yumi Ito Blue Lamp, Aberdeen Thurs 23 Feb

• Milap Indo Jazz Club (Thursday 23 February), Adee Lifshitz & Phil Shotton Quintet, (Friday 24 Feb, lunchtime free), Devils of Moko (Fri 24 Feb), Dock in Absolute (Saturday 25 Feb. lunchtime), Hope Swings Eternal (Sat 25 Feb, afternoon, free), Shez Raja featuring Tony Kofi (Sat 25 Feb), Liverpool Sax Day (Sunday 26 Feb, from 10am) and Marius Neset Quartet (Sunday 26 Feb) - Liverpool Jazz Festival, Capstone theatre, Liverpool Thurs 23-Sunday 26 Feb

• Kevin Figes sextet Wakefield (College Grove) Sports Club, Wakefield Friday 24 Feb

• Emma Johnson Lairgate Hotel, Beverley Fri 24 Feb

• Greg Foat quartet Lighthouse, Poole Fri 24 Feb

Pianist Greg Foat has a crack band with him down in Dorset - The Invisible's Tom Herbert, Binker Golding from Binker and Moses and Kokoroko's Ayo Salawu.

• Ant Law and Alex Hitchcock Crookes Social Club, Sheffield Fri 24 Feb

• Emily Francis trio Scott's Belfast Fri 24 Feb

• Zoe Francis/Jim Mullen quartet The Verdict, Brighton Fri 24 Feb

• Shri Sriram duo featuring Dennis Rollins Jennifer Blackwell Performance Space, Birmingham Saturday 25 Feb lunchtime

• Georgia Cécile Perth Concert Hall, Perth Sunday 26 Feb afternoon

Shri Sriram Photo: via bmusic