Miles Davis in 1956 [Tom Palumbo_CC BY-SA ] and, right, Jay Phelps in the play MILES [Colin J Smith]
THE jazz world loves an anniversary, and they don’t come much bigger than the one looming for 2026 – the centenary of Miles Davis, born May 21 1926. The actual anniversary may be some way ahead, but things are gearing up for celebrations in jazziverse. MILES, a well-received play centred on the making of the seminal Kind of Blue album, is transferring from Edinburgh to the Southwark Playhouse.
Featuring live music, projection and puppetry, it opens on Feb 4. Depping for the great man himself (musically at least) is Empirical’s wonderful horn player Jay Phelps. Tickets are going fast – after all, it’s going to be a Miles’ year (at least until Coltrane @100 in September 2026). southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/miles
The play runs till March 7. If you can’t make that, then there’s also Theo Croker’s Miles Mixtape at the Southbank on March 13, which covers his legacy including and beyond Kind of Blue, no doubt (knowing trumpeter Theo’s eclecticism) diving into the electric era of Bitches Brew and beyond. See: southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/theo-croker-miles-davis-mixtape/
Can’t wait that long? Well, you can catch Jay Phelps playing tribute to Miles’ KoB at Camden’s Jazz Café on December 16. I’ve seen this show and it’s a joy – Jay is no slavish impersonator and there will be fresh improvisation on familiar tunes, but his tone and attack will send shivers down your spine, especially when he enters on So What with the famed cymbal crash close behind. Despite what some might say, Kind of Blue is not an overrated or over-praised album. Details: thejazzcafe.com/event/miles-davis-kind-of-blue-7/?
• THERE is another trumpeter in town this month, exploring a slightly more oblique link to Miles.Byron Wallen is a fascinating player, recently praised by Soweto Kinch on his Round Midnight radio show as one of the most questing and erudite musicians he has worked with. Byron roams far and wide around the globe for influences and inspiration, but it always comes back to his wonderful feel for jazz.
He is again curating a mini jazz festival at the Coronet Theatre over in Notting Hill Gate, called The Language of Rhythm. If you’ve not been, this is an endearing shabby-chic space with one of the most eccentric theatre bars in the city. The festival runs December 11-13, and on the 13th it plays tribute to the recently departed Jack DeJohnette, a drummer of immense stature and skill who was a keystone in the pioneering bands of Miles and, later, Keith Jarrett.
Jay Phelps’s fellow Empirical alumnus Shane Forbes will be filling Jacks’ giant shoes (and doing it very well – he’s an original and intuitive player in his own right). There’ll be Byron on trumpet and the gifted Femi Temowo on infectious High-Life inflected guitar.
There is more – on the 11th Tom Skinner (drum chair with Sons of Kemet, Smile and who has his own remarkable albums, Voices of Bishara and Kaleidoscope) will play with Byron with the low end master himself Theon Cross on tuba (check out his album Affirmation: Live at Birdland New York).
On the 12th Dough Hammond – a drummer, composer, griot and poet – explores rhythm both solo (on voice, drums and African thumb piano) and in a trio featuring Byron and bass player Neil Charles.
Book tickets for all the gigs on: https://www.thecoronettheatre.com/whats-on/
• IT is always good to see a jazz night taking root in Camden. Aces & Eight, the pizza/bar opposite Tufnell Park tube, has long put on music nights and comedy but a new series of shows promoted by Red Desert Music is staking out the jazz adjacent camp. The gig on December 5 features a trio of very accomplished singer-songwriters in the shape of Rebecca Hollweg, Juliet Wood and Eleanora Claps (who also plays drums) performing original material and some standards.
Look out for the estimable and entertaining John Crawford on keys, a regular at the 606 Club, but this time much closer to our home, and the mighty Andy Hamill on bass, who has played with everyone from Van Morrison to Kylie, bringing serious chops that he can apply any kind of music. Should be fun.
Tickets on: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/red-desert-session-juliet-wood-rebecca-hollweg-christmas-special-tickets-1860420661279?aff=oddtdtcreator or at the door.
• JUST one Christmas bash for you this year – Hampstead Jazz Club presents its annual show of Christmas-music-with-a-twist at The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead, Church Row, London, NW3 6UU on December 13. This time it features harpist-singer-jazz promoter Tara Minton with Clara Wheeler and Sara Colman on vocals, the cracking Trish Clewes on sax and hotshot Miguel Gorodi on trumpet and flugel. Great players, wonderful setting and it usually sells out, so strike now.
