Jazz Preview: College's alumni keep Dankworth spirit alive

"There are so many good alumni out and about we thought it would be great to hear as many as we could in a concert setting," says LCM's events manager Louise Wood.

The series presents Centre-Line, featuring ex-students Russell van den Berg, Darren Altman and Jez Franks, on March 10, and James Russell and Jim Corry with their popular tribute to Atlantic Jazz, on March 24.

Led Bib, founded by drummer, composer and former student Mark Holub, appear on April 21, and alumnus Audun Ellingsen plays bass in the group led by the Norwegian saxophonist Froy Aagre, on April 29.

Samay, reinventing the sound of Indian Music, on May 7, includes three ex-pupils in Jesse Bannister, Bhupinder Chaggar and Guiliano Modarelli.

An eclectic series ends on May 13 with graduate trombonist Pete Beachill joining the LCM Big Band for an evening of big band jazz.

It is a venture which would have been warmly approved by Sir John Dankworth, a Fellow of Leeds College, whose death was widely mourned this week.

He was heartened by the technical skills of young people graduating from places like LCM – "people of my age had to wait 15 years to reach that level" – but always emphasised that there was still much to be learned from the old masters of jazz.