Jazz Diary: Young at heart after 40 years
Oct 28 2010 By Peter Bacon
What’s 40 years old and still bursting with youthful enthusiasm? The Midlands Youth Jazz Orchestra, that’s what. And it returns to its spiritual home, the Mac, on Sunday for a big celebration.
MYJO will be led, naturally, by John Ruddick, who, with his wife Nichola, has been running the band for 30 out of the last 40 years. Guest soloists will be trombonist Mark Nightingale, who cut his big band teeth with MYJO all those years ago, and Sophie Feek, a singer just at the start of a promising career.
Tickets are £18 and include a “meet the band” party and buffet in the interval. The whole shebang starts at 7.30pm in the Mac theatre.
Book now at macarts.co.uk or on 0121 446 3232.
* Also on Sunday evening, Stratford Jazz have the Magic Hat Ensemble. The band will be playing music from the CD just out, This Conversation Is Now Over. Expect standards, like Monk’s Epistrophy, played in a fresh funky way, and Darn That Dream taken to pieces in a dreamy fashion.Stratford Jazz meets at No.1 Shakespeare Street in Stratford. Start time is 8pm and tickets are £8 on the door. More at stratfordjazz.org.uk
* Before that there’s some time to remember pianist and composer Horace Silver as John Patrick and his band pay tribute to the man who brought a bright smile and some soulfulness to jazz in the 1950s.
They will be doing it in the Symphony Hall Foyer between 5.30pm and 7pm tomorrow.
It’s a co-promotion between Birmingham Jazz and Symphony Hall and that means they meet the cost. For you it’s completely free.
