Not so much a look at the weekly diary but a look back at the last year.
Jazz-wise I think 2007 will be regarded as a pretty fine vintage. A quick flick through the jazz racks in your local record store - no, let's be more realistic, a quick browse on your favourite CD sales website - shows that internationally recorded jazz has been fresh, exploratory and accessible, all at the same time.
The UK scene has certainly been buoyant (check out Empirical and Fraud), and jazz fans in Birmingham have more reason than most to be cheering from the rooftops (Chris Bowden, the Sub Ensemble, Bryan Corbett, Ed Johnstone, Summary).
A very special cheer goes to the reopening of the Town Hall, providing a decent-sized, acoustically acceptable venue for the bigger jazz acts that have previously either been slightly lost in Symphony Hall or doing their thing over in Coventry.
While I might have my own views on the BBC Big Band (drawing some analogies with the England football team could start off the discussion), the fact that they are artists in association with the Town Hall means we are guaranteed some solid concerts and some high profile visitors (Mark Murphy and Kurt Elling already).
Likewise Soweto Kinch's link-up with the Town Hall has potential (and maybe we'll hear more of it in '08).
Talking of Soweto brings me to my highlight gigs of the year, one of which was Kinch's barnstorming performance at the Jam House in April. It was supposed to be the launch gig for the second part of his A Life in the Day of B19 but wasn't, and eight months on we are still none the wiser. Jazz business is never easy, so I suppose we must just be patient.
Other highlight concerts:
The Julian Siegel Trio with Joey Baron and Greg Cohen at the CBSO Centre - they were up close to the audience, and when Siegel on bass clarinet and Cohen on bowed bass played in harmony while Baron whispered his drum solo I thought I had gone to heaven;
Hearing Kurt Elling live for the first time, singing in the refurbished Town Hall made for a very special evening. He was even better doing a whole evening with his trio at the Barbican 10 days later. He deserves to be as big as Frank and Ella;
Joshua Redman giving a saxophone masterclass with his trio in the very special surroundings of the Adrian Boult Hall - a player at the top of his game;
And, just the other week, Zoe Rahman showing that, with her brother Idris, she has discovered and is exploring a fertile new musical area where jazz takes its inspiration from Bengali songs.
My other top gigs of the year happened elsewhere - the Wayne Shorter Quartet at the Harrogate International Festival; the sorely mourned Joe Zawinul in his last British appearance at the Jazz Café in London; Jonny Phillips' Oriole Brazil and Ben Allison's band at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival; and Arve Henriksen doing magical things with his trumpet, his voice and a laptop in Lichfield Cathedral as part of the Lichfield Festival.
And then there was the radio. Now, that man who says "Sit back and relax with... The Jazz" in a distinctly Fast Show manner might get a little irritating, but to have a national digital radio station backed by the strong business sense of the Classic FM crew is good for jazz fans, and a reminder to the nation as a whole that, in fact, it likes jazz a lot more than it sometimes cares to admit.
The fact that it recently had a British jazz week and is playing such a wide range of jazz, from funky Ronnie Laws to punky Acoustic Ladyland, are both good reasons to murmur, with feeling: "Nice!"
A jazzy new year to you all - let's meet again in 2008.
If you have any news or views you'd like to share, email me at peterbacon@mac.com. The blog is at www.thejazzbreakfast.blogspot.com
