On Tuesday evening last week Jazz and Blues Leeds played host to Cherie Gears and her band at the mine bar in Leeds Union. Support was provided by a recently formed student jazz band, Eat More Fruit. The event was most certainly a success and enjoyed by all who attended and being the first major event put on solely by my society I feel rather proud of our achievement.

The event started off fairly slowly with a few people arriving at a time but shortly before the support band started up a fair number were drawn in by the superb jazz being played out by the DJ and the club filled up somewhat. Eat More Fruit, despite being a newly formed student band with a minimal amount of practice under their belt, put on a most enjoyable performance. I was put completely in the mood for a good night of jazz by their introduction and in fact realised how long it was since I had seen some live jazz performed. Their display of various pieces of fruit on stage for each of their musical numbers was a nice and amusing touch to the proceedings. I certainly wouldn’t hesitate in getting them to come along and play at future Jazz and Blues events.

Cherie Gears didn’t disappoint either and after a brief break between the bands while the stage setup was changed we were instantly delighted by refreshing jazz vocals and superb accompaniment from Cherie’s jazz band. Despite her brief time in the music business Cherie’s vocal sound is already right up there with some of the other female jazz singers on the scene and her vocal range and conviction with which she sings her pieces are superb. Recommendations are certainly the order of the day here and if you have the chance to catch Cherie and her band live then I’d certainly recommend getting s ticket. Its refreshing to know that this is the kind of talent coming from graduates at the Leeds University School of Music and I certainly look forward to hearing other musicians that go into the music scene after graduation.

Our next event major event sees Danny Gough’s nu York State play the mine bar on 27th November with support from a fantastic funk/rock band, “ape”, so do remember to keep the date free, book your tickets and stay tuned to our website and mailing list for regular updates! If you want to read a review of nu York State you can read one I wrote a while back but they have most certainly got better since then.

On Thursday night I headed out to the Leeds College of Music with the Jazz and Blues society to see some fine traditional jazz from the Duke Ellington Repertory Orchestra. The orchestra played pieces composed and arranged by Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington himself and was a truely wonderful performance.

The first set started off with some of the older and more unusual pieces with the second half of the proceedings livening things up a lot with some superb solo performances.

This big band is well worth seeing and certainly made me remember back to the North Sea Jazz Festival when I saw the Dizzy Gillespie big band play there. Big band jazz is still as amazing as it ever was and still has a place in the world of today; for where would we be without the sound of four trumpets, three trombones and a superb sax soloist up front with piano accompaniment? Significantly less jazzy and nowhere near as happy would be my answer!

Heather is a fan of horror films so last night we decided to watch Hostel. Although IMDB didn’t have it rated very highly we weren’t looking for a masterpiece so figured it would be an OK way to spend the evening.

Sadly this was not the case. The plot was non-existent and what little of the film you could call a plot you could figure out in five minutes or less. The violence was senseless and irrelevant. It was supposed to be a horror film but instead it just presented its self as an opportunity to watch senseless violence. There was no horror in the violence, just disgust at how the film makers could ever have though people would enjoy this type of “horror” movie.

We didn’t even finish it. We reached about half way through and then looked at each other and said words to the effect of “Do we really want to watch this?” and with a resounding no we hit the eject button.

In short we both thought the movie was complete and utter crap and isn’t worth watching whatever the reason given. Personally I think watching paint dry would be more worthwhile use of your time.

I was recommended a book to read by James a while ago called Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. I bought it on amazon shortly after the recommendation however I only just finished reading it. Its an account of an ex-student’s weekly meetings with his favorite professor from university, Morrie, who is dying of ALS. They talk about the meaning of life, friends, the world, a vast number of things, all recorded on a tape recorder and ending up in some form or other in the book.

This is the first book I have read in a long time that really touched me quite so much. Its the honesty of the whole book, the way every word you read seems to bring you closer to the reality of the account and how you start to feel so much more human somehow, simply by the act of reading it.

I’m not going to write here about every little thing the book as I would still be writing late into the night, but it suffices to say that you really should read this book. I’ll happily lend it to anyone who lives nearby. It might just change your life. I seriously think its changed mine.

Last Sunday I headed up to Gateshead with Dave Falcus to take in a couple of concerts and the Gateshead International Jazz Festival. It was a superb day and an action packed one at that.

We drove up to Newcastle and had lunch in a small but enjoyable pub on a road just off from the Tyne river and then did a bit of sight-seeing. I took the opportunity to take some photographs and enjoy some of the views from some of the vantage points around the city. For architecture Newcastle is an amazing city and an enjoyable one to walk through as you take in the sights of tall, well constructed Georgian buildings. There are lots of small and interesting places you can explore and having the company of Dave who used to live in Newcastle was very handy for this.

We went to two concerts at the sage concert venue; first off was Andy Sheppard and his wonderful skills as both a saxophonist and a composer. I’ve only recently gotten into his music in any serious way, but it was great to see him play live and has prompted me to go in search of more of his music. While I only own onw of his albums and haven’t many tracks from others the sound of his playing is unmistakable and gabbed me in the hall the moment he began his set on stage. It was a great concert and one I’m sure will leave a lasting impression in my mind.

The second concert was Branford Marsallis and was clearly a popular event simply based on the number of free seats in the hall (read none). I need not go into how superb Branford Marsallis is as a musician but what was particularly impressive was the band he had going for the concert. His quartet really is a musical feast and makes for the perfect evening of jazz. The set was just the right length (being at the end of the evening) but the quality of playing was quite simply stunning from everyone on stage, especially the pianist and drummer who both pulled off superb solo performances in true traditional jazz style.

After all the concerts we stayed behind to get some CDs signed and then drove back to Leeds. By the time we returned home it was gone midnight and we were pretty shattered after all the travelling and walking around but it was a trip well worth making.

For those interested I took some photos during the sight-seeing parts of the day.