Martin Drew

Jazzwise this month reports the death, following a heart attack, of the great drummer Martin Drew. Martin was in his 60's and played with Oscar Peterson for 30 years and Ronnie Scott for 20. I saw Martin at the BJC on numerous occasions. His hard bop driving wall of sound had a fantastic swing to it. He led his own band of stellar players, The New jazz Couriers, which included the fantastic Mornington Lockett, Steve Melling, Nigel Hitchcock, Jim Hart, and Andy Cleyndert. I also saw him with Ben Clatworthy. Martin was pretty much losing his hearing, which must be an occupational hazard for a professional drummer. Several of his albums can be downloaded from www.emusic.com

Clark Tracey Sextet

Fabulous gig at Brighton jazz Club last night. Clark is obviously promoting some of the new boys on the block. All five of his players were in their early 20s and were superb instrumentalists and the band played some nice compositions. Wayne shorters One By One was great but I really liked Clark's own composition, The Devil's Chair. He really should write all his own stuff. Although I thought they were all superb Lewis Wright, vibes, who also now plays with Empirical, played some amazing solos clearly demonstrating that he has a voice of his own. And it was good to see a packed club for such quality live music.

Brecon again

An amazing long weekend. The jazz festival is plagued by the Fringe Festival which is probably far bigger in that it has more events and is probably what draws the biggest crowd. The Fringe is mainly local rock bands and it attracts large numbers of young people who go to "have a good time" which means getting off their faces. We camped in the Rugby Club. First night was a nightmare with loud drunken yobbish behaviour going on until 4 am. It seemed to be that cock, or hen, that crowed the loudest got the most points. The town centre was also full of drunks too with police around but not doing much.

The jazz was great and so we will probably go again. Brecon is beautiful too, set in the hills and valleys of the Brecon Beacons. I saw Dave Stapleton 5tet again. Fantastic. Definitely my current favourite band. Ben Waghorn was substituted this time but the sub was a fabulous player.

Saw the National Orchestra de Jazz play songs of Robert Wyatt. Fantastic arrangements although they played so loud I could not hear the solos properly. It was bloody cold in the marquee too. 10 Piece band so pretty much a small big band. Check out the album on emusic.