It’s saxophone heaven at the Rush Hour Blues session tomorrow evening as two ardent exponents of the instrument band together to bounce reed-buzzing, brass blown ideas off each other.
Tim Whitehead, on tenor and soprano, first came to light in the days of big band Loose Tubes and has been forging a strong creative path every since, whether interpreting the paintings of J M W Turner in sound, as he did as the first musician to be an associate artist at Tate Britain, or bringing jazz to the under-eights with the help of poet Michael Rosen.
Tony Woods, on a few saxes plus some clarinet, comes from a folkier background and has spent his career not only feeding English folk ideas into jazz improvisation but also, more recently via his Avalon Trio, exploring the jazz possibilities in English classical music.
Rocking Ralph Vaughan Williams, anyone?
Together, and with the aid of Whitehead’s longtime collaborator Milo Fell on drums and Patrick Bettison on bass guitar, Tony and Tim are Kwartet.
Find out what it all sounds like tomorrow evening from 5.30pm in the Symphony Hall foyer bar. This is a Jazzlines presentation, and entry is free.
More at www.jazzlines.co.uk
* From there, it’s a short drive or bus journey out to Balsall Heath and the Ort Cafe, where pianist and composer David Austin Grey is presenting his One Many People again - he did it earlier in the week at the Jam House.
It’s a tribute to Jamaican-born pianist Wynton Kelly, best remembered as a member of Miles Davis’s first classic quintet but also a leader on many Blue Note albums of the time, and highlights the Jamaican side of his heritage by mixing reggae classics in with the jazz.
With Grey are Mike Fletcher on saxophone, Yaz Ahmed on trumpet, Gareth Fowler on guitar, Dan Casimir on bass and Jim Bashford on drums.
The music starts at 8.30pm and is free, with donations most welcome. Find out more at www.blambirmingham.co.uk