See: https://hampsteadjazzclub.com/whats-on/christmas-13-dec-2025/
Where in the World?
• DO people still give CDs as presents? Or did Alan Rickman kill that stone dead in Love Actually? Or perhaps it is just that, in this age of streaming, fewer people have CD players any more (although I sense a revival in the silver disc’s fortune, especially as vinyl is so expensive). Anyway, should you know anyone who can play a CD and likes jazz can I point you in the direction of guitarist Tom Ollendorff’s album Where in the World?
This is sophisticated, harmonically satisfying music with compositions that stay with you. It starts in a pastoral, Metheny-ish vein (in terms of the musical landscape Ollendorff conjures up on the likes of the title track, rather than his style) but later on the quartet show they can swing at high speed (see Meaningless Mirror), and I was put in mind of Spaces-era Larry Coryell (again just in terms of speed and fluidity).
He has a wonderful group behind him, including Seattle-born pianist Aaron Parks who gets plenty of room to shine, Conor Chapman on bass and James Maddren on drums. The latter two play out around London a lot and they are a Kite Mark of jazz quality – you always know a gig is worth going to if either of them are on board. Recommended.
Buy at Bandcamp: https://freshsoundrecords1.bandcamp.com/album/where-in-the-world
By All Means!!
• HAVE a friend who is into vinyl? Then Aaron Parks himself has a new piano trio album out called By All Means!! Again, immersive, warm playing and interaction on this album, which, being devoid of histrionics, is one for fans of Bill Evans perhaps. It’s on Blue Note and it has a Miles Reid-style cover riffing on the classic designs of that storied label, a blast of nostalgic typography. Good stuff, inside and out. Available on CD, too, although the cover loses its impact somewhat.
Stephensong by Ian Shaw
• I WAS at Kings Place at King’s Cross last week for the launch of another album that might be on your Christmas gift list, Stephensong by Ian Shaw (Silent Wish Records), with Barry Green on piano, which as the title suggests is an album of tunes penned by maestro Stephen Sondheim.
Now, I confess I am not a fan of musical theatre, but that isn’t the point – Shaw just loves wry, witty, moving and well-written tunes and they are here in abundance. “It’s tough, disciplined writing – but that’s what makes it brilliant,” says Shaw. “These songs are about real people and tell the truths we all recognise.”
The show itself was a tour-de-force triumph – Shaw again demonstrating how he can wring every nuance out of a lyric and navigate tricky changes in tempo and key with aplomb. He dug deep into his bag of vocal tricks on Children Will Listen and tugged heartstrings on No One Is Alone.
Barry Green gave elegant, sympathetic support and also delivered an emphatic and moving version of Send in the Clowns. There was clever use of back projection too, adding some visual cues to the songs.
The record might not quite capture the full Shaw live experience – what can? – but is a powerful testimony to the skill of the singer and the songwriter nevertheless. As Jazzwise magazine put it: “An exquisite duo take on the music…with Shaw poignant and powerful in equal measure.”
The next outing for the album live is March 10 at Ronnie Scott’s, but Shaw has a two-shows-in-one-night gig at the Crazy Coqs near Piccadilly on December 18 (see https://www.brasseriezedel.com/events/shaw-shimmers-into-christmas-2025/), which is ostensibly a Christmas bash, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the odd Stephensong found its way into the repertoire.
Buy the album on: https://ianshawjazz.bandcamp.com/album/stephensong-ian-shaw-sings-stephen-sondheim
See https://www.ianshaw.biz/ for more live dates, including a season at the Pizza Express at the tail end of next month, of which more nearer the time.
For more jazz at Kings Place, see: https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/jazz/
Peace on Earth
• FINALLY, a Christmas album, albeit one that doesn’t follow the well-trodden tracks of the usual fayre. Three Christmases ago the by-turns sultry and fiery vocalist/composer Collette Cooper gave us the Darkside of Christmas album, which featured narration by Ray Winstone.
This year she has revisited and expanded the project as Peace on Earth (Thelonious Punk), with the unmistakable lilt of James Nesbitt as her voice artist on the dramatic track Rock of Dunamase, as well as guest appearances by Maxine Peake, Fra Fee and Ray Winstone reciting Collette’s words.
There is music too, obviously, with distinctive, atmospheric versions of, among others, Silent Night, Coventry Carol, Ain’t Necessarily So and a reprise of Darkside of Christmas itself. And it’s available as a limited edition on vinyl, on Bandcamp.
https://collettecooper.bandcamp.com/album/peace-on-earth – with all profits going to War Child. So, there’s a double Christmas gift.
